BTN News On the Job Tradeshow and Sign Craft Local 831 – E3 Expo, LA Convention Center
| Tradeshow and Sign Craft Local 831 – E3 Expo, LA Convention Center |
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Local 831’s tradeshow workers are experienced builders and fabricators. Some are highly skilled riggers hanging elaborate lighting systems in the exhibit halls, others are skilled at generating custom computer graphics and banners for exhibitors. And like other craftsmen and women in the building and construction trades, they are problem solvers. “I like solving problems,” said 11-year, 831-member Matt Cornell. “When the client gets stressed because something is not going as they had planned – that’s where I like to shine.” Cornell said the exhibits designed and built in a shop encounter unforeseen problems on the showroom floor. It is then up the skill and experience of the Local 831 members to make it work. “I like to get in there, calm them down and find a solution to the problem and then you move on to the next one,” he said. Building Trades News toured the Los Angeles Convention Center as Local 831 members working for several of their signatory contracts were erecting exhibits for the E3 Expo, the world’s premiere tradeshow for computer and video games and related products.
This year some of that spectacle returns, as the show expects 200 exhibitors and 40,000 people to pack into the Los Angeles Convention Center. Local 831 will have approximately 1,200 members working to set up the tradeshow over five days according to Dave Henderson, Business Representative for Local 831. Several of the large exhibits will have crews working around the clock in several shifts in order to get the booths up and running by the time the show opens of June 2. “Many of the exhibits had to be scaled down from recent years because of a shorter move-in time,” Henderson said. “The largest booth size allowed this year will be 15,000 square feet. In recent years, some booths have been as large as a football field.” GES foreman Bob Wilson said that Southern California is a great location for E3 because of the region’s skilled tradeshow workers. “This is a great town to work in, I’ve worked all across the country and this is by far the best place,” said Wilson who has been an 831 member for 11 years. “When it comes to talent and skill, pound for pound, we’re the best in the nation. When I show up here, I know you’re going to have a quality crew to help me. The customers also love coming here. When customers come up to me and say ‘I love coming to Southern California, we like what you guys do for us here,’ it makes my job a lot easier,” said Wilson. Photos by Slobodan Dimitrov
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Week after week, the skilled tradeshow workers from Local 831 transform
the barren halls of Southern California’s convention centers into a
hi-tech city of flashing lights, elaborate structures, and sometimes
even waterfalls for the region’s vast tradeshow industry. Then, days
later, they return to tear down the exhibits and prepare for the next
show.
E3 is making its return to the Los Angeles Convention Center after scaling down and holding it at smaller venues the past several years. Over its 14-year history, E3 has seen the introduction of every console from the Nintendo 64 to the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, along with countless video games. The show hit a record attendance of 70,000 in 2005, but two years later it was downgraded to a shadow of itself, limited attendance to about 5,000 and nearly killed the spectacle of the annual event.
Bob Masse
Steve Miller
Skip Kalal
Matt Cornell
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