By Jim Wurm, EACA
One of the fundamental principles of the trade show industry has always been exhibitor choice. Exhibitors have the right to select the contractor they believe is best qualified to install, dismantle, supervise or service their exhibit. That freedom has created a competitive marketplace where contractors compete on service, experience, innovation and value.
Unfortunately, a growing trend threatens that principle.
Across the industry, some event organizers and general service contractors have implemented Exhibitor Appointed Contractor (EAC) fees that extend well beyond recovering the actual cost of registering and qualifying a contractor for show-floor access. While EACA recognizes there is a cost associated with collecting and reviewing insurance certificates, verifying required qualifications and ensuring compliance with show rules, we question the need to charge the same contractor multiple administrative fees during the same event.
EACA understands the cost of handling that administrative work. We have provided EAC registration services for show organizers for more than 25 years. Our actual costs are typically not much more than $5,000 for shows with more than 2,000 exhibitors.
A current example is the upcoming CEDIA Expo, where the Exhibitor Services Manual states that an EAC administrative fee ($500) is assessed for each exhibitor that an EAC services. In other words, an EAC serving ten exhibitors pays the fee ten separate times—even though that contractor submits one certificate of insurance, completes one registration process, and is vetted only once for the event. CEDIA says, in this case, they must pay $5,000 for access to service their exhibitor clients at CEDIA.
That raises an important question.
If the contractor has already been approved to work on the show floor, what additional administrative work justifies charging the same fee over and over again?
The reality is that these fees are rarely absorbed by the contractor. Most Exhibitor Appointed Contractors operate on very small profit margins and simply cannot absorb hundreds or thousands of dollars in repeated access fees. Those costs are ultimately passed on to the exhibitor.
In effect, what is labeled as an “EAC administrative fee” becomes a tax on exhibitors who choose to hire their own contractor.
The exhibitor, not the contractor, ultimately pays.
The consequences extend beyond the individual invoice.
Repeated per-booth fees increase the overall cost of exhibiting. They discourage exhibitors from exercising their right to choose the service provider that best meets their needs. They make it more difficult for independent contractors to compete, reducing competition in a marketplace that has long benefited from innovation and customer service.
Ironically, exhibitors who hire the official contractor do not encounter this additional financial burden, creating an uneven competitive environment that effectively penalizes independent choice.
EACA fully recognizes the responsibility of organizers to maintain a safe, secure and professionally managed show floor. Every contractor should be properly insured, qualified and accountable. Our members support those requirements and comply with them every day at venues throughout North America.
Since our founding, we have helped with the vetting and credentialing of EACs through our online EAC registration service. We recognize that vetting and credentialing the growing number of EACs can create a significant administrative task. As the association that represents the EAC community, we have the ability to create efficiencies in the registration process that other organizations cannot match.
What deserves discussion is whether repeated administrative fees accurately reflect the cost of administration — or whether they have evolved into a revenue source that shifts unnecessary costs onto exhibitors.
Once an EAC has been vetted, insured, credentialed and approved for a show, there is little justification for charging another full administrative fee each time that contractor services another booth.
Administrative costs should be tied to administration, not to the number of customers a contractor serves.
As an industry, we should be looking for ways to lower barriers to participation, encourage competition and reduce the cost of exhibiting, not create financial obstacles that ultimately make trade shows more expensive for the very companies we seek to attract.
This issue is bigger than any one show or any one contractor. It speaks to the industry’s commitment to fairness, transparency and exhibitor choice.
EACA invites organizers, general service contractors, exhibitors and industry partners to engage in a constructive dialogue about developing fair and consistent EAC registration practices that protect safety and operational excellence without imposing unnecessary financial burdens.
Because when an administrative fee is charged over and over again for the same approved contractor, it ceases to be merely administrative.
A Call to Action
The Exhibitor Appointed Contractors Association calls on show organizers, general service contractors and industry stakeholders to adopt a simple, fair and transparent standard if cost recovery for EAC registration efforts is necessary:
One Contractor. One Registration. One Administrative Fee Per Event.
If an EAC has met all registration requirements, provided proof of insurance, agreed to comply with show rules and been approved to work on the show floor, there is no reasonable administrative basis for charging that same contractor the same fee repeatedly simply because it is serving multiple exhibitors.
This is not really an EAC issue. It is an exhibitor issue.
Because exhibitor choice should never come with a penalty.
Editor’s note: Before publication, CEDIA Expo was contacted several times for comment on the EAC fee structure and the differing fee amounts listed in exhibitor materials. No response had been received by publication time.
EACA also identified EAC administrative fees in exhibitor-facing materials for multiple shows from 2023 through 2027. Listed fees ranged from $50 per job to $500 per job, with some shows using flat fees, per-job fees or other structures. Examples include CES, World of Concrete, KBIS, Natural Products Expo West, International Pizza Expo, HD Expo + Conference, Black Hat USA, SUPERZOO, CEDIA Expo, PACK Expo, Digestive Disease Week and Global Gaming Expo. The full list is available here.
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