ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes floor plans for the Las Vegas Licensing Expo from 2009 to 2019 in order to demonstrate how they both shape expectations among participants and reveal ongoing tensions and shifting power dynamics within the field. While presented as benign assistance tools meant to help attendees to navigate the trade show and find exhibitors, this chapter argues that these show maps and floor plans are key shapers of perceptions and indicators of how LIMA/LI seeks to organize and manage its constituents. Floor plans delineate rank, reputation, and status while also producing knowledge and norms that generate both beliefs and actions for Licensing Expo participants, whether that be seemingly mundane choices of how to traverse floor space or aspirational desires to claim a choice booth location as a symbolic demonstration of one’s position within the field.
