Who exhibits and specifies at HD Expo
HD Expo is run by Emerald, the company behind Hospitality Design magazine, and the organizer calls it the industry's longest-running hospitality design event. It lists more than 500 product suppliers across more than 25 categories, with furniture, lighting, textiles, surfaces, accessories, and technology at the core. Across the aisle are designers, architects, owners, purchasers, and brand leaders working on boutique hotels, luxury resorts, restaurants, cruise ships, and mixed-use projects.
It's a Western show. The organizer reports attendees from all 50 states and 34 countries, with the most from California, Nevada, and Texas and a strong turnout of Las Vegas hospitality buyers. Designed feature spaces on the floor, from lounges created by design firms to the HD Mainstage, where conference sessions earn AIA and IDCEC continuing education credits, set a high bar for the booths around them.
HD Expo 2027: an education day and a two-day expo hall
HD Expo + Conference 2027 runs May 3 to 5 at Mandalay Bay. May 3 is a pre-conference day built around an expanded HD University, and the expo hall opens only on May 4 and 5. That's a change from 2026, when the show ran May 5 to 7 with three floor days, the last ending at 2 p.m. The organizer says concentrating the floor sharpens traffic and saves exhibitors time, and its 2027 hours page still reads coming soon.
The show is also adding programs to bring in more owners and procurement leaders from the West Coast, Las Vegas, Western Canada, and Latin America, and it's expanding the Hosted Buyer program into facilitated one-to-one meetings. Hosted buyers commit to eight sponsor booth tours and six pre-scheduled meetings, and applications close January 1, 2027. With two days instead of three, a booth needs to handle appointments and walk-ins at the same time.
HD Expo's cubic content rule, heights, and floor covering
HD Expo calls itself a cubic content show, which gives inline booths more room than the usual line-of-sight rule. The 2026 manual set these limits:
- Linear, corner, and end-cap booths: build anywhere in the booth's width and depth, up to 10 feet
- Perimeter booths backing a hall wall: up to 12 feet
- Islands, peninsulas, and split islands: up to 16 feet, except islands only 10 feet deep, such as a 10 by 20, which stay at 10 feet
- Any side touching a neighbor built 3 inches inside the booth line, leaving room for the dividing drape and utility cables
- Backs facing a neighbor finished in a neutral color, with no names, lettering, or graphics
- A no-concrete show: every booth covers its whole floor, or the general contractor carpets it at the exhibitor's expense
- Linear booths come with an 8-foot black back drape, 3-foot side rails, and an 11-by-17-inch ID sign; islands get no drape or sign
HD Expo hanging signs, covered booths, and two-story exhibits
Hanging signs are allowed over islands, split islands, and peninsulas of 400 square feet or more, never over linear or end-cap booths. The top of a sign can reach 25 feet, but at least 5 feet of open air has to separate the highest point of the structure from the bottom of the sign across the whole booth, so a 16-foot booth can't fly a sign lower than 21 feet. Signs went through an approval form, due April 10 in 2026, and shipped to the advance warehouse on hanging-sign labels between April 2 and April 28.
Mandalay Bay is the exclusive rigger for anything weighing 200 pounds or more and for every electrical sign, including the truss, motors, and the power to run them; Freeman hangs lighter, non-electrical pieces, and its structural integrity statement is due before any rigging. Covered booths over 1,000 square feet that stay up more than seven days or contain vehicles, open flame, or hot work need sprinklers. Multi-level and covered exhibits both need a plan signed and sealed by a registered architect or engineer, with a flame-retardant certificate, 60 days before move-in. Lighting stays aimed inside the booth, and drones aren't allowed.
Designing an HD Expo booth that works like a showroom
Buyers at HD Expo are picturing a guest room, a lobby, or a dining room, so the strongest booths stage products in context: a bed wall with its lighting and casegoods, a lounge vignette, a banquette with a table set, or a wall of finishes and fabrics arranged the way a designer would present them. Because a linear booth can use its full footprint to 10 feet, even a 10-by-20 can be built as a room with a ceiling line, as long as the backs facing neighbors stay neutral and the floor is finished wall to wall. Light materials the way they'll be seen in a hotel, and leave a table where a designer and a sales rep can pull samples for a project.
The 2026 rules shape the rest. Only booths of 400 square feet or more may use sound equipment, aimed into the booth and no louder than 80 decibels at the aisle in front. Fog, smoke, and steam machines aren't permitted, display materials must be flame-retardant, and cardboard, crepe paper, and spray painting are banned. Selling merchandise from the booth is prohibited, and a display piece sold during the show stays until the floor closes. Photography is limited to the official photographer or an approved exhibitor-appointed photographer, and children under 16 aren't allowed on the floor.
HD Expo freight, labor, and EAC rules from the 2026 manual
Freeman is the general contractor. Its advance warehouse at 6675 West Sunset Road took crated, boxed, or skidded freight from April 2 to April 28, 2026 without a surcharge, received weekdays from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and wanted certified weight tickets. Every booth gets a targeted freight time based on its location, and direct trucks check in at the marshaling yard at 6555 West Serene Avenue. The target is when freight should arrive, not when labor should start; only freight sent to the warehouse is guaranteed to be in the booth at the target time.
Move-in ran Saturday through Monday, every booth had to be show-ready by 8 a.m. Tuesday, and a clean floor policy had crates tagged and off the floor by 5 p.m. Monday. Nevada is a right-to-work state, so full-time employees can set up their own exhibit, power tools included. An outside builder registers through the EAC management portal (April 6 in 2026), files a certificate of insurance, and pays a $300 administrative fee per booth, and each crew member signs in with photo ID for a new wristband every day. Mandalay Bay supplies electrical, plumbing, and gas, and exhibitors carry $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate in general liability.
An HD Expo 2027 planning timeline
As a working guide, with the 2026 manual's deadlines moved to a show whose floor opens May 4, 2027. The Las Vegas trade show calendar keeps the date, the guide to what a custom booth costs frames the budget, and our Mandalay Bay exhibitor checklist and trade show checklist cover the details:
- Now: returning exhibitors chose 2027 space at the 2026 show, so new exhibitors should ask what's left
- Winter 2026 to 2027: concept and 3D design of the vignettes, inside the cubic content and sign rules
- Early March 2027: sealed drawings for covered or multi-level booths, 60 days before move-in
- Early to mid-April: EAC registration, insurance, discounted Freeman orders (April 6 in 2026), sign approval, and Mandalay Bay utility orders (April 14 in 2026)
- April: freight to the advance warehouse, then targeted move-in in the days before the May 4 opening