Can I set up my own booth? It is the most common question in exhibiting, and the honest answer is that it depends which city you are standing in.
The same crate, the same two employees, and the same screwdriver produce three different outcomes in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Orlando. That is not a quirk. Labor jurisdiction at US trade shows is negotiated venue by venue, and the rules follow the building, not your company.
Here is the shape of it, and where the shape stops being reliable.
Why the answer changes at the city line
Convention centers operate under agreements with local trade unions that define which crafts perform which work inside the hall. Some cities are right-to-work states with looser arrangements. Others have long-standing agreements that reserve most installation work for union crews.
Show organizers layer their own rules on top. So the real answer is always a combination of the state, the venue, and the specific show, and the only document that states all three is the exhibitor services manual.
What is almost never yours to do
Before the city-by-city detail, there is a short list that holds nearly everywhere:
- Electrical work, including connecting your booth to the floor.
- Rigging and anything hung from the ceiling.
- Forklift and mechanical lift operation.
- Material handling, meaning moving freight on the show floor.
If a vendor tells you they will handle all four themselves anywhere in the country, they are either misinformed or planning to find out the hard way at your expense.
Chicago: the strictest room, and it has loosened
McCormick Place has historically had the tightest jurisdiction of any major US venue. It also has the most-reformed rules, because the city spent years addressing exhibitor complaints. An Exhibitor Bill of Rights and subsequent changes widened what exhibitor staff are permitted to do, including using their own tools and ladders.
Chicago is still the market where you should assume less latitude than you are used to, budget more labor hours, and read the manual line by line rather than skimming it.
Las Vegas and Orlando: more room, still rules
Both are markedly more flexible, and both are commonly cited as having lower material handling and labor rates than Chicago. Your own full-time employees can generally work on your booth, and an outside exhibit house can install it if it is registered as an Exhibitor Appointed Contractor.
The four items above still belong to the venue or the show contractor. Flexible does not mean unrestricted.
The hand-carry rule
Most venues let you carry your own material in without paying material handling, provided you can do it in one trip, by hand, without a dolly or a wheeled cart, and usually through a specific entrance rather than the loading dock.
This is genuinely useful for literature, giveaways, and a laptop. It is not a strategy for a booth. The moment a wheeled cart appears, you are in material handling, and the charge often carries a minimum that dwarfs what you were trying to save.
Your own employees, and the badge question
Where exhibitor staff are permitted to work, they generally have to be actual full-time employees of the exhibiting company, carrying company identification. Some venues have historically applied a minimum length of employment. Contractors you hired for the week are not employees, and treating them as such is the fastest way to get a booth shut down mid-build.
If you need extra hands, hire them properly through the show contractor or through your exhibit house as part of its EAC scope.
What this means at the design stage
Labor is not only a rules problem. It is a cost that your design sets months earlier. A booth that takes two crews a full day is a different invoice from one that takes four hours, and the difference was decided when someone chose how many parts the structure has and how they connect.
Ask your exhibit house for an install estimate in crew hours, not just dollars. Hours transfer between cities. Dollars do not.
Read the manual, then read it again
What is allowed in Las Vegas can be penalized in Chicago, and what was allowed at last year’s show in the same hall can have changed. Nothing on this page overrides the exhibitor services manual for your specific show, and neither does anything your vendor remembers from a different one.
Different city, same team on the floor.