Exhibit City New - May/June 2020

On the Front Lines of COVID-19 p. 24

May/June 2020 • VOL. 26 • ISSUE 3

Unions at BCEC Field Hospital

WEAVIN’ Event organizations and industry leaders come together Go LIVE Together #LiveforLife

BOBBIN’ I&D helping the cause at BCEC Field Hospital

ZOOMIN’ Associations hold Zoom meetings & panel discussions

COVID-19’S CATASTROPHIC IMPACT INDUSTRY PIVOTS FOCUS ON BOSTON EXHIBITCITYNEWS.COM

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

32

On the Front Lines of COVID-19 p. 24

May/June 2020 • VOL. 26 • ISSUE 3

On The Front Lines of COVID-19: ECN’s Online Weekly Series

I&D helping the cause at BCEC Field Hospital

WEAVIN’ Event organizations and industry leaders come together Go LIVE Together #LiveforLife

24

BOBBIN’

Unions at BCEC Field Hospital

ZOOMIN’

CCs Transforming into Temporary Hospitals for COVID - April 2

Associations hold Zoom meetings & panel discussions

Tradeshow Industry Firms Building Portable Exhibits - April 9

COVID-19’S CATASTROPHIC IMPACT INDUSTRY PIVOTS FOCUS ON BOSTON

Virtual GMID, NAB’s DigiExpo, MJBiz & LiveForLife - April 16

EXHIBITCITYNEWS.COM

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Pictured from top: a Teamster Local 25 member, CorpEvents NE Labor, #LiveforLife Coalition tent and EACA Zoom Panel from April 23 with (clockwise) Jim Wurm, EACA exec. dir.; Rick Simon, chairman of United Service Companies; David DuBois,,IAEE exec. dir.; and Sue Sung, senior VP of corporate strategy from Freeman.

Riding the COVID-19 Curve in Boston & Portland, Ore. - Apr 23

28

Convention Centers: New Roles, New Expertise

Feature Story

AIPC President Aloysius Arlando on Navingating in New Waters

COVID-19’s Catastrophic Impact

Shop to Showfloor Section

20

31

I&D and Event Labor

Worldwide Response to Pandemic Will Affect Industry for Years to Come

32-33

Columns 10

Convention Center Snapshot Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

12

As The Saws Turn It’s Time to Persevere

14

Andy’s Apps Getting Around (or Housebound) with Google Lens & Hound Apps

16

The International Man What Lies Ahead?

18

Airport Snapshot Boston’s Logan Airport

29

International Focus Italian Trade Fairs Face Uncertain Future

Departments 8 48 53 57 65

Editor-in-Chief’s Corner The D.E.A.L. Regional Show Calendar Service Guide Advertiser Index

Exhibition Industry Collaborates to Build Better Field Hospitals

46

Live for Life–C19 Coalition Forms

34

The Rigging World

Here’s to Adversity & Raising Our AQ!

36

Vision, Collaboration + Technology = Successful Exhibits Eric Hanson, VP Sales PRG, on Exhibit Building & Design

40

Convention Center Spotlight

Boston Convention & Exhibit Center

42

Association News: EDPA

EDPA Maintains Industry Connectedness in Challenging Times

44

People on the Move

45

The Don & Mike Show

The Don & Mike Show Returns to Twice a Week with COVID-19 Updates & Interviews

46 In Memoriam

Bruce Cantwell & Don Bendickson

6 May/June 2020 Exhibit City News

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NG TI A R

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CE LE B

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McNabb

Making Every Floor Uniquely Yours

YEAR

How may we help you with your next exhibition?

Las Vegas , NV | Dalton, GA | Milford, MI

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Congrats on 25 years Exhibit City News… The best are yet to come! After 69 years we are still the foremost provider of all your exhibit flooring needs. D.E. McNabb Floooring proudly offers the most products, best service, and an experienced staff to help guide you into the best flooring solutions for all of your exhibits and events.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S CORNER

Greetings to our readers!

PUBLISHER Donald V. Svehla Jr. (702) 309-8023 ext. 102 DonS@exhibitcitynews.com

W

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jeanne Brei (702) 309-8023 ext. 103 JeanneB@exhibitcitynews.com

ho would have thought we would go from one of the most booming economies the U.S. has ever known to a dead stop in just ONE day! And then be told to stay in lockdown indefinitely!

Our hats are off at ECN to all those who our government decided were “non-essential” but who couldn’t just sit at home when there were still ways they could find to contribute to making the world a better place.

Thank you to founding partners Czarnowski, Exploring (the parent company of ID3 Group, Brumark, Shelmarc Carpets, Chisel 3D, Atlantis WaterJet and GCI Graphics) and George P. Johnson, who began “Live For Life,” (www. liveforlifec19.com/) a coalition of liveevent industry providers that attracted more than 100 companies and organizations in just its first few days. They focused on using their skills to transform convention centers into emergency medical facilities in mere days—complete with air filtering systems and walls.

Thank you to “Go LIVE Together,” a coalition of 80 founding partners—representing more than 4,000 companies

with U.S. operations—who joined forces to support legislative actions that will aid the tradeshow and live events industry’s recovery from COVID-19.

Thank you to EACA for their weekly panel discussions via Zoom regarding the COVID-19 crisis. Thank you to ESCA, IFES, CEIR, IAEE, EDPA and every association who stepped up on behalf of their members to help them navigate these new waters.

ECN is also focused on how best we can help. We’ve continued to create our magazine, we’ve increased The Don & Mike Show podcast to twice weekly to provide our industry with the latest information and we’ve added a weekly series to our e-newsblasts and website called “On the Front Lines of COVID-19” to provide the latest help and information.

In the meantime, let us all pray that this crisis ends as quickly as it began— and that the economic recovery will be just as fast as possible!

Hope to see you all on a show floor soon! Stay healthy and keep on jazzin’!

Editor-in-chief

2020

MANAGING EDITOR/GAL FRIDAY Lisa Abrams (702) 309-8023 LisaA@exhibitcitynews.com ART DIRECTOR Thomas Speak Tom@Speak-Design.com FEATURES WRITER/EDITOR F. Andrew Taylor (702) 309-8023 ext. 105 FAndrewT@exhibitcitynews.com COLUMNISTS / WRITERS Amadeus Finlay Andrew Fulton Larry Kulchawik Jim Obermeyer Cynthya Porter F. Andrew Taylor CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Aloysius Arlando Vince Battaglia Eric Hanson Mike Morrison H.K. Wilson PROOFREADER Celestia Ward

Accepting nominations for 2020 until April 17 Submit at ECNACEawards.com

NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Christy DiGiambattista (702) 309-8023 ext. 107 ChristyD@exhibitcitynews.com CIRCULATION Manny Chico Mike Morrison

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CSAL

CONVENTION SERVICES ASSOCIATION

AS VEGAS

8 May/June 2020 Exhibit City News

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Vol. 26, issue 3, copyright 2020 by EXHIBIT CITY NEWS, published six times a year by Mr. Tradeshow Communications, LLC, 1675 E. Desert Inn Rd., Las Vegas, NV 89169. Editorial views presented within this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher and no liability is inherent. To subscribe, go to ExhibitCityNews.com or call (702) 309-8023. Reproduction/reuse of this material may only be permitted with expressed permission of Exhibit City News. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to location listed above.

Photo by Allison Earnest

GO TO ECNACEAWARDS.COM TO NOMINATE AN ACE! Four new categories! Flooring Installer ACEs, Graphics Technician ACEs, Extruded Aluminum System Installer ACEs, & Double Deck Installer ACEs.

Exhibit City News Presents the 2nd Annual 2020 I&D ACE Awards

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CONVENTION CENTER SNAPSHOT

CorpEvents NE Labor transforming the BCEC into a field hospital in less than a week.

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Boston Convention & Exhibition Center Address: 415 Summer St., Boston MA 02210 Year built: Opened in 2004 Size: The BCEC is 2,100,000 sq.ft. with 516,000 sq.ft. of contiguous exhibition space that can be subdivided and 82 meeting rooms with a combined total of 151,781 sq.ft. The column-free ballroom is 40,020 sq.ft. The 19,340 sq.ft. pre-function space offers panoramic views of the Boston harbor and skyline.

Parking: On-site parking is limited to 1,340 self-parking spaces and an additional 600 valet spaces. Boston is very walkable with plentiful public transportation.

Wi-Fi: Robust, free Wi-Fi is available throughout the facility, including the meeting rooms and loading docks Hotels: There are 73 hotels with 19,012 rooms in Boston and at least 25 are within a mile of the BCEC Airport Info: The BCEC is 2.9 miles from Logan International Airport

PLUS!

Where to eat, sleep and play near BECE on p. 40

Fun Fact #1: The BCEC is the largest building in New England.

It is 1,600 feet long, more than twice as long as Boston’s tallest building is tall.

Fun Fact #2: The BCEC was built on land that used to be part of the harbor.

That section of harbor was filled in in the 19th century, and building on the landfill required more than 4,000 precast piles before the slab could be built. Website: massconvention.com ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 11

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COLUMN As the Saws Turn

It’s Time to Persevere

W

hen we made it through the Great Recession ten years ago, I told myself, I never want to do that again. If you were there—and I suspect many of you were—I’m sure you had similar thoughts. But here we are. Not exactly the same, but just as potentially devastating to our companies and our economy. And just as difficult to deal with on a personal level. I think about all that we as a company and an industry have endured and are still going through and I sometimes feel very tired.

Being the optimist that I am, however, I search for an answer…what will it take to get through this? I land on one word: perseverance. As defined: a steady and continued action and belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks. I’d say that pretty much sums up exactly what we need right now.

We are an industry of primarily small businesses in a part of the economy that has been hit hard. But we are smart people. We work hard for our companies and our clients. We have had to make some very tough decisions in order to stay viable. And I suspect there are more tough decisions in our future. Given all of that, it seems that what we now must add to the mix is perseverance. A steady and continued action… We’ve got to keep after it and keep working on it.

But there is one other word in the definition that we shouldn’t overlook: belief.

All the action in the world won’t help if we don’t believe we can survive and succeed. Belief is what will continue to spawn the ideas and direct the action.

But don’t just take it from me…I’ve collected below a sampling of what others have to say about perseverance. Perhaps one of these will spark your enthusiasm to get through this. It did for me.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them. - George Bernard Shaw Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.

- Charles F. Kettering

By Jim Obermeyer

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. - William James With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.

- Thomas Foxwell Buxton Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.

- William Feather

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. - Newt Gingrich

It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.

- John Wooden

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

- Dale Carnegie

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

- Calvin Coolidge

Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.

Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

- Author Unknown When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.

- Josh Billings The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground.

- Author Unknown The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.

- Ecclesiastes 9:11 It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

- Albert Einstein

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

- Winston Churchill What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight—it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

- Gen. Dwight Eisenhower It’s a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.

- Robert Strauss Let’s keep wrestling until this gorilla is worn out!

See you on the show floor.

Jim Obermeyer has been in the tradeshow industry for 38 years, both as a corporate tradeshow manager and exhibit house owner. He is currently a vice president at Hamilton Exhibits and can be reached at jobermeyer@hamilton-exhibits.com

12 May/June 2020 Exhibit City News

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COLUMN Andy’s Apps

Getting Around (or Housebound) with Google Lens & Hound Apps

O

ne of the most versatile apps for the exhibition industry is one you probably already have on your device.

Google and its suite of apps has become the workhorse for many industries. In fact, I’m writing this article the same way I write most of my articles: on Google Drive. In addition to Google Drive, I regularly use Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar. I store photos I take with my phone on Google Photos and, of course, there is Googling, because Yahooing isn’t what people say or do.

Recently I’ve become dependent on Google Lens as I work on a project trying to identify the locations old pictures were taken in. Google Lens is simple. Aim your camera at a photo and the app compares the image to millions in its database and takes an educated guess at showing you pictures of the same thing. It’s a touchy procedure and can take some massaging.

It’s very good at identifying unusual buildings and popular tourist destinations. It’s less reliable at identifying other things, for instance, statues. All statues are more or less the same to Google Lens, whether it’s of a man, a woman or a fish. But if you find yourself trying to identify where you

or a co-worker were from a photo, you’ve got a decent shot of doing so with the app.

Among the more useful features of the Google Suite is their interconnectivity.

Gmails featuring scheduled events can be set up to automatically go on your Google Calendar. With Google Maps you can set it to track your location at all times and create a map of where you’ve been and the route you took. That timeline also shows you the pictures you took in each location. Have you made a bunch of stops while going about your tasks gathering the last-minute items for an event? Google Maps timeline shows you anywhere you stop for more than a few minutes, allowing you to easily retrace your steps to find where you misplaced that folder of TPS reports.

I’ve found that I’m so reliant on Google’s Suite that when I recently started using a new app, it frequently redirected me to them.

Hound is a voice-powered digital assistant, much like Siri or Alexa but with less personality and more speed and a fair amount of accuracy. For example, I asked it the quickest way to Springfield and it showed me the Springfield nearest to my current location and not any of the other

32 Springfields. It offered me a Google map to get there, but there was no voice command to open it. I had to press a button like it was 2019 or something. It didn’t fare as well when I asked it where the nearest convention center was. It made suggestions of places several hundred miles away and even on the other side of the country using the Bing search engine.

When I asked Google the same question it gave me the right answer: in Springfield.

By the way, you can also ask Google questions by voice, but you have to push a button before you do. Buttons? What am I, a monkey?

You can ask Hound where the nearest hotel is and it answers almost before you finish the sentence. Likewise when you ask for the weather. It will call you an Uber but it only provides a link to Lyft.

In general, I found Hound to be pretty functional, but still working out a few kinks. It doesn’t appear to always be listening, like some other VPDAs. Unless it’s on your screen and you say “Okay, Hound” it doesn’t do anything. There are good and bad aspects to that. It does require you to have it in mind before you use it, but it doesn’t answer random questions because it thought it heard its name. Also, it doesn’t appear to be listening to what I say and pushing ads for those things.

Like most VPDAs it will respond to ridiculous questions with a calm, deadpan demeanor. For example, it did tell me “what does the fox say,” but for an app named Hound, its bark (woof, woof) was worse than its byte.

F. Andrew Taylor is an award-winning journalist, artist, photographer, cartoonist and illustrator.

He’s been in the journalism field for 23 years working for alt-weeklies, tourism publications, hyper-local papers, etc. He also works in film production, does local historical research and has been an amateur stunt driver and rodeo participant. He’s the illustrator for “Christmapus,” the tale of the Christmas Octopus. His first fiction prose story was published in 2018 and was featured at the Vegas Valley Book Fair. This column was written from a secret bunker in rural New England during lockdown. Contact him at fandrewt@exhibitcitynews.com.

14 May/June 2020 Exhibit City News

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COLUMN The International Man

What Lies Ahead?

I

n 1605 William The focus of exhibit Shakespeare was design companies in surrounded by the the ’70s was to sell explague. As a young hibits. Sawdust ruled. boy he had been If you were not buildBy Larry Kulchawik afflicted and became ing exhibits, you were immune. Years later the plague not making a profit. Selling exreturned and he, like everyone hibit services (I&D, site services else, took refuge in quarantine. and marketing services) were a During three months of hunsecondary source of revenue for kering down, in a spurt of litsuppliers. This changed when erary creativity, he wrote King exhibitors began to measure the Lear, Macbeth and Anthony results of their investments. & Cleopatra. Fortunately, the The exhibit companies of the world was ready for his new ’80s still believed in sawdust point of view. So, what changes but were beginning to believe will we make in the tradeshow in the value of tradeshows for industry when we return to the exhibitor. Budgets were face-to-face marketing after tight, so showing results from COVID-19? their exhibiting investment The tradeshow/event inwas now a major focus. Fred dustry in North America has Kitzing believed that the exhibit experienced several epiphwas not as important as the anies that have changed the attraction it created and started direction of our industry over a trend that the exhibit should the years. McCormick Place provide a brand look and create burned to the ground during an attraction. The major reason the 1967 Housewares show. It for exhibiting was to commuwas then rebuilt in 1971 and nicate a value-added feature went on to become the number over competitors and to create one convention facility in the leads. Tradeshow marketing U.S. Its popularity for tradewas proving to deliver the shows influenced other major strongest results to encourage U.S. cities to build convention an attendee’s decision to buy. In centers to do the same. the ’80s and ’90s the economy In the 1970s, the perception raised its ugly head several of a convention was a party. times. Marketing budgets for Networking with your peers exhibitors were now under and customers created a special strong scrutiny. Exhibitors still attraction and the exhibits were believed in the value of tradesecond to this attraction. This shows, but really hated the perception quickly changed cost of exhibiting. This pushed and encouraged a belief that exhibit industry suppliers again tradeshows were now big busito change. Three things were ness, not a party. now driving costs.

1. Material Handling (Drayage) - Increased drayage fees were a major cost driver for any exhibitor’s budget. Show contractors also made adjustments. Some larger shows offered exhibitors a package price to include carpet, cleaning and drayage.

Other show organizers then followed this model for managing show services to reduce and anticipate site fees.

2. Smaller Hotel Events Organizers and associations began to promote smaller shows held in hotel ballrooms.

Many of these smaller shows were not replacements for the larger events, but in addition to them. Heavy exhibits were not an economical solution here. These hotel shows created a new revenue source for hotels, show contractors and associations. These shows delivered a target audience that engaged more closely within a locked environment.

3. Exhibit Design & Fabrication - As a result of these exhibitor concerns to reduce costs, exhibit fabrication methods changed to reduce weight and ease of set up. New exhibit supplier types were created: * Portables * Fabric * Aluminum exhibit systems * Graphic production * Overhead fabric signage * Truss/ lighting and AV applications.

These changes created a new normal for exhibit design.

With each economic crisis, exhibit suppliers have created new solutions, changing their traditional design methods to better serve exhibitor needs.

Today, nearly all exhibit design companies sell both custom and portable exhibits and many offer exhibit rentals, international services and exhibit marketing services for their clients. There is little sawdust since they now subcontract building parts and materials and simply do assembly and fitting. Carpenter skills are not needed as much anymore so many union needs were reduced. Sawdust is no longer the golden goose for profitability.

COVID-19 has become an international crisis and will require some creative solutions going forward. Events will be affected most by the way they are organized, and the way attendees will react. Exhibit suppliers will rise to the challenge again. The tradeshow industry coal mine is knee deep in canaries but will surely uncover new ways to support the human need for face-to-face communication. As Shakespeare aptly wrote, “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

Stay tuned for all the new strategies soon to be explored!

Larry Kulchawik is the head of Larry Kulchwawik Consulting and author of “Trade Shows from One Country to the Next.” For more info, visit www. larrykulchawik.com

Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste” - Winston Churchill 16 May/June 2020 Exhibit City News

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AIRPORT SNAPSHOT

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Logan International Airport (BOS) Location: 1 Harborside Dr., Boston, MA Year Opened: Opened in 1923 as Jeffrey Field, but primarily used by the Mass. Air Guard and the Army Air Corp until 1928, when commercial use began.

Renamed Gen. Edwards Lawrence Logan International Airport in 1943.

Size: The airport covers 2,384 acres with six runways and 94 gates among four passenger terminals. The airport was expanded by 1,800 acres in the 1940s by leveling an island or two to fill the land between several other islands in the harbor.

To and From: Logan became the first airport with an indirect rapid transit connection in 1952. The Blue Line of Boston’s MBTA (Mass. Bay Transportation Authority) subway system, commonly called The T, has an airport stop. Tickets for The T are less than $3. A free bus takes T passengers the last quarter mile to the airport.

The MBTA’s Silver Line is a free bus from the South Station transportation hub to and from the airport. Taxis, limos and hotel courtesy vehicles, etc., are available.

Fun Facts: The airport is mostly on East Boston, an oddly-shaped peninsula.

Because of its location on the edge of the harbor, most planes fly in right above the water. This can be disconcerting for passengers who often see land just a split second before the wheels touch ground.

The refillable Charlie Card for the T to get you to the airport and other places in the Boston area is named for a humorous Kingston Trio song, M.T.A., which tells the story of “Charlie” who is doomed to remain on the train forever because he doesn’t have a nickel to pay the fare.

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Los Angeles Convention Center

COVID-19’s Catastrophic Impact

BY CYNTHYA PORTER

The word “catastrophic” hardly begins to describe the impact that COVID-19 is having on the face-to-face marketing industry as events around the globe are canceled or postponed by the tens of thousands. It is an economic freefall that few could have anticipated and that no one has seen in their lifetime, and to call the situation dire for tradeshows, meetings and events would be a monstrous understatement.

However, leaders from across

the industry are banding together to light a torch that they believe will lead face-toface marketing through the dark time, working along the way to improve the industry so that it emerges smarter and stronger than it was before the coronavirus crisis began.

Any such collaboration is an act of extreme expediency in a situation that completely blindsided industry leaders.

To wit, in March, organizations such as the International Association of Exhibitions

and Events, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research and UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, were trying to keep a running list of shows that were canceled or postponed.

By the end of the month, they all gave up because the trickle of notices became a tidal wave. At a certain point, says David DuBois, president and CEO of IAEE, they realized it was just impossible to keep track and it would be easier to count the events that

hadn’t canceled than those that had.

Still, optimism has been abundant, with numerous shows rescheduling for late summer and fall and economists predicting the exhibition and event industry would fully rebound by 2021. That was weeks ago, however, and based on how quickly the situation between mid-March and mid-April deteriorated, there is no way to anticipate right now what the coming months will hold.

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It started as a relatively small blip on organizers’ radar and one that was expected to be confined in its impact. As of March 15, CEIR had received just 50 cancelation notices from business-to-business (B2B) events, many of them significantly sized. It was a working figure, though researchers noted it was likely not representative of many smaller events canceled that had not been brought to the organization’s attention. But calculating the loss to the economy from only those 50 shows provided a bleak outlook as analysts said that, taking all exhibitor and attendee spending into account, the overall loss to the economy was approximately $1.8 billion.

Of the 9,400 or so B2B annual exhibitions that CEIR tracks, around 2,500 of them take place between March 1 and May 15, CEIR says.

It postulated that up to 80 percent of those shows might cancel, bringing the economic impact to $22 billion. But with the national stay-athome initiative put forth on March 17, it became increasingly unlikely that even 20 percent of those events were able to take place, and that is to say nothing of the thousands more scheduled in the near future. The reality is that even the most skilled analysts are paralyzed by uncertainty because it is the whim of the virus and little else that will control when the economy can begin to rebound.

Allan Shaw, Ph.D., chief economist for Global Economic Consulting Associates Inc. and an analyst for CEIR, says that a recession is a certainty @ExhibitCityNews

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at this time, but the speed at which the country will recover is difficult to predict until the spread of COVID-19 is under control. On the bright side, Shaw believes that more than half of the current recession will be resolved simply with the reopening of the nation’s economy. “Even though economic indicators are as bad if not worse than those of the Great Depression, the underlying economic fundamentals and causes are different,” Shaw says. “The recession we are experiencing now is caused by a supply shock. By comparison, it was a shock in demand that triggered the Great Depression in the 1930s and the Great Recession of 2008. Supply shocks today include the economic lockdown due to stay-at-home orders, supply-chain disruptions, lower productivity of working staff and mortality.”

If monetary and fiscal policies are in place and injecting money in the system, thereby pushing up demand for goods and services, Shaw predicts a V-shape recovery, meaning one that recovers as quickly as it declined.

In the meantime, a study conducted by CEIR finds that many firms are fastening their proverbial seatbelts and trying to sustain themselves through these challenging months. Of the 164 executives who responded, 16 percent say they have cut pay in their organization, though the number

is much higher (29 percent) when just factoring independent show organizers, while 16 percent of independent organizers have furloughed staff compared to 8 percent among respondents on the whole. The average pay cut, CEIR says, is 25 percent. To weather a downturn in income, 86 percent say they are working aggressively to revise their budgets. Of those planning events, 41 percent say they postponed them, with the majority of them scheduled to be held between August and November of 2020. Of the postponed events, 34 percent were pushed off to 2021.

“Many hard lessons have been learned from this health crisis that has blindsided the world,” CEIR said in a statement. “It is motivating executives to consider options to pivot to alternative event content or models if a physical event is unable to take place in the future due to an unexpected calamity.” Virtual events are gaining new life, the research found, as organizers begin experimenting with virtual options that may fully or partly replace a face-to-face event if necessary.

But the real goal, says DuBois, is to help the exhibition and event industry back to its feet just as soon as possible. “While 69 percent of show organizers say they are doing some level of virtual, we need to keep doing some version of face-to-face marketing,” DuBois says.

If there can even be such a thing, Dubois says, one positive offshoot of the pandemic is the way in which it has brought players from all corners of the industry together to collaborate on initiatives aimed at supporting the survival and improvement of face-to-face marketing.

Chief among those activities is a grass-roots consortium recently unveiled called Go Live Together (golivetogether.com), an effort already backed by 500 companies the first week it launched. “It has a robust focus on four or five areas where there are very positive initiatives and programs going on,” DuBois says. In addition to the hundreds of companies adding their weight to the cause, so too has every major association serving exhibitions and events, DuBois says, and the collaboration is championing a multipronged approach to advocating for the industry.

According to an inaugural Go Live Together press release, the group was pulled together by industry titan Freeman, which formed a coalition of 80 founding partners to begin building the framework for the initiative.

“While our concern is first and foremost supporting the suppression and mitigation efforts around COVID-19, live events will be an integral part of accelerating the U.S. and global economic recovery,” says Bob Priest-Heck, CEO of Freeman. “A fundamental aspect of the industry is that tradeshows and events enable companies to grow, educate and innovate. Protecting the industry means protecting key economic and social drivExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 21

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ers that not only impact jobs today, but also the development of the next generation of businesses.”

On its website, Go Live Together provides access to an enormous array of resources for anyone working in the industry, from research to sanitization protocols to legislative advocacy. It has helpful guides for those planning to pivot from a live event to a virtual event, it has press release templates and crisis communication plans, and it has infographics that will help partners share the staggering impact that live events have on the financial health of the United States.

The website says that live events contribute nearly $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year via every sector that makes up the gross domestic product. They directly or indirectly impact 6.6 million jobs and pump $117 billion into federal, state and local taxes. And more than 80 percent of the companies serving the live events industry are small businesses.

While 69% of show organizers say they are doing virtual, we need to keep doing some version of F2F marketing...

“It’s indisputable that live events have significant, quantifiable economic impact,” says Priest-Heck. “But they also provide the intangible.

These events allow brands to connect directly with their audiences in a meaningful way and the experiences leave a lasting impression that cannot be replicated.”

In order to add volume to the voice it brings to the table, Go Live Together is asking industry partners of every kind to provide feedback detailing the impact that the pandemic is having on them. That data will arm the organization when it comes time to fight for support for the industry—support which in part is already outlined in a draft Trade Show & Event Recovery Act put forth

by Trade Show Executive. That piece of proposed legislation includes provisions such as:

» Provide tax credit assistance to exhibitors and attendees for costs associated with their involvement in tradeshows » Eliminate restrictions for travel and entertainment deductions » Create a way for tradeshow organizers to recover any extraordinary expenses related to sanitation and disease prevention at their events » Ensure tax incentives will stay in place for four years to help recovery and stability The cohort at Go Live Together is drafting additional legislative components as well, including a request for funds that offset the cost to host an exhibition and incentivize people to attend them post-pandemic. The final legislative proposal will be

posted to the website when it is completed, leaders say.

Another major initiative underway, says DuBois, is the creation of a LEED-style certification system for sanitization, something that—OSHA’s generic cleanliness rules aside—has never specifically existed before now. The initiative is the brainchild of the Global Bio-Risk Advisory Council (GBAC), a subsidiary of the International Sanitation and Supply Association (ISSA). That organization has formed a task force with leaders from the exhibition and event industry to devise guidelines for the best practices, standard operating procedures and standards for the sanitation and safety in convention centers. GBAC is simultaneously working with airports, airlines, and hotels on similar protocols, says DuBois, because the world is going to need a new way forward when it comes to sanitization.

According to DuBois, GBAC scientists are plumbing the knowledge of exhibition professionals to understand the movements and methods of a show floor, from the loading docks to food service to shuttle buses, in order to draft a best-practices system for sanitization. The group of 25 people is working at a feverish pace, says DuBois, because there is a sense of urgency to have something in place before venues start reopening, and they expect to unveil the

complete certification system in the coming weeks.

Though details are still being ironed out, essentially the program will include an online course that venue staff can take followed by some form of verification that standards are being implemented. Once staff members take the course, the venue will need to complete a thorough process in order to achieve certification status and receive a certification seal they can place on their promotional materials. “What it means is when you get invited to a show or conference and you see on the convention center’s website that they have a seal, it tells you that it’s a place that is going to be safer than others,” DuBois says. “Wouldn’t it be great if people could take a two and a half hour class and make me safer? People want to be able to leave their houses again.”

But even though he would like nothing more than to see the exhibition and event industry reopen and flourish, DuBois believes now is too soon. One show braved the elements and continued as planned in mid-April, he says, which caused an even deeper government shut down in that area. Bucking science to get back to the show floor will only hurt the industry more in the long run, DuBois believes.

“We need to listen to scientists,” he says. “It’s ridiculous the speed at which they are trying to reopen some places.

My advice as a non-medical business man is listen to the professionals. We want to be able to say the tradeshow industry is safe and open, and that will be when the scientists say it can be.”

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On the Front Lines of COVID-19: ECN's Online Weekly Series

BY AMADEUS FINLAY

Of all the words associated with the tradeshow and convention industry, community is right at the top.

An intimate network of emotional connections, families and peers, the tradeshow world is a small, tight-knit group of friendly competitors who put as much work into altruism and charity as they do their bottom line. People matter more than the dollar, and as the world battles with the COVID-19 pandemic, society has begun to see the tradeshow and convention industry it at its very best. Over the coming weeks, Exhibit City News will be reporting on the stories of inspiration, courage and hope coming out of the tradeshow and event world, shining a spotlight on those unsung heroes making a difference online and in our weekly newsblasts.

CCs Transforming into Temporary Hospitals for COVID - April 2 As the doors close on public events, convention centers across the nation have been reopening to provide beds and workspaces to support the huge influx of patients needing care. The first to do so was the Jacob Javits Center in New York City on March 27. Where once there were double-decker booths and pop-up meeting rooms, now sit 1,000 beds and room to treat up to 2,000 patients. The conversion was undertaken by the New York District of the Army Corps of Engineers and took a week of around-the-clock working to complete.

But the transformation at Javits is just one of many centers being converted into alternate care facilities at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. On March 29, the Los Angeles Convention Center was announced to be making the switch, just before TCF

Center (formerly the Cobo Center) in Detroit was designated a temporary alternate care site by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the State of Michigan and FEMA on March 30. Detroit’s TCF Center has become a 900-bed temporary care facility, and the conversion includes two separate floors, to be segregated based on the severity of a patient’s illness.

From there, the convention centers undergoing transformation grew by leaps and bounds. On March 31, Seattle’s CenturyLink Field Event Center made a similar announcement, before the news broke that the New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center would be doubling its previous designation of 1,000 beds. On April 1, Mass.

Governor Charlie Baker revealed that the Boston Convention & Exhibit Center would be following the lead of fellow Bay State facility, DCU Center in Worcester, Mass., which had already installed 250 temporary beds. Almost concurrently, authorities in Ohio announced a threeday turnaround plan that would see the Greater Columbus Convention Center converted into a temporary hospital with up to 1,000 beds. In a shift from the trend, the San Diego Convention Center was reopened on April 1 as a temporary homeless shelter. After the initial 400 people settle in, the numbers under care will increase to 1,500.

At time of print, talks are being held to convert the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, Penn., and the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn., and Willwork Global Exhibit Services has been transforming the Baltimore Convention Center and TCF Center into additional COVID-19 temporary support facilities.

Tradeshow Industry Firms Building Portable Exhibits - April 9 At a time when events and conventions have come to a grinding halt, incredible examples of selflessness and resilience continue to radiate from all branches of the tradeshow industry. This week, we will feature some of the companies making a difference by providing portable exhibit structures to medical institutions needing additional, customizable workspaces.

Of the nations affected by the pandemic, Italy has been one of the most badly hit. More than 17,600 fatalities have been reported since the first death on Feb. 20.

The country remains on a complete lockdown, bar essential business and movement, with the situation set to remain critical for the foreseeable future.

Tanya Miller, COO of Allspace and Synapse Exhibits, is based in the Mediterranean nation. Despite the extreme difficulties she faces, Miller has ensured that her firms’ focuses have shifted towards combating the crisis while keeping an eye on the far side.

“In Italy, the need for temporary structures has been enormous,” says Miller.

“The tradeshow industry is at a complete standstill, so it totally makes sense to offer your resources to the community and help where you can. This is a situation where we all are in the same boat. To get over this we need to stand together, reach out and help—there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Miller’s sentiments of togetherness are echoed back at home. California- and Vegas-based service event design, rental furnishings, and custom fabrication firm, Blueprint Studios, tells a similar story of unity and empowerment. Director of

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Sales Lenny Talarico explains, “During this challenging time, we are happy we can play a role supporting our courageous health care professionals by assisting them with these emergency triage environments critical for them in delivering services. We have provided products and services working within our customers’ budgets understanding the expenses they face are completely unexpected.”

Presenting a mirror image on the East Coast, aluminum-based wholesale exhibit manufacturers, Agam Group, Ltd., in Elkridge, Md., has been focusing almost all production on temporary structures, and the response has been remarkable.

“It started when the first stimulus package was released,” says Brian Kaltsas, Agam’s vice president of sales. “We saw there was a specific section under temporary structures, and we took up the challenge. Our first thought was designing an outdoor structure that could service as

a drive-up testing site. We built a prototype and put it up in our parking lot. But, at the time, no one was sure where the money was coming from to move them forward. We, like many others, had to let people go and make pay cuts.”

But from misfortune came determination. “That’s when our team took up the challenge of creating different offerings to get to a point where we could bring our co-workers back to work and get the products in the hands of our distribution network. The new goal was to not just help bring our people back but to help our dealer network save their companies.

Our new line includes outdoor structures, temporary hospital rooms, hygiene barriers, room dividers, etc.

“One of our partners probably said it best, ‘Once we get through this, we are going to have one hell of a story to tell.’ The people and teams in this industry are strong and they will survive this.”

Virtual GMID, NAB’s DigiExpo, MJBiz & LiveForLife - April 16 Just as energy cannot be made or destroyed, the momentum carrying the tradeshow, events and convention industry cannot be held at bay for long. As the people behind the brands come to terms with the impact of COVID-19, thought leaders across the industry are identifying new ways to keep the impetus going until normal service can be resumed—glimmers of normality in a strange, new world.

On April 14, more than 13,000 industry professionals logged on to participate in the Virtual Global Meetings Industry Day. While the gathering was just shy of the current record of 15,000, the statement made by #GMIDGoesVirtual was vastly more important: The industry is present, it is global and united and, perhaps most importantly, it's as bold and disruptive as ever.

Attendees engaged in discussions, polls and updates, as well as providing

“People start to heal the moment they feel heard.”

unsure

news

safe

closures

distance

shared

home

shared information

stay calm

health

now what

― Cheryl Richardson

leadership

strength confused

impact

positive

try normal

community

challenges

waiting

adapting

believe

help

options

unknown

distance

urgent

resources

looking forward facts together nervous lock down hope

guidance scared future

fear

courage

jobs

Your words are being heard.

“So proud of all our Sho-Link Heroes” @ExhibitCityNews

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information on two foundations for event professionals affected by the pandemic: The Above and Beyond Foundation and SEARCH Foundation. There remains widespread optimism that the industry will recover (at a steady pace) in the fall and into 2021, and that feeling of positivity was very much reflected in the conversations held during GMID. However, don’t expect things to ever go back to the way they were. Instead, look out for a traditional 3D world supported by a community of virtual players experiencing real life events in distance/VR settings.

With the potential of reaching an unlimited global audience through additional digital channels, the number of eyes on brands could increase even though they are not there in person.

The word on the street is very much in the same vein. When in March it was announced that NAB Show would not be rescheduled at all in 2020, the event’s organizers quickly turned around and instead announced a digital offering called NAB Show Express. The DigiExpo, to coin a term, will stream on May 13-14 and will feature live, scheduled and on-demand video coverage, exhibitor profiles, company events, press conferences and special offers for new products and exhibitor news. Furthermore, the entire shindig is free, and the NAB board are already planning to enhance NAB Show New York, still penciled in for later this year. And some shows aren’t even interested in digital solutions—on April 15, Project NY, originally slated for July 19-21 at the Javits Center, announced an official rescheduling to Sept. 22-24, and that the show would continue as planned.

As a wise man once said, “Don’t think outside the box—think around the box.” In that respect, founding partners Czarnowski, Exploring (the parent company of ID3 Group, Brumark, Shelmarc Carpets, Chisel 3D, Atlantis WaterJet and GCI Graphics) and George P. Johnson have begun “LiveForLife,” a coalition of live-event industry providers to help in the battle against COVID-19 that has already attracted more than 100 compa-

On April 2, ECN debuted a new weekly column online and in our Thursday e-newsblasts called “On the Front Lines of COVID-19.” Here’s some excerpts from the first month; to read “the rest of the story,” please visit our website. Upcoming stories will feature how Acer, AGAM, Allspace, Aluvision, Astound, beMatrix, Bespoke Displays, Blueprint Studios, Classic Exhibits, Derse, Design Factory/LV, GES, Moss, Octanorm, ProGlobalEvents/ ProExhibits, Sho-Link, Studio Displays, Willwork Global Events and more have all risen to the occasion to build temporary medical facilities, produce masks and whatever is needed during the current crisis. If your company is going above and beyond to assist in this crisis, please email us at newsdesk@exhibitcitynews.com for inclusion in future stories in this series. nies and organizations. For more info or to sign up to join the volunteer coalition, visit www.liveforlifec19.com/.

Riding the COVID-19 Curve in Boston & Portland, Ore. - Apr 23 At the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic is the venerable northeast corner, and the hardy Yankees aren’t changing their tone—they’re innovating in the face of adversity. In Boston, Teamsters Local 25 Trade Show Division members in partnership with CorpEvents New England and Suffolk Construction have been transforming the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center into a field hospital.

An initial team of 25 hands soon grew to more than 100, with Local 25 Teamsters at Waltham Lumber playing an important supporting role by delivering essential building materials to the BCEC. The project, completed on April 11, saw more than 1,000 beds installed across the show floor, with several hundred further beds installed as solutions for the homeless population and non-critical patients who still require hospital treatment. Additionally, six acute-care suites and a physical therapy suite as well as 52 nurses’ stations and 48 bathroom facilities were also constructed as part of the project.

And in the far northwest lies the drizzly beauty of Portland, Ore., the home of Classic Exhibits. In its 27th year, this vet-

eran of the tradeshow convention industry is switching its focus to helping those in need by building a squad of temporary medical structures.

“We have a large inventory of extrusion which is what was needed to complete these Temporary Medical Pod units quickly and efficiently,” explains Kevin Carty, executive vice president. “While we are charging a fee,” continues Carty, “it is at very aggressively low margin to make them as affordable as possible considering the dire national need.

“Being face to face is a human nature thing," adds Carty. What I mean by that is, yes, we are in a new world right now, but beware of thoughts that we are a society ready to live from behind their computer screens solely. We are social beings and our industry provides a meaningful blend of doing business and providing human interaction. We need to be around other people. So be patient, we will figure out how best to tackle this on the tradeshow and event floor.”

Creative solutions drive the tradeshow and exhibit industry, and on April 22 Freeman launched the “Go LIVE Together” coalition designed to protect the industry by bringing together leaders driven to urge local, state, and federal legislators to consider measures for support and recovery. The coalition is composed of 80 founding partners, representing more than 4,000 companies nationwide, and all mobilized by a common goal.

“While our concern is first and foremost supporting the suppression and mitigation efforts around COVID-19, live events will be an integral part of accelerating the U.S. and global economic recovery,” says Bob Priest-Heck, CEO of Freeman. “A fundamental aspect of the industry are that tradeshows and events enable companies to grow, educate and innovate. Protecting the industry means protecting key economic and social drivers that not only impact jobs today, but also the development of the next generation of businesses. As the largest live events producer, Freeman is proud to unite with other industry leaders to form a coalition to make this possible.”

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Champion Logistics Group has a transportation divison specializing in the coordination of trade shows and special events. Champion provides the most reliable and flexible trade show transportation in the industry.

@ExhibitCityNews

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AIPC

Convention Centers: New Roles, New Expertise

by Aloysius Arlando, president of AIPC

A

t what is likely to be seen as the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, centers around the world are engaging with clients and communities in some very different ways—all of which will leave them better positioned to play their role in driving not only industry recovery but recovery in all those other areas—economic, professional, educational and social—that will be so desperately needed to return to some form of normalcy.

Globally, they are repurposing to engage in emergency and overflow uses that are becoming essential to how communities respond to the immediate demands of the crisis—not only as hospitals but staging areas, testing facilities, emergency accommodation and critical storage. The lessons they learn will enable them to better accommodate future events where security and health confidence will be an essential component of giving nervous delegates the confidence they will need to re-engage.

At the same time, they are redeploying and maintaining many services that would otherwise risk the kind of deterioration that many businesses are likely to experience in a world of enforced reductions in activities.

Kitchens are serving larger community and emergency health needs, exhibition setup crews are creating hospital rooms from modular hard-wall supplies; electricians are wiring new medical facilities—all resources that will be needed to re-build event capabilities once the wave has passed.

How else will centers be better prepared to a return of business?

First, they will have fine-tuned policies and resources to manage events safely in the face of ongoing health and safety concerns. These in turn will be closely tied into other local resources that are not necessarily available or even known to organizers.

Secondly, they will have gained even more experience and insights into how their venue facilities and service resources can be used to greater advantage.

This means they can suggest new ideas, including in areas like social distancing and other protocols that are becoming more important under what will likely be ongoing expectations. It also means they will have insights into how events may be reconfigured to better accommodate different event sizes and formats that may be part of a transition moving forward.

Third, they will be on top of a supplier situation that is likely going to be very different than in the past as many companies experience staff reductions and changes arising from the economic impacts that are accompanying the pandemic, and the need many will have for consolidating or re-configuring their organizations and offerings. This may well result in changes of both products and relationships, and here again, centers are going to be in the best possible position to advise on local and regional resources, based on their ongoing experiences with other clients and events on their premises.

Finally, centers and their technical and A/V suppliers will have had a lot of opportunity to advance their knowledge and capabilities around the requirements of hybrid and remote meetings and content. The demand for webinars and other interactive components was already growing rapidly before the pandemic, but are likely to be even more important moving forward, particularly in the transition period—and here again the center will be well equipped to deliver the best possible advice and services.

At a time when many parts of the global economy are slowing or already dormant, centers are carrying on and learning in the process. As a result they will be in the best possible position to help organizers respond to the kinds of adaptations that will be needed to restore the industry to full strength and organizers should be planning how best to utilize this as we all move forward.

In addition to his role as AIPC President, Aloysius Arlando is the CEO of SingEx Holdings, which comprises several entities focusing on the MICE business, including the management of the Singapore EXPO Convention and Exhibition Centre. He is also the president of the Singapore Association for Convention and Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers (SACEOS), organizer of Singapore MICE Forum.

AIPC represents a global network of more than 190 leading centers in 64 countries with the active involvement of more than 1,000 management-level professionals worldwide. It is committed to encouraging and recognizing excellence in convention center management. For more info, visit www.aipc.org.

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Italy INTERNATIONAL

Italian Trade Fairs Face Uncertain Future

by Cynthya Porter

A

mong the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Italy was forced to resort to some of the world’s most extreme measures as it struggled to quash the virus’ spread. As the infection rate spiraled out of control, the government shuttered every non-essential business and even created a police state in which residents were quarantined to within a few streets of their home.

For tradeshow organizers, exhibitors and buyers, that, of course, completely upended spring trade fairs, though many organizers optimistically postponed events to fall dates rather than canceling them outright. But according to a recent plan released by government officials, the fall will likely still find Italy completely off limits for foreign visitors.

Government officials say it appears Italy has finally gained control over the spread of COVID-19 and leaders are gingerly restoring bits of normalcy for Italian citizens, one small freedom at a time.

Called Phase Two, the plan unveiled by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte allows residents to go outside for exercise without being stopped by police, visit family so long as they reside nearby, get takeout food from restaurants and hold funerals—all of which had been limited during the government lockdown. If these small steps don’t provoke a new flare-up of coronavirus cases, Conte says shops and cultural sites will open in late May and bars and restaurants, along with other service providers like beauty salons, will be allowed to open June 1. @ExhibitCityNews

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However, things like allowing large gatherings and permitting entry of foreign visitors are part of Phase Three, Conte says, and the timeline for that step to be taken is a sobering one. “Before Phase Three, we need to wait for a vaccination and for new contagions to reach zero,” says Conte.

Prior to that proclamation by Conte, there was wide speculation that Italy would restrict international visitors until March of 2021, though whether the term “international” applied to residents of the European Union was a matter of debate.

Though there are more than 115 vaccine candidates being developed by labs around the world, scientists have no timeline for the distribution of a vaccine to the general population. Some speculate that it could be two or three years before one is broadly available.

If Conte hinges Phase Three—particularly allowing gatherings and international visitors—on a vaccine, there are an estimated 1,500 exhibitions, meetings and trade fairs a year in Italy that hang in the balance. Many are small regional events where the organizers, exhibitors and attendees are Italian residents. Though it’s not clear yet what types of gatherings will eventually be

FOCUS

permitted before Phase Three, it’s possible some of those events could be structured to comply with restrictions while larger gatherings are still banned.

However, Italy has long been home to some of Europe’s most significant trade fairs which draw thousands of exhibitors and buyers from around the globe, and for those events, uncertainty abounds.

For example, at Af L’Artigiano in Fiera—a massive public arts and crafts fair in Milan—one third of the event’s 3,000 exhibitors are international firms there to sell to more than 1 million visitors. At beauty show Cosmoprof/Cosmopack in Bologna, more than 2,000 of the 2,850 exhibitors are international companies and 116,000 of the event’s 263,000 visitors are international as well. For these and many other events, if they won’t be allowed to include foreigners or if it’s possible they can’t resume at all until a vaccine is available, it will leave organizers, companies and local economies in a difficult position.

It’s possible that a vaccine will become available sooner or Conte could walk back his position on waiting to allow international visitors or large events until one exists. Or perhaps he will classify travel and congregating for business functions differently than for tourism or entertainment and, as such, permit some business-to-business trade fairs to resume with foreigners included. It’s hard to say what will happen in the future, but Conte is certain about a couple of things right now. “For now, we need to live with the virus,” he told the Italian people in a televised announcement. “If we don’t respect the rules, the curve will rise again, deaths will increase and there will be irreversible damage to our economy. If you love Italy, keep your distance from others.”

Cynthya Porter is a 70-time award- winning journalist recognized by national and international associations for her journalistic expertise in tradeshow topics, travel writing, photography and news.

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Willwork Global Event Services is proud to support COVID-19 recovery efforts with our resources and solutions

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SHOP TO SHOWFLOOR An In-Depth Look into Today’s World of I&D and Event Labor

Derse fabricated and installed more than 530 temporary 10-by-10-foot patient rooms at the alternative care facility within the Exposition Center at Wisconsin State Fair Park.

Exhibition Industry Collaborates to Build Better Field Hospitals Pg. 32-33

The Rigging World: Here’s to ADVERSITY and Raising Our AQ Pg. 34

Vision, Collaboration + Technology = Successful Exhibits Pg. 36

This section is dedicated to all exhibit house professionals, as well as all exhibit managers and tradeshow coordinators worldwide.

For advertising information and rates, please call our offices at 702-309-8023 and ask for sales. @ExhibitCityNews

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SHOP to SHOWFLOOR I&D and Event Labor

CorpEvents’ Bob Dobinski speaking to his team on turning BCEC into “Boston Hope” Field Hospital

Exhibition Industry Collaborates to Build Better Field Hospitals

By Cynthya Porter

C

onvention centers across the United States are being converted to temporary hospital facilities in order to cope with the explosion of COVID-19 illness cases, and who better to lead the charge on those construction projects than the show floor professionals who call those venues their home turf?

The movement started with the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, a city that became a tragic flashpoint for the coronavirus during its early days in the U.S., but now it is spreading around the world.

With union labor on hand to help complete the work at an impossible speed, Javits was outfitted with 1,900 hospital beds in a matter of days. At

first, the work consisted of partitions and waiting rooms, but it soon became apparent that the venue needed far more: sterile and certified hospital facilities complete with water, electricity and a suction-type of ventilation system that would draw contaminated air into filters rather than have it wafting through the building.

In order to help meet the more complex build-out needs of the facility and other cities that would face the same challenges, three U.S.-based live event companies banded together to create an association dubbed Live for Life – C19, which has grown to now include more than 80 partners.

But it was Czarnowski, Exploring and George P. John-

son—all exhibit and event firms that on an ordinary day are competitors—that brought the collective together. “The idea of converting empty convention centers into temporary hospitals was born within a few days. Every leader we contacted agreed to join this coalition without hesitation,” says Dave Walens, CEO of Exploring. “Competitors came together as partners to meet this extraordinary need. This industry is predestined to do that and make it possible.”

The reason that exhibition industry workers are uniquely equipped to tackle these temporary hospitals is because the projects call on all of their core capabilities: short-term planning and implementation

of special structures, expertise with materials, experience managing logistical challenges and familiarity with convention centers. Also, the tradeshow industry has gone quiet during the pandemic and these professionals were people with time on their hands and a desire to serve.

To date, venues around the country have been outfitted similarly to Javits, ranging in capacity from 140 people at the Oregon Convention Center to 3,000 beds at McCormick Place in Chicago. Atlanta, Baltimore, Orange County, New Orleans, Detroit, San Diego and many other cities have significantly expanded their capacity, and Live for Life – C19 can be credited

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for sharing time and talent to help that happen.

The firms are all members of the International Federation of Exhibition and Event Services (IFES), a global association serving the exhibition and event industry, and when the organization learned of the U.S. collaboration among partners, it decided to expand the effort globally. “As a global collaboration network, the members of IFES are used to international cooperation across national and cultural borders,” says IFES managing director Uta Goretzky. “And fighting the pandemic is not only a matter of the heart for all of us. Unless the virus can be contained globally and human lives saved, there will be no return to normal trade relations, which are the basis for economic recovery. If the virus rages, there will hardly be any personal contacts at the economic level, for which trade fairs are a key function.”

In particular, international arms of the founding companies are leading the charge in other parts of the world and helping to build an international coalition that can reach out to countries in need. Torsten Heinze, who is the managing director of the German Czarnowski subsidiary based in Cologne, as well as an IFES board member, is among those who have taken up the international cause. “In Europe, we are already quite far in most countries in the provision of additional health care facilities, but regions such as Africa or India are still at the beginning of the pandemic control in many places, Heinze says. “Now it is our task to form the partner network, in which also companies that are not IFES members are welcome.

The decisive factors here are @ExhibitCityNews

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rather the competence and the desire to help.”

UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry and the International Association of Convention Centers have teamed up to lend a hand in the conversion of event venues to field hospitals by creating a guide that officials can follow when considering a repurposing project. Called the “Good Practices Guide to COVID-19 for Convention and Exhibition Centres,” the booklet is a newly released second edition of the collaborative guide designed to promote efficiency and consistency in facilities being converted for emergency use.

“This is the second guide to facility management under pandemic conditions to be produced by AIPC and UFI within a few weeks, but one that is of crucial importance to our many members who are being called upon to engage in this way,” says AIPC president Aloysius Arlando. “As a result of the professionalism, generosity and expertise of AIPC and UFI members—particularly those who are members of our Safety and Security Task Force—it incorporates some of the very latest front-line insights that have been and will continue to be gained in the midst of the crisis itself.”

“Many of our colleagues around the world are having to repurpose their venues to serve key roles in dealing with the fallout from COVID-19, and many others will inevitably follow,” says Mary Larkin, president of UFI. “However, the experience of conversion to emergency use—and the re-commissioning once the crisis has passed—is currently limited. This guide will help

all member venues prepare for and perform in an exceptional role that they were not specifically designed for but are increasingly being asked or forced to play as temporary emergency facilities”.

And while the guide is particularly useful for this pandemic, it can also help with the conversion of facilities for other reasons such as natural disasters. “The reasons for having to become a temporary emergency facility vary, ranging from pandemics to natural disasters. The same goes for the purpose of any particular conversion—so this guidance has been collected, assembled and presented with multiple possibilities in mind,” says Arlando. “As challenging as such conversions may be, they will inevitably result in enhanced overall capa-

bilities over the long term, and strengthen center capabilities for the future,” adds Larkin.

The collaborations that are springing up within the exhibition and event industry were born of a sense of responsibility to do something, but they are also indicative of the generous spirit that exists in the industry even among competitors. “We are aware that this challenge is greater than any single organization. We really work together and learn as an industry,” Czarnowski USA said in a statement. “Our gratitude and respect for our contemporaries has grown exponentially, and we can’t wait to get together in a lively environment to talk, shake hands and even hug each other.”

For more info, visit www. liveforlifec19.com.

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SHOP to SHOWFLOOR I&D and Event Labor

THE RIGGING WORLD

“Here’s to ADVERSITY and Raising Our AQ!”

W

e all know IQ stands for Intelli- going well. At the same time, we’d learned gence Quotient, and EQ stands of the cancellation of several industrial for Emotional Quotient. But shows (staples to the Las Vegas entertainhave you heard of AQ? It stands for ment industry). Nevertheless, we were Adversity Quotient, and was coined all doing our best to stay optimistic

by Paul Stoltz, Ph.D., in his 2007 and understanding of the business ground-breaking book, The Addecisions being made. versity Advantage. His premise: Then word came that a very There are benefits to be had from large Las Vegas springtime adverse circumstances when the

By Andrew Fulton tradeshow had cancelled and adversity is used to our advantage. reality started to sink in. As time In terms of the circumstances we’re in passed, show after show dropped off and now, could there be a bigger AQ chaladversity was hitting our industry in a lenge? At the start of 2020, we were BIG way. Despite all this upheaval, howsympathetically following a far-away sitever, GES demonstrated remarkable AQ uation, never dreaming the crisis would in doing a phenomenal job at manageventually land on our front porch! ing the 2020 ConExpo-Con/Agg event.

What was once safely far away is now Then factor in the stellar AQ of the show something we’re all experiencing up close riggers, who safely and efficiently dealt and personal, and it’s having a tumultuous with a massive amount of rigging in a effect on every aspect of life. Our thoughts timely fashion, and we see why this beand prayers go out to anyone who’s had a hemoth tradeshow was a great success— family member, friend, coworker or emadversity or not! ployee infected with the COVID-19 virus.

It’s because of this demonstrated AQ Our prayers and praise are being sent to that we can know we WILL rally back. those on the frontlines, who are sacrificing It starts with the AQ of the sales staff of their own well-being as they give their love every convention center, expo hall, hotel, and dedicated attention to those in need. arena and stadium. They’re working hard God bless you! And we’re praying that to bring events to their spaces; jobs are the biomedical industry will soon create a already being planned for this summer. vaccine to effectively address the spread of This pandemic will pass, and when it this pandemic. does, we’ll be better for it because we’ll Speaking of adversity and tumultuous have used this adversity to our advaneffects, you know how Las Vegas has been tage. We’ll have made the best of our affected by this pandemic. In February, situation and the benefit it offers. And the load-in of the 2020 ConExpo-Con/Agg that benefit? Time. Time to improve our at the Las Vegas Convention Center was physical health and time to improve our

rigging knowledge and skill level.

The golden gift of time. If we use it well, then when we do go back to work, we’ll be more fit, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable—able to provide the best possible service to our clients.

The best service to clients comes from best practices. And best practices come from increased knowledge. The more knowledge you and your staff have pertaining to your projects’ rigging improves several aspects of your job. Most importantly is the safety of everybody that’ll be underneath the rigging for the days to come. It’s a best practice and a fact: The better trained and educated we are, the more skills we have to take on and mitigate challenging projects.

This training and education is easily acquired through online courses. It’s proving to be our best path of action for continuing education. Every exhibit and tradeshow company whose projects need rigging should be signing their employees up for online courses. And the best resource for this online rigging education is Industrial Training International, also known as ITI (www.iti.com). Here are just a few of the comprehensive, excellent ITI instructor-led courses available to you and your employees:

» Basic Rigging & Inspection » Basic Entertainment Rigging & Inspection » Rigging Inspector » Intermediate Rigging » Intermediate Rigging Theory We have the opportunity to benefit from this adversity. Going forward, let’s use this benefit—time—to love each other more, get to know our families better, and, as mentioned above, improve our health, and take advantage of training and education to better serve our clients when the rally commences once again!

Cheers to adversity and raising our AQ! Andrew Fulton, member of IATSE Local 720, is the lead production rigger at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center and was lead rigger for PRG at the Sands Expo, Venetian and Palazzo Hotels from 2012-15.

He co-founded RIG FOR SUCCESS with Jason Sellmann and is also one of three owners of RIGGING INTERNATIONAL GROUP (R.I.G.) Contact him at andrew@rigforsuccess.com.

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SHOP to SHOWFLOOR I&D and Event Labor

The Canon Medical Systems USA booth at RSNA 2019: PRG collaborated with Canon Medical Systems USA & Pinnacle Exhibits to reimagine their historical video banner by creating a 360-degree viewable banner using PRG’s LED rental solution, Fanta Pixel Drop.

Vision, Collaboration and Technology = Successful Exhibits

by Eric Hanson, VP Sales PRG

T

here is no denying the biggest challenge brands face when exhibiting on a tradeshow floor is standing out in a room full of distractions. Exhibitors are tasked with quickly telling their story in a unique, immersive way; worthy of drawing in and keeping the attention of the right audience. Innovations in technology have changed how booths are designed and how people interact within them.

A successful booth design incorporates 360-degree viewability, captivating graphics, immersive technology and a clear message—all leading to measurable conversions and happy stakeholders.

Exhibit Goals and Effective Collaboration

Creating a tech-forward, engaging booth starts with a collaborative process with the right partners. Whether the goal is launching a new product or generating business leads, it’s important to begin the

exhibit ideation phase by defining the purpose of the design.

Understanding key goals can help determine the most effective and engaging methods to tell your brand’s story. Moving through ideation and design, to developing a plan for fabrication and on-site installation, clear coordination and communication with your exhibit partner is critical to efficiently showcasing your brand.

Further, if engineering and technical build expertise are outside of your core competencies, bring your technical partners and production companies into the conversation as early as possible. This important step will ensure that ideas are technically achievable, will accomplish your goals within the overall plan and design, and are within budget.

New Technology for 360-degree Impact and Longevity

Work with your technical and production partner to en-

sure the overall booth design seamlessly integrates innovative technology that supports thematic direction, branding and scenic elements now and into the future as booth design and goals change.

A first step in incorporating smart technology is replacing traditional hanging signs and print graphics with a 360-degree viewable video solution.

By strategically integrating this technology and digital display into scenic elements and displays, exhibits are immediately updated and draws eyes to the booth. Further, this technology offers the ability to easily update branding, graphics and content as needed. A great example of this is the Pixel Pro Series, Fanta Pixel Drop—a 360-degree viewable, creative LED rental solution that is true video with DVI input.

Projection mapping, interactive video walls and LED lighting as well as other lighting and video components such as Ultra-High-Resolution

LED capture attention and give a cool factor to exhibits.

Interactive projection mapping turns 3D objects into display surfaces for projecting your brand message and open new opportunities for shared AR-like experiences. Enhancing your standard video wall with the addition of touch or motion activation and recognition that further engages a visitor and conveys messages.

Lighting can enhance a booths’ environment and give you more opportunities to draw in crowds. LED moving lights and strategic spotlights in a booth can direct viewers’ attention to the most important part of your exhibit. Kiosks that have interactivity, lead capture or participatory activities are great spaces to highlight.

Incorporating innovative technologies into exhibits is a key factor in telling a story, increasing exhibit traffic, improving visitor engagement and ultimately meeting tradeshow and corporate goals.

Collaborating with a trusted technology and production partner in the design phase ensures your vision for exhibit comes to life flawless—and within budget.

Chicago area-based Eric Hanson is VP of sales and leads the exhibit technology solutions team at PRG, an entertainment technology company specializing in live events, corporate events and tradeshows. With more than 170 patents and 70+ trademarks, PRG is a company defined by innovation. With a network of 70 offices spanning five continents, PRG is capable of delivering for its customers anywhere on the globe.

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TRADESHOW/EVENT SOLUTIONS ADVERTORIAL

Aluvision at Euroshop 2020 PICTURES BY ALUVISION

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et’s imagineer. A new tagline, a new corporate identity, a new campaign and numerous new ground-breaking products; this is how Aluvision opened Euroshop, the world’s largest retail trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Aluvision, the manufacturer of high-quality modular systems and LED solutions, presented a variety of new innovations. These innovations included a stylish black and white corporate identity with a touch of color and no less than 15 new products that enhance their existing product range; the perfect combination for a successful exhibition.

Impressive booth The Aluvision booth could be spotted from afar when walking through the hall. The 4360 square foot stand was an impressive almost 20ft high and completely built with Aluvision frames and profiles with integrated Hi-LED 55 tiles. This solid construction was finished to perfection and did not require a single suspension point.

At the heart of the stand you could find the hospitality zone, where customers could enjoy a cup of coffee in a cozy environment. This zone consisted of free spans of 26 ft. profiles.

The combination of colorful visuals, a striking stand design and warm colors created a real “Imagineering” setting.

It’s all about the experience “Stand builders visit an exhibition to come home with an experience and remember impressions, and that’s exactly what Aluvision is all about,” explained Jan Dumont, COO of Aluvision in Europe.

The visitors to the Aluvision booth certainly had an interesting experience. The eye-catching colorful content on the LED tiles caught the eye of many visitors. The immersive LED cube, interactive LED floor and the LED tunnel especially turned out to be real Instagram-worthy photo locations. Aluvision played with the presentation of new products in a few different ways. On one hand,

new products were integrated into the booth to show all the unique design possibilities.

On the other hand, “product corners” were set up where visitors could discover all the product novelties one-on-one.

This way both the functionality of the products and the guest experience were put in the spotlight.

LED innovations “Aluvision continuously works to put new innovations on the market. The Research and Development department is the beating heart of our company. Thanks to them, we have been able to introduce many new products at Euroshop,” says Dirk Deleu,

Managing Director at Aluvision.The Hi-LED 55 tile has received some upgrades, such as new radii in its range of curved tiles. The additional convex and concave tiles of +/- 5 ft radius offer numerous creative possibilities such as LED tunnels, curved walls and so much more.

The real eye-catcher at Euroshop was the Hi-LED 55+, the most versatile LED tile on the market. This product has only just been launched and has already won the prestigious, world-famous iF DESIGN AWARD 2020. This award is a symbol of outstanding design performance that focuses on the innovative power of design.

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Dismantlable and dynamic light walls The new Aluvision range of single sided and double-sided lightboxes can be easily and quickly assembled thanks to the Aluvision Quickfix system. This has many advantages including: easy transportation, quick and tool free assembly, and the possibility to build larger light walls up to 16.5 ft. wide. Add a playful effect to light walls with the Dynamic LED 55 light box.

This new light box consists of modular LED building blocks as a dynamic backlit solution for fabrics Linear Aluvision launched a new construction profile, the Lin@ExhibitCityNews

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ear. This profile gives a sleek, architectural look to your stand. The Linear profiles are available in black as a standard and have dimensions of 62x62mm. The Linear cover provides a perfect finish.

Finishing and accessories Put your booth in the spotlight thanks to the Puck XL: an arm light with the ability to be daisy chained. Switch between warm white and cold white, between 70% and 100% intensity and produce an even, wide light distribution.

In need of a decorative finish for your frames? With the Omni-55 Ledline you can give an extra touch to your design.

The Omni-55 Ledline is a

decorative illuminated cover for Omni-55 and Hi-LED 55 tiles. This profile provides a stylish finish with evenly distributed light.

Integrate music in your stand with the invisible Omni Sound: an integrated speaker system with an invisible fit into an Omni-55 frame.

Doesn’t this sound like music to your ears?

Work smarter, use our Genius tools Last, but not least, the Genius tools have been developed to support customers from the design phase, to stock management and project preparation. The Genius for SketchUp plugin

is a practical extension for the user-friendly SketchUp design program that allows you to quickly import the entire Aluvision range from the 3D Warehouse. The Genius configurator is your perfect sales tool for a quick and easy 3D rendered stand design. Finally, stay ahead of your projects and keep a full inventory overview with the Genius showplanner, where you can create a complete material stock list, plan your tradeshows, and link products and people to specific jobs.

Let your imagination run wild, be an imagineer, join the Aluvision family.

ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 39

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CONVENTION CENTER SPOTLIGHT

After Lockdown…

EAT

BCEC Becomes Field Hospital in COVID-19 Fight

By F. Andrew Taylor

S

ince the BCEC opened in 2004 it has hosted thousands of conventions and special events including Macworld, the New England Auto Show and PAX East. No one anticipated it could become a field hospital.

As the COVID-19 crisis was growing, Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh worked out a plan to convert the 2,100,000-sq.ft. convention center with 500,000 feet of exhibition space into Boston Hope, a 1,000-bed field hospital that is still being expanded. Of the 1,000 beds, 500 will be for homeless individuals and another 500 will be for noncritical patients who’d otherwise need to be in the hospital. There will also be six acute-care suites and a physical therapy suite as well as 52 nurses’ stations and 48 bathroom facilities.

CorpEvents New England was selected to work with Suffolk Construction and the BCEC engineers as the labor source to transform the BCEC into a Field Hospital.

“We got a call from the Local 25 that the convention center was possibly going to be turned into a hospital,” says Bob Dobinski, president of Corp Events. “Then Jim Grossman of Suffolk Construction gave me a call because he knew they needed carpenters, laborers and Teamsters and that’s what we handle at the convention cen-

ter. He asked what he needed to do to get this rolling. I told him he just did it and we were on the job. There was no contract, just a phone call. He called at 11 a.m. and by 4 p.m. we were in the convention center marking the floors.”

Hundreds of members of Teamsters Local 25 Trade Show Division, the largest Teamsters union in New England with more than 12,500 members, worked around the clock on the project, transforming the first hall in three and half days and the second in two and a half days. The facilities were built and ready to go before the estimated peak of the virus in Boston.

The project was much more complex than the average convention build out.

Walls were installed, not just pipe and drape or open booths. Cox Engineering provided negative airflow to the CC so air won’t flow in and out of the loading dock and into the convention center.

The air from Halls B and C where Boston Hope was built won’t intermingle with the air of Hall A. After airflow was taken care of, the area was sanitized and the medical equipment was brought in.

Local 25 Teamsters working at Waltham Lumber are also part of this initiative, delivering building materials to the BCEC to support this massive effort. Suffolk is also a partner in this massive build-out, along with other trade unions.

All of downtown Boston is within walking distance of the BCEC, including Chinatown, the Italian North End and the North End. For intimate dining there is Trattoria il Panino, 280 Hanover. St., with a variety of classic Italian dishes and a great wine selection. For dessert, head to the 24-hour Bova’s Bakery, 134 Salem St. for the best cannoli in Boston.

The Union Oyster House, 41 Union St., is one of the oldest restaurants in the U.S. and the place to get classic New England food from Boston baked beans to lobster since 1826. Finally, the French restaurant, Marliave, 10 Bosworth St., feels tucked away on a side street and has been known for its fine dining and creative cocktails since 1885.

SLEEP Boston’s hotels range from modern to historic, with the emphasis on the latter.

Just 1,000 feet from the BCEC, Aloft Boston Seaport District, 401-403 D Street, is a slick, modern hotel located right next to The Lawn on D, an outdoor event and play space, with views of the city and the seaport. A little far, but still nearby by public transportation, is The Liberty, 215 Charles St., a four-star luxury hotel built in a former prison. The rooms are on the small side, but comfortable and the theming is cute, with bars and restaurants like Alibi, Clink and The Yard.

PLAY If you’re a history buff, Boston is your town. Remnants of the American Revolution are on practically every corner, from the Old North Church to the Boston Tea Party site, which, due to filling in a lot of the harbor, is now about 800 feet from the harbor. The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, 306 Congress St., features recreations of the ships and live re-enactments. Stroll the Freedom Trail, Boston Common and the adjacent Boston Public Gardens, with its picturesque pond and swan boats—paddlewheel-powered tour boats with swans sculpted onto them.

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ASSOCIATION NEWS

EDPA Maintains Industry Connectedness in Challenging Times

By H. K. Wilson

A

s the future of our world and industry remain uncertain amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Experiential Designers and Producers Association is rallying professionals across the globe.

Established in 1954, EDPA has provided leadership and advocacy through good times and bad, giving its members

an unbroken sense of strength and connectedness.

When Amy Sondrup became EDPA’s 53rd president in 2019, she had no idea that she would be leading the organization in crisis conditions. She has stepped boldly into her role as a wartime president, and she explains how EDPA is supporting its members and

CONCERTS CONVENTIONS DINING ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT SHOPPING SPORTING EVENTS

ROSEMONT’S IMPACT FIELD

Amy Sondrup, EDPA President

the industry at large during these challenging times.

ECN: Why is EDPA membership an important tool amid the current industry crisis?

Amy Sondrup: “EDPA membership is so important during the current industry crisis because our association creates a communication network for our members. Everyone is saying, ‘We’re in this together,’ but this is especially true of our industry. We are finding that it is extremely critical for us to support all our members across industry segments—from exhibit builders and contractors, to caterers and furniture rental companies. Countries around the globe are banning large gatherings, which has a severe impact on our core business.

In addition to keeping our members up to date, EDPA is working to provide access to critical information during this difficult time.”

ECN: What are you doing as an organization to provide leadership, hope and/or resources to industry professionals?

AS: “As EDPA president, I am in continuous communication with Dasher Lowe, our executive director,

our board of directors, our executive committee and our membership to keep all the concerns of our industry front and center. We are proactive in seeking relief and have been working with the US Travel Association, IAEE and other industry leaders to ensure that the needs of the travel and hospitality industries—including the meetings and events segment—are represented during this critical time, particularly through the CARES Act, which includes immediate provisions to help those businesses affected by COVID-19.”

ECN: Do you have a message for people who are experiencing uncertainty about the future?

AS: “One thing that has become clear during this time when most of us are working from home and sheltering in place is that people crave connection with others. This experience convinces us that nothing will ever replace faceto-face engagement.”

For the rest of the EDPA Chapter Roundup story, visit www.ExhibitCityNews.com and search for “EDPA.”

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

People on the Move

D

uring the ESCA winter meeting in Las Vegas, Neil McMullin (right) assumed responsibilities as president of ESCA. As Fern Expo’s senior VP of shared services, he is responsible for Fern’s field operations including quality control and oversees all graphic design and production as well as technology services and carpet operations. He is also an active member of the IAVM. Marquis Exhibits, a full-service exhibit house specializing in custom rental tradeshow solutions as well as logistical services, has named Craig Fields as general manager and head of worldwide operations. Fields will work out of the Las Vegas headquarters and provide support to all of the operational staff in North America.

ADEX International, a premier, full-service corporate marketing company, has hired John Larson to be their sales and marketing manager. Larson brings 22 years of experience in the tradeshow and events industry.

Exhibit Concepts, Inc., has named Melody Davy as creative director. Davy will oversee the creative department, which includes tradeshows, museums and graphic design.

Momentum Management announces that Susie Kreher has been promoted to their new West Coast senior account executive, replacing their long-time senior account executive, Kaete Miller, who is retiring.

Global Shop Solutions, a leading producer of ERP software for manufacturing companies around the globe, is proud to announce CFO Barry Klein recently celebrated 20 years with the company.

In addition to overseeing the financial side of Global Shop Solutions, Klein also manages the accounting team, including tax and regulatory compliance.

Signaling its commitment to digital

by Exhibit City News

growth during the COVID-19 crisis, IMC_di, the new digital innovation division of International Market Centers, announced more than a dozen recent hires in mid-March and another 17 hires in mid-April.

“We are in exponential growth mode even during a time of global business disruption,” says IMC_di President Eric Dean. “This first wave of new hires—just two months after our launch—puts experienced professionals into key positions.”

IMC_di welcomes Marisa Garcia as senior director of customer success, Andrew Meeks as director of marketing, and Teddy Pekalski as sales director. In addition to full-time staff, IMC_di has retained retailer Mary S. Moore (left), owner of the Atlanta-based Cook’s Warehouse stores, as a consultant. Another nine staff will support IMC_di’s programming, development and customer support needs. Other newly staffed positions include: back end developer, customer onboarding, front end developer, product manager, QA engineer, scrum delivery lead, tech lead, UI developer and UX/UI designer.

And they’re still hiring for both their Juno Beach, Fla. and their Chantilly, Va. offices.

Danielle Boyles joins ConferenceDirect, a full-service global meetings solution company with 350+ associates who manage more than 11,000 meetings, conferences and events.

Graphco, the industry’s leading provider of offset, digital and print-finishing solutions, has named 20-year industry veteran Troy Miller as Graphco’s Southeast region sales manager.

Springfield, Va.-based Projection, a national audiovisual company, announced

that it has hired industry veteran Karen Lennert as senior audiovisual sales manager to oversee, expand and deliver value to client relationships.

In convention center news, Visit Salt Lake announced the appointment of Kaitlin Eskelson as its new president and CEO as of March 16, the fourth individual to hold this position in VSL’s 36-year history.

Spectra, the providers of venue management to the Owensboro Convention Center and the Sportscenter, promoted Jessica Beckmann (left) to assistant general manager of the Sportscenter and Cody Thomas to senior event manager/interim director of events at Owensboro CC. Spectra also hired Brett Shaw and Mary Midkiff as event managers, Brandi Stevens as a sales manager and Emma Fitzgerald as an event coordinator.

The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau recently named Sonia Fong as VP of convention sales. Throughout her 20 years at the organization, Fong has played an integral part of the GMCVB’s convention sales efforts.

Centerplate, the leading hospitality partner to North America’s premier venues and convention centers, announced that Chef Gregory Pittman is the new executive chef at the Baltimore Convention Center; and Julie Eslinger (left), executive pastry chef at the Colorado CC in Denver, was named to the prestigious Pastry Team USA for the World Pastry Cup 2021 in Lyon. She will mainly be the ice sculpter on the team.

In international news, Ori Lahav, VP clients & operations at Kenes Group, was elected president of the Int’l. Assoc. of Professional Congress Organizers representing 137 companies with more than 9,500 members from

44 May/June 2020 Exhibit City News

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INDUSTRY NEWS

The Don & Mike Show Returns to Twice a Week with COVID-19 Updates

by Mike Morrison

T

he Don and Mike Show, like everyone else in the industry, embarks on a new experience with the world of COVID-19 and the unexpected turbulence this pandemic has caused in our world. The show has re-embarked on two shows each week as was done last year for a period of time ... The Extra! airs on Tuesdays while the regular show remains uploaded on Fridays. With the extra time we all have on our hands, more guests and interviews

are a part of the show which allows for more information to be shared. At the same time, keeping people up to date with two shows a week becomes an easier task. Plus we’ve passed 102,500 listens!

At press time, the state of Georgia (where Mike resides) has opened its business doors sooner than all other states while Las Vegas (Don’s home base) has no timetable as to when they will begin to resume some sense of business normality. Other states are

slow to the idea of reopening but some, like Georgia, have begun phases of allowing certain business to resume.

The show will continue to spend time on association news and updates through this time as we all look forward to the time when we can reunite on show floors, conference gatherings and event happenings.

The Don and Mike Show hopes you stay safe during this time, stay sheltered where necessary and yet, get some

THE LATEST DON & MIKE SHOWS IAEE CEO and President David Dubois on the Corona Virus and Impact on the Industry Candy Adams & GWCCA Chief Commercial Officer Joe Bocherer talk COVID-19

fresh air every now and then to stay sane and keep mental health up to a good state. Listen to the show and heck, be a part of the show if you have not already...the open mic still is open during this time...step up to the mic!

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info@smtexpo.com ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 45

5/4/20 10:49 PM

IN MEMORIAM

Bruce Cantwell September 30, 1953 – March 21, 2020

B

orn in Rancocas Woods, N.J., to Robert and Esther Cantwell, Bruce lived much of his life in southern New Jersey before moving to Brunswick, Ga., in 2011. He attended Rutgers University and joined Kappa Sigma Upsilon fraternity. He spent 16 years at Preferred Exhibitor Service as VP of sales, moving to On Location Inc. from 2003-2010 and then working as an account exec. for Renaissance Management from 2010-2017. He started Bruce Almighty Solutions in 2017 to give personalized nationwide labor services.

His son wrote lovingly, “Bruce, known to some as Dad, G-Daddy, Coach, Big Pink and Mr. Warmth, touched the lives of so many. He spoke to everyone, and, I mean, everyone! For those who called Bruce a friend remained as such no matter how long since they last saw or spoke to him. From Kazoo brothers, Lenape High School friends, I&D colleagues to Minutemen football alums, all would crack a smile at the mention of his name.

“A staple in the tradeshow industry, Bruce connected with people across the country, whether it be a company executive or the new guy on the dismantle team. With cigar in tow, Bruce walked the show

Bruce with three of his grandchildren

floors as if he was the mayor of the convention center, not making it far between greeting another friend.

“As a coach, Bruce led his sons’ teams in football, baseball and basketball, earning at least one championship for each son.

His joy and passion for coaching caused him to continue after his sons left, adding more championships and friends to his resume.

In South Jersey, Bruce hosted neighborhood barbecues, golfed with the boys, and spent hours on his boat trying to catch fish.

In Georgia, his love of people brought him to the Royal Oaks Homeowners Association golf tournaments, fishing days, and tide floats, the Carolina Shag Dance Club and the good folks at Jekyll Island Marina. He loved volunteering at the PGA event on Sea Island and using his golf pass with his sons…Rest easy dad, and, as you would say, it was one for the books.”

Cheryl Wood, dir. bus. dev. at ADEX Int’l., wrote in his guest book, “Bruce was such a good-humored, fun-loving person. When I first met Bruce on the show floor, you just felt like you knew him all your life.

He had a way of making you feel important and appreciated. He

always had a positive attitude, no matter what the situation— which there were many on the convention center floor. He would always make a point of coming by and saying hi or taking a moment to find out about what is going on in your world. I don’t think I ever saw Bruce without a big smile on his face. We all belong to a very interesting industry and Bruce was a bright spot in that. He will definitely be missed by all that he touched through the years.”

Steven Johnson wrote, “I’m so sorry to learn of Bruce’s passing. He was a genuine guy who loved and lived life to the fullest. I’ll never forget the day he came into the I&D office in Clarkston, Ga. for an interview.

His personality filled the room and we quickly decided to add him to our growing team. Shortly after the interview ended and he departed he came back into the office asking us if we could give him a push so he could pop the clutch on his orange 240Z! We knew at that point that he would fit in perfectly with the team! May God bless you and the Big Guy rest in peace!”

Donna and Steve Bernero wrote, “There are no words to describe how much we will miss Bruce, his smile, his warmth

and his genuine friendship.

My husband and I have known Bruce for 40+ years when we were ‘children’ starting out in the convention industry. He was genuinely loved by everyone who knew him and he ‘Never had a better day.’ We all said, ‘We want to be Bruce when we grow up!’ He was an icon in our industry and will be in our hearts forever.”

Lifetime friend and colleague Peter Stoddard wrote a blog tribute at stoddardmedia.blogspot.com/2020/03/bruce-cantell-larger-than-life-trade.html Here’s a short excerpt: “I met Bruce Cantwell 40 years ago. To say he changed my life would be a dramatic understatement...Bruce resembled Brutus or Bluto of Popeye comics, a larger-than-life man, except Bruce was almost always smiling…I left the tradeshow business...yet I stay connected to most of my old friends via social media. None has been a more constant friend over the years than Bruce. Saying goodbye is hard.

May we honor his memory. We love you Mr. Warmth.”

He is survived by his wife Deb; sons Chad (Jessica) and Ryne (Dana); stepsons Cameron and Dillon (Lauren); grandchildren Elizabeth, Leonardo, Caroline and Sophie; sisters Linda, Carol, Karen and Diane; sister-in-law Diane, and his black lab Baby Girl.

In lieu of flowers, keep Bruce’s spirit alive by living life to the fullest and helping those in the community; give to charity, donate blood or help a neighbor. For his guest book, visit www.dignitymemorial.com/ obituaries/brunswick-ga/ robert-cantwell-9095004

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Don with (L-R) his late wife, Joan, and sons Joel, Mark and Eric

Don with 3M’s Pete Gavin in the ‘70s at Dimensional Display & Design in St. Paul, Minn.

Don Bendickson

March 23, 1927 – April 2, 2020

D

on Bendickson, 93, a leader in EDPA and founder of several companies including Dimensional Display & Design and Exhibit Design Systems, passed away on April 2. In addition to his 50-year career in retail display and exhibit design, he operated an art studio for nearly 70 years. He was a partner in Interlock Structures International and also worked at Custom and Rutherford Displays and Heritage Communications. In 1987, he acquired Haas Display from which he retired after 50 years in the business.

A memorial and celebration of his life will be planned for later this year after difficulties from COVID-19 have passed.

He was born in Scarville, Iowa, growing up with his sister Margaret on the farm and attending school. They were surrounded by relatives and friends in both Iowa and Minnesota celebrating their Norwegian heritage. Don served for two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict. He attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, taking every art @ExhibitCityNews

046_Obits_0520.indd 2

and design course offered. He moved to Saint Paul, Minn., and started his career creating window and specialized displays for the Emporium, a St. Paul department store.

It was there he met his wife Joan, of 62 years. They raised their three sons in White Bear Lake and Vadnais Heights and were members of St. Stephen Lutheran Church. Don and Joan literally made their family home—clearing the site, and working as designers, custom interior fabricators and landscapers. Don was passionate about golf and art. Since retirement he shared his watercolors in community art shows.

Many industry folks shared their memories and condolences on his son Mark’s Linkedin page. Tracy Inglis, account executive at Display Arts, wrote, “Mark, I am so sad for you and your family. Don defined the Twin Cities exhibit industry for me, and he left quite a legacy here. Such a good guy; always fun talking with him.” Susan Brauer, CME tradeshow and event manager and president of Brauer Consulting Group,

wrote, “He was an extraodinary person for sure! Don will always hold a special place for me and Mark. Our prayers and thoughts go out to you and the family.”

Jodi Ellsworth, purchasing manager at Exhibit Partners, wrote, “Your dad was such a great guy and I was very lucky to have met him and spent the time I did with him in my early years in the tradeshow business!” Stacey Schreyer, sales at CenterPoint Marketing, wrote, “I’m thankful for all that Don taught and shared with us in this industry. And lucky to have one of his beautiful watercolor artwork pieces to remember his passion during retirement.”

Bob Stone, director of operations at Star, wrote, “I enjoyed working with Don back in the day. Don was a good man! My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.” Chris Griffin wrote, “My heartfelt condolences on your personal loss, Mark, and on the loss of one of our industry’s early pioneers.” From Jeff Spizale, account executive at Elevate97, “Sorry Mark, I had a lot of fun working with your dad at Haas.”

Paul Maynard wrote, “Your dad was a real influence on so many and on the larger

industry. Many of us owe him a debt of gratitude for coming before us and being a trusted guide and leader.” Brett Hyams, senior solution sales executive at SmartSource powered by Abcom, wrote, “Don was a great man and good friend of my father’s.

They were from a generation of pioneers in this industry.”

The son of Hilda and Melvin Bendickson, Don was preceded in death by his wife, Joan, and granddaughter, Julia Rose Bendickson. He was survived by sons, Mark, Joel & Eric (Teresa); grandchildren, Justine, Graham, and Maria Bendickson; sister, Margaret Nesje, as well as several nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews. Don’s life ended at Saint Therese at St. Odilia after residing at Cerenity Senior Care in White Bear Lake and his family is grateful to those who cared for him.

In addition to Mark’s Linkedin page, friends may leave memories and photos in his online guestbook at www.bradshawfuneral.com/ obituary/Donald-Bendickson. If you wish to make a donation in Don’s name the family requests donations be sent to the EDPA Foundation at www.edpa.com/edpafoundation.

ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 47

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THE D.E.A.L. By Jeanne Brei

Dining, Entertainment, Attractions & Lodging

The Supper Club at Capo

DINING

Boston is Home of the Boston Cream Pie, Baked Beans & Seafood— Here’s Where to Go When Lockdown Ends Boston is a delight to visit for those who love American Revolutionary history and architecture and all things cerebral. Known as “America’s College Town,” you can feel the intelligence and energy from the 50,000 students at the nearly 120 college and university campuses in the Boston area as you stroll the Freedom Trail and the Boston Common. From Harvard to M.I.T., from Boston College to Wellesley, Boston emits a rar-

efied air of refinement mixed with historical significance.

For upscale dining just off the Boston Common, the nearly 90-year-old Omni Parker House was a frequent favorite of Dickens and Emerson and it’s where the iconic Boston Cream pie was first created.

The hotel and restaurant both define old New England splendor, with crystal chandeliers and ornately carved woodwork.

Frequent readers know that I would seek out a swanky supper club with live music and Boston makes it easy.

The Supper Club at Capo is a 4,000-sq.ft. subterranean lounge located next door to Capo Restaurant and below Citizen’s Bank. The Supper Club is accessible through a connecting staircase located in Capo’s dining room at 443 West Broadway. The club layout consists of a 40-ft. bar, a large performance stage

and a stage-front dance floor with two retro stage-side lounges. There are up to four available spaces that can be reserved within the Green Room and Night Owl Suite for a food and beverage minimum which includes guest list privileges, access to entertainment, reserved lounge seating, access to a stocked mini fridge and a designated cocktail waitress. Groups up to 30 can reserve the entire Green Room with a private entrance and a private bar.

Meanwhile, for a more touristy experience, Faneuil Hall Marketplace (which opened in 1743) and the Quincy Market (which opened in 1826) are not to be missed. From the street vendors and entertainers to the cobblestone streets and open air market, you can purchase your Boston souvenirs, play chess and indulge in the most requested Boston namesake

dishes—Boston clam chowder, Boston baked beans, a lobster roll and Boston cream pie— from the food court.

If you’d prefer a guided tour, for $75 you can join Jacqueline Church’s threehour Chinatown Experience Tour. She promises that you will have “tastings of BBQ pork, mooncakes, bubble tea; and learn the fables associated with various treats.

Understand yin and yang and its expression in everything from food to architecture to medicine as we visit a traditional Chinese herbalist’s shop. Explore the abundant fruits and vegetables in the grocery store, peek in on the live fish and get expert tips on ingredients and techniques to make stir-fries sing. The tour ends with dim sum at Hei La Moon, savoring dumplings and more as the steam carts roll by.” Yummy!

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ENTERTAINMENT

Roll Over Puritans, Boston’s Theater & Jazz Scene Is Hot! Plays were banned in Boston by the Puritans until 1792, so Boston’s first theater opened in 1793. By 1900, the Boston Theater District had 31 theaters, and by the 1940s it had grown to more than 50 theaters. Suffolk University bought the Modern Theater in 2008 and won a Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Emerson College uses the Paramount Theater as “a first-of-its-kind mixed-use residential, academic and performance venue.”

The Boston Opera House, built on the site of the city’s second theater, has the city’s only surviving work of noted theater designer Thomas W. Lamb. Also in the Washington Street district are the 1932 Paramount Theatre and the Modern Theatre. For more than two centuries, they’ve offered the full gamut of entertainment—vaudeville, comedy, musicals, plays, experiential theater and film.

Unfortunately, COVID brought an end to the 40-year run of Shear Madness at the Charles Playhouse (producers are planning to reopen it at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.) and just last

@ExhibitCityNews

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The Boston Opera House

year, The Donkey Show closed after 10 years of performing every Saturday night in Cambridge. But with so many colleges and historical theatres, there’s always live music or a show somewhere!

With jazz programs at both the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, there’s enough live jazz venues in the Boston area that you could visit a different one every night of the week.

The Beehive, part of the Boston Center for the Arts, is a South End institution.

They have live jazz nightly, with the blues showcased each Sunday. Live music every day of the year is also the motto of Wally’s Cafe, the South End’s legendary jazz club. Open since 1947, Wally’s is the place to visit to get a sense of Boston’s

rich jazz history, and it features up-andcoming student musicians too. There are jam sessions every night of the week, ranging from blues to funk to Latin jazz salsa. Also in the South End is Darryl’s Corner Bar and Kitchen with outstanding soul food (including gumbo!) and a diverse lineup of musicians.

The popular jazz venue Scullers has continuously been praised as Boston’s best jazz club, best live music venue, and best date spot from local critics (and the performing musicians themselves) since opening in 1989. And Les Zygomates, a French wine bar/bistro/gallery near South Station, offers a “strictly jazz” live music lineup Tuesday through Saturday nights, with solo jazz pianists up to full ensembles.

In nearby Cambridge, the Lizard Lounge is a hip and swinging spot that features soul, funk, blues and jazz musicians regularly, along with a weekly open mic night on Mondays just outside Harvard Square. And in the heart of Harvard Square, the Beat Brasserie has a changing roster of jazz and blues musicians on the calendar, plus jazz brunches on the weekends. The Regattabar at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge regularly features traveling musicians, as well as hosting a courtyard series spotlighting Berklee College of Music jazz musicians, and a kids’ series to introduce them to jazz.

ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 49

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THE D.E.A.L. By Jeanne Brei

Dining, Entertainment, Attractions & Lodging

ATTRACTIONS

Step Back in Time in Boston Along the Freedom Trail Boston just naturally brings out your intellectual curiosity—whether it’s the historic sites at your every step or the universities’ offerings, it makes you want to learn!

I recommend starting at the Boston Common, a 50-acre central public park that dates back to 1634. It is the oldest city park in the U.S. and is the southern end of Boston’s Freedom Trail, a 2.5-milelong path through downtown Boston that passes by 16 historical locations. Marked largely with brick, it winds from Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument, and includes the site of the Boston Massacre, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House (built about 1680, it’s the oldest house in Boston), Old North Church, several burying grounds, the USS Constitution, Bunker Hill Monument and more. You can climb a spiral staircase (with 294 steps!) to the top of the 220-foot-high stone obelisk of Bunker Hill Monument. The monument sits atop Breeds Hill and is part of the Boston National Historic Park. After the long climb, at the top there are four windows with an amazing view that looks out over Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown and Boston Harbor. There’s even a very small brass cannon from the battle hanging on one wall.

If you enjoy time-traveling and seeing people in peri-

Special markers implanted in the sidewalk denote the stops along the Freedom Trail

od attire, visit the Printing Office of Edes & Gill, a living history exhibit along the Freedom Trail (behind the Old North Church). Located in the Clough House, one of Boston’s oldest surviving brick residences founded in 1713, the printers are dressed in colonial attire, happy to demonstrate the mechanics of the printing press, while at the same time emphasizing the importance of free speech and the necessity of newspaper distribution.

You can also visit Captain Jackson’s Historic Chocolate Shop to learn all about the history of chocolate and how it was produced and eaten during the American colonial period. Capt. Jackson’s knowledgeable staff, dressed in period clothing, will demonstrate the chocolate-making process, and you’ll have the opportunity to sample either a historically accurate colonial style chocolate drink or a piece of freshly made chocolate.

Another fascinating attraction, The Mapparium, was built in 1935 by Rand McNally and is a three-story-tall stained glass globe which is viewed from a 30-foot-long bridge through its interior.

The Mapparium was designed so that the countries of the world could be viewed in accurate geographical relationship to each other, hence its design, a mirror image, concave reversal of the Earth, viewed from within. It’s an opportunity to view the world as it then was, showing the names of the countries back in the 1930s, such as Siam and Italian East Africa.

After all those history lessons, you can stop off at The New England Aquarium—it’s the largest aquarium in the region with a 200,000-gallon tank in the center that visitors walk around via a corkscrew walkway. Opened in 1969, this aquarium’s multistory level tank has helpful software attached to glass viewing panels

that enables you to identify its inhabitants—including stingrays, little sharks, horseshoe crabs, starfish, penguins and much more.

Finally, if all this educational stuff makes you thirsty, just across the street from the Common is Cheers at 84 Beacon St. The bar opened in 1969 and was called The Finch & Bull until the TV show’s popularity made the owners decide to change the name to match the show. And the Sam Adams Brewery, located in Jamaica Plain, offers a free tour to guests every 30 minutes, complete with tastings and info about ingredients and the brewing process.

For a more in-depth tour of the barrel rooms paired with beer and cheese tastings, tickets range from $10 to $50. If tours aren’t your thing, you can also explore their taproom for experimental tastings and Thursday night trivia.

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LODGING

“The Grand Dames” Hotels of Boston for More than a Century In a city of historic pedigree like Boston, the Omni Parker House seems as if its been there nearly every step of the way. Opened in 1855, the 551room landmark is the longest continuously operating hotel in the country, and the first in Boston that offered running water and elevator service.

The hotel’s famous guests were the crème de la crème of the political and cultural elite: Charles Dickens frequently stayed at the Parker House, and it was here that he did the

Omni Parker House

very first U.S. reading of “A Christmas Carol” for members of the Saturday Club literary group. JFK proposed to Jackie at a table at Parker’s Restaurant, where Malcolm X once worked as a busboy. And for those who enjoy some ghostly encounters, some guests are visited (and kissed!) by the ghost of a 19th-century whis-

key salesman who resides in the closet of room 303.

Another iconic landmark, The Fairmont Copley Plaza has graced Boston’s historic Back Bay since 1912. Just as palatial as it was when it first opened, the 383-room hotel shares the same architect as the Plaza Hotel in New York, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh,

who combined French and Venetian Renaissance influences on the building’s facade.

The lobby is 5,000 sq.ft., with 21-foot-high gilded, coffered ceilings. The sumptous, wood-paneled Oak Bar and Oak Room are as grand as the rest of the hotel and give guests a taste of a different era. “Boston’s Grand Dame” has welcomed every major U.S. president since Taft, celebrities from Frank Sinatra to Tom Cruise, and many of the world’s most powerful moguls—like Sumner Redstone, who survived a 1979 fire by hanging from a third-story window. Constructed on the original site of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the hotel was named after the great American painter John Singleton Copley (1738-1774)

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52 May/June 2020 2019 Exhibit City News

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*Disclaimer: All shows are subject to cancellation, check the official event website on the ECN Tradeshow Calendar for the latest information.

Tradeshow Calendar

Att = Attendance | CC=CC | Exh = Exhibitors | Nsf = Net Square Feet

U.S. CENTRAL Show RDH Under One Roof American Culinary Federation National Convention - ACF Texas High School Coaches Association - THSCA Unconventional Resources Technology Conference - URTeC Airborne Law Enforcement Association Annual Conf - ALEA APSCON eWomen Network International Associated Locksmiths of America - ALOA Texas Pharmacy Association - Rxperts Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management - AHRMM American Association of Meat Processors Exposition - AAMP American Academy of Family Pysicians - AAFP Res. & Medical Students Nat. Conf.

Minnesota Dental Association - MDA Star of the North Meeting

All Information Is Subject to Change*

Start 07/16 07/19 07/19 07/20 07/20 07/23 07/24 07/24 07/26 07/30 07/30 07/30

End 07/18 07/23 07/21 07/22 07/25 07/25 07/25 07/26 07/29 08/01 08/01 08/01

Venue

City Denver Dallas Henry B. Gonzalez CC San Antonio Austin George R. Brown CC Houston Frisco Kansas City CC Kansas City Hyatt Regency Austin Austin CC Austin Iowa Events Center Des Moines Kansas City St. Paul RiverCentre St. Paul

St CO TX TX TX TX TX MO TX TX IA KS MN

Att 1500

Exh 125 115 13.7K 383 4300 173 1200 165 3000 100 3500 200 1000 90 1016 200 1200 110 2700 372 8281 250

U.S. MIDWEST Show National Art Materials Trade Association - NAMTA EAA AirVenture Oshkosh Fly-In The ASI Show!

M-PACT - Midwest Petroleum and Convenience Trade Show Face & Body Spa Expo & Conference Midwest American Bar Association Annual Meeting - ABA American Society for Healthcare Engineering - ASHE Association for the Healthcare Environment Exchange International Association of Food Protection - IAFP Microscopy & Microanalysis - MSA AXPONA - Audio Expo North America Indiana Long Term Care Convention & Expo National Conference of State Legislatures - NCSL Legislative Summit

You Built It!

Nsf 11000 80000 82100

45000 38000 29800 15000 45600 35000

Industry Healthcare Restaurants & Food Serv.

Education Energy Aerospace & Aviation Business Building & Construction Healthcare Healthcare Food & Beverage Healthcare Healthcare

All Information Is Subject to Change*

Start 07/18 07/20 07/21 07/22 07/26 07/29 08/02 08/02 08/02 08/02 08/07 08/10 08/10

End 07/20 07/26 07/23 07/24 07/27 08/04 08/05 08/05 08/05 08/06 08/09 08/12 08/13

Venue Navy Pier

City Chicago Oshkosh McCormick Place Chicago Indiana CC Indianapolis Donald E. Stephens CC Rosemont Chicago Chicago Chicago Cleveland Milwaukee Renaissance Schaumburg CC Schumburg JW Marriott Indianapolis Indianapolis

St IL WI IL IN IL IL IL IL OH WI IL IN IN

Att 1800 500K 4422 3500 3000 9000 4000 1000 1800 426 5000

Exh 195 800 641 361 107 125 279 130

Nsf 41500 1M 89950 53000 21700 10000 37900 23000

Industry Art, Music & Culture Aerospace & Aviation Advertising & Marketing Stores & Store Fittings Beauty & Healthcare Financial & Legal Healthcare Healthcare Food & Beverage 110 36500 Science Audio Visual 65 20000 Healthcare 300 84000 Government

Now Flaunt It! SHOW OFF YOUR GREATEST EXHIBITS WITH THE GREATEST PHOTOGRAPHY!

@ExhibitCityNews

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ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 53

5/4/20 10:59 PM

Tradeshow Calendar U.S. NORTHEAST Show N.Y. State Assoc. of Fire Chiefs - Fire Industry, Rescue & EMS Expo Case Management Society of America - CMSA TechConnect World Innovation Conference & Expo National Principles Conference Virginia Academy of Family Physicians Annual - VAFP National Association of College & University Business Officers - NACUBO AHRA - Association for Medical Imaging Management - Annual Interphex & Biotechnica America American Podiatric Medical Association - APMA - The National International Beauty Show - IBS New York International Esthetics Cosmetics & Spa Conference New York Eastern Energy Expo & Atlantic Region Energy Expo - AREE American Psychological Association - APA

Start 06/10 06/28 06/29 07/07 07/09 07/11 07/12 07/15 07/23 08/01 08/01 08/02 08/06

End 06/13 07/02 07/01 07/09 09/12 07/14 07/15 07/17 07/26 08/03 08/03 08/05 08/09

Venue The Onecenter

The Homestead Resort Hynes CC Javits Center Hynes CC Javits Center Javits Center Mohegan Sun

*Disclaimer: All shows are subject to cancellation, check the official event website on the ECN Tradeshow Calendar for the latest information.

Att = Attendance | CC=CC | Exh = Exhibitors | Nsf = Net Square Feet All Information Is Subject to Change*

City Syracuse Boston Washington Washington Hot Springs Washington Boston New York Boston New York New York Uncasville Washington

St NY MA DC DC VA DC MA NY MA NY NY CT DC

Att 10K 4000 3000 300 2500 1000 10.4K 3500

4000 12.3K

Exh 400 200 250 250 87 200 150 617 225 500 200 250 178

U.S. NORTHWEST Show School Bus Expo - STN West Central Valley Facilities Expo Design Automation Conference - DAC SEMICON West Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference - PMA Northwest Foodservice Show Washington Association for Career & Technical Ed - WA-ACTE Enterprise Connect Game Developers Conference - GDC Society for Information Display - SID Display Week Connections: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase American Academy of Dermatology - AAD Innovation Academy Medical Library Association - MLA

Nsf

100K 4200 31200 52000 159K 40000

21600

Industry Fire & Fire Protection Energy Education Healthcare Education Healthcare Healthcare Healthcare Beauty & Healthcare Beauty & Healthcare Energy Healthcare

All Information Is Subject to Change*

Start 07/10 07/15 07/19 07/21 07/24 08/02 08/02 08/03 08/04 08/04 08/04 08/13 08/15

End 07/15 07/16 07/23 07/23 07/25 08/03 08/05 08/06 08/06 08/06 08/06 08/16 08/19

Venue City Peppermill Resort Reno Modesto Centre Plaza Modesto San Francisco San Francisco Moscone Center Monterey Portland Expo Center Portland The Davenport Grand Hotel Spokane San Francisco San Francisco Moscone Center San Francisco Moscone Center San Francisco Hyatt Regency SFO Seattle Hilton Portland Downtown Portland

St NV CA CA CA CA OR WA CA CA CA CA WA OR

Att 1000 1900 6519 29K 1900 5000 800 5000 29K 7600 850 2607

Exh 110 225 193 690 201 300 46 200

Nsf 88000 23500 85340 131K 15700

Industry Transportation Plant Eng. & Operations Electrical & Electronics Manufacturing Food & Beverage Food & Beverage 3680 Education 33100 Communications Gaming & Entertainment 43000 Electrical & Electronics 60 1100 Electrical & Electronics 140 18200 Healthcare 130 Healthcare

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*Disclaimer: All shows are subject to cancellation, check the official event website on the ECN Tradeshow Calendar for the latest information.

See complete listing of shows online at ExhibitCityNews.com/tradeshow-calendar

Att = Attendance | CC=CC | Exh = Exhibitors | Nsf = Net Square Feet

U.S. SOUTHEAST Show National Association of College & University Food Services National Dental Association - NDA SwimShow - Swimwear Association of Florida School Nutrition Association - SNA Florida Health Care Association Annual Convention - FHCA Florida Roofing, Sheet Metal & Air Cond. Contractors - FRSA Firehouse Expo Southeast Building Conference - SEBC National Medical Association - NMA Louisiana Foodservice Expo - LRA APCO Intnl. Conf. & Expo - Assn of Public-Safety Communications Officials Florida Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists - FSHP Institute of Transportation Engineers - Annual - ITE

All Information Is Subject to Change*

Start 07/08 07/09 07/11 07/12 07/12 07/15 07/20 07/30 08/01 08/01 08/02 08/07 08/09

End 07/11 07/12 07/14 07/14 07/16 07/17 07/25 07/31 08/05 08/02 08/05 08/09 08/12

Venue

Miami Beach CC Gaylord Opryland The Diplomat Gaylord Palms Music City Center Gaylord Palms

Rosen Centre

City Atlanta New Orleans Miami Nashville Hollywood Orlando Nashville Orlando Atlanta New Orleans Orlando Orlando New Orleans

St GA LA FL TN FL FL TN FL GA LA FL FL LA

Att 1080 1600 3000 3500 1000 2500 13K 5500 2500 9000 3000 1100 2000

U.S. SOUTHWEST Show Academy of General Dentistry Annual Meeting - AGD American Hospital Association - AHA Leadership Summit Inside Self Storage Expo - ISS Council on Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Education - ICHRIE Accounting & Finance Show LA International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo - BCA American Veterinary Medical Association - AVMA Black Hat USA ASD Las Vegas National Association of Chain Drug Stores - NACDS Total Store Expo ASAE & The Center Annual Meeting Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo Licensing International Expo

Exh 250 110 400 385 275 209 347 300 150 420 300 100 120

Nsf 25000 83200 27500 31200 90400 37600 40000 70000 10000 16500

Industry Education Healthcare Apparel Food & Beverage Healthcare Building & Construction Fire & Fire Protection Building & Construction Healthcare Restaurants & Food Serv.

Security Healthcare Building & Construction

All Information Is Subject to Change*

Start 07/15 07/19 07/21 07/22 07/29 07/29 07/31 08/01 08/02 08/08 08/08 08/09 08/11

End 07/18 07/21 07/24 07/24 07/30 07/31 08/04 08/06 08/05 08/10 08/11 08/11 08/13

Venue Manchester Grand Hyatt The Mirage JW Marriott Desert Ridge Los Angeles CC South Point Hotel

Las Vegas CC Mandalay Bay Anaheim CC Mandalay Bay

City Las Vegas San Diego Las Vegas Phoenix Los Angeles Las Vegas San Diego Las Vegas Las Vegas San Diego Las Vegas Anaheim Las Vegas

St NV CA NV AZ CA NV CA NV NV CA NV CA NV

Att 5000 1400 4000 800 1700 2047 8800 6500 40K 2812 8K 19K

Exh 200 90 300 50 120 132 283 150 2.8K 475 431 400 420

Nsf 30000 10000 40000 19600 20000 46.5K 46000

Industry Healthcare Healthcare Physical Distribution Hotels and Resorts Accounting Sporting Goods & Rec. Healthcare Computers & Apps 684K Gifts 97150 Healthcare 68400 Exhibition & Meeting Ind. 50300 Food & Beverage 205K Business

• Delivery in Las Vegas, FedEx/UPS to all cities • Be a HERO use Horizon Print Solutions and make it EZ • Everything for your show or event from a top quality 25 year supplier!

Color Printing • Rack cards • Brochures • Booklets • Everything else @ExhibitCityNews

052_Tradeshow_Calendar_0520.indd 4

Meeting & Event Supplies • Lanyards & Credentials • Binders, Tabs and inserts • Tote Bags & Inserts • Tickets & Programs

Promotional Products • Giveaways • Table Drapes & Signage • Branded Apparel • Gifts & Awards ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 55

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Tradeshow Calendar CANADA

*Disclaimer: All shows are subject to cancellation, check the official event web site on the ECN trade show calendar for the latest information.

Att = Attendance | CC=Convention Centre | Exh = Exhibitors | Nsf = Net Square Feet

Show The National Franchise & Business Opportunities Show Academy of Management Annual Meeting - AOM IncentiveWorks Esthetic and Spa Trade Show National Pet Industry Show - PIJAC Recovery - Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists - CSPG/CSEG Canadian Health Food Association - Expo East - CHFA National Pet Industry Trade Show Oil Sands Trade Show & Conference Security Canada Atlantic - CANASA Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society - CHES The Canadian Coffee & Tea Show International City/County Management Association - ICMA

Start 06/20 08/07 08/18 08/23 08/30 08/31 09/10 09/13 09/16 09/16 09/20 09/20 09/23

End 06/21 08/11 08/19 08/24 08/31 09/02 09/13 09/14 09/17 09/16 09/22 09/21 09/26

Venue Vancouver CC

City Vancouver Vancouver Metro Toronto Cong. Ctr. Toronto Metro Toronto Cong. Ctr. Toronto Centrexpo de Drummondville Drummondville TELUS CC Calgary Metro Toronto Cong. Ctr. Toronto International Centre Mississauga Suncor Comm. Leisure Ctr. Ft. McMurray Casino New Brunswick Moncton Halifax Toronto Congress Centre Toronto Metro Toronto Cong. Ctr. Toronto

All Information Is Subject to Change*

St BC BC ON ON QC AB ON ON AB NB NS ON ON

Att 1500 8000 2400 7227 977 4000 3800 1811 5700 200 300 1300 2819

Exh 75

Nsf 24000 10000 700 52000 180 50000 98 17900 100 800 73000 230 40800 400 85000 40 5800 160 15000 135 200 27500

Industry Business Business Travel Industry Beauty & Healthcare Science Food & Beverage Energy Security Healthcare Food & Beverage Government

*DISCLAIMER: Please note that tradeshow information is provided as a resource only. All show information is subject to change. Please check show dates and venues with official show organizers and producers. For updated show and event listings, visit www.exhibitcitynews.com/tradeshow-calendar.

Visit Our Website DAILY UPDATES COVID-19, Tradeshow Calendar, People on the Move, News, International News, Features From the Print Magazine & Historical Features too!

Check ExhibitCityNews.com for the latest, breaking news in the industry!

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INDUSTRY SERVICE GUIDE Where to Find Professional Services, Products and Supplies—a Companion Directory to Our Online Guide: www.ExhibitCityNews.com/Service-Guide

Aadvantaged Displays ABCOMRENTS A Harmony Nails & Spa BWC Visual Technologies CDS (Corporate Display Specialties) CEP (Chicago Exhibit Productions, Inc.) Champion Logistics Clementine Creative Services Condit Corey Johnson Photography

61 59 61 58 62 60 62 58 60 62

Corporate Communications CorpEvents Equip, Inc. Exhibitrac Direct Marketing Horizon Print Solutions Jami as Marilyn Monroe Tribute Artist KB Lines Las Vegas Power Professionals Lip Smacking Foodie Tours

59 60 63 63 63 58 62 59 61

OnPoint Presenters Prism Lighting Quality EFX Massage SISTEXPO (in Mexico) The End Result TSEMA.org TWI Group YOR Design Your Event Audio

63 61 59 61 60 60 62 58 58

For Service Guide information and rates, call sales at (702) 309-8023. Inclusive categories are available for all your company advertising needs. @ExhibitCityNews

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INDUSTRY SERVICE GUIDE

YOR Design Group YOR Design Group’s mission is to create tradeshow exhibits and environments that convey your brands image cohesively, while creating a memorable experience for your clients.

Established in 2005, we have more than 25 years’ experience in local and national markets. Customer testimonials include: “Excellent design and communication, easy to work with, flexible, reliable,” “We use YOR when we need highly polished creative design” and “ YOR is highly creative, professional & honest.” Exhibit Design. Virtual Booth Design. Graphic Design.

Detailing. Got Design? We Got YORS! (708) 598-8100 www.yordesigngroup.com . Like us on Facebook & Instagram.

Audio Visual Technology

Audio Visual Technology

Creative Design Services

Creative Entertainment Services

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INDUSTRY SERVICE GUIDE

Las Vegas Power Professionals Las Vegas Power Professionals represents skilled workers of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357 (IBEW) and experienced electrical contractors of the Southern Nevada Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). They offer one of the best apprenticeship and training programs through their Electrical JATC of Southern Nevada. Labor and Management working together to provide results driven quality services to clients. Committed to serving the Southern Nevada Community. For more info, visit www.LVPowerPro.org

Creative Entertainment Services

Digital Signage, AV Production & IT

NVMT 4993

Chair Massage Foot Massage Stress Release Massage and More...

Convention Chair Massage Services

ABCOMRENTS is your premier source for Digital Signage, AV Production and IT needs for events and tradeshows NATIONALLY!

We use massage techniques & tools that surpass services provided by the competition.

LED Tile | Interactive Kiosks | Transparent Displays | Digital Signage

Massage services range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.

Advanced massage services that engage the highest level of convention services.

www.QualityEFX.com

Call or Text (702) 336-9362

Event Management

ADVERTISE IN THE SERVICE GUIDE Exhibit / Trade Show Displays | Event Planning | Sporting Event Décor

•Added value with your ad in print and on our website.

•Engage a captive audience with 38,000 readers every month!

•Increase revenue and gain marketshare!

Print and Digital Distribution (Ads in print issues will run concurrently online.)

1 Issue: $500 per month 3 Issues: $400 per month 6 Issues: $300 per month 12 Issues: $200 per month Contact sales for details: 702-309-8023 or sales@exhibitcitynews.com @ExhibitCityNews

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INDUSTRY SERVICE GUIDE

The End Result (Freight Brokers) The End Result is a logistics tradeshow service that stands out.

We have 30 years of experience and specialize in tradeshows and show-to-show coordination. Based near Chicago, we’re available 24/7, 365 days a year. We have competitive rates without compromising quality and we’re familiar with the industry’s general contractors. For more info, email Erin at theendresultinc@gmail.com or call *847) 304-1113 for a quote.

• 30 years experience • Specialized in tradeshows • Show-to-show coordination • Available 24/7 - 365 days a year • Competitive rates without compromising quality • Familiar with the industry’s general contractors

EndResultLogistics.com

Event Production

TheEndResultInc@gmail.com

847-304-1113

Exhibitor Education

Upstate NY

Montpelier, VT

Concord, NH

Boston, MA Worcester, MA SpringďŹ eld, MA

Hartford, CT

(508) 366-8594 info@corp-eventsne.com

Providence, RI

Exhibits

Exhibits

6 30.378.4 8 4 8 w w w.cepexhibits.com

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INDUSTRY SERVICE GUIDE

Prism Lighting

EYE-CATCHING LIGHTING SOLUTIONS

Prism Lighting believes every exhibit and retail environment is an investment and that the value of that investment is increased through quality lighting. That’s why they focus on customized lighting solutions that fit their customers’ unique display needs.

They invest in R&D to create a full line of innovative LED Lighting products that are beautifully designed and affordable with easy installation. For more info, visit www.prismlightinggroup.com.

•Perfect Lighting for Exhibits, Retail Environments & Special Projects •Full Line of Innovative LED Products; Flexible Strip Lighting, Recessed Lights, Arm Lights, LED DMX and so much more!

•Fast Connect Cable System Saving Time and Labor •Eco-Friendly Battery Solutions •Easy to Install, Plug And Play Lighting Solutions

PRISM – INNOVATION LIVES HERE!

WWW.PRISMLIGHTINGGROUP.COM | 1.866.620.1380 | SALESUSA@PRISMLIGHTINGGROUP.COM

Facial / Massage / Wellness Spa

Food Tours

Graphics

The Attention You Deserve Displays Starting at $69.95

941-758-8444 866-239-8056

Visit us online for more of our products & services

AadvantageDisplays.com @ExhibitCityNews

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ADVERTISE IN THE SERVICE GUIDE •Added value with your ad in print and on our website.

•Engage a captive audience with 38,000 readers every month!

•Increase revenue and gain marketshare!

Print and Digital Distribution (Ads in print issues will run concurrently online.)

1 Issue: $500 per month 3 Issues: $400 per month 6 Issues: $300 per month 12 Issues: $200 per month Contact sales for details: 702-309-8023 or sales@exhibitcitynews.com ExhibitCityNews.com May/June 2020 61

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INDUSTRY SERVICE GUIDE

TWI Group TWI Group Inc. specializes in worldwide tradeshow shipping and exhibition logistics. The hallmark to our success is our dedication to personal attention and on-site support. Let us show you that we take “Delivering First-Class Service Every Time� seriously.

Over 44 years of exceptional service, over 300 million pounds shipped and with over 500+ years of service, We Deliver.

Logistics

Logistics

Champion Logistics Group has a transportation division specializing in the coordination of trade shows and special events. Champion provides the most reliable and flexible trade show transportation in the industry.

Chicago | Atlanta | Boston | Dallas | Las Vegas | Los Angeles | New Jersey

800.323.5401 | info@champlog.com | www.champlog.com

Photography

Printing

Attention Exhibit and Event Companies

exhibit and event experience photography

10% OFF

www.cjphotog.com

ECN10

Las Vegas, Nevada 218 - 209 - 1466 corey@cjphotog.com

PROMO CODE

Local Service for Trade Shows and Events In: Washington D.C. - Baltimore - Atlantic City Philly - NYC - Hartford - Boston All in same-day driving distance from us.

WHOLESALE Warehousing, Storage, Prep, Delivery Graphics, Supervision, & Rentals 800-367-2531

CDSpartner.com

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INDUSTRY SERVICE GUIDE

On Point Presenters (Product Specialists) OnPoint Presenters represents some of the best talent when it comes to TV Hosts, Presenters, Emcees, and Brand Ambassadors in Las Vegas. Our professional talent brings a unique experience for your clients when interacting at your live event or tradeshow booth. We’re a one-stop shop in sourcing tradeshow, corporate, convention, and live event talent & staff.

Meeting the needs of our clients is a priority for us. We make sure that their experience with our talent is of the highest caliber. For more info, visit www.onpointpresenters.com/

Printing

r Silve Color Printing • Rack cards • Brochures • Booklets • Everything else

Tradeshow Furnishings

• Delivery in Las Vegas, FedEx/UPS to all cities • Be a HERO use Horizon Print Solutions and make it EZ • Everything for your show or event from a top quality 25 year supplier!

Meeting & Event Supplies • Lanyards & Credentials • Binders, Tabs and inserts • Tote Bags & Inserts • Tickets & Programs

Promotional Products • Giveaways • Table Drapes & Signage • Branded Apparel • Gifts & Awards

FIXTURE & DISPLAY COVERS TRADE SHOW DISPLAY COVERS COMMERCIAL FURNITURE

EQUIP YOUR SPACE inc

BEST QUALITY. BEST RATES. CALL TODAY!

W W W. E Q U I P I N C . C O M

7 1 9. 5 9 9. 0 3 0 0

Tradeshow Lists

ADVERTISE IN THE SERVICE GUIDE •Added value with your ad in print and on our website.

•Engage a captive audience with 38,000 readers every month!

•Increase revenue and gain marketshare!

Print and Digital Distribution (Ads in print issues will run concurrently online.)

1 Issue: $500 per month 3 Issues: $400 per month 6 Issues: $300 per month 12 Issues: $200 per month Contact sales for details: 702-309-8023 or sales@exhibitcitynews.com @ExhibitCityNews

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your furniture partners | ask about our new “powered up� collection

chicago 847.671.5494 | las vegas 702.798.6433 | www.anglesondesign.com

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Advertiser Index 4 Productions

66

4Productions.com

23/68

Aluvision.com/us

64

AnglesOnDesign.com

2

beMatrix.us

Full Circle Events Highmark Tech

35

Brumark.com

Hill & Partners

23

27

CamdenTradeshow.com

Horizon Print Solution

35

27

ChampLog.com

Laborinc.

33

54

ClementineCS.com

Las Vegas Store Supply

Superior Logistics

52

TCF Center (formerly Cobo)

41

Total Show Technology (TST)

9

TotalShowTech.com

55

West Coast Exhibits

17

Employco.com

37

LaborInc.ca

Clementine Creative Services

4

TCFCenterDetroit.com

PrintEfficiency.com

ChampionLogistics

Sunset Transportation

ShipSuperior.com

HillPartners.com

Camden Tradeshow Furnishings

39

Sunset-LV.com

HighmarkTech.com

Brumark

Willwork

30

Willworkinc.com

23

LVStoreSupply.com

ColorReflections

67

ColorReflections.com

Momentum Management

3

MomentumMgt.com

Corporate Communications

51

Corpcom-Events.com

Nolan Advisory Services (NAS)

64

NolanAdvisory.com

Corporate Events

41

Corp-eventsid.com

Octanorm

5

Octanorm.com

CORT Events

17

Cort.com

Onsite Exhibitor Service

52

OnsiteExhibitorService.com

Crown & Anchor Pub

49

Facebook.com/CrownAndAnchorVegas

OA Visuals (Oscar & Associates)

43

HellOA.com & OAVisuals.media

7

DEMcNabb.com

Rosemont – RES

42

Rosemont.com/DESConvention

17

DesignToPrint.com EDPA.com

53

FCELV.com

beMatrix

EDPA

Exposures Ltd. Photography

SMT Expo SmtExpo.com

ExposuresLtd.com

Angles On Design

Design to Print

13

Employco.com

Aluvision

D.E. McNabb

Employco

Sho-Link Inc.

25

Sho-link.com

43

ShowNets, LLC

15

ShowNets.net

FOR ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES Contact sales: 702-309-8023 ext. 105, sales@exhibitcitynews.com @ExhibitCityNews

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