By Kathy Bergen | Chicago’s beleaguered convention officials will meet next week with
more than 40 trade show customers in an effort to explain efforts to
overhaul McCormick Place operations and cut exhibitor costs.

The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, which books shows into the
facility, will host the roundtable on Feb. 17. The Metropolitan Pier
and Exposition Authority, the state-city agency known as McPier that
owns and operates the convention hall, will participate as well.

Chicago officials will discuss proposed legislation to restructure McPier’s debt and to allow McPier to become a public employer with the authority to negotiate contracts with trade-show labor, including those who work the hall for private contractors, and to prohibit strikes. The goal would be to negotiate changes in McCormick Place work rules in order to trim exhibitors’ expenses.

A number of trade show industry executives have expressed fears that giving McPier exclusive control over labor would lead to higher costs, as has been the case elsewhere.

McPier officials said they would avoid this scenario because they would not run the labor pool as a profit center, as some other venues do, and they would relinquish control of labor to the private sector after three years. They made these comments in a recent meeting with the Tribune editorial board.

Chicago recently lost two major trade shows, with both citing the high costs of exhibiting here.