If you are exhibiting at any events or trade shows, you might have heard of the terms of the General Contractor, Exclusive Contractor, Official Contractor…together with Show Organizer, Show Manager… The slew of trade show contractors on the trade show floor, the roles they play, the people who hire and pay them, and the ways in which they interact with each other guarantees confusion and overwhelm.
So what are they? What are the roles they play? Who hires and pays them? How do they interact with each other? We’ve put together an org chart of sorts to explain all of these.
Show Organizer
The show organizer can be a company, person or an association and it is at the top of this org chart. The show organizer makes the executive and financial decisions regarding an event or trade show: who is the target audience, what business can be the exhibitors, where and when will be the show held…
Depending on the show organizer’s strategy and business model, it may use internal staff to manage the various aspects of an event or outsource to the show manager.
Show Manager
The show organizer could decide to outsource the show management responsibilities to another company which is called a show manager who oversees the functions of the conference and/or exhibition. Depending on the size of the show-management staff, the show manager company might handle the show planning and execution functions internally or might outsource some of the show functions such as housing, registration/badging, general security, and even conference content and speakers.
General Services Contractor (GSC)
The General Services Contractor, also known as a General Contractor(GC) or official general contractor, is contracted by the show organizer or show manager to take the responsibility of physical setup and teardown of the trade show. The GSC’s duties include, but are not limited to, inspecting the trade show site; preparing the show-floor layout; getting approval from the venue’s fire marshal; generating the Exhibitor Services Manual (aka the Exhibitor Kit); managing freight and storage for move in and move out; hiring and managing the labor… Some of the event functions, such as material handling and rigging, provided by the GSC are considered exclusive, meaning only the GSC can perform them for exhibitors. But GSCs also have limitations on what they can do since the venue might hold its own contracts with vendors for some specialties that GSCs don’t provide.
Exclusive Contractor
Named in Exhibitor Kit, exclusive contractors are vendors that the exhibitor has no choice in choosing. For example, the GSC has the exclusive control of the material handling, the marshalling yard, and docks. Generally, the products and services for the physical infrastructure of the show facility, such as electrical, plumbing, compressed air and gas, telecommunications, wireless and wired Internet… are given to the exclusive contractors. In recent years, some venues have named exclusive contractors for services that have not typically been “exclusive,” such as audiovisual rentals, security, and floor cleaning. In doing so, the convention venue has generated a more lucrative profit-sharing revenue stream for themselves but not so good for exhibitors: restricted use of the vendors of its choice, more expensive costs to use the exclusive contractors.
Official Contractor
Don’t be confused with Official Show Service Contractor which means the Show General Service Contractor (GSC) as explained above. The official contractors are a group of suppliers designated by the show organizer or GSC as the preferred provider of a given service, also referring to as subcontractors or specialty subcontractors. The show organizer or show manager usually hires three specialty subcontractors at most shows: the registration company that manages exhibitor/attendee data and generates show badges, the lead-retrieval system provider that has to be able to read what is encoded on the badges, and the security company that monitors access to the exhibit hall. It may seem as though you must use these contractors, but this is Not the case. The official contractors normally have an onsite service desk for fulfilling orders during the show. They also receive the exhibitor contact list, which they use to market their services to exhibitors. In exchange for the official status and exhibitor list, these contractors often have rebate agreements to split their profits and/or offer discounted or complimentary services to the show organizer or general contractor.
Exhibitor-Appointed Contractors (EAC)
An exhibitor-appointed contractor (EAC) is any subcontractor selected and used by the exhibitor to work on the show floor other than the GSC or official contractors in the Exhibitor Kit. Exhibitors are allowed to choose the vendors they want to perform non-exclusive services or rent non-exclusive products at the show.
If you choose to use an EAC rather than the show’s official contractors, you must notify the show organizer, show manager, or GSC. The Exhibitor Kit should explain the show’s specific notification process and include forms for you and your EAC to fill out. The EAC must provide paperwork proving it has adequate insurance (generally both liability and workers’ compensation), as stipulated on the EAC form, naming the show organizer, show manager, general service contractor, and facility as additional insured parties on the policy.
By reading this far, you might wonder what would be Better Lounge’s role if you rent massage chairs from us for your exhibition. Well, bear in mind, all the show contractors in the show org chart are somehow having workers on the show floor. Better Lounge is one of your show material suppliers behind the scenes. We will have the massage chairs sent to the show advanced warehouse and your GSC will move the chairs in and out your exhibitor’s booth since the material handling is exclusive to the show GSC.
We normally have the local carrier pick up the chairs after the show. Again, your show GSC will take the chairs to the loading dock for our carrier. All of our chairs are No installation required and Easy to be moved around (while providing Attractive massages of course!) to save you a lot of material handling cost!
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