Contractors, trade associations squeeze convention exhibitors at McCormick Place

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

Denise Canavan surveys what was left of her exhibit booth on the vast show floor of the McCormick Place West Building. "You see this carpeting?" she says. "I only had it vacuumed once during the show, because it cost me $600."

Ms. Canavan, an exhibit manager at Chelmsford, Mass.-based Zoll Medical Corp., makers of defibrillators and other cardiac devices, was packing up after three days at the National Teaching Institute and Critical-Care Exposition in early May. Don't get her started on the cost of being an exhibitor. While she's had her issues with McCormick Place unions, the hefty fees charged by Freeman, the show's general contractor, and the trade association itself are what pushed her bill past $160,000.

That's The Chicago Way.