Trade shows to Chicago 's McPier: Change, or we'll walk

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

Trade show customers at McCormick Place called on Illinois legislators to make quick and substantial changes to lower costs and improve work rules at the South Side convention hall. If not, they say, they will be forced to leave.

“We are in a crisis mode, with a very tight window,” Mia Rampersad, a vice-president at the Rosemont-based International Housewares Assn., told the 16-member legislative panel that met Thursday at the Thompson Center seeking to overhaul operations at McCormick Place.

Ms. Rampersad said her board, which meets at the end of May, is considering other venues. The association's contract with McCormick Place ends in March 2011, at the end of its next scheduled show.

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