Food Production Solutions Show 2027Exhibitor guide: booth costs, dates and deadlines

For one machine or one service line, we start at a 10×20: $7,500 to $15,000 as a rental build or $15,000 to $45,000 custom, rising to $50,000 to $120,000 for a custom 20×20 island running equipment. Plinths, guarding and compressed air move the price most here. Space is extra: a 10×20 costs $6,300 at the FPSA member rate or $7,600 at $38.00 per sq ft, plus $950 drayage.

Messe Frankfurt Inc. opens exhibitor sales later in 2026, and companies that file the Intent to Exhibit form get priority consideration. Pick your Solution Zone when you sign, because it sets your neighbors and your nearest theatre. On our side, approving the design by mid-August 2027 leaves room for a 30- to 45-day build and an on-time arrival at the advance warehouse.

An FPSS rental is drawn around what you bring: a back wall printed for your Solution Zone, lighting, a demo counter sized to your benchtop unit or laptop, and a plinth with guard rail when a machine runs. Freight to the advance warehouse, installation, dismantle and return trucking sit on one fixed proposal, and the frame comes back to us after October 28.

Yes, if each has worked for you full time for at least six months before October 26, 2027. McCormick Place’s Exhibitor Bill of Rights, dated July 2026, lets them assemble machinery, install graphics and plug in equipment in any size booth with their own tools. Forklifts, pallet jacks and scissor lifts stay banned, a W-2 or payroll record may be requested, and the right never passes to contractors.

The FPSS prospectus prices drayage at $4.75 per square foot, so a 20×20 island carries $1,900 and a 10×20 carries $950, with corner and administrative fees on top. Booths under 200 sq ft may opt out. Even at a flat rate, we pack machines into few, clearly labeled crates so the dock can skid them to your booth in one pass.

Choose by the buyer's problem you solve. Formulation, ingredients, pilot plants and funding advice belong in Product Development & Planning; testing labs, certifications and traceability software in Regulatory & Compliance; processing equipment, plant engineering and co-packing in Production & Facilities; packaging, automation, logistics and data tools in Operations & Scaling. Each zone runs its own theatre and Collaboration Lab.

FPSS plans production line demonstrations where equipment, software and service suppliers tackle labor, throughput and food safety problems together. For EATS in 2025, the organizers named Epstein, Dennis Group and Gray AES to manage its three lines. For a demo inside your own booth, we build the guarded plinth, route power and compressed air under the floor and keep moving parts back from the aisle.

No. Non-members pay $38.00 per square foot against $31.50 for FPSA members, a gap of $2,600 on a 20×20, and the organizer asks companies that cannot qualify for membership to contact its sales team. If you plan a large island, weigh the membership dues against that saving before you sign for space.

We build FPSS booths as modules, so the plinths, zone graphics and demo counters can reappear at IPPE in Atlanta the following January or at the next IFT FIRST. Between shows we keep the kit in storage, reprint graphics for each audience and send it on to the next venue's warehouse.

FPSS 2027 runs Tuesday, October 26 to Thursday, October 28, 2027, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Each day opens at 10 a.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday close at 5 p.m. and Thursday at 3 p.m. It is the show’s first edition, and attendee registration opens in mid-2027.

At McCormick Place, 2301 S King Dr on Chicago’s lakefront, a campus of four connected buildings: North, South, West and Lakeside Center. Two hotels, Marriott Marquis Chicago and Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, connect directly to the convention center, and Choose Chicago puts Midway (MDW) 10 miles and O’Hare (ORD) 17 miles from downtown.

October 2027 is the first Food Production Solutions Show, so it has no attendance record of its own. The organizers’ 2025 Chicago show, EATS, was advertised with more than 300 exhibiting companies, and the FPSS attend page promises visitors hundreds of suppliers and service providers over three days.

Messe Frankfurt Inc. announced FPSS on July 15, 2026 and organizes it with the Food Production Solutions Association (FPSA), whose member companies book space at $31.50 per square foot. In Frankfurt, Messe Frankfurt runs IFFA, the fair it names first when describing the experience behind this new Chicago show.