Expo Etiquette for International Exhibitors

How to help international exhibitors feel more at home

By Rayna Skolnik

"In the late 1980s, we had a few foreign exhibitors, but we didn't have a good handle on how to service them," says Dennis Slater, Executive Vice President of the Milwaukee-based Construction Industry Manufacturers Association (CIMA). Last March, at the CIMA-cosponsored CONEXPO-CON/AGG show, 50 international companies in four pavilions occupied 45,000 sq. ft. "A lot of the growth of the show has been fueled by foreign participation," says Slater. Clearly, show management has learned how to service the international contingent.

Exhibitors from other countries encounter unfamiliar policies and procedures in five key areas: customs clearance, drayage, labor regulations, booth design and contact with attendees. Show managers who want to increase international participation work in partnership with freight forwarders, service contractors and pavilion organizers to alert exhibitors and help them cope. Some show managers even adjust their own rules and procedures to accommodate international exhibitors.

Customs clearance
Customs procedures and paperwork intimidate many exhibitors. Language differences exacerbate the problems. And this is not where you want your exhibitors to make a mistake: their displays could arrive late, or not at all.

Experienced international exhibit freight forwarders, who also act as customs brokers, can ensure that everything is in order and on time. The U.S.-based official freight forwarder partners with forwarders in the countries from which exhibitors are coming. Those in-country partners know the rules, and they speak the local language.

"We always contract with an international freight forwarder," says Tom Davis, CEM, Director of Convention & Expositions for the American Welding Society Inc. (AWS) in Miami. "That's a big plus for foreign exhibitors because the reps in their countries can help them." In addition, says Davis, "We always apply for a trade fair bond, which lets them bring in their materials without paying duty."

A trade fair bond is generally useful for a show with many international participants who have high-value merchandise, says Philip E. Hobson III, International Fairs/Exhibitions Manager for Phoenix International Business Logistics Inc. in Port Elizabeth, NJ. The alternative, a temporary import bond, is acceptable for low-value merchandise. "But regulations are not uniform nationwide," Hobson cautions. "Some U.S. cities will not permit an exhibitor to bring in a booth on a temporary import bond. The international freight forwarder should be able to help the show manager decide whether or not to apply for a trade fair bond."

Dreaded drayage
Drayage confuses and angers international exhibitors. In many other countries, the freight forwarder handles shipping, clears customs -- which is often on site -- and delivers materials to the booth space. Because it's all handled by one supplier, it's part of the same bill. Exhibitors come to the United States, and suddenly there's another contractor involved -- and an unexpected, sizable bill.

"We count on our freight forwarder to interact with the general contractor and help us out with this," says Brian Duckett, Director, Conference and Exhibit Services, for ISA-The International Society for Measurement and Control in Research Triangle Park, NC. "Sometimes they can consolidate the bill."

Jackie Russo, Duckett's freight forwarder, explains how that's done. To make life easier for exhibitors and thus remain competitive, "we offer a door-to-booth price," says Russo, who is Assistant Vice President and Manager of Pan Fairs USA for international freight forwarder Panalpina Inc., Bensenville, IL. "The contractor agrees to let us pay the drayage charge." Later, Panalpina bills the exhibitor's company, which pays -- most of the time -- in its local currency.

A similar approach is taken by David Lester, President of Stuart, FL-based International Fine Art Expositions. "We came to an agreement with our contractor, and now we include drayage as part of our fees," he says. "Exhibitors don't have to negotiate with the contractor."

In both instances, exhibitors still pay for drayage. But the fee is bundled, not a line item; and exhibitors don't have to deal with the complexities of drayage at the show.

Labor regulations
"Labor rules in the United States are very different from those in Europe or Asia," says Lester, who produces trade and consumer art shows in Miami and Hong Kong. "In Asia, there are no unions and no jurisdictional issues. An electrician can do what a teamster can do, and vice versa." In Europe, there often are unions. But they are likely to be much more flexible than many in the United States.

Exhibitors from countries with no unions, or unions with flexible regulations, are astonished to learn that what they consider standard procedure is prohibited.

Perhaps the most effective way to ensure that international exhibitors understand what is permissible is to group them in country pavilions managed by official organizers. Pavilion organizers know the languages, show regulations and customs of both the United States and the exhibitor's home country; and they can help exhibitors make the transition.

"Show managers, in a sense, subcontract to us," explains Christian Winslow, President of Dusseldorf Trade Shows Inc. (DTS) in Chicago. DTS is the official organizer of German pavilions at six U.S. trade shows in 1996 and 1997. Because DTS handles the complete physical set-up of the pavilion, "exhibitors don't even have to know about the show regulations," he says. "We don't let that become an issue. It would scare them off."

Similar comments come from Marna Christensen, Vice Consul, Trade Section, at the Danish Consulate in Chicago. "When we tell exhibitors that they can't even plug in an electric cord, it's a shock to them," she says. "So we take care of it -- we set up the booth -- because we don't want to deter them. Sometimes it's hard to get companies over the ocean, but we know there's a big potential market for them here."

If international exhibitors are not in a pavilion, or if show managers oversee a pavilion themselves, it can be a different story. "Europeans and Asians have trained crews and expect to build their own stands," says CIMA's Slater. "You must warn them." He has his general contractor contact international exhibitors as soon as they sign up to explain what they can and cannot do. "Then the exhibitors call us frantically, and we all call back and forth."

Eventually, exhibitors understand -- maybe. To be sure, says Slater, "we send them a list of rules that are commonly misunderstood. And we keep sending faxes to remind people of the way things are done here."

Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute created its own pavilion for Canadian exhibitors at Pack Expo. "When a government agency or association organizes the pavilion, they tell exhibitors who's responsible for what," says Bonnie Kilduff, CEM, Director of Expositions. "We have a pavilion supervisor from The Freeman Companies, our general contractor, who's in charge of calling all the exhibitors to be sure that Freeman has told them everything they need to know." As a triple check, floor managers are specially assigned to international areas to be sure everything is running smoothly.

Booth design
Booths at U.S. shows don't look anything like the stands at shows in most other countries. Elsewhere, even the simplest booth is a hardwall structure with its own floor -- a raised platform under which utility lines run. Pipe and drape is almost nonexistent.

"To make it easier for our international exhibitors, we started offering hardwall displays at cost," says Davis at AWS. "The package includes a header, and a table and chairs. The regular order form for the booth is worrisome for them," he says. "They aren't sure what they need." Davis offered the package for the first time last year; it was so well received that he plans to continue it. Although this package was created for the benefit of international companies, it's offered to everyone; and U.S. exhibitors also are enthusiastic.

Duckett points to another important difference in booth design: "The stands overseas are literally a cube. They have eight-foot panels on three sides, and exhibitors can use the entire cubic content. But most U.S. shows have a line-of-sight rule requiring exhibits to push back a bit so attendees can walk the aisle and see into all the exhibits." ISA explains this in the exhibitor manual, of course. "But we also make sure our show contractor is well versed."

Attendee contacts
"Some Italians say that the show rules here are too strict," says Carmine Lacava, Trade Analyst with the Italian Trade Commission (ITC) in Chicago. In exhibit booths in Italy, Lacava explains, "They often have a table with food -- sandwiches, prosciutto. Here, it's forbidden. All they can have is small cookies or sweets."

To the Europeans, this is an important difference. Hospitality is a major part of their approach to the trade show sell. They spend a long time in the booth building relationships with prospects, and they want to treat those prospects well.

"In the United States, we 'process' people," says Duckett. "Elsewhere, they build relationships. At Interkama in Dusseldorf, the 'mother' of all shows like ours, it's not uncommon to hold a one-hour discussion with a prospect." In focus groups that ISA held, both users and vendors urged show management to make their event more like Interkama. Consequently, says Duckett, "We're now changing the format of our show somewhat, trying to encourage hospitality and foster relationship-building." As ISA leans more toward European-style exhibiting, "We're wrestling with whether to allow alcohol at the show."

Slater faced that same dilemma. Exhibitors feel that if a customer is going to spend $3 million, he says, they should be able to serve a drink to close the deal. So, two years ago, CIMA changed its rules and now allows alcoholic beverages, although they can't be out where all visitors can access them. "If you want to be an international show, you'd better act like one," says Slater. "You can never call your show international until you allow what's done everywhere else but here."

ITC's Lacava, meanwhile, does try to show Italian companies that the U.S. style also presents opportunities. "Here, people aren't just socializing and reaffirming relationships," he says. "Buyers shop around more. As soon as you offer them something better, they'll drop their old supplier." Although many Italian companies prefer to exhibit in Germany and France, says Lacava, "We tell them that the American market is not that far away."

Smart U.S. show managers are doing everything they can to bring it even closer.

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