Car-eography
Moving 400 vehicles for auto show is quite a dance
Traffic is always heavy on a weekday morning Downtown, but not usually inside a building.
Tuesday was move-in day for most of the 400 vehicles that are on display this week at the Columbus International Auto Show.
At times, vehicles were bumper-to-bumper as the cars rolled through the loading dock doors of the Greater
Columbus Convention Center and were directed to their parking spots. It was all done in about four hours.
“Rather quick,” said Kelly Danison, director of events for the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association, which puts on the show. “These guys are pros.”
Setting up for the auto show requires a complicated choreography that began Friday and stretched right up to Wednesday night’s preview party. The floor must be marked, electric cable run and carpet laid before crates arrive with manufacturer’s displays. The cars come last, in part to ensure than nothing heavy falls on them, Danison said.
Like most conventions, the auto show has a “decorator,” a term that takes in everything from laying carpet to directing traffic.
It’s complicated, but not as complicated as the Arnold Sports Festival, said Dave Elliott of Excel Decorators, the Indianapolis-based company that handles both shows.
The Arnold had 327 exhibitors this year, he said.
“And here (at the auto show), we have about 35. Bigger displays but fewer people to deal with.”
The auto show mostly consists of new vehicles displayed by manufacturers, plus some from local dealerships and a few specialty displays, such as antique and exotic cars. (The Dispatch Media Group is a sponsor). Because auto shows displaying manufacturers’ products occur throughout the country — Edmunds.com lists more than 80 in the United States — an infrastructure has sprung up to serve them. There are, for example: • “Display houses” that store, ship and erect the video displays, desks, sign towers, platforms and other accouterments that mark an auto company’s show area.
Bob Olivi of Czarnowski, a Chicago-based display house, travels the country erecting displays for auto manufacturers. He calls himself “the head of the circus.”
The displays are called kits, with the largest and most elaborate — A kits — being employed at the largest shows, including the ones in Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The Columbus show has mostly C kits, with a few B’s mixed
in. (To get an idea of the difference in scale, C kits arrive on three trucks; A kits arrive on 26.)
• Fleet companies that transport the cars, usually by trailer, to the shows.
The clear, dry weather on move-in day this year simplified the process of keeping the cars clean before their entry into the building. Tents were erected behind the convention center to wash cars when needed.
Snow is dreaded, said Matt Mcknight, who works for Showfleet, a Californiabased auto transporter. “You wash off the salt, and it comes right back,” he said.
• Marketing directors or product specialists who position the cars according to manufacturer specifications.
Lindsey Tinsley, marketing director for Byers Auto Group dealerships, had a chart to guide her on how to position the Porsches, Audis and Volvos in the exhibit area.
In a case like Byers, where several brands are on display in the same space, manufacturers specify how close a competitor’s product can be to their own, Tinsley said. Mixing brands is a no-no.
“They wouldn’t be too happy about that.”
Every car’s windshield is supposed to display three tiny dots, confirming for the fire marshal that the gas tanks meet safety regulations, which include having a near-empty gas tank; sealing the fuel filler cap with tape; and disconnecting the battery.
• Detailers who polish the cars after they’re parked and keep them free of fingerprints, stains and scuffs through the show.
Zack Campbell, a partner in Esoteric Fine Auto Finishing of New Albany, was leading a crew of eight in spiffing up several highend vehicles — Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Mercedes, for example — on display to promote Columbus Cars and Coffee, which sponsors exotic car shows in central Ohio.
Esoteric usually does extensive customization jobs, such as installing fancy wheels or wrapping a car in a satin film to protect the finish.
“This is pretty light duty for us,” he said of the auto show.
In terms of building use, the auto show is one of the biggest at the convention center, using all 373,000 square feet of the center’s contiguous exhibit halls, said Joe Shaw, director of event manager and parking.
The Arnold is larger. It uses all the exhibit hall space, other space in the center, several buildings at the Ohio Expo Center and some area sports fields.
Also larger is Cultivate, a private July horticulture trade show that uses all of the exhibit halls, plus other convention center space. Other major conventions that use all of the exhibit halls are the Origins Game Fair in June and Ohio Valley Region girls volleyball tournament in May.
The parade of events is constant. The center moved from the Arnold to a basketball tournament to the auto show in the span of two weeks this month. Each one used different amounts of space and had different needs, said Jennifer Davis, senior marketing and communications manager. But because the convention center has the space and the numerous contractors affiliated with each show have the specialized know-how, it all gets done, she said.
“It’s like working in a city where the population changes every three days and so do the needs.”
Sometimes a new population arrives before the old one departs. On Sunday — St. Patrick’s Day — while the auto show continues in the exhibit halls, the Shamrock Club, an Irish-american organization, will hold it’s annual Irish Family Reunion in another convention center locale.
It’s happened before and sometimes make for amusing juxtapositions, Davis said.
“You have leprechauns looking at Lamborghinis.”