Does Your Video Crew Need to Register as an Exhibitor-Appointed Contractor (EAC)?

Yes — a video crew that is not the trade show's official in-house production vendor typically has to register as an Exhibitor-Appointed Contractor, or EAC, because the general service contractor running the show floor controls who can work there, even though photography and video are not among the services that contractor holds exclusively.

What an EAC Actually Is

Every major Las Vegas trade show hires a general service contractor — Freeman is the most common name at Las Vegas Convention Center shows — to run the logistics of the show floor. When an exhibitor wants to bring in an outside vendor for a specific service, rather than using the general service contractor's own crews or preferred vendors, that outside vendor typically has to register as an Exhibitor-Appointed Contractor. Registering as an EAC is the mechanism that lets a show track who is working the floor, confirm they carry insurance, and hold them to the same building and safety rules as the general service contractor's own crews — a process we cover in more detail in our guide to filming at Las Vegas conventions and trade shows.

The General Service Contractor's Exclusives — and What Is Not on the List

The general service contractor typically holds exclusive rights over electrical service, rigging, material handling, and in-booth cleaning — services an exhibitor cannot bring in an outside vendor to perform instead, per NAB Show's published rules and regulations. Photography and video are not on that exclusives list. An exhibitor is generally free to hire its own video crew rather than use whatever production services the show or its general service contractor offers — the EAC registration process exists to track and credential that outside crew, not to block it from working.

Why an Outside Crew Registers Rather Than Skips the Step

Skipping EAC registration is not a shortcut — it is the way a crew ends up turned away at the dock or pulled off the floor mid-shoot. Registering puts the crew on the show's approved-vendor list, confirms their certificate of insurance meets the show's minimum, and puts them on record as bound by the same building and union rules that apply to every other contractor on the floor — including which doors a crew can use for load-in and what safety gear is required near rigging points. A crew that shows up unregistered has no standing to push back if security asks them to stop working.

EAC Registration Does Not Replace a Building's Union Rules

Registering as an Exhibitor-Appointed Contractor gets a crew onto the show's approved-vendor list, but it is a separate question from whether the venue itself is a union house that requires stagehands or other union labor for certain tasks — rigging a light beyond a certain height, for instance, or connecting to house power. A crew that only checks the EAC box and skips confirming the building's own labor rules can still run into a stoppage at load-in over a task the venue considers union-only. Confirming this ahead of time, on a show-by-show and venue-by-venue basis, is worth a direct question to the general service contractor or the venue itself rather than an assumption either way.

What the Exhibitor Has to Send In

EAC registration is generally the exhibitor's responsibility to initiate, not the crew's. An exhibitor bringing in an outside video crew typically has to submit the crew's company information and certificate of insurance to the show by the EAC registration deadline published in the exhibitor manual — usually several weeks ahead of move-in — along with any badge or credential requests for individual crew members. Missing that deadline is one of the more common ways a booked crew ends up unable to access the floor on the day of the shoot, through no fault of the crew itself.

• Crew company information and certificate of insurance, submitted by the exhibitor
• EAC registration deadline, published in the show's exhibitor manual, typically weeks before move-in
• Individual credential or badge requests for each crew member working the booth

Mr. Camera

We register as an Exhibitor-Appointed Contractor as a matter of course whenever a client's show requires it, and we send the exhibitor exactly what they need to submit rather than leaving it to guesswork close to the deadline. If you are exhibiting at a Las Vegas trade show and need a crew that already knows the EAC process, our trade show video production team can walk you through what your show requires.

Related: corporate video production in Las Vegas, our corporate interview and headshot studio, and testimonial and customer story video.