by Marlena Sullivan, ECN
When your father comes home in the middle of July and says that the family company is moving warehouses, you may not know much about the business, but you help because you’re a member of the family. This once was the reality for Vanessa Panfil before she started at LV Exhibit Rentals late in the summer of 2023.
LV Exhibit Rentals is the family-owned business of Harry Panfil, Vanessa Panfil’s father. When her parents first moved to Vegas in 2001, they started as an AV and TV rental business. Over the years the company grew under the hands of her mother and father and later, her elder brothers. A balancing act between events and life, while the family was never too busy for Vanessa’s volleyball games—they were always working.
“You learn quickly the difference between work trips and family trips. Between the working time, when the show is being built and taken down, versus the family time in-between,” Vanessa says.
Vanessa never wanted to work for the family business before she started last July. She is currently studying to become a doctor and will graduate from UNLV in the coming year with a degree in biology with a minor in neurosciences. However, when her father offered her a job, Vanessa decided to say yes; it had always been a second home after all. Yet, it was not until she started working as an account executive that she began to fall in love with tradeshows.
“It’s fun,” she says about the long hours, late nights, and consistent back and forth with clients. “It’s cool to see people appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears. The attendees may not know it was us who built their favorite booths, nor the true extent of what we had to do. They may simply think it looks cool, but hearing the praise is a type of validation that elevates your own pride. Yes, I helped build that.”
As an account executive, Vanessa works with clients to establish relationships and develop tradeshow or event plans. She often finds herself working with clients who may not have the knowledge of events, and Vanessa has the pleasure of being able to introduce the world of tradeshows to them. “I often tell clients, that our products are customizable like Legos. If you like part of one package and a part of a different one, we can mix and match and create the perfect exhibit for our clients and their needs.”
Vanessa has found a rhythm in the job and a magic in the art of exhibits. As a detail-oriented person, she thrives in meeting people and developing relationships and getting to know every detail of a client’s needs in order to best help them. She loves walking the show floor before a booth opens, wiping it down, and making it shine before the client arrives. “It’s like a concierge at a hotel, we want to provide the best experience possible,” she says. “We want clients to feel like family.”
It is this same experience that she looks forward to for the future of LV Exhibit Rentals. While Vanessa knows she can always become a doctor in the future, for now she is happy working for events. She’s excited to see how the business and their dedication to family grows as she and her brothers take on greater positions at the company. One day, when her mother and father pass the company off to her brothers and herself, she looks forward to seeing how her relationship with her brothers will strengthen and change. As much as they are family, they are a team, and they are dedicated to growing as a together.
“If I could tell the past me anything it would be to ‘be unapologetically you,’” she says. Vanessa knows that this sentiment applies not only to herself, but to all her clients. The more that they stand out and prove themselves unapologetically, they will shine and be noticed.
Perhaps one day, you will sit in an empty arena, staring at the booth that has been created for you or by your hands. The room will be empty save you and your team—your family; you’ll eat takeaway and know that in a few hours the room will be filled with thousands. For now, it is just you, and the booth before you, that you know people will admire.
This story originally appeared in the Q2 2024 issue of Exhibit City News, p. 34. For original layout, visit https://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/ecn_q1_2024.
