Evil of Exclusivity Is Relative

An apparent contradiction has me stumped, so I'm going to try to work it out here. It has to do with exclusives, so I'm hoping all those readers who like to write us letters on this topic will pitch in and help me figure out what's going on.

In last week's issue, my editor-in-chief, Michael Hart, wrote a story covering three major tradeshow industry associations' objections to exclusive contracts (see “Groups Restate Stand Against Exclusives,” Jan. 14). Judging from the timing of the joint statement the associations made and developments in a case involving exclusive contracts at the San Diego Convention Center, one had to do with the other.

I won't bother reiterating what's already in the article. A summary suffices: Exclusives are bad! That's according to the Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events, the Society of Independent Show Organizers and the Major American Trade Show Organizers. The Exhibition Services & Contractors Assn. joined the protest with its own statement Jan. 14.

But, wait ... if you go back one more week, you'll find at least one person associated with these organizations saying, “Exclusives are good!”

That person is Doug Ducate, president of the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (an institution intricately associated with IAEE). Ducate wrote a letter to the editor (see “But the Plaintiff Still Didn't Win,” Jan. 7) objecting to a statement made by Scott Bennett, president of Nth Degree, in an article about an exclusive labor arrangement at the New England Intl. Auto Show (see “Exclusive on Labor Ruffles Feathers,” Dec. 10).

According to Ducate, Bennett erroneously stated that a case in which exhibitor-appointed contractors sued to be able to do business on a show Ducate managed a couple of decades ago was decided in favor of the contractors. In fact, Ducate corrected, the court ruled that the show organizers had the right to make and enforce their own rules as they saw fit. In the case Ducate cited, the ruling was that Freeman was the exclusive provider of services that companies like Nth Degree wanted to provide at the show.

So, in other words, facility management is wrong if it tries to keep out the competition, but show management is in the right if it does the same thing.

Am I reading this right?