ACS Clinical Congress 2027Exhibitor guide: booth costs, dates and deadlines

A 10×20 inline rental runs $7,500 to $15,000 from us and a custom 20×20 island $50,000 to $120,000; robotic consoles, laser enclosures and freight for demo units move the figure most here. ACS bills the space itself: at 2026 rates a 10×20 inline was $8,900 and a 20×20 island $17,000, and islands order their own flooring.

ACS assigns space in order of application, weighted by priority points. For the 2026 meeting the College wanted space paid in full by late February and booth drawings, the EAC notice and insurance certificates about six weeks before move-in. We plan to that same rhythm for 2027 and need your design signed off in late July.

A rental gets you the frame, fabric graphics with your FDA status panels, LED lighting, demo counters, a video tower and lockable storage, plus drawings, freight, install and dismantle on one fixed proposal. Booths under 400 square feet come with ACS's black drape, side rail and basic carpet, so we size the rental to sit inside that kit.

ACS lets only full-time company employees wear exhibitor badges, and anyone else building your booth registers as an exhibitor-appointed contractor. The exhibiting company files the Notice of Intent itself, and the contractor carries $2 million in liability cover naming the College and the show contractors. Local San Diego labor rules then decide what your staff may do by hand.

ACS allows it with clear labelling: a product not FDA-approved for a use, or not sold in the U.S., must carry an easy-to-read label of that status next to the device and on every image of it in the booth. Promotion of unapproved uses stays off the floor. We build the sign into the counter so it cannot be moved away.

In 2026 Freeman handled material handling, which covers unloading, delivery to the booth, empty-crate storage and reloading, and billed it to each exhibitor as its own fee in the Exhibitor Service Kit. Demo carts, simulators and spare instrument trays add weight quickly, so we log the weight of each crate in advance and price drayage as a separate line of your proposal.

Under the 2026 rules ACS awarded one point for every 100 square feet of space and two points for every $5,000 of sponsorship, and used them with application date to place booths. Points come off for violations: 10 for booking hotels outside the ACS block and 25 for misusing exhibitor badges, so we book your crew through onPeak.

Only through the College. In 2026 confirmed exhibitors booked Exhibitor Events in set evening slots, $19,400 on Friday and $31,800 on Sunday or Monday for satellite symposia, with no CME credit and no events during Convocation. We ship a compact tabletop kit with the booth freight for the room ACS assigns.

Yes. We build the counters and towers in modules so the booth can go on to the AORN Global Surgical Conference, the SVS Vascular Annual Meeting or the AATS Annual Meeting with new specialty graphics. Between meetings it stays in our storage and ships to whichever advance warehouse the next show names.

Clinical Congress 2027 runs Saturday, October 16 to Tuesday, October 19, 2027, in San Diego. The College's 2027 exhibit hall schedule is not confirmed yet. At the 2026 meeting the hall ran Sunday, September 27 to Tuesday, September 29. The 2028 meeting is set for October 21 to 24 in Boston.

In San Diego, California. The College books hotels through onPeak, its only endorsed provider for 2027, and group blocks of 10 or more rooms go through a separate onPeak request form. The 2026 meeting was at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, and the 2025 meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago.

The 2025 meeting in Chicago drew 10,559 in-person registrants and about 11,600 participants counting the on-demand program, with more than 160 companies in the exhibit hall. In 2024 in San Francisco ACS counted more than 10,000 in-person attendees and more than 150 exhibiting companies. ACS expects more than 8,000 attendees in San Diego in 2027.

The American College of Surgeons, based in Chicago, owns and runs Clinical Congress. Its Exhibits Committee decides which companies may exhibit, Tradeshow Logic handles exhibit sales and exhibitor services for the College, and in 2026 Freeman was the general service contractor on the floor.

You apply through the College's online booth sales with a credit card for the deposit, and the Exhibits Committee clears each product against its surgical-relevance test; a rejected application gets its money back. Skin lotions, massagers and phone accessories were among the examples ACS turned away for 2026.