1. 12 Tradeshow Executive • July/August 2001
EAC INSIGHT BY JIM WURM
No Time for Friction: Warp-speed Expansion
Forces a Unified Focus on Customer Service.
It Works Better When
You Work Together
T
wenty years ago, there were two distinct and
separate solutions on the table when the
topic was how best to manage growth in the
tradeshow industry. One solution was that of
the exhibitor “camp,” which was made up of
exhibit managers, exhibit design and build
firms and the variety of exhibitor-appointed contractors
(EACs) who serviced those exhibits.
The opposing camp was show management—show orga-
nizers, facility managers and official service contractors.
The focus of the exhibitor camp was to consider the
logistics and servicing options necessary to respond effec-
tively to an increasing number of exhibitors and to the
increasing number of events in which they were choosing
to participate. Tradeshow participation was growing expo-
nentially then; the demand for exhibit service companies
was exploding. Any change in approach in the exhibitor
camp was being driven by the needs of exhibitors.
At the show management level, the focus was to build
the industry infrastructures necessary to support the
increased demand for events. It was not uncommon at that
time for show organizers to assist in funding facility expan-
sion—expansion was that valuable to them. Facility man-
agement and official show contractors met routinely to
review operational and logistical issues related to upcom-
ing shows. Those discussions were driven not by the needs
of exhibitors but by the needs of the other member of the
camp: the show organizers.
In other words, the customer in the exhibitor camp was
the exhibitor, and the customer in the show organizer camp
was the show organizer. And there was little, if any,
crossover between them. There was, however, a healthy
dose of mutual distrust.
So even in the face of problems that could be solved by
a meeting of minds from both camps, no such meetings took
place. Instead there was an impenetrable, albeit invisible,
barrier that isolated one camp from the other.
The best evidence of this barrier was the increasing con-
cern of show management as the number of “non-official
exhibit services companies” on the tradeshow floor began
to grow. Neither show organizers nor management under-
stood the value of EACs, the services they provided to both
events and facilities.
In fact, from the perspective of organizers and facilities
in the 1980s and early 1990s, EACs were an entity that
made life more difficult: They were appearing in increasing
numbers and, in doing so, they were increasing both show
and facility exposure to risk. It was not uncommon then for
show organizers and facility managers to believe—naively
—that events would run more smoothly if EACs simply
disappeared. They didn’t realize that the growth in the
number of exhibiting companies, and in the size and com-
plexity of their exhibits, was
fueled not solely by market
forces, but also by the grow-
ing sophistication of exhibit
services. And the lack of a
relationship between the
exhibitor camp and the
show management camp
only fueled this misunder-
standing, and quashed the
possibility of any construc-
tive discussion in which
these concerns could be
addressed. So, throughout
the latter part of the 1980s
and well into the 1990s, this
ill will festered.
The New Facility Manager Steps Forward
But at about this same time, something else began to
happen. In increasing numbers, the managers of municipal-
and state government-owned tradeshow facilities were
given the word they no longer could operate as loss leaders,
that they had to start making profits. To meet this demand,
an entirely new style of management was required and,
accordingly, in time a new style of facility manager emerged.
The challenges they faced were numerous and signifi-
cant. Suddenly, they had to meet the demands of existing
clients, seek solutions to the seeming non-stop need for
more prime exhibit space and compete for new business
not only with the top-tier, out-of-town convention cen-
“It was not uncommon
then for show
organizers and facility
managers to believe—
naively—that events
would run more
smoothly if EACs
simply disappeared.”

2. ters—with which they always had competed—but also with
new, privately owned facilities in their own backyards.
It also was common at that time for facility managers to
be grappling with expansion. Between 1980 and the turn of
the millennium, many facilities grew from about 300,000
square feet to about a million. And in addition to the brick-
and mortar-questions they faced daily, there was another
type of question they had to deal with, the type that has no
for-sure answer: Does this community have the necessary
resources to provide what we need?
Such was the case for three managers, one in Chicago,
one in Las Vegas and one in Orlando. To ensure success,
each was pushed to move beyond the limitations of “this
camp versus that camp.” Each realized that solutions
would come with unity, with all involved working together
to continually improve show services and the world-class
venues they served.
Chicago, Inc.: First to Embrace EACs
In Chicago, Tom Mobley, general manager of the
MPEA, recognized that the facilities he oversees—
McCormick Place and Navy Pier—were in danger of losing
several large, long-standing clients, such as the RSNA (a
huge show for radiologists) and the National Housewares
show, if he didn’t act to keep them. Driven by exhibitor
demand, they were shopping for alternate venues that
might better meet their needs.
In a manner that was both decisive and unprecedented,
Mobley and others worked to found the consortium known
as Chicago, Inc., an entity whose purpose is to do what’s
necessary to keep events in Chicago. Chicago, Inc.
addressed a wide-range of show management and exhibitor
concerns. For example, a part of their work was the for-
mation of a unified labor pool, which simplified the process
by which exhibits are erected in MPEA facilities.
Mobley was among the first facility managers to openly
embrace a relationship with EACs. He understood that the
servicing of exhibitors at tradeshows required a collabora-
tion between the official contractor and EACs. And that if
he wanted to ensure that exhibitors who came to
McCormick Place and Navy Pier were well served, he
needed to work with a unified camp.
Now, after eight years of hard work, Mobley not only
has successfully kept his flagship shows in Chicago, he also
has also helped to create a template for other convention
cities to follow. In fact, the success of the program in Chica-
go, which includes the local Illinois Exhibitor Appointed
Contractor Association, was the inspiration for the found-
ing of a national association of EACs, the Exhibitor
Appointed Contractor Association or EACA.
Las Vegas: Relieving Risk Exposure
In Las Vegas, Tom Smith, vice president of the Las
Vegas/Convention Visitors Authority, was among the first
in facility administration to devise a plan that would to
relieve risk-exposure concerns related to the presence of
EACs. Smith’s solution was an annual EAC registration
process requiring EACs to submit bona fide certificates of
insurance. Once they do, they are welcome to work in the
Las Vegas Convention Center. The registration process
enabled Smith to effectively relieve his show organizer
clients of their insurance concerns and, at the same time, to
develop a spirit of greater cooperation between facility
management and the EACs that service Las Vegas shows.
Orange County: Training Internship Program
The challenge for Tom Ackert, general manager of the
Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando,
was to help supply the union and local contractors with an
adequate number of trained show-floor workers to service
events. The OCCC had the space to accommodate almost
any show in the country, but it could not host the largest
shows without an increase in trained personnel.
With the support and cooperation of Orange County, the
official contractors, EACs and the local union, Ackert
developed the Training Internship Program, or TIP, to
accelerate the process by which individuals are identified,
recruited and trained to be professional show-floor workers.
Recently, the program celebrated its first graduation,
and it has been widely recognized as a success by the newly
unified community of tradeshow companies in Orlando.
The Lesson: Communication Works
In each of these examples, facility managers reached out
to the EAC community to assist in the creation of a facility-
based initiative that would benefit the entire local tradeshow
industry. EACs were open to finding new ways to raise the
level of service excellence in their communities. It’s safe to
say that each community—Chicago, Las Vegas and Orlan-
do—is fully confident that there’s no management-exhibitor
issue that can’t be resolved in an amicable and collaborative
fashion. And that confidence is due to a new found service
alliance of facility managers, official contractors and EACs,
to a unified focus on the needs of the
industry’s customers, show organizers
and exhibitors. TSE
July/August 2001 • Tradeshow Executive 13
Jim Wurm (jimwurm@eaca.com) is Executive
Director of the Exhibitor Appointed Contractor
Association, (514) 317-8768.