Shelly Loos supervises a small battalion of volunteers at the Democratic National Convention who traffic in large trash bags.

Inside the bags: signs.

Loos, a political consultant based in South Florida, is responsible for putting together, distributing and choreographing the display of more than 200,000 placards on the convention floor by Thursday.

The delegates, who are closely packed on the convention floor, can't hold all the signs at one time, and making a pop on national television means they have to keep them hidden until the last possible second. That's why Loos uses the trash bags.

''It's like they magically appear,'' said Terrie Brady, a convention veteran who heads the teachers union in Jacksonville. ``It's amazing.''

Loos is only 41 years old but an old hand at the job -- this is her fifth convention doing ''floor operations.'' In between conventions, she worked on John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and Bill McBride's 2002 race for governor.

A sneak peak at her job this week provides a behind-the-scenes look at the multimillion-dollar political stagecraft that is a nationally televised convention.

From a boiler room in the bowels of the convention center, she directs volunteers wearing fluorescent vests like a SWAT team. Go, go, go! The signs have to be on the floor six to eight minutes before they are supposed to go up.

When the delegates get the high sign, the placards rise.

''I love that the crowd is all united in something together,'' Loos said. ``It's like everybody is saying the same thing at the same time.''

The signs for the vice presidential nominee are the only ones produced at the last minute, but Loos swears she didn't find out about Obama's choice before anyone else.

''The printer probably did,'' she said. ``They really kept it a secret.''

This convention is more complicated than others because it is moving Thursday night from the Pepsi Center to Invesco Field, also in Denver, where at least 80,000 signs will be flashed as Obama accepts his party's nomination.

Midway through the convention, Loos was running on 3 ½ hours of sleep. She rotates three pairs of shoes during the day to keep her feet from aching. Only problem is that two of the pairs are high-heeled boots and Mary Jane wedges.

She shrugs. With blond curly hair that nearly covers her back, Loos is willing to give up two months of her life, but not her unique sense of style, for the convention. She asks: ```Where else can you get a job like this?''