Pictured above, L-R: Invisible Industry tour partner Brewco’s Corbin Jewell, Jeanne Brei, Philadelphia mayoral candidate and council member Derek Green, Ridiculous Nicholas Polini, Darcey Barraclough, Laura Palker and Terri Thomas, photo credit Nadia Fairbairn, @ms.irrelephant)
by Jeanne Brei
It was a rewarding experience being a part of the National Trade Show Alliance’s third stop on their Invisible Industry tour. In addition to tour partner Captello’s innovative trivia game that helps tour visitors learn more about the live events industry and the tour sponsors through challenging their knowledge, in Philadelphia we also had a mime, Ridiculous Nicholas Polini, who drew lots of attention to tour partner Triune’s 49-foot Quad-X Mobile Trailer, and an artist, Darcey Barraclough, who drew crowds to see our “Find Your Passion” message by creating an oil painting in just six hours each day on s
ite—really emphasizing the extraordinary value that live entertainers bring to live events.
In addition to live entertainers, industry veteran Terri Thomas set up three live events table and chairs outside the trailer—two professionally set with tablecloths, flowers and seat covers while she left one quite plain—to show the kind of difference that professionals bring to live events.
Inside the mobile trailer were Exhibit City News magazines, educational one-sheets with statistics (to help people ace the trivia game) and four wall-mounted monitors with videos running simultaneously that included a time-lapse video of a complete I&D set up for the World of Concrete tradeshow—which was of great interest to the passersby who had no idea what it takes to put on a tradeshow—as well as The Invisible Industry, a 1992 PBS documentary on the meetings and event industry hosted by Charles Osgood. Another video featured interviews with the NTSA’s board of directors on how important the tradeshow and live meetings industries are to them while still another video was from Elliott Ferguson (pictured left), president and CEO of Destination DC, talking of the economic importance of the industry to his city and endorsing the Invisible Industry Tour after the tour’s visit to Washington, D.C. for Global Exhibitions Day on June 1.
The trailer itself is wrapped in graphics filled with eye-opening statistics that are seen by travelers—drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians—as it travels hundreds of miles from tour stop to tour stop. All of this is designed to raise the awareness of the economic importance of tradeshows, live meetings and conferences to each city.
But NTSA founder and president Laura Palker is doing more than just raising industry awareness on this tour—she’s actively finding ways to build up the industry’s workforce, as the labor supply issues have continued since lockdowns have ended. To that end, the Philadelphia tour stop had many important movers and shakers who are partnering with us in workforce development visit the mobile exhibit.
Philadelphia mayoral candidate and councilmember Derek Green, Esq. (pictured right with Laura Palker and above with the mobile exhibit crew in Philly), stopped by the mobile exhibit both days and spent an hour alongside DMO’s Barbara Moore and Nils Robbins inviting the Democratic Municipal Officials (an organization that represents 40,000 democratic council members and elected representatives across the U.S.) in town for their National Advisory Board Retreat to tour the exhibit on their way to a City Hall cocktail reception. One DMO board member from Minnesota who stopped into the exhibit knows firsthand about the industry because his daughter works for Skyline Exhibits.
At the Philly tour stop, NTSA board members, Jacqueline Beaulieu, Laura Palker and Bob Tarby met with the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters who not only assisted in finding the exhibit an overnight parking space (big thanks to Anthony Squilla for all of his help and meeting us at the PCC dock), they also came out to discuss how to partner with the NTSA on workforce development initiatives—including apprenticeship programs, training videos and more. (Pictured L-R inside the mobile exhibit are NTSA Board Member Jacqueline Beaulieu, the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters Council Representative Anthony Squilla, Philadelphia City Councilman Mark Squilla; EAS Carpenters Director of Tradeshows & Special Assignments/NTSA Board Member Bob Tarby, NTSA President Laura Palker and EAS Carpenters Workforce Development & Trainer Rob Smith.)
Jacqueline Beaulieu, HMCC | Director, Strategic Marketing & Client Engagement, Poretta & Orr, worked the mobile exhibit both days, and Barbara Orr (pictured right with Ridiculous Nick Polini), owner/executive vice president, Poretta & Orr, toured the exhibit and expressed her support of the workforce development initiatives as well.
The Philadelphia CVB also supported the tour, as their communications manager, Jaime Martorana, stopped by with a photographer and checked out all the videos and handouts. Professor Ira Rosen (pictured left), program director, Event Leadership Executive Certificate Program at Temple University School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, sent his students to check out the mobile exhibit.
And then there were the serendipitous moments as local documentary photographers discovered the Invisible Industry Tour, including Rick Haldis and Nadia Fairbairn. Nadia, who specializes in photographing protests and bringing about changes to the status quo, astutely said, “there are these really big buildings in our cities and nobody knows what is going on in these buildings.” The NTSA is working hard to change that—the Invisible Industry tour’s mission is to help people learn more about the live events industry’s economic impact and the job opportunities that are available—building more awareness at the local level on each tour stop.
For sponsorship opportunities, contact Laura Palker at Laura@nationaltradeshowalliance.org
