by Thea Engst
Jimmy Peebles’ career in tradeshows wasn’t his plan. “I got into it quite by accident, actually,” he told me. “I got out of high school in the mid-to-late 70s and went to Texas, Dallas Forth Worth area, ended up as a diesel mechanic. I joined the union in ‘82. I hit it off with the president [of the company I worked for] real well. He came to me one day and said, “when you graduate you’re gonna quit me aren’t ya?” And I said yes, and he said, “If I make you management will you stay with me?” And so he did.”
After eight years in management, Jimmy needed a change of pace and room to grow. “Convention centers in Texas would not expand, all the big shows we did were now going to Vegas because Vegas wouldn’t stop adding on to their convention centers. They kept building and building. Matter of fact, they’re still adding on!” So, Jimmy went to Vegas. And there he found his niche: where every day was a new challenge.
When I asked him why he loved working on tradeshows so much he said, “It’s organized chaos — it’s like a choreographed dance, we’re all working in the same direction but it’s absolute chaos. We’re like carnies. We build a city tradeshow out of a bare concrete warehouse, draw the lines from a blueprint, build a city — most of them go three days — and then we knock the city down and move to another city and build another city.”
Today, Jimmy is retired and working on building a farm. “I’m in the process of clearing and making pastures. I’ve got chickens, roosters, goats, dogs and cats of course, some guineas.” But the big project? Jimmy aims to acquire bison for his farm. “It’s gonna be a lot of work making the pastures,” he said. To which I replied, “after speaking to you, it seems like that’s what you like!” Jimmy laughed, “no, no that’s true. I love hard work.”
I asked Jimmy if there was anything he wanted readers to know after reading this piece, he told me it depended on the audience (this was a first for me). “If it’s an exhibitor reading this, just know that we’re not egotistical we’re there because we enjoy the work. When we say stuff it’s from a bunch of years of experience — a lot of times it comes off gruff — but we do show after show after show, day after day after day, and we can forget you don’t do this every day, but we’ve got a lot of good information to give you if you can get past our gruffness!”
“And if a teamster is reading this, remember that exhibitors don’t do this every day. Be kind, be gentle, and don’t quit because it’s well-worth the retirement at the end. Keep plugging along and be nice.”
Keep plugging along and be nice. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
