Con-Expo Las Vegas: Crane and Rigging Rodeo

Con-Expo,

Las Vegas, Nevada 2011

The week of March 21-25, 2011 Industrial Training International, Inc teamed up with Crane Institute Certification to put on a Crane and Rigging Rodeo in one of the largest safety construction shows in the United States. This show brought over 120,000 industry professionals from over 150 countries attended with about 2400 exhibitors spanning 2.34 million net square feet of exhibit space. With a show of this size, ITI had to pull out the all the stops to make our exhibit a one of a kind experience for our custumers!

Mike Parnell, President of ITI and I put our heads together and came up with some events to challenge our participants while promoting education and safety at the same time as providing hands-on operational experience. The list that follows are the “rodeo events” that where conducted at the show.

1. Bucket Brigade - Lift and move a small bucket of water from the designated take-off point to the designated landing point. Place the bucket into the receiving stand. 3-5 minutes (Points off for spillage and time.)
2. Short Chain Drag - Lift and maneuver the CIC test weight through a slalom course with 1.5' of drag chain suspended, maintaining contact at all times. Chain not off the ground completely, test weight not to drag. 10 minutes. (Points off for time, chain off ground, weight on ground, and barrel contact.)
3. Magnet Man - Using a sling suspended foundry hook from the crane's block hook, maneuver the crane from the designated take-off point to the magnet. Cause the foundry hook to engage the magnet bail. Lift the magnet and maneuver the magnet to a small steel plate and cause the magnet to attach itself to the small plate. Land the entire assembly in the designated landing point. 3-5 minutes (Points off for time, and missing landing point.)
4. Pipe Stab - From the designated take-off point lift a sling with an attached 5' pipe to a vertical position. Maneuver the pipe to a receiving stand and insert the pipe through a hole so that the pipe comes to rest in a vertical position, with slack in the sling. 3-5 minutes (Points off for time and knocking the stand over.)

After evaluation of the above events, it was my job to customize, build and create the piece's to put the rodeo events together.

With 2000 miles of travel, a week of rodeo events, meeting with hundreds of potential clients trying to better the crane and rigging world, the Crane and Rigging Show in Las Vegas was a complete success!!