NECA Convention & Trade Show

NECA is the electrical contracting industry's own convention, and the trade show is the part most engineers come for. It is where the installation side of the trade shows its hand: conduit and cable management, prefabrication systems, hand and power tools, test equipment, and the estimating and project-management software contractors actually run on.

That makes it a different room from a utility or data-centre show. The questions on this floor are about labour hours, constructability and getting an install signed off, which is useful if you specify work that someone else has to build. Safety and code sessions run alongside, and that is where NFPA 70E turns from a document into an argument about practice.

Las Vegas, in a crowded autumn. Book rooms earlier than feels necessary.