Electric fans provide ventilation in a wide variety of industrial and commercial applications. It is common in many factories and other facilities for an overhead fan to be provided for each different work area in order to circulate air in the work areas. Typically, the fan is mounted in a fixed overhead position to direct air generally downwardly toward workers at each work station. While this is often satisfactory, it is at times ineffective because the worker or workers in the vicinity may be located out of the path of the air flow where they do not receive its benefits. The productivity of workers can suffer as a consequence. Also, each work station requires a dedicated fan which results in the need for a large number of fans and a relatively high cost.