What’s your job?… What do you do?

What’s your job?… What do you do?

How many of us have to explain what we do for a livelihood when people ask?  If you ask someone what their job is and they answer they’re a teacher, an auto mechanic or in pharmaceutical sales, people know what that is.  But when you answer I’m a contractor for the convention industry….we are met with a puzzled look and more questions.  Most of the time my response begins with, “have you ever been to a Boat Show or Auto show or your industry’s convention”?

One would think that there would be a simple word to describe your job.  However, when you examine all the different names and labels that are used to outline what our Complete Show Services team does it’s easy to understand the confusion.  Trade Show decorator, General Service Contractor (GSC), Expo Services, Drayage Company….are you confused already?  There’s still more monikers……Expo company, Exhibit Services, General Contractor (GC) and let’s add in Trade Show Booth guys.  If we really want to muddy the waters, Las Vegas Expo is also an I&D company aka Exhibitor Appointed Contractor (EAC) and  a Custom Exhibit Builder and Display rental firm.

Let’s sift through it and examine what defines a Trade Show General Contractor.  The earliest firms in our industry where simply known as Decorators, a name derived from the union decorators that were some of the workforce in the industry’s inception.  Many Show decorators didn’t even do their own drayage, aka Materials Handling Services (MHS) the Drayage companies were actually freight carrier companies.  Is your head spinning yet?

To make this more fun, let’s unscramble some of the terms.  As the industry matured and Expo Decorating companies became their own Drayage firms, the term Exposition Service Contractor was starting to be used. To this day, it’s quite amazing that so many different names have all the same meaning.  Las Vegas Expo rents pipe and drape, carpet, chairs, booth furnishing accessories and 100’s of other items we inventory.  LVE supplies labor, material handling services, graphics, exhibits, temporary electrical services, warehousing storage and cleaning to encompass the entire scope of a show floor.

There are a lot of other terms and basically they all describe the same type of work.  You would think, Show Services would be self explanatory when someone asks you about your job.  Believe me …it doesn’t cut the mustard.  And so our jobs are perceived by so many as so mystical and it’s all because of the different names we call ourselves.  Is Las Vegas Expo a Trade Show Rental Furniture Company or a Trade Show Booths Company or a Trade Show Decorator?  YES to all of those.  Is Las Vegas Expo a Show Services firm, or a Convention drayage company or an Exhibit Services company or an Exposition Services company.  YES, YES and YES…we are all of those things and work in all of those areas along with our Custom & Rental Exhibit and I& D divisions.

Complete Show Services is who we are and what we do.  No matter what you need or want to call us, we can do that service.  Everything under the sun for corporate meetings, trade shows and conventions is available to exhibitors, associations and show managers in our Complete Show Services offerings.  So, whatever term you prefer, if you need something done or produced in the meetings & trade show industry, give us a call or send us an email.  Whatever you want to call us…we will perform flawlessly, on time, on budget and unlike the many terms we are known by…we won‘t confuse you!!

Mitch Isaacs, Sales & Marketing Manager, Las Vegas Expo, mitch@LVExpo.com