The NAFEM Show 2027Exhibitor guide: booth costs, dates and deadlines

For a maker running equipment live, budget around a 20×20: $16,000 to $40,000 rented, $50,000 to $120,000 custom. Here the number moves with utilities: each gas, water and drain hookup, OCCC electrical and rigging, and Fire Marshal review of heat-producing units. Space is billed separately by NAFEM at $42 per square foot for members in 2027.

NAFEM wants detailed drawings, with the height of every item, by November 18, 2026 from islands, split islands, peninsulas, any booth with a hanging sign, walk-in cooler, refrigerator or freezer makers and 2025 violation recipients. NAFEM can ask any other exhibitor for one too. We need your design approved in early November to file it on time.

One fixed proposal bundles the rented frame and graphics, booth lighting and demo counters cut to the size of your units with shipping, install and dismantle, from $3,500 for a 10×10 and $7,500 to $15,000 for a 10×20. For a NAFEM inline we hold the frame to the 8-foot back wall and keep anything within 5 feet of the aisle below 4 feet.

NAFEM lets full-time employees set up their own exhibit and hand-carry what they can, but dollies and flat trucks are banned and Freeman unloads every carrier at the dock. Electrical and rigging stay with OCCC crews. Any outside installer must be an EAC registered with NAFEM by January 4, 2027, with insurance on file; we register as yours.

Yes, with written approval. Every gas appliance, open flame or heat- and smoke-producing device goes to OCCC Event Management and the Fire Marshal with documentation, judged against NFPA 96, and a review fee applies. You need ventilation, safety equipment and a tagged 5-pound ABC extinguisher within 30 feet. We assemble the submission from your spec sheets.

Sodexo Live! is the OCCC's exclusive caterer. Food you bring for an equipment demo needs its approval form, and coffee, soda, water or popcorn used to pull traffic must be bought from it. A hospitality spread with alcohol is allowed only 3 to 5 p.m. on February 11 and 12, bought from Sodexo and poured by its licensed bartenders, and all prep stays 5 feet from the aisle.

Inline and corner booths stop at an 8-foot back wall, with a 4-foot limit within 5 feet of the aisle; perimeter booths reach 12 feet. Islands, split islands and peninsulas build to 16 feet, including multi-story exhibits with OCCC permits, and hanging signs top out at 20 feet with 12 feet clear underneath.

Freeman, NAFEM's general services contractor, bills material handling by the hundredweight through the Freeman Order Forms in the Exhibitor Services Manual, and the invoice is yours. Ranges and refrigeration add weight fast, so we pack units into fewer crates and list the estimated Freeman handling charge on your proposal.

We frame the counters and walls in modular sections with removable height panels, so an Orlando island can step down to an 8-foot inline for the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago in May 2027, or regroup as a 10×20 for The NAMA Show in New Orleans and International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. We keep the kit in storage between dates and reprint graphics for each audience.

The NAFEM Show 2027 runs Thursday to Saturday, February 11–13, 2027, in Orlando. The floor opens at 9 a.m. daily and closes at 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday. Exhibitors start earlier: target move-in begins at 8 a.m. on Sunday, February 7, and every exhibit must be set by 4 p.m. Wednesday.

At the Orange County Convention Center, 9800 International Drive, Orlando. NAFEM names Orlando International Airport (MCO) as the closest airport, about 12 miles away by the OCCC's figure, and attendees can pick up badges in its Terminal B. onPeak is the only official housing company, and five hotels sit within a 15-minute walk of the OCCC.

NAFEM expects about 20,000 foodservice professionals and more than 600 exhibitors at the 2027 show in Orlando. Its own history calls the 2019 Orlando edition the largest to that date, with over 22,000 registered. NAFEM's 2027 prospectus adds that 92% of attendees come to view and get hands-on with new products.

NAFEM, the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers, a Chicago-based trade association of commercial foodservice equipment and supplies makers. It held the first NAFEM Show in Dallas in 1973 and moved the show from fall to February in 2009. After the 2021 show was cancelled, it returned to Orlando in 2023 and met in Atlanta in 2025.

Members and non-members can exhibit if their main business is marketing and selling their own products from the NAFEM Approved Product Category List and they have spent at least a year manufacturing and testing a working prototype. Non-members request an application from NAFEM. Space left after the priority-point selection goes first-come, first-served until contracts close January 4, 2027.