Skyrocketing Costs: What Next?

The lengths that the big two show contractors will go to in order to increase costs to the exhibitors whom they service, is almost a joke. If anyone ever doubts this statement, read a blog article I wrote recently entitled: “Where the Cheap Shot Meets the Blind Side.” I could hardly believe it myself, and after reading it you might be tempted to ask yourself: “whose on first?” 

Well in the spirit of keeping your sanity in the face of an insane world, I’ve given some long hard thought to what the likely new sources of revenue might be for the few show service contractors that remain in our industry. After news last month of The Freeman Companies purchase of George Fern and Company, and Champion Exposition, we’re pretty much down to two contractors in the entire industry, so where’s the government (antitrust division) when you really need them? I guess I really didn’t even need to answer that one. 

So, where do they go to come up with “new cash” for their business? To answer that question, it sometime helps to see where they’ve gone before to find additional revenue for the bottom line.  Just this last week, I got caught in a G.E.S. scam which required that all “non GES Logistics” truck drivers, had to check into the marshaling yard 4 hours before the freight was scheduled to be taken off the show floor. Why was that restriction written into the show rules?  To penalize non GES Logistic companies which in effect increases their competitor’s costs and makes the GES Logistics rates even more favorable. 

Here are my top 3 picks for where the show contractors might gravitate to in order to incrementally increase your show invoice by gargantuan proportions: 

1) Increase the minimum weight per shipment for drayage on all trade show exhibits from 2 to 300 lbs. This would be the lowest hanging fruit so to speak! That would mean that for every pop up trade show exhibit that comes through the door, 200 of the 300 pounds would be pure profit rather than a measly 100 pounds multiplied by the dollar amount per hundred weight. 

2) My next bet would be that they would attempt to get the same deal with the electrical union everywhere else in the U.S. as they have in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas only the electricians can plug into an outlet, so it turns out to be a hour minimum for everyone, which, in most instances, becomes a pretty nifty way of out and out taxing exhibitors. Face it, just about everybody has something that turns on, so as they screw in the light bulb, they can screw you too! Way too easy. 

3) Now for the last one, I’m being pulled in the direction of freight because I’m sensing that the big two are experiencing some success in the “logistics” area, therefore it becomes an exercise in figuring out how they can best leverage their way into your pocket even more. They’re already offering a discount off your material handling bill if you ship your trade show exhibits both ways with them, so how do they get that back? My guess is that they set up a program of preferred handing of empties so for the same amount of dollars as they lost when they got your business, they’ll promise preferred return times for your empties at the end of the show. 

Link to the top of the Trade Show Displays Blog
Lowell Nickens, ShopForExhibits.com, Linked In Profile

 

 

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