Event Management & Logistics

Managing Booths for a Huge Vegas Tradeshow

For several years, I managed the budgets and schedules for 2 large booths over a weeklong tradeshow in Vegas with interactive displays, locking closets, lounge areas, and photography showcases. Each year I would plead with the build vendor to have the booths assembled before our arrival so we would have time to decorate. They usually came through, but the lesson is there are many vendors with many projects – and we were all managing myriad moving parts, some better than others.

Like any good project management approach, we used checklists, Slack, and Basecamp to keep the branding, logistics, and communication updates flowing. It worked - things went smoothly, and thousands of customers visited, interacted, connected. One lesson learned is to lock your product away at night, since thieves roam the venues.

Our biggest disadvantage was not enough transportation budget to support our large field crew, so we did a lot of walking while schlepping gear. We were also starved for good coffee, which took about 2 hours to order and receive...i.e., not efficient. Plan for your own, your people will thank you.