We explained to the visitors that every exhibitor paid for his or her floor space. There is a pecking order for exhibitors. Those who spend the most and those who have been exhibiting the longest get first choice at selecting their floor space. There were over 300 booths in the convention center. This year PREC's pick number was 121 for selecting a booth at next year's conference in Chicago.
Convention centers have traffic patterns just like cities.
Most exhibitors want to be near the entrances or near popular booths giving away a lot of free gifts or delicious things to eat. For example, PREC was next to the National Pawnbrokers Association who gave out large trays of big chocolate chip cookies. Across the aisle was the National Pork Producers Council giving out many gadgets featuring happy pigs. We pointed out the high rent area near the entrances and told them they just walked into the slums. PREC's booth had one chair, one table and no carpeting.