A lot of exhibitors complain about having to use union labor to set up exhibits. I'm here to tell you, though, there have been times in my career as an exhibit manager when I'd give just about anything to have a few union laborers on hand to help.

During one of those instances, I was preparing to exhibit at a trade show in a hotel ballroom that did not use union labor for event setup, and in a city where my company's usual installation-and-dismantle firm did not have a presence. That meant my colleague and I would be responsible for wrangling a 10-by-10-foot booth setup on our own.

It doesn't sound that difficult, but this was a rather elaborate structure that consisted of a back wall with a hanging monitor and fabric graphics, a decorative header, and wings extending from the sides. So we asked our exhibit house to call in a favor from an exhibit manufacturer located in the show city, which then agreed to send a couple of workers to help us.

On the day of setup, we watched as the workers put together our exhibit, and soon realized that we had a problem. The back of the display was designed to be hidden by a booth behind us or pipe and drape, but this hotel show had neither. That left an unsightly view of cords and frame and the back side of graphics visible to all.

We stood there wondering how we were going to disguise the unattractive mess, ultimately deciding the best course of action was to create our own pipe-and-drape-like fabric veil to hide the booth's back side.

If anyone had fabric, I figured it would be the hotel's catering department, so I headed there first. In my quest, I encountered a bartender who gave us a tablecloth and a roll of double-sided tape. The helpful bartender went back to the exhibit with us and offered to stand on a step stool to put the tape across the top of the display's back side. He likely didn't realize that when you push on the back of an exhibit, it's probably going to fall forward – which it did.

In slow motion, I watched the exhibit come crashing down, hanging monitor and all. Luckily, my colleague and I were standing on the front side when it happened and managed to catch the monitor with a desperate lunge. The monitor was saved, but our graphics back wall was not so fortunate. From falling against the corner of our reception desk, it had a large indentation in the fabric, and our appearance had just gone from bad to worse. I thanked the bartender for his "help" and sent him on his way.

Then, I hoofed it several blocks to a big box store and purchased a fabric steamer and all the adhesive-backed hook-and-loop fastener I could find. With careful steaming, the graphics wall was returned to nearly perfect condition, and with oh-so-careful application of the hook-and-loop strips, our tablecloth became a drape that hid the innards of the display.

As I stood back and inspected my handiwork, I had a new appreciation for the old saying, "You get the help you pay for."

— Sharia Jameson, account manager, Infila Design, San Jose, CA