Power Supply at Trade Shows

When you are trying to cram over one thousand exhibitors into a single room, electricity becomes a scarce commodity. Each exhibitor wants their display to be the biggest and brightest, so this article will aim to provide helpful tips with regards to electricity use and power supply at trade shows.

There are no steadfast rules that convention centers abide by when hosting trade shows with regards to electrical power. Each convention center has its own specific set of guidelines that it imposes on the exhibitors. Because of its sheer size, the Las Vegas Convention Center is probably the most strict of all the popular trade show venues. In fact, you cannot even use many types of halogen lights at the Las Vegas Convention Center because of strict fire prevention regulations.

Access to electricity is usually tightly controlled at trade shows. Each exhibitor is assigned a certain set of outlets that they are limited to, and they are often in inconvenient locations. For this reason, it is probably a good idea to have extra power strips and extension cords on hand. If you desperately need another outlet, your neighboring exhibitors will often be kind enough to allow you to use one of their outlets, but I would not recommend that you depend on such generosity.

Generally speaking, trade show coordinators work hard to make sure that everyone at the trade show has adequate access to electrical power, but it never hurts to be prepared.