I have told this story so many times – but just told it to someone that said I must share this again. A couple of years ago we did an I&D for a Chinese company at CES. It was a beautiful exhibit however, it failed the translation for electrical applications and it had to be stripped of all electrical and rewired on the show floor to the tune of $28,000 from the show contractors. Needless to say the client was not in a happy mood. So when their supplemental help came to help our labor force and pulled their stilts from the crates – pandemonium broke out. It seems that building without ladders, and on stilts, is rather commonplace in their home venues – but in America we do not even have rules about stilts because there are no stilt builders on American trade show floors.

So – there we were with a major build that was running days late, because of the electrical failures and six Chinese workers on stilts with no one speaking either Chinese on our side or English on their side. Our son was running the build and said he was never so happy to see the union steward approach and suggest that our stilt walkers had to leave the floor. In retrospect working on stilts, as dry-wallers do, is not a bad idea – just a culture clash on the show floor!