In late March, as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 was doubling every three days in Chicago, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that McCormick Place, the largest convention center in the United States, was to be converted into a field hospital in case the city's hospitals became overwhelmed. Walsh Construction, one of the largest construction contractors in the United States, was given control of getting the massive project done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Recognizing that trade show and events companies commonly work in unconventional settings that involve tight deadlines and out-of-the-box thinking, Walsh asked Global Experience Specialists Inc. (GES), a full-service experiential marketing firm, to produce a prototype room in less than 24 hours. GES presented the booth at McCormick Place the next day on Monday afternoon. By Monday evening it was awarded a two-phase contract. "Walsh challenged GES to build a 2,300-room hospital in a very short amount of time," said Mike Morgan, senior director of client relations at GES. "One of our biggest challenges was coordinating the equipment to get from various different locations throughout the country to Chicago, marry up frames with panels, and then start building."

Despite the logistical challenges, GES began building the temporary hospital on Tuesday, the day after it got the green light. And by Thursday, it had completed phase one of the project, consisting of 500 patient-care rooms. Phase two began on Saturday, which consisted of 1,750 additional care rooms that needed to be complete by Thursday. GES was completely done by Tuesday at 6 p.m. "It's amazing to me. I didn't know you could make something that big, build something out like that in five days," Gov. Pritzker said.

"My biggest take away from this endeavor from the beginning has been just how our network has been able to pull together, coordinate, communicate, and share resources under short timeframes," said Brian McEvoy, director of operations for GES. "It really says a lot about our network's capabilities, and even more about our network's people."

"One of the most amazing things about this project was how we were able to pull together resources across the country in a very short amount of time and bring everything here to Chicago to help make a difference in people's lives," Morgan said. "It's something we're all very proud of."