Behind the Scenes: Show Workers Salute Vegas

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 5/16/2005

Too often — in the pages of Tradeshow Week and elsewhere — show managers, exhibitors, designers and managers of service contracting companies appear to be the only players in the tradeshow world. But the truth is there are thousands of others, in Las Vegas alone, who play equally important roles, albeit a bit further from the spotlight.

Union members and service contractor employees who ply the showfloors of Las Vegas say they appreciate the vast opportunities the industry has given them. Whether they've spent the last 20 or 40 years in the industry driving forklifts, laying carpet or assembling booths, the two workers featured here celebrate their city at every show.

Thomas Mills, 49, a warehouse manager for The Expo Group in Las Vegas, said the union workforce is a major reason for the industry's massive growth there. "Shows keep coming back, because we have a solid core of union labor capable of providing any service necessary to the tradeshow industry," he said.

Plus, the city's unique blend of practical elements and diverse distractions for business travelers is second to none, Mills added. "No other venue in the United States can provide the room space or entertainment of Las Vegas." He said he is captivated by "the constant change, the fast pace and the variety of people" in the local tradeshow industry.

In his current post for less than a year, Mills started out as an active Teamsters Local 631 member in 1990, working mostly in the area of I&D. He then worked for GES Exposition Services "in every capacity, from freight to decorating to show foreman." Mills went to work for The Expo Group five years ago, after a stint as general foreman for the now-defunct Universal Events.

His first show was the 1990 Intl. CES, still one of his favorites. Other shows Mills has enjoyed working on over the years are The WSA Show, NAB, the SEMA Show, PACK EXPO Las Vegas and COMDEX.

Eventually, Mills will celebrate his own family's first 100 years in Las Vegas with his 16-year-old son, a third-generation Nevadan.

Where did you first hear of the Las Vegas Convention Center? "I was at the dinner table," said 62-year-old Ken Albright, show site operations manager for GES. Albright said it was his father, George "Bud" Albright, who in the early 1950s first came up with the idea of a room tax to fund construction of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

That's just one reason why the decision in 1964 to make tradeshows a career was an easy one for Ken Albright, whose father was the convention center's first executive director and a former Clark County Commission chairman.

After traveling the world with the U.S. Navy, the younger Albright, a native Nevadan, spent the first 14 years of his tradeshow career as a Teamsters Local 631 member, including nine with Las Vegas Convention Services, bought in 1973 by Greyhound (which became GES). He eventually opened CSI Worldwide's Vegas office.

Albright's very first show might not have been all that memorable (a 1964 medical show in the back of the Flamingo Hotel), but hundreds of others followed over the next 41 years — most notably heavy equipment shows like CONEXPO-CON/AGG and MINExpo Intl. He's worked virtually "all the shows" in Las Vegas, watching them and their exhibitors become increasingly more sophisticated, he said.

The city's centennial provokes nostalgia for Albright, who said he will celebrate the anniversary simply by "reflecting."