Trade Show Exhibits
Trade Show Exhibits | Crates Were the Wrong Size?
How many of your know somebody that you'd consider to be a true "jack of all trades"? How old is he? Probably not in his teens or 20's or even 30's. The obvious answer to this question lies in how many years it takes to accumulate enough knowledge and hone your senses to the point of perfection to qualify for the title; let alone function at that level when called upon to do so. 
The reason I bring this up is that once again I got caught in one of those rare moments where a few dozen circumstances all culminated in my failing to see a course of action that should have been taken, to possibly avert a disaster. In other words; you're never too old to learn something new!
The circumstances were such that we were having a 20 x 30' trade show exhibits built for a client at the very last minute and as the client kept adding new equipment and accessories to the project, we just kept adding crates to facilitate the lighting, large monitors, and the booth itself. We made certain that the two largest crates would fit on most large jets should the client wish to overnight it from Portland to Denver for a cool $13,000. 
However, at the last minute, the client's threshold for pain changed and instead, we were asked to contract with a trucking company to hot shot the load to Denver within 24 hours to it's destination for a crew of 6 who were waiting patiently at $142.50 an hour for the Saturday evening set up. No problem! This is when I had the air freight rep come over and take a good look at the load to be sure we didn't have any problems which is when we discovered that because the two largest crates that housed the main components of the trade show exhibit were both over 48" wide and over 48" tall, and the two smallest crates were just under 48" wide and 48" tall, none of the crates could be stacked and none of them could be set side by side which automatically took the size trailer from a 27' to over 40'. Now you might say; "what's the big deal"? Well, it became a big deal insofar as the type of trucking company that normally dead heads a load on the run is normally equipped with the smaller trailers whereas the longer trailers aren't quite so nimble and have to make more stops at weigh stations etc. This all adds time? Time that we didn't have to spare. Plus, due to the odd sizes of the crates, all 4 pieces couldn't fit in one of the smaller tailers.
In retrospect, I should have been cognizant of what was happening with the packaging of our new trade show exhibits, but it goes to show that no matter how long you're in an industry and when you think you've seen everything, the other shoe is going to drop real soon; so don't be surprised.
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