Grassroots Connect 2027Booth costs, dates and deadlines: the Oklahoma City exhibitor guide

Spring 2027 Connect is in Oklahoma City: Retailer Education Day and Discovery on Friday, June 11, then Connect by Grassroots Saturday, June 12 to Tuesday, June 15, 2027. Fall/Winter 2027 is in Omaha, Nebraska, with Discovery on November 7 and Connect November 8 to 11, 2027.

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the specific building is not confirmed yet. Grassroots lists Oklahoma City for the spring shows in 2027, 2028 and 2029 and Omaha for fall 2027 to 2029. The Fall/Winter 2026 edition is at the Kansas City Convention Center, November 9 to 12, 2026.

Connect is invitation-only and not open to the public. Retailers are Grassroots member stores plus invited independent specialty outdoor retailers with at least one brick-and-mortar store. Brands are Grassroots Vendor Partners and guest exhibitors who do business with a meaningful number of attending retailers; reps attend by brand invitation.

Retailers choose brands in the ConnectApp, and the Grassroots office builds every schedule, prioritizing private appointments and grouping others by region. Draft schedules appear about eight weeks out with 10 days for changes, and final schedules publish four to six weeks before the show. Appointments last 30 minutes to two hours.

Standard closed booths run from 400 to 3,000 square feet in set layouts, with 600 to 2,400 square foot sizes in front or side orientations. Traverse booths are 10×10 or 10×20 open spaces for accessories, electronics and food, and Business Services booths are 10×10 for services only.

A closed booth is built around private retailer appointments: no product showing stations visible from the aisles and few distractions from the floor. The entrance can feel open, but each meeting room must stay private, with a sample set and comfortable seating, and only 25% of the space may be open marketing.

Booths and signage top out at 8 feet, and every fixture, flag and sign must stay within the booth footprint. Grassroots provides pipe and black drape for perimeter and interior walls; brands may substitute their own custom drape or graphics, and other construction needs show management approval.

Grassroots quotes booth space to invited brands rather than publishing rates, and says its closed booth model keeps brand booth costs affordable. Our part is separate: printed drape, room signage, flooring and furniture for a 400 square foot booth, all itemized on a fixed proposal before you commit.

Discovery is a five-hour, unstructured browsing event held the day before Connect, which doubles as the retailers' welcome happy hour. In Fall 2026 it uses 10×10 booths with 8-foot black drape, basic signage and an 8-foot limit on fixtures and flags, and small digital screens without audio.

Connect booth guidelines prohibit external video or projection presentations, music and amplified noise, so the floor stays quiet for back-to-back meetings. Discovery allows small digital devices without audio. We design with lit graphics, printed drape and hands-on samples instead.

Not before 1 p.m. on the last day. For Fall/Winter 2026 in Kansas City, set-up is Sunday, November 8 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and dismantling may begin only at 1 p.m. on Thursday, November 12; early dismantling or tape-gun noise brings a $2,500 fine or loss of future invitations.

At the Fall 2026 Kansas City show, days one to three run 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with lunch from noon to 1 p.m., plus a happy hour on day one and a show floor open house on day two. Day four runs 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. with box lunches, then teardown. Spring 2027 hours are not confirmed yet.

If independent specialty outdoor shops are your core channel, it puts you in scheduled, private meetings with over 100 of them in four days, with Grassroots reimbursing retailers' travel when they stay in the hotel block and keep a full schedule. The return depends on enough meeting rooms and the right reps in each.