According to my wife, most men aren’t very observant. I’m sure most of us guys have experienced that painfully embarrassing moment when we notice that our spouse has a new hairdo and we say, “Did you change your hair style?”, only to have our better halves reply, “Yeah, over a week ago!”.  A nice bouquet of flowers or dinner at a fancy restaurant usually follow such gaffes as we desperately try to make up for our failure to see what’s right in front of our faces.

Then there are those times when we’re so confident in our experience and abilities that we don’t bother to read something that’s very important – like the assembly instructions for your kid’s new swing set or Barbie Dream House.

We live in a world today that seems at times to be going in opposite directions. On the one hand there is the “Twitterverse” where no one has to read more than 140 characters in a tweet.  And on the other hand, today there is more fine print in everything from contracts to prescription medications than there is sand on a beach.

We recently had a meeting with one of our clients who was planning on bringing a prototype of a new product to their upcoming trade show. Our client has a long history of exhibiting at a variety of different trade shows each year, so they are experienced veterans in the industry. When one of us mentioned that they would be wise to insure their prototype against damage that might be incurred at the show, they were very surprised.

“Why in the world would we need to do that?” was their response. “The general contractor for the show has insurance and they would certainly reimburse us if our prototype is damaged during the move-in or move-out.”

Nothing could be so true and yet so wrong at the same time.

Yes, General Service Contractors (GSC) do carry insurance. But in the exhibitor manual for most shows there are sections that are typically called, “Claims for Loss” and “Limitations of Liabilities”.  And while the exact value of your trade show materials (including your booth) that are covered against loss or damage varies a bit from show to show, for the most part they are far less than most exhibitors may think.

When you sign your contract to exhibit at a given show you will typically find wording similar to this:
When an electronic confirmation is sent notifying the exhibitor of their assigned exhibit space, this constitutes acceptance of the contract by “Show Owner”. The Exhibitor and the Managing Directors agree to be bound by rules set forth, including those in this Application & Contract for Exhibit Space, the Terms & Conditions, the Display Construction Guidelines, the Rules and Regulations, the local Fire Marshal Regulations, Exhibitor Guide and Services Manual, and in any correspondence or other notices, etc., all of which are incorporated herein and made a part of this contract.

In many cases the contract you sign to confirm your booth space at a trade show is a fairly short document, but the exhibitor service manual usually isn’t and by signing the contract you are also agreeing to all the terms, conditions and show rules contained in the exhibitor manual. Moreover, there is typically language in the manual that spells out exactly when a claim for loss must be filed in order to be considered by the general contractor - typically between 30 and 60 days following the close of a show.  In the service manual you will normally see a statement that reads something like this: “All claims reported after “x-number” of days will be rejected.”