Nashville’s Flood Halts a Trade Show and Conference

Losing $2M in Trade Show Equipment Overnight – Insuring Your Exhibits

It is a nightmare all exhibitors fear.  The recent flooding across Nashville has left its mark on homes, businesses and the Grand Old Opry.  The Opryland Hotel was hosting a convention and trade show at the time of the flooding.  Bev Gray from Exhibit Edge shares with us a recent experience she and a client experienced at a trade show that was taking place during the horrific floods.  There are valuable lessons to learn from this experience.

Here is her story:

On May 2, the Department of Defense, DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) canceled their Customer Partnership Conference at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville due to excessive flooding.  The Conference attracts approximately 350 defense technology exhibitors and 5,000 government, military, and industry attendees.  The well attended, high profile Conference was scheduled to open on Monday, May 3.  All the freight was on the floor and most exhibits were installed or were in the process of being installed when the waters rose.

While an official written statement has not been sent out by the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, J. Spargo & Associates, Inc. the full-service event management company managing the event, has issued emails to the exhibitors stating that “there will be no materials salvageable from the Exhibit Hall”.  It has not been determined if the show will be rescheduled.

While the cost of all the show floor property has not been estimated, one of our clients on the floor lost over $2,000,000 in company manufactured equipment.  This client’s loss does not include other expenses incurred such as exhibit properties, booth space purchase, travel expenses, loss of potential sales, etc.

As a full service exhibit company, we carry many forms of insurance to protect our clients.  We carry insurance on the freight stored in our warehouse.  We also hold “inland marine” insurance to insure freight that is being transported in our trucks.  We carry “legal liability” insurance to cover property for other incidences when we could be held responsible for loss of client’s property.  This last insurance was added for our company’s protection when three client monitors were stolen off of the trade show floor during the night in France.

Unfortunately the majority of the exhibits, equipment, property, etc. that are not salvageable in the Opryland Hotel will not be covered by insurance because flood waters are generally excluded from coverage.  (Earthquakes, war, and nuclear hazard are also typically not covered.)  While no insurance policy protects against every conceivable peril, this recent incident does bring to the forefront the issue of exhibit insurance and protection for property of others while in your care, whether on your premises, in transit or on location.  You need to think about your property and whose care, custody, or control they are in, then properly insure them or decide to assume the risk.  Doing so could save you a lot of money should your equipment get lost or stollen.

Another area you should be concerned with is the potential contractual liability that you may be assuming.  Properly worded, the contract you use will clearly identify your responsibility with regard to exhibit property.  In other words, at what point does your responsibility for damage to property of others begin and end.  Further, the contract should contain a solid “Hold-Harmless” agreement, whereby you accept responsibility for damage only for those situations in which you are the sole or contributing cause of damage.

Although the insurance, legal, and contractual side of exhibiting is something many exhibitors would rather not think about, it does pay to do your homework in this area so that you can make intelligent decisions on whether you should carry insurance or assume risk.  You never know when your equipment may be lost in freight, stolen off of the trade show floor, or broken by a runaway forklift!

This guest post was written by Bev Gray, President and CEO of Exhibit Edge.  Based in Northern Virginia, Exhibit Edge designs and fabricates custom trade show exhibits, sells modular exhibit systems, provides trade show management services, and consults on a variety of trade show topics.  Bev has over 25 years of experience in the exhibit and trade show industry.

Please note that the photos are from Facebook,  Stephen Lee’s photos.

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