New GSC Details Exhibitor Rights

Mark Yuska, president of the new Arlington, Va.-based Alliance Exposition Services, is offering customers something a general service contractor rarely does: a bill of rights.

“I wanted to hit on every area,” Yuska said of the 10 rights, which include informative and courteous customer service, material handling services free of unreasonable surcharges, receiving empty storage materials on time at the end of a show, and qualified and reliable labor. The full list is on Alliance's Web site, www.alliance-exposition.com.

Yuska, a former employee of Freeman, GES Exposition Services and most recently Champion Exposition Services, said he was inspired by the U.S. airlines that have framed similar rights. To him, the most significant is No. 10: the right to a formal dispute resolution process overseen by a committee of one's peers.

“With my experience in the past … it's always been a bargaining thing,” Yuska said. “There was never really a process or formal recourse.”

Now, exhibitors who hire his company will have their complaints heard by a committee of exhibitors, which will then make the decision that he will consider final.

“They actually have somewhere to go,” Yuska said. “There won't be a dead end.”

Stephen Schuldenfrei, president of the Trade Show Exhibitors Assn., said Alliance's effort was the first of its kind he had seen.

“I think these are terrific,” he added. “I think everyone should abide by these.”

Schuldenfrei also mentioned No. 10 as a right he found remarkable.

“I think that is the most significant difference that I see,” he added. “I like this committee of your peers. … I was pleased to see that one on there.”

Yuska introduced the company with an e-mail blast March 24, and said he'd gotten responses from people he considered important in the industry.

“It's been an idea of mine for a while,” he added. “I felt that it was really a niche that could be filled.”

Alliance Exposition Services already has some clients, including Mid-Atlantic Venture Assn.'s CapitalConnection, Mid-Atlantic Bio Conference and the Natl. Assn. of Home Care & Hospice's events.

“I chose them because … the exhibit side of the conference is small,” said conference planner Nancy Mraz of Mid-Atlantic Bio. She also organizes the Mid-Atlantic Venture Assn. show.

Last year, Champion was the general service contractor for Mid-Atlantic Bio. Mraz said she was happy with the service the show received but, with 40 to 50 exhibits and about 850 attendees, she said Champion felt her event was too small for it.

“They're the ones who referred me to Mark,” she added. “Not only is he interested, but he's delivering fabulous service.”

The first show Alliance will work on with Mraz will be the Mid-Atlantic Venture Assn.'s May 27-28 event in Baltimore. She said the show will have 30 exhibits with about 650 attendees.

Mraz said she was unaware of the bill of rights and hadn't seen it.

Ron Everly, vice president for exhibits at NAHC, said he thought the bill of rights would make a difference to exhibitors at the association's four events, including the largest one, the Annual Meeting Oct. 12-15 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but it wasn't the main reason the association decided to use Alliance.

“We stick with Mark because he's very professional,” Everly said. “Our exhibitors like him, too.”

He added that the show has worked with Yuska during his previous employment with both Champion and GES.

“I'm really looking forward to what's going to happen in the next few months,” Yuska said. “I'm really looking to change tradeshows on the contractor side altogether.”

Other general service contractors said they have been operating on the same principles, even if they haven't codified them in a so-called bill of rights.

“The Expo Group was founded on the same principle that prompted the founding father of Alliance to make this commitment, service,” said Randy Pekowski, vice president and COO of The Expo Group. “We have always believed in the necessity of treating tradeshow exhibitors with the respect due a business partner, so it is encouraging to see another company in our industry taking steps to improve the plight of exhibitors.”

Pekowski also pointed out another right for exhibitors that he said The Expo Group's Single Source Solution has: “The right for an exhibitor to order all services from one source, rather than myriad fragmented subcontractors.”