FABTECH returns to Las Vegas for the first time in ten years for a shorter, smaller edition with a different audience mix from Chicago. Register free by 16 October and use our hall-by-hall orientation to plan your visit.
| Detail | Info | Detail | Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📅 Dates | 21-23 October 2026 (Wed-Fri) | 🏛️ Location | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA |
| 🔧 Focus | Metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing - cutting, lasers, bending, stamping, tube and pipe, robotics, finishing, job shop, plus AI for the first time | 🏢 Venue | Las Vegas Convention Center (North, Central and South Halls) |
| 🔁 Frequency | Annual, rotating between US host cities; co-produced by AWS, FMA, PMA, SME and IFCA | 🌍 Exhibitors | 1,400+ in FABTECH's April announcement, 1,500+ on its current pages; 1,401 companies in the official directory as of 8 September 2026 |
| 👥 Attendance | 31,000+ projected for Las Vegas (41,795 at Chicago 2025; 31,110 at the last Vegas edition in 2016) | 🎟️ Access | Free if you register by 16 October; $50 after that date and on site |
Quick Answer: When is FABTECH 2026, and what does it cost?
FABTECH 2026 runs Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October 2026 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, 3150 Paradise Road. It is North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event, and this is its first Las Vegas edition in a decade. Show floor hours are 09:00-17:00 on Wednesday and Thursday and 09:00-16:00 on Friday, Pacific Time.
Show floor admission is free if you register by 16 October 2026. After that date, and on site, it costs $50. The conference program is priced separately and runs on a different clock - it starts on Tuesday 20 October, a day before the halls open.
Three things catch people out. It is a trade-only show with a hard 16-and-over age limit, including infants in arms and strollers - stricter than most US shows. Badges are not mailed; you collect them at the convention center, so build that into your first morning. And the Vegas edition is a smaller, shorter show than the Chicago one - three days instead of four, roughly 725,000 square feet instead of 890,000, and a projected 31,000 attendees against Chicago's 41,795 in 2025. If you last did FABTECH in Chicago, plan for a tighter show, not a repeat.
FABTECH is the North American trade show for everything that happens to sheet, plate, tube and structural metal between the mill and the finished assembly: cutting it, bending it, stamping it, welding it, coating it, and increasingly automating those processes.
FABTECH is co-produced by five industry organizations, and each one brings its own conference track and its own membership onto the floor:
That five-way co-production is why the show reads as several co-located shows rather than one, and it is worth understanding before you plan your days. The welding hall, the fabricating hall and the job shop hall have genuinely different populations.
FABTECH rotates host cities, and the rotation changes the show's size and shape more than most attendees expect. Four useful comparison points show how much:
| Edition | Dates | Attendance | Exhibitors | Exhibit space | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 Las Vegas | 16-18 Nov | 31,110 | 1,500 | 575,000+ sq ft | 3 |
| 2024 Orlando | Oct | not published in the cited report | not published in the cited report | not published | 3 |
| 2025 Chicago | 8-11 Sep | 41,795 | 1,702 | 889,905 sq ft | 4 |
| 2026 Las Vegas | 21-23 Oct | 31,000 expected | 1,400+ to 1,500+ claimed | 725,000 sq ft | 3 |
The 2025 Chicago edition was the biggest show floor in FABTECH's history. The 2026 Vegas edition is projected at roughly three-quarters of that attendance, on about 81 percent of the floor, in three days instead of four. That is not a decline - it is the normal rhythm of the rotation, and Chicago comes back in September 2027.
But it does change your planning. A four-day Chicago itinerary compressed into three Vegas days does not fit, and the exhibitor mix is different too - several of the large European machine builders that show in Chicago were not listed in the Vegas directory as of 8 September (see section 8).
What FABTECH's own sales material argues is that the Vegas audience skews more senior: more C-suite, more job shop owners, more senior operations managers, and more of the West Coast market - aerospace and defense, data centers, renewables and high-tech manufacturing. FABTECH claims Vegas attendees average around 12 hours on the show floor across three days. For comparison, FABTECH's reported 2025 Chicago figure was 11.3 hours across four days, so the "denser show" claim is at least directionally consistent with its own data.
For the structured event listing - dates, venue, official site - see our FABTECH 2026 show page. If you are also weighing the other big US manufacturing show this cycle, our IMTS 2026 guide covers the machine tool side in Chicago five weeks earlier.
FABTECH 2026 runs Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October 2026. Expo hall hours are the same across all three halls, which is a mercy after McCormick Place:
| Day | Expo hall hours (PT) |
|---|---|
| Wednesday 21 October | 09:00-17:00 |
| Thursday 22 October | 09:00-17:00 |
| Friday 23 October | 09:00-16:00 |
(FABTECH publishes these as 9AM-5PM, 9AM-5PM and 9AM-4PM.)
The detail most people miss: the conference starts on Tuesday 20 October, a day before the halls open. The AWS Professional Program - the research-and-technical-paper end of the welding program - occupies Tuesday on its own. If that is what you came for, you need to arrive Monday night, not Tuesday night, and you will be paying for a fourth hotel night that the expo hours do not imply.
Friday also closes an hour early, at 16:00, giving seven hall hours against Wednesday's and Thursday's eight. The Friday keynote does not start until 10:00, so if you want it, one of those seven hours goes to the theater. If Friday is your only day, it is the weakest of the three.
Free if you register by 16 October 2026. $50 after that date and on site.
That is the whole pricing structure for floor access, and it is unusually generous for a show of this size - IMTS charges $85 in advance, PACK EXPO charges $30 early and $130 late. Register by the deadline to avoid the $50 fee.
There is no free-entry pathway for international visitors the way IMTS runs one - but since general admission is already free through 16 October, that difference is academic.
The visa position is not academic. FABTECH's own guidance warns of "a significant backlog in obtaining United States Visa Interviews at most Embassies and Consulates." Processing times vary widely by post, so with roughly six weeks to the show at the time of writing, travelers who need a US visa should check the State Department's current appointment wait times for their intended embassy or consulate before making non-refundable bookings. Two practical notes:
About 9 percent of the 2025 Chicago audience came from outside the US. FABTECH's Vegas sales material claims 15 percent for the Las Vegas editions, with Canada, Mexico, Germany, Japan and South Korea named as the largest sources.
FABTECH 2026 occupies three halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center - North, Central and South - across 725,000 square feet, which FABTECH likens to about 12 football fields. It does not use the West Hall, which matters for transport planning (section 10).
FABTECH does not publish a hall-by-hall category map, so we built one from the official exhibitor directory. Booth numbers carry their hall as a prefix (N, C or S), and the numeric blocks cluster very cleanly by technology. As of 8 September 2026, the 1,414 booth listings split as follows:
| Hall | Booths | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| South (S) | 779 | Welding, finishing, stamping, robotics and automation, distributed across several mixed booth-number blocks rather than clean bands |
| Central (C) | 428 | The heavy fabricating iron - lasers, press brakes, saws, punching, plate and structural, coil processing - plus software, ERP and business services |
| North (N) | 207 | Job shops and contract manufacturers, international supplier pavilions, material handling |
Three practical reads on that:
Above that, FABTECH organizes the floor into 40-plus technology categories and eight pavilions: AI, Automation, Forming and Fabricating, Tube and Pipe, Stamping and Press Automation, Welding, Finishing, and Job Shop.
Check the official floor plan before you commit to this map. The hall breakdown above is our reading of the published directory, not an organizer-published pavilion map, and the directory is still filling.
The headline addition is the Artificial Intelligence for Manufacturing (AIM) Pavilion - a dedicated destination rather than AI scattered through other vendors' booths. It is FABTECH's first.
The pavilion is organized around applications rather than technologies, which is the more useful framing for anyone who has sat through two years of AI keynotes with nothing shippable at the end:
The AI-forward names are noticeably concentrated in the S46 block of South Hall - Boston Dynamics, Roboflow, Datanomix, Guidewheel, Complement AI, Peakboard, Teeptrak, VKS, CONTACT Software and CENIT all sit there, alongside a mix of unrelated exhibitors. Treat S46 as the place to start looking rather than as a confirmed pavilion boundary.
The conference side carries the same theme, with sessions including The Strategic Imperative for Industrial AI, AI Foundations for Smarter Manufacturing, and AI-Powered Shop Floor Intelligence: From Sensing to Safety and Quality Control. And Wednesday's keynote is the AI keynote (section 6).
For context on how the industrial AI pitch has actually shifted between show cycles, see our breakdown of what changed in industrial AI booths between 2024 and 2026 and the five deployment patterns actually running in production.
All keynotes and panels are free and open to every attendee. They are not part of the paid conference, and they are the single best value on the schedule.
| When | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 21, 08:30-09:30 | Keynote: The New AI Power Shift - Risks, Rewards, and Readiness for 2027 and Beyond | Amber Mac, SiriusXM podcast host |
| Wed 21, 12:30-13:30 | Panel: State of the Metal Fabrication Business 2026 - growth, risk and competitive advantage | John Carney, Jim Belosic, Jordan Yost |
| Thu 22, 07:30-09:00 | Women of FABTECH: Not Who They Had in Mind - Leadership, Manufacturing, and Redefining What a CEO Looks Like (Room N237) | Vanessa Heim |
| Thu 22, 08:30-09:30 | Keynote: Championship Culture in Manufacturing | Jerry Rice, NFL Hall of Famer |
| Thu 22, 12:00-15:30 | Emerging Leaders Program - half-day, aimed at professionals 35 and under | HR Huntsman |
| Thu 22, 12:30-13:30 | Panel: Building Tomorrow's Workforce - attract, train and keep next-gen employees | Scott McMeekan, Thomas McMeekan, Erika Melander, Shanna Sigerson |
| Fri 23, 10:00-11:00 | Keynote: The Creative Edge - How Craftsmanship and Grit Drive Fabrication | Steve Darnell, Welder Up |
| Fri 23, 12:30-13:30 | Panel: Follow the Money - hidden funding, tax strategies and profit levers for fabricators | Alex Bagne, Patrick Hanlon, Tim Van Mieghem |
Note the shape of that grid: the keynotes bookend the start of Wednesday and Thursday, and the panels sit in the middle of every lunchtime. Attending all three keynotes and all three panels would consume about five of the show's 23 expo-floor hours. The Wednesday and Thursday keynotes begin before the halls open but continue for 30 minutes after opening, while Friday's keynote and all three panels sit fully inside expo hours. Pick the ones that matter and let the rest go.
FABTECH advertises more than 180 expert-led sessions across 12 tracks. The published schedule currently lists 160 sessions, which is normal for six weeks out - the program is still being finalized.
The 12 tracks: Automation/Robotics, Finishing, Forming and Fabricating, Job Shop Operations, Job Shop Production, Laser, Management, Marketing and Sales, Smart Fabrication, Stamping, Welding, and Workforce and Talent Development.
Three organizations price their tracks separately, and the differences are large.
| Early bird | Regular | |
|---|---|---|
| Individual session | $175 | $220 |
| Workshop | $480 | $600 |
| Full conference (5-10 sessions) | $720 | $900 |
| Early bird | Regular | |
|---|---|---|
| One-hour sessions | Free | Free |
| 90-minute sessions | $150 | $200 |
| Half-day sessions | $450 | $550 |
| Full-day sessions | $500 | $600 |
| Weld-Ed Conference | $50 | $75 |
| Professional Program (Tue 20 Oct) | $325 | $425 |
Register by 10 September to be safe. FABTECH's pricing page contradicts itself on where the early-bird window closes: the track tables are headed "through September 11," while the FAB Pass box on the same page says "before Sept. 11." Those differ by a day, and the cheaper reading is not the one you want to discover at checkout. Treat 10 September as the last reliable early-bird day.
Flat pricing, no early-bird tier: $125 for one session, $225 for two, $300 for three, $450 for four to eight.
The one thing to act on: AWS's one-hour welding sessions are free, full stop, at any registration date. If your interest is welding process education rather than management or business content, a large part of your program costs nothing on top of a free floor badge. That is the best-value combination at this show, and it is not signposted anywhere obvious.
New for 2026, and capped at 200 passes: $1,200 before 11 September, $1,300 after. It includes full access to all conference content across FABTECH, AWS and IFCA tracks, daily Bistro lunch and Biergarten drink tickets, VIP lounge access, skip-the-line at registration, an exclusive T-shirt with a $40 merchandise credit, and a $75 Uber credit. FABTECH values the bundle at "up to $1,800 or more."
Run the arithmetic before you buy. If you would otherwise take the $720 full FABTECH conference plus a couple of AWS half-days, the pass is comfortably worth it. If you were going to attend two sessions and a keynote, it is not. Note the exclusions: Women of FABTECH and the Emerging Leaders Program are not covered by the pass.
The official directory lists 1,401 companies across 1,414 booths as of 8 September 2026. FABTECH quotes two different numbers for the same show: its April announcement said "more than 1,400 exhibitors," while the registration-open item and the exhibitor pages both say 1,500-plus. The directory currently sits almost exactly on the lower figure. The directory currently aligns more closely with the lower figure, so use the live directory rather than the promotional ceiling when planning vendor meetings.
Confirmed and locatable now, with booth numbers from the official directory:
Cutting, forming and machine tools (Central Hall): TRUMPF (C6008), Bystronic (C3408), Mazak Optonics (C3025), Mitsubishi Laser / MC Machinery (C5008), Prima Power (C4625), Hypertherm (C5025), Messer Cutting Systems (C4616), Hexagon (C1556) and RADAN by Hexagon (C6048), Durma, Ermaksan, HYDMECH, Peddinghaus, FICEP, Voortman, KASTO, Behringer Saws.
Welding (South Hall, S29 block): Lincoln Electric (S29000), Miller Electric with Hobart, Bernard and Tregaskiss (S29043), ESAB (S29025), Airgas (S29036), Fronius USA (S29054), IPG Photonics (S29017), American Welding Society (S29112), OTC DAIHEN.
Robotics and automation (South Hall, S40 block and up): FANUC America (S11008 and S40006), Yaskawa Motoman (S18060 and S40020), Kawasaki Robotics, HD Hyundai Robotics, Path Robotics, GrayMatter Robotics, Novarc, JR Automation, Abagy, IGM, Pemamek, Universal Robots (S44006), Panasonic Connect (S44078), Boston Dynamics (S46 block).
Elsewhere: 3M (S37014), Air Products (C4249), Haas Automation (N9525), Trotec Laser (N10050), Rockwell Automation, Epicor, Acumatica (C2146).
As of 8 September 2026, the following are not in the FABTECH 2026 directory: Amada, ABB, KUKA, Salvagnini, LVD, Cloos, Kemppi, Abicor Binzel, Nikon, Coherent, Siemens, Stratasys, Okuma and DMG Mori.
That is a meaningful list. Amada in particular is one of the largest sheet metal machinery builders in the world and a fixture at the Chicago editions. Several of the missing names are European or Japanese builders whose US strategy centers on the Chicago show.
Two caveats before you draw conclusions. First, the directory is still filling - six weeks is enough time for late additions, and some companies exhibit under a distributor's name rather than their own. Second, absence from the directory is not a statement about the company. But if a specific vendor is the reason you are flying to Las Vegas, check the directory for their name before you book, not after.
The 2025 Chicago audience gives a sense of who walks these aisles: 47 percent of attending companies were job shops or contract manufacturers, 15 percent OEMs, and 44 percent had fewer than 50 employees. Top attending companies included Boeing, Caterpillar, General Motors, Ford, John Deere, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rivian, Tesla, GE Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, and four US naval shipyards.
FABTECH does not publish its 2026 booth rates openly. The 2026 prospectus sits behind a lead-capture form, so anyone weighing a booth needs to request the current rate card and contract from the sales team - and that same request is how you get the 2026 payment schedule, cancellation terms and contractor deadlines, none of which are public either.
For scale only, the 2027 rate card is published in full in the downloadable 2027 space contract. It runs on a sliding scale by booth size:
| Booth size | 2027 rate per sq ft |
|---|---|
| Up to 299 sq ft | $42.00 |
| 300-999 sq ft | $41.00 |
| 1,000-1,999 sq ft | $39.00 |
| 2,000-4,999 sq ft | $38.00 |
| 5,000-9,999 sq ft | $36.00 |
| 10,000-14,999 sq ft | $33.00 |
| 15,000 sq ft and up | $29.00 |
Those are 2027 rates, not confirmed 2026 pricing. On the 2027 card, a 10 x 10 at the top rate works out at $4,200 of floor space - and that is the floor, and only the floor. Under the 2027 terms, rented space includes an 8-foot drape backwall and 36-inch drape side rails and nothing else. Whatever the 2026 space rate turns out to be, treat it as only one component of the total exhibiting budget: carpet, furniture, power, material handling, lead retrieval, labor and booth construction can add substantially to the base cost. The same contract also requires exhibitors to use only labor sources officially designated by show management, and to comply with the agreements local unions hold with the venue - so the labor line is not one you can shop freely.
The 2027 contract stages both payment and cancellation against the show date rather than the signing date, which is the part exhibitors most often misread:
| Milestone | Payment due | Cancellation charge if you pull out |
|---|---|---|
| 210 days before the show | 25% (non-refundable) | 25% |
| 150 days before | a further 25% (50% total) | 50% |
| 90 days before | the remaining 50% (100% total) | 100% |
Confirm this against the 2026 contract before you plan around it. FABTECH has not published the 2026 schedule, and there is no basis for assuming the two years are identical. The same 2027 contract also requires show management authorization for exhibitor-appointed contractors 45 days before the first install date - worth asking about early whichever year you are contracting for.
FABTECH's Vegas exhibitor pitch quotes: 83 percent of attendees influence or approve purchases, 54 percent planning to buy within 12 months, 40 percent with budgets over $200,000, and over 50 percent attending no other show. Top product interests are cutting (45 percent), welding machines (45 percent), bending and forming (42 percent), lasers (37 percent), welding consumables (33 percent), press brakes (33 percent) and robotics (32 percent).
FABTECH reports substantial lead volumes: 202,191 leads at Chicago 2025, an average of 119 per exhibitor, up from 149,015 and 98 per exhibitor at Orlando 2024.
Here is the caveat. FABTECH's Vegas marketing page claims 93 percent exhibitor satisfaction and 83 percent willing to recommend. FABTECH's own 2025 post-event report, from its 2025 exhibitor survey, reports 66 percent satisfied or very satisfied with the value received, 61 percent who would recommend the show, and 66 percent satisfied with lead quality. The figures are not directly comparable because the underlying years, populations and survey methods differ - but 66 percent and 93 percent are far enough apart that the more conservative 2025 post-event figure is the safer benchmark when evaluating a budget. If you want a framework for judging that yourself, our guide to measuring trade show ROI covers what to instrument before you go.
The LVCC sits on Paradise Road, just east of the Strip and a short drive from Harry Reid International Airport. It is one of the largest convention facilities in the world: 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space on a 4.6 million square foot campus, with 225 meeting rooms and more than 150,000 hotel rooms within reach.
The LVCC Loop. The Boring Company's tunnel system runs Teslas between stations on the campus - LVCC West, LVCC Central, LVCC South, plus Riviera and Central Plaza - and it is free. A walk that takes 25 to 45 minutes across campus takes about two minutes underground. The important qualifier for FABTECH: the Loop's main value is West Hall to the rest of the campus, and FABTECH is not in West Hall. The Central and South stations still save you a genuine hike between the two biggest FABTECH halls.
Complimentary hotel shuttle. Free shuttle buses run between official FABTECH hotels and the convention center, which FABTECH values at $30. The catch: you only get it if you book through onPeak, the official housing provider. Booking the same hotel directly, or through a third party, does not qualify.
Everything else. The Las Vegas Monorail has a Convention Center station. Rideshare and taxi are straightforward. Parking is available at the LVCC and the rate varies by event; FABTECH has not published its own figure, and third-party parking guides put a typical convention day in the $10-$20 range. Delta Air Lines offers a FABTECH discount under meeting code NY4GM.
One Vegas-specific warning. Late October is a busy convention month and hotel rates move fast. The onPeak block is also the only route to the free shuttle, so the housing decision and the transport decision are the same decision - make it early.
When is FABTECH 2026? FABTECH 2026 runs from Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October 2026 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, 3150 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, Nevada. It is FABTECH's first Las Vegas edition in ten years.
What are the FABTECH 2026 show hours? The exhibit halls are open 09:00-17:00 on Wednesday 21 October, 09:00-17:00 on Thursday 22 October, and 09:00-16:00 on Friday 23 October, Pacific Time. The conference program starts a day earlier, on Tuesday 20 October, with the AWS Professional Program.
How much does FABTECH 2026 registration cost? Show floor admission is free if you register by 16 October 2026. After that date, and on site, registration costs $50. Conference sessions, workshops and the FAB Pass are priced separately.
Is FABTECH open to the public? No. FABTECH is a trade-only event open to industry professionals, and no one under 16 is admitted, including infants in arms and strollers. Students and school groups are welcome through a separate student registration pathway.
How big is FABTECH 2026? FABTECH expects 31,000 attendees across 725,000 square feet in three halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Its exhibitor count varies by source: the April 2026 announcement said more than 1,400 exhibitors, while its current pages say 1,500-plus, and the official directory listed 1,401 companies as of 8 September 2026. For comparison, the 2025 Chicago edition drew 41,795 attendees and 1,702 exhibitors across 889,905 square feet over four days, and the last Las Vegas edition in 2016 drew 31,110 attendees and 1,500 exhibitors across 575,000 square feet.
What is new at FABTECH 2026? The Artificial Intelligence for Manufacturing (AIM) Pavilion is new, bringing AI and advanced digital manufacturing solutions into one destination covering predictive maintenance, machine vision, analytics, digital twins, industrial cybersecurity, IIoT, CAD/CAM and ERP. Also new is the FAB Pass, a limited premium upgrade capped at 200 passes, and the first live round of the WeldArt World Championship on the show floor.
Which halls does FABTECH 2026 use? FABTECH occupies the North, Central and South Halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Based on the published exhibitor directory, South Hall holds the most booths and covers finishing, stamping, welding and robotics; Central Hall holds the cutting, forming and machine tool exhibitors plus software; and North Hall holds job shops, contract manufacturers and international supplier groups. Confirm against the official floor plan, which is still being finalized.
How much does it cost to exhibit at FABTECH? FABTECH does not publish its 2026 booth rates publicly - the prospectus sits behind a lead-capture form, so you need to request the current rate card and contract from the sales team. For scale only, FABTECH's published 2027 contract lists base space rates on a sliding scale from $42 per square foot for booths up to 299 square feet down to $29 per square foot for 15,000 square feet and above. Those are 2027 rates, not confirmed 2026 pricing, and they cover base space only: carpet, furniture, power, material handling, lead retrieval and labor are all extra.
How do I get to the Las Vegas Convention Center for FABTECH? The LVCC is on Paradise Road, a short drive from Harry Reid International Airport. The LVCC Loop moves passengers between campus stations free of charge in about two minutes. Complimentary shuttle buses run between official FABTECH hotels and the venue, but only for attendees who book through onPeak, the official housing provider. The Las Vegas Monorail has a Convention Center station, and parking is available on site. Delta offers a FABTECH discount under meeting code NY4GM.
When and where is FABTECH after 2026? FABTECH Mexico runs 4-6 May 2027 in Monterrey, FABTECH returns to McCormick Place in Chicago 13-16 September 2027, and FABTECH Canada runs 13-15 June 2028 in Toronto.
