While most GSCs have a lot invested in equipment, such as forklifts, they still have to rent equipment to cover peak times and concurrent shows. You rent the forklifts by the week and have to gear up for the peak day. Labor Labor can account for as much as 35 percent of a GSC's operating budget for a show. From city to city and show to show, a multitude of factors can affect those costs, including union jurisdictions and overtime rates. It's a challenge to gauge the labor needed for a show.
Some cities require minimum work calls of four or eight hours.
With an 8 a.m. call for 100 carpenters, for example, some may be used as little as two hours. Yet calling for fewer laborers would leave exhibitors waiting. Everybody, including the laborers, would like to get the labor practices and standards and pricing structures more in line with contemporary use in the trade show industry. The Expo Group's Pekowski is among those lobbying for change. I'm lobbying to get the work divided into skilled and unskilled.