General Contractors Get Exhibitor-Specific

The launch of GES I&D Services at the Exhibitor Show last week might have surprised some, since general service contractors have always had I&D capability. But GES' repackaging of the service for exhibitors may be just the latest sign that GSCs are going after business they've lost to EACs over the last couple of decades.

Thirty-plus years ago, when the U.S. tradeshow industry was still developing, GSCs serviced everyone involved in a show. Although contracted by show managers, they saw exhibitors equally as their clients.

But as shows grew, GSCs focused more on the big picture and less on individual exhibitors. Hence the emergence of the EAC, which could provide personalized exhibit services such as I&D, utilities setup and booth décor. Like exhibit designers and builders, who had always been around as independent firms thanks to their roots in advertising and marketing, EACs developed close relationships with their clients and gained reputations for giving better customer service to individual exhibitors than general contractors.

Kevin Rabbitt, executive vice president of GES Exposition Services, said, "My sense of it is that EACs emerged to meet exhibitor needs, and that's how we ended up with so many of them."

During the tradeshow boom in the 1990s, auxiliary firms of all sorts began diversifying in efforts to gain more market share. I&D firms branched out into exhibit design. Exhibit design and build firms branched out into full-service marketing. And general contractors branched out into just about everything.

"Show business grew by leaps and bounds, and a lot of the exhibitors wanted more attention, especially from an I&D and construction standpoint," said Paul Willet, director of industry relations at Czarnowski Exhibit Services, a firm that expanded from I&D into exhibit design and build and other marketing services.

But as the tradeshow industry contracted and companies looked for new revenue sources, GSCs have turned their attention once again to exhibitor services. In 2001, longtime GSC Freeman Decorating reinvented itself as The Freeman Companies, to make clear to clients and customers that it had more than one component. They include Freeman Exhibit, AVW-TELAV Audio Visual, Freeman Transportation and Stage Rigging. At exhibitor-oriented gatherings, like the Exhibitor Show and the Trade Show Exhibitor Assn.'s TS2, Freeman has touted itself as "the one-stop resource for exhibit design and fabrication, I&D services, spectacular audiovisual effects, computer rentals, property and program management and transportation services."

Likewise, GES Exposition Services has also honed its exhibitor services. Rabbitt was recently named head of a division called Products and Services – a company-within-a-company whose mission is to focus on exhibitor needs in exhibit design and I&D, logistics and exhibitor furnishings. "There's a refocus, driven by what exhibitors are asking for," said Rabbitt.

Of course, to struggling exhibit design and build firms, this isn't good news. Derse Exhibits' Vice President of Creative Services Kent Jones said, "No, we don't need any additional competition. But the only non-exhibit design specialists I consider competition are Freeman and Czarnowski. They have done a good job on the creative side."

At the same time, having EAC-experienced talent out of work and on the market gives general contractors an edge. Said Willet: "It will help them when they hire salespeople who are in line with the builders and designers and I&D companies that have closed down."

EACs still believe they have advantages over GSCs. Jones said the design is what sells, and the good designers don't want to work for a general contractor. "Our competitive advantage is that our focus is to create a marketing tool that yields measurable results. The general contractor is interested in building a booth."

Then, there's the whole "general" thing. "They've got the rest of the show to take care of," said Willet. "We offer more face-to-face service, combined with a staff that doesn't have to be concerned with the entire show. We're focused only on our customers, the individual exhibitors."

No matter what though, GSCs can leverage their deep pockets and well-developed infrastructure to capture more of the exhibitor market. GES has an extensive database of customers that exhibit in the shows it serves, Rabbitt said, "so we have the ability to slice and dice that and understand how many shows they attend and how to put together a package that meets their needs at all their shows."

In addition, while stand-alone divisions promise the high-touch service of an EAC, using the general contractor promises the convenience of one-stop shopping – and billing.

Interestingly, the emergence of exhibitor-focused services by general contractors means that the generals themselves may become EACs at another service contractor's show. For example, GES could be the I&D provider or exhibit designer for a company exhibiting in a show for which Freeman is the GSC. "Over a third of the shows in the industry are ours," said Rabbitt. "But if a show is not a GES show, that won't prevent us from serving the exhibitors in it."

So to keep up, will other general contractors follow suit? Mike Cox, vice president of sales and marketing for George E. Fern, said his firm's philosophy wouldn't lend itself to aggressively pursuing business from individual exhibitors. "We have the capacity to do anything an exhibitor needs at a show. But the markets we're in and the clients we serve historically have viewed their display construction and setup as one area of expertise and the general contractorship as another. We invest in what the customer needs, as opposed to taking a public company approach, researching market demand and diving into those areas."