Booth Building Italian-style

Once a client in the United States decides to take an exhibit or event overseas, it's up to general service contractors to get creative and figure out how to make it happen.

No two countries do things exactly the same. In Italy, for example, similar to other locales in Europe, there's no such thing as pipe and drape. Italians also are known for their laid-back nature, so GSCs have to deal with maybe not getting a phone call returned right away or the fact that overtime isn't common in the course of a workday there.

Gino Pellegrini, president of Englewood, Colo.-based InterGlobal Exhibitions, has had a leg up when some of his corporate clients decided they wanted to exhibit in shows in Italy – he's half-Italian. Even so, he still had to negotiate a different way of doing things in order to make sure his client's exhibit looked the way they wanted it to.

“In Europe, our main shop is in Belgium, and if we have a complex booth to do in Italy, we build it and ship it from there,” Pellegrini said. “If it's a less expensive booth, we would build it in Italy.”

Either way, he added, it cuts down on shipping costs, but the trick was, especially inside Italy, finding the right place to build the booth.

Pellegrini said he's had five or six of his corporate clients, including pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough, choose to exhibit in a show in Italy, and luckily, he's worked with builders there who are able to replicate the designs his company draws up.

“For quality control, we even ship some of the supplies,” he added. “(The Italians) build the booth. I always go for the set-up, and they break it down after the show.”

A bonus for the client is, beyond saving on shipping costs, it doesn't cost them more to have the booth constructed inside Italy or in Pellegrini's shop in Belgium.

Pellegrini said he would do more shows in Italy, but “the market is local, ... and they are not as big in international exhibitions.” He added, “It's more poor, there's not a lot of money like in Germany.”

Mike Dobrick, production manager for Las Vegas-based CB Displays Intl., said his company's clients want exhibits set up all over Europe, but Italy hasn't been on a lot of people's radar.

Still, his company's been in charge of getting some exhibits set up in a few shows there, and, like Pellegrini, CB Displays has a system worked out that allows them to have an exhibit built in Italy exactly to its client's specifications.

CB Displays is part of the Octanorm Service Partners Network (OSPI), which involves a metal-stand system used for building exhibits. The system was developed in Germany and is available all over Europe.

“We can do a total design (in the U.S.) and then redesign it in Italy exactly like here,” Dobrick said. “It's done on a rental basis, and the client is able to save a lot cost-wise.”

There are 172 members in 80 countries in the OSPI Network, he added. CB Displays has worked with its OSPI partners in European countries such as Belarus, the Czech Republic and Germany. “Basically, Italy is like Germany in the way they bring exhibits in,” Dobrick said. “There's no drayage there.”

As is the same in other countries, he added, there are cultural differences with the way work is done in Italy. “They're not used to double-time or breaks,” Dobrick said.

Roseanne Palello, assistant director of sales at Freeman's Chicago office, said she experienced quite a few cultural nuances when her client, Assn. Headquarters, contracted with Freeman to help it take the Intl. Liver Transplant Society's meeting and 22 exhibits to Milan in 2006.

“There are a lot of holidays there, as there are all over Europe,” Palello said. Also, she added, sometimes when a call was made to someone in Italy, a return call didn't come the next day, two days or even a week later. “You have to be very patient,” Palello said. “It's very time-consuming.”

Her task for the ILTS meeting was to find an exhibit builder in Italy that would construct and decorate things to the individual exhibitor's standards.

“We contacted a few contractors in Italy that do this on a regular basis,” Palello said. “We decided which we would use based on suggestions and contacts in Italy.”

The contractor that was chosen, she added, had the right equipment, good pricing and a prior relationship with the venue where the event was held.

All in all, Palello said, “Just like any show, every one has its glitches behind-the-scenes, but to the attendees and client, everything went off very well.”