Candy Adams, CTSM, CME, CEM, CMP, CMM, “The Booth Mom,” is an independent exhibit-management consultant, trainer, speaker, writer, and an Exhibitor conference faculty member. CandyAdams @BoothMom.com

trade show can be a dangerous place. Once on site at a show, it’s every exhibit manager’s unspoken duty to maintain the health and safety of his or her exhibit staff.

According to a brochure distributed by the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association called “Meeting and Travel Safety Tips,” meeting and event planners have four legal safety duties (known collectively as duties of reasonable care) when planning any activity or special event where there is an element of risk:
Investigate all aspects of the event and act accordingly.
Inform and warn attendees and participants of known hazards.
Plan for the safety and well-being of every attendee and participant.
Do not subject attendees and participants to unreasonable risks or harm.

Although many safety hazards are random accidents that you cannot foresee, there are many things you can do to protect yourself and others. Here are some potential hazards and prevention techniques to help keep everyone safe at your next show.

Exhibit Avalance
Although it doesn’t happen often, exhibits do occasionally tumble over. Whether it’s caused by an unstable exhibit design, wind whipping through the freight doors of a convention center, or a bump by a forklift, it happens. Once, while setting up a rental exhibit, my installation-and-dismantle lead, account executive, and I all agreed that the second level wasn’t stable because it was right in front of a blasting air duct. Our solution was to rig the uppermost level to the ceiling, just to make sure it didn’t collapse. You can also use sandbags and plinths (bases placed under the carpet to stabilize a wobbly pole or tower in the exhibit) to steady exhibit properties that need additional support.

Some exhibits may be stable once assembled, but dangerous during the setup process. The first property I ever managed was a top-heavy exhibit that was difficult to assemble safely. Before its first show, I had my exhibit house manufacture “dead men,” temporary posts to help support the weight of the overhead exhibit structure during setup. When we got to the show floor, we realized that a support beam near our exhibit prevented the dead men from helping to steady the booth, so we hired forklifts with cages. The extra cost of the equipment and crew was definitely worth the peace of mind it brought.

Also make sure your exhibit is safe for attendees. For example, I recently read an article about the Americans with Disabilities Act that pointed out a hazard I’d never considered when designing an exhibit: sharp edges on exhibit kiosks and counters that, for people in wheelchairs or on electric mobility scooters, can be very dangerous, protruding at eye level.

Finally, make sure your chairs are strong enough to support the weight of large staff and attendees. One of my clients had a folding chair in his exhibit collapse under the weight of a rotund employee. Another client used foam cubes for theater seating, and the foam density and footprint of the cubes weren’t enough to support the weight of some of his larger audience members.

Trouble Afoot
With all the various electrical, Internet, and miscellaneous equipment cables taped to the floor under exhibit-hall carpet, there’s a good chance there will be lumps and bumps in your exhibit and the aisle carpet. Make sure that the flat cables are laid flat to the floor, not twisted, when they’re taped down to minimize trip hazards.

If there’s padding under your exhibit carpet, your carpet crew can cut the padding around the wiring to level it out; otherwise, consider setting something on top of the worst of the lumps to keep traffic away from them — ferns are my favorite quick fix. If nothing else, you can also use bright yellow caution tape. While not the most attractive solution, it still identifies the hazard zone.

Crate Danger
If you ship your exhibit in large wooden crates, be careful when you open them, since the contents could have shifted during their transport. And if you have removable rather than hinged doors, don’t lean the doors against the crates. All it takes is one bump from a forklift, and these heavy doors, often with protruding bolts or screws, can fall over on someone. The best way to prevent this potential hazard is to leave a 6-inch space between two crates and slide the doors between them.

Another downside to wood crates is the material they’re made from. I can’t tell you the number of splinters I’ve gotten over the years from handling crates and pallets. I now keep a pair of leather gloves in my gang box for handling wood. If you do get a splinter, use tweezers or a piece of duct tape from your gang box to pull out the splinter if part of it is exposed.

Finally, watch out for staples that may have been used to fasten shipping labels to your wooden crates. Even if you pull them out with a claw hammer or staple remover, they sometimes break and leave sharp metal protrusions just waiting to bite you.

Frenzied Forklift
Early in my career, I was pinned between two large crates being moved by forklifts, whose drivers couldn’t see around the crates. One dislocated shoulder later, the caring general-services contractor showed up and asked, “Are you going to sue us?” My answer, “Probably not, if you get me to a hospital!”

I’ve learned my lesson and now give anything with wheels on the show floor — from material-handling forklifts to riggers’ scissor lifts to floor managers’ carts — a wide berth.

Is There a Doctor in the House?
Many years ago I had a scare when my boss believed he was having a heart attack while on booth duty. Luckily, our exhibit was in the front of the hall, the door with the large red cross was right around the corner, and a facility Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) was in our exhibit in minutes. It was a false alarm, but it scared me into learning the protocol to get help in an emergency.

Although your first instinct may be to pull out your cell phone and call 9-1-1, most convention centers don’t want you to call for two reasons: 1) They have trained nurses or EMTs in house who can get to the patient quickly, and 2) if they need to call in an ambulance or more trained personnel, they can describe exactly where the injured person is located in a mega convention center and identify the best evacuation route.

The proper protocol is generally to use a house phone on the wall of the convention center or notify a security guard who can radio for help.

Safty Straps
I’ll make my feeling about steel banding perfectly clear: I hate it. Trying to remove it from cartons or pallets is difficult and, when cut, the banding can violently spring loose, potentially slashing anyone in its path. Even worse, the used banding often gets tossed out in the aisle with other trash and can spring up, becoming a dangerous projectile if someone steps on it. If you need to use banding and don’t want to worry about anyone getting hurt, consider purchasing a portable polypropylene strapping kit instead.

Fire in the Hall
One of the few safety items included in your exhibitor-services manual is the document from the local venue’s fire marshal outlining the specific fire regulations exhibitors must follow. It generally outlines policies such as the fire-retardancy standards of exhibit properties, mandatory use of smoke alarms or sprinkler systems in enclosed areas, exhibit setbacks from fire apparatus on the show floor, use of compressed gas and other flammable materials, and regulations for having vehicles with batteries and gasoline on the show floor.

Take time to read these rules, check the fire retardancy of your exhibit materials, make sure your exhibit doesn’t have ceiling structures that would block the water from the venue’s fire-suppression system, and locate the closest fire extinguisher and fire-notification alarm when you get on site.

Just to be on the safe side, bring your own A-B-C fire extinguisher. Remember, though, that a fire extinguisher is not a substitute for sounding the fire alarm or calling the fire department.

Kit Contents
Regardless of how much thought we give to safety in our exhibits, small injuries always seem to occur, whether it’s a splinter from a wooden crate, a small cut from opening boxes with a sharp blade, or paper cuts from loading literature into your literature racks.

A small first-aid kit is a must for every exhibit. You can purchase ready-made kits at drug or discount stores or build your own. Either way, make sure your kit contains the following:
Adhesive bandages in various sizes and shapes, including “butterfly” bandages to close cuts.
A pair of tweezers.
Individual antiseptic wipes and antibacterial gel packets.
Fingernail clippers, and/or a nail file.
Blister pads and foam insoles that can be cut down to fit any size shoe.
Over-the-counter headache and cold medications, antacids, and throat lozenges, if permitted by your company’s policies.

In Case of Emergency
Finally, in our post-9/11 world, we need to be prepared for everything, especially at huge trade shows in major U.S. cities. Prior to the show, identify a meeting place outside of the show venue, and tell staff to meet you there in the event of an evacuation. Also create and distribute a list of your staffers’ cell-phone numbers so you are able to verify everyone’s safety in case of an emergency.

If you do your best to proactively address known hazards and prepare for unknown hazards, you’ll significantly reduce your risk of falling victim, while protecting your staffers, laborers, and booth visitors at the same time. e