On a busy trade show floor, communication is key, so you have to speak the language. This guide will teach you the terms you'll need to communicate with the labor crews you may encounter at a venue. You might rely on your exhibit house partner to converse with labor crews, but you should still be familiar with the lingo so you can have effective conversations with your partner about costs. Much of this industry is not intuitive, so it's important to learn not only its pieces, but how they all fit together. Doing so will help you gain better control of your trade show budget and easily ask for what you need.

The Crews You Use
Here is a list and description of some of the crews you or your exhibit partner might interact with onsite. Some cities have distinct labor agreements, but generally, the following rules will apply to each type of labor crew:

▶ Carpenters. These people put together and take apart an exhibit, commonly referred to as installation and dismantle, or I&D for short. Permissions vary by city, so carpenters' tasks may vary. For example, in some cities, they can hang monitors in exhibits, but in other cities, that task falls to the electrical or decorators' union.

▶ Electricians. Electrical crews typically work for the general service contractor (GSC) or for a third-party company that is a convention center's exclusive provider. When speaking with the electrical crew, understand the difference between floor work, booth work, and ceiling work. Floor work is any electrical work laid under the flooring. Booth work involves an electrical hookup above the flooring. In the majority of convention centers, booth work also refers to anything that the exhibitor isn't allowed to plug in, such as ovens, factory equipment, or equipment that requires an outlet of 208 volts or more. Ceiling work refers to anything electrical and rigged.

▶ Plumbers. Like electrical crews, plumbers typically work with the GSC or a third-party company that is an exclusive provider for the convention center. Plumbing labor is defined by booth work, floor work, or connections.

▶ Riggers. Riggers are responsible for anything that hangs from the ceiling, including hanging signs, lights, and truss. Sometimes they are also responsible for taking items on and off skids.

▶ Decorators. Decorators mainly deal with signage, hanging signs, fabric graphics, hanging sintra, painting, and applied graphics. They often put up SEG graphics or Velcro graphics. In many cities, their responsibility is handling the parts of the booth that impact its appearance.

▶ Teamsters. Teamsters bring freight into the venue, and they also move freight in and out of the show hall. In some cities, they'll also assemble hanging signs and handle booth I&D.

▶ Stagehands. Typically, you'll find stagehands in concert venues. You'll occasionally run into them in a convention center, but it's pretty rare. If you're involved in planning a speaker program or concert that needs staging or theatrical work, you may interact with the stagehands.

▶ Pull and Prep Labor. I left this type of crew for last because technically, this is not an on-site labor crew; however, I think they're a critical piece of your trade show program. Your exhibit house partner might suggest that you do a pull and prep of your exhibit, which means that they'll go through your assets in advance of the show before assembling your booth according to your installation diagrams. This ensures the installation diagrams are accurate and that everything that needs to be at a show is packed properly for shipment.

How Trades Get Paid
One of the major things you'll need to understand when dealing with labor crews is payment. Trade show labor crews invoice by the hour, and you'll hear those crews toss around some of the following terms when discussing their invoicing process:

▶ Straight time. Straight-time labor is worked during the venue's standard hours, which are typically 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Most union workers are eligible for one 15-minute break during a four-hour window or two 15-minute breaks and a lunch during an eight-hour window. The breaks may be 30 minutes, and some unions receive a 45-minute lunch.

▶ Overtime. Overtime kicks in after 4:30 p.m and costs exhibitors time and a half. If the straight-time hourly rate is $140, then the overtime rate would be $210 per hour ($140 x 1.5 = $210). Overtime rates also apply on Saturdays and Sundays.

▶ Double time. Double-time only applies in some cities and to some people. More experienced labor team members may be eligible for double time, which means on certain days, like Sundays or holidays, they get double their hourly rate.

▶ Four-hour mini. Many trade show labor partners book labor on a four-hour minimum, or a four-hour mini, which means that you'll pay for four hours of labor whether you use one, two, three, or all four of those hours. The same applies for the dismantle of the show. An exhibitor can order labor from the convention center and not have to pay for the whole minimum, but that labor crew might not be as familiar with exhibit components as a trade show labor partner.

Learning the Lingo
In addition to who they are and how they get paid, there's a lot of other lingo that you'll want under your belt in case it comes up while you are on site or in conversations with your exhibit house partner. Here are some of those terms:

▶ The union. The union is the organization employees participate in as a bargaining unit that helps them reap the benefits of negotiation through a group. Unions negotiate pricing, pay, and benefits for union members, including healthcare programs and vacation allocation. Most convention center city I&D labor crews are part of a union. Some of them work full time for an I&D company or for the venue's general contractor, but they all must be registered with the union.

▶ Exhibitor appointed contractor. The exhibitor appointed contractor (EAC) is any contractor you hire yourself that is not exclusive to or preferred by the show. If you bring in an external crew to put together your exhibit, whether it be I&D or audiovisual or anything else, you will need to let the show know that you are working with an EAC. If show management asks you whether you submitted EAC paperwork, check with your labor team or your exhibit house partner, who is typically responsible for this paperwork. Have these conversations ahead of the show so you're reassured that your partner is on top of everything.

▶ Steward. The union steward is a representative elected by their union members. Their job is to walk around the show and make sure that everyone is complying with the rules, which includes making sure exhibitors aren't assembling their own booth. I once had an exhibitor try to install their booth at a show in Anaheim, and the union steward approached while they were using an electric tool exhibitors were not allowed to use. The union steward was correct in telling the exhibitor not to use the tool and to instead work with somebody from the union. Avoid rule breaking by understanding which crew should be doing what and what your exhibitor team is permitted to do.

▶ Labor call. The labor call refers to how many people will be working on your exhibit and what time they will be at the venue to start work. Often the exhibit house and labor partner negotiate this, but it is an exhibitor's right to speak with either party to understand the I&D schedule. For example, let's say you want your booth assembled by noon on Saturday before the show opens on Sunday. You can let your labor crew partner or exhibit house know that you need everything show-ready so that your team has time to come in and put their pieces into the space. I typically refer to this as the moment when I give my customer the keys to the castle. I set a specific timeline so that we both know what time they can come in and start adding the finishing touches to their space.

▶ Installation diagrams. Installation diagrams are what the carpenters need to put a booth together. Some are simple step-by-step diagrams, similar to what you would see with IKEA furniture. Others are fully drawn CAD designs. But the key thing to keep in mind is that the labor crew must have these diagrams on hand to assemble your booth effectively and efficiently. Ideally the crew should have them before they arrive at the show, but make sure you keep copies of them with you in case the crew misplaces them. The same applies to electrical diagrams, which depict the location of each electrical drop on the trade show floor in your booth space. The electricians will ask you for an electrical diagram if they don't already have a copy before they arrive on site.

Learning the lingo is like learning any new language and becoming well versed in it will make your on-site experience easier. You'll be able to communicate well with people on the show floor and be a more educated partner to your exhibit house, which is good for everyone. And remember that the more time you spend working with labor crews, the more familiar this language will become. E