Organized chaos: here's what it takes to build CES For those who've never helped run a booth at a trade show, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the temporary city -- an endless sea of lights, sounds, and humans pressing past one another in search of the next great gadget -- takes weeks to assemble before the first attendee even hits the floor. It's a choreographed symphony of thousands of laborers, installing everything from flooring to televisions to washing machines.