AHR Expo 2027Exhibitor guide to booth costs, dates and deadlines

AHR Expo prices space through its sales team rather than a public rate card, so the booth build is the number we control. A 10×20 rental runs $7,500 to $15,000 and a 20×20 custom island $50,000 to $120,000. Heavy equipment adds forklift labor and drayage, which we estimate per unit on your proposal.

Every exhibitor must submit a booth layout for approval by November 20, 2026, including any hanging sign or suspended equipment, which cannot be rigged without pre-approval. Exhibitor-appointed contractors must be reported by December 28. We need your design locked in early November to make both dates.

We rent AHR Expo kits from 10×20 inline to large islands: aluminum frame, fabric graphics, lighting, product plinths rated for your equipment, counters and flooring. Freight to Freeman, install, dismantle and storage are on one fixed proposal, and units on display stay yours to ship.

Since the 2010 McCormick Place reforms, people on your own payroll can put up an AHR booth, whatever its size, using company tools. Moving freight from the dock is still Teamster work billed by weight. An outside installer like Purple must be reported to show management as an EAC by December 28 with insurance certificates.

Constructed displays stop at 8 feet inline, 12 feet for peninsulas, 16 feet for islands and 20 feet on the perimeter, and AHR Expo grants no variances. Hanging signs top out at 20 feet over islands and 12 feet over peninsulas. Equipment displayed as sold may exceed the limits, but logos may not.

Open-flame, brazing, welding, gas and other heat-producing demos are allowed only with advance approval and may be inspected before opening. They need a non-combustible enclosure or shield, 24 inches of clearance, a tagged 2-A:10-BC extinguisher and a fire watch. Propane and other flammable compressed gas are prohibited at McCormick Place.

Freeman bills material handling by weight from the dock to your booth. For 2026 and 2027 budgets we plan on roughly $210 for every 100 pounds at McCormick Place, never less than a 200-pound charge, with extra fees when freight arrives late, off target or uncrated. Heavy HVAC units add forklift labor, so we price each piece.

The 2027 exhibitor manual lists McCormick Place's North and South Buildings. The North Building has a low-headroom zone, booths N3600 to N4665, where islands may not hang signs, so we check your number before designing anything overhead.

HVACR and controls booths often go on to BOMA in Nashville in June, NFMT in Baltimore in March or Greenbuild in Chicago in October. We store the booth between shows and swap graphics, so the same structure serves engineers in January and facility managers later in the year.

AHR Expo 2027 runs Monday, January 25 to Wednesday, January 27, 2027, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the first two days and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the last. Move-in is January 21 to 24 and move-out January 27 to 30.

At McCormick Place, 2301 S Martin Luther King Dr, Chicago, in the North and South Buildings. The 2026 show was at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and AHR Expo moves to Orlando for February 7–9, 2028 before returning to Chicago January 22–24, 2029.

AHR Expo 2026 in Las Vegas drew 53,315 professionals and 1,956 exhibitors over 578,980 square feet, by the organizer's post-show count. The 2025 Orlando show counted 50,807 attendees and 1,878 exhibitors, and the 2024 Chicago show 48,034 attendees and 1,875 exhibitors.

The International Exposition Company of Westport, Connecticut produces and manages AHR Expo. ASHRAE and AHRI co-sponsor it, HRAI is honorary co-sponsor, and more than 25 associations from SMACNA to NATE endorse it. ASHRAE holds its Winter Conference in the same city the same week.

AHR Expo is a trade event built for HVACR professionals: engineers, contractors, OEMs, distributors, architects, facility managers and educators. The New Product Theaters sit inside the organizer's free AHR Education Program, while ASHRAE Learning Institute courses carry their own registration and fee.