Yes Slightly different John. In my latter days at Sony Broadcast I was Technical Manager for Exhibitions, a kind of super Roadie. For some months prior to the big trade shows I would meet with the Product Managers and we would decide what we show and how it would be demonstrated. From these discussions a list of equipment and a set of schematics was produced. For the very large show (IBC in Amsterdam) I used to take on two broadcast engineering students from Ravensbourne College in Bromley for the summer months to help. It helped me enormously and gave them an insight into a large manufacturer, the industry, got them to the show and they got paid. Our Logistics people did a great job in allocating all the products required and packing it by area. I should point out that the largest stand we built was 40m x 25m triple decker so the amount of equipment required filled a number of 40-ft artics. It was like building a TV station from scratch in 10 days. I used a team of 4 or 5 installation wiremen and would work closely with the stand builders to get all the inter-area cabling installed. Once we started putting product into the stand the Product Managers and Product Support Engineers would finish connecting up and start commissioning. We liked to keep them away until it was convenient to us for them to be there so they used to attend the Sales Meeting. The afternoon before opening all the sales guys descended on us for hands-on training. For the whole of the build we were in very casual dress but come opening time everyone was there in their suits, regardless of what time we finished the night before. Once it was over we had 3 days to take it all apart put the right kit in the right boxes, store away all the cables and ship everything back.
Sorry I've rambled on for too long but happy days.