APPA E&O 2027Exhibitor guide to booth costs, dates and deadlines

APPA's Engineering & Operations Conference and the Safety Summit run April 12–14, 2027 in Raleigh. The Public Power NextTech Expo opens Tuesday, April 13 from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Wednesday, April 14 from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a Welcome Reception in the expo on Monday evening.

At the Atlantic Union Bank Convention Center, formerly the Raleigh Convention Center, at 500 South Salisbury Street in downtown Raleigh. APPA's group hotel is the Raleigh Marriott City Center next door, at $279 a night plus 13.25% tax.

A 10×20 costs $3,500 for Elite Corporate Associate members, $4,000 for Corporate Associate members and $8,000 for nonmembers; a 10×10 is $2,500, $3,000 or $6,000. A finished 10×20 rental exhibit from us adds roughly $7,500 to $15,000 depending on lighting and product display.

Only 10×10 and 10×20. There are no islands or peninsulas, so a bigger presence comes through sponsorship: Signature, Public Power Champion and Networking packages add session time, receptions and branding. We design the 10×20 to carry the same message as the sponsorship.

Each space comes with a table, two chairs and a wastebasket, the pre-event registrant list in Excel, a logo in the printed program, a logo and description in the mobile app and the final attendee list after the event. A 10×10 includes two booth worker registrations and a 10×20 three.

APPA describes the conference as drawing more than 500 utility professionals: vice presidents, superintendents, directors, managers, engineers and safety and training specialists from public power utilities. The 2026 expo floor plan in Huntsville listed 66 exhibiting companies.

Suppliers to city-owned utilities: transformer makers like ERMCO and Virginia Transformer, metering firms such as Itron, Landis+Gyr and Sensus, SCADA and software providers like Survalent and NISC, line contractors, trailer builders, safety training firms and tool makers such as Milwaukee Tool.

Booth worker registrations cover the expo and expo-hall events only. Sponsors and exhibitors registered for the full conference may attend sessions and events outside the hall, at the regular fee for their membership level. Pre-conference seminars are not included.

Booth worker and complimentary sponsor registrations are due March 12, 2027, and the hotel group rate ends March 11. Sponsors face their own dates: February 15 for Champion session details, March 1 for Signature ads, March 22 for Advocate breakout names and April 1 for the one-minute video.

It is a registered professional conference for public power staff and their suppliers, with discounts for APPA members. Exhibitors register through their booth package, and attendees register through APPA's event page.

Sponsors may request space at the headquarters hotel or convention center through APPA's form, provided the event does not conflict with official conference functions. The sponsor arranges, promotes and pays for everything.

The Safety Summit runs April 12–14, 2027, alongside the E&O Conference, for safety and training professionals, superintendents and managers in public power. Summit registrants may also attend E&O sessions, so safety buyers are on the expo floor all three days.

We build the 10×20 so it travels: the same graphics and counter work at TechAdvantage in San Diego in February, at APPA's National Conference in Orlando in June, or as the core of a larger island at DTECH, with storage between shows.

For suppliers selling to municipal utilities it is the technical meeting where public power's engineers, superintendents and safety staff gather in one place. The expo is small and the booths are uniform, so the cost is modest and the conversations are with people who specify.