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Words by Richard Beytagh (www.morewoodbikes.com)
The Biking industry is typically not governed by Unions so it is always a shock when we vendors, mostly self employed entrepreneurs, come face to face with the unions in action. I don't think there was a single exhibitor that wasn't incredibly frustrated or ready to hit one of the GES officials (Interbike Show Organizers) by the end of the show...Soviet style bureaucracy is supposed to be a thing of the past. What ticked me off mostly is the simple act of carrying a chair and table to our booth was not allowed and required a 45 minute wait in a queue to fill in paperwork and then a further 20 minutes wait for a loader to take our items to the booth. Cost $32 for something that should have cost nothing and could have been done in five minutes.
It’s okay if you have a huge budget and have GES manage all your booth logistics, but many of the smaller exhibitors (like us) are on tight budgets and can’t afford the inflated prices GES charge to do it. Most of us arrive with a truck and a trailer and can hand carry all the items we need for our booths in a few loads. GES (or the Union) does not allow this! There are absolutely no facilities to allow you stop for a few minutes unload and carry-in without a militant GES official obstructing this process. It then becomes a stealth operation, circling the block, stopping the traffic, unloading one item at a time and smuggling them into your booth. What a way to run an Expo! Once you have managed to unload, the official Sands Expo Center trailer park is next door, but there is no easy walkway back to the Sands. It’s a 20 minute walk back to the Expo Center and in the Vegas heat, typically heavily loaded, it soon wears you out. When the expo is over it’s the same in reverse except now we don’t have to be nice to the GES folks!
Anywhere else they call it gouging...GES charges outrageous prices for absolutely everything. $120 for a 500watt electric point, $32 to carry in a 30lbs load, $32 to get the electricity reconnected when we tried to use a vacuum to clean our booth, $40 for 3 sandwiches, $265 to rent a carpet for 3 days....the list goes on. If I had a choice I would never exhibit at Interbike again! Vegas sucks as a venue; it’s expensive and once you’ve been there a few times the glitter quickly wears off.
I know this subject has been muted before, but let’s get Interbike out of Vegas to somewhere where we are not just another “oh hum” expo. Where the organizers are actually friendly and want to help.