Exhibiting at PACK EXPO International 2026
PACK EXPO International is the largest packaging and processing trade show in North America — more than 2,600 exhibitors and 48,000 professionals across 40-plus vertical markets, from food and beverage to pharma to consumer goods. It is held biennially in even years at McCormick Place in Chicago; the 2026 edition runs October 18–21. The odd-year sibling, PACK EXPO Las Vegas, is a separate show. This page targets the confirmed 2026 Chicago edition, still several months out and in the prime booking window.
PACK EXPO is a machinery-and-demo show at scale. Exhibitors anchor full production lines — fillers, cartoners, palletizers, robotics, processing systems — and run them live, which makes floor load, power, rigging and material flow as central to the booth as the structure itself.
Booths built around running lines
Many PACK EXPO exhibitors bring operating equipment, often large integrated lines. A 10x10 suits a components, controls, materials or services supplier; a 20x20 island gives room for a machine plus a demo and meeting corner; a 30x30 (and the larger islands common here) supports multiple machines, a demo runway and meeting space. Floor load and power dominate the engineering when lines are anchored, and the layout has to give the running equipment clear sightlines and safe clearance.
Because buyers are engineers and operations leaders evaluating capital equipment, the booth’s job is to make the line easy to see running and to support serious technical conversations — quiet meeting space included on larger stands.
McCormick Place logistics
McCormick Place is North America’s largest convention center and runs on a four-union model (Carpenters, Decorators, Electricians, Riggers) with steward sign-off at each phase, plus drayage tiered by weight and material category. With heavy machinery, that coordination is significant. Our project managers confirm the drayage tier before crating and coordinate every steward sign-off, so there’s no surprise material-handling invoice. We pre-build and inspect the booth in Las Vegas, ship 5–7 days, and the install replicates an approved build.
For a Chicago machinery show where labor jurisdictions and McCormick’s drayage tiers add cost and risk, the warehouse pre-build is what protects your install window.
Pricing for a PACK EXPO booth
Chicago is an 85% city on our cost model. A turnkey PACK EXPO booth structure runs from about $11,400 for a 10x10 to roughly $101,200 for a premium 30x30 island, all-inclusive (heavy-machinery rigging and floor-load engineering quoted to your equipment).
Every quote is one number for the booth: design, build, graphics, freight, install, dismantle and McCormick paperwork — no separate drayage surprise.
