Who exhibits and buys at Licensing Expo
Informa Markets organizes Licensing Expo, with Licensing International as sponsor, and says the show has connected entertainment, character, art, and corporate brand owners and agents with manufacturers, licensees, and retailers for more than 40 years. Its facts page counts more than 5,000 brands on display, more than 10,000 unique attendees, more than 8,400 meetings booked through its online platform, and retail at 18 percent of attendance.
Brands on the floor range from animation, gaming, sports, music, and publishing to fashion, food and beverage, health and beauty, colleges and universities, and nonprofit heritage names. It's trade only, no one under 18 is allowed in the exhibit halls, and the organizer says security spot-checks IDs at the entrance.
Licensing Expo 2027 dates and the Bayside halls
Licensing Expo 2027 runs May 25 to 27 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center. For reference, the 2026 show ran Tuesday through Thursday, May 19 to 21, with the floor open 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. the first two days and until 3:30 p.m. on the last; exhibitors could enter at 8 a.m. and stay 30 minutes after close.
The main exhibit hall, with booths, activations, and education theaters, sits in the Bayside halls on the casino level of the South Convention Center. More meeting space, studio showcases, and events use the South Convention Center's second floor and the North Convention Center. Showcases are invitation only and run by the studios, so a brand planning its own program should decide early what happens in the booth and what happens in a separate room.
Licensing Expo booth heights and the open-visibility rule
The 2026 display regulations set the limits below. End caps, peninsulas, split islands, and islands all submitted drawings with a booth review form, due April 20 in 2026; reviews take up to four days, and an approval covered that year's show only:
- Islands: 18 feet, or 24 feet for islands of 3,000 square feet or more
- Islands, peninsulas, and split islands: 25 percent of the perimeter kept open, with walls no taller than 3 feet or clear panels, in addition to a 10-foot-wide entrance
- Clear panels stay clear: no tint, frosting, graphics, blinds, or curtains
- Peninsulas backing linear booths: the center 10 feet of the back wall up to 16 feet, the outer 5 feet on each side at 4 feet, and 4 feet within 5 feet of the side aisles
- Split islands: 16 feet, with the back of the shared wall finished and free of graphics above 8 feet
- Linear booths: 8 feet in the back half and 4 feet toward the aisle, 12 feet on the perimeter, with no hanging signs or overhead fascia
- Art and design linear booths order a specific hardwall package and may use the whole booth up to 8 feet
Licensing Expo hanging signs, rigging, and lights out
Islands, split islands, and peninsulas of 20 by 20 or larger can hang signs or banners up to 24 feet, no wider than the booth and finished on both sides, and on split islands and peninsulas a logo facing a neighbor is set back 10 feet from the shared back wall. Signs above 24 feet are considered only for exhibitors with more than 4,000 square feet, and only in certain parts of the hall. The request, with a drawing and the size and weight of every piece, was due April 20 in 2026.
Rigging splits three ways: GES hangs non-electrical signs under 200 pounds, Edlen Electrical hangs electrical signs under 200 pounds, rotators included, and Encore handles anything heavier or on motorized truss, working from a detailed diagram. GES may ask for an engineer-stamped plan for hanging signs and complex designs. An exhibitor with an island can also ask to turn off the hall lights above the booth, a written request due May 1 in 2026, with Mandalay Bay charging $50 per light for the labor.
Designing a Licensing Expo booth for meetings and characters
A licensing booth sells a portfolio. Brand owners and agents usually need a wall or screen for each property on offer, product samples from current licensees that show what the brand can become, and as many meeting seats as the footprint allows, since licensees and retailers book back-to-back appointments. Enclosed meeting rooms have to live with the open-visibility rule, so glass or clear panels and low walls do much of the work, and any fully enclosed room needs two exits to the aisle, a smoke detector, and a fire extinguisher.
Characters and crowds need planning too. A costumed character must belong to an exhibitor, needs a submitted form, and has to keep moving through the aisles or stay in the booth, with a guide recommended and both badged as exhibitors. Celebrity appearances go through their own application. Demonstrations and lines stay inside the booth, sound stays under 80 decibels measured from the aisle, with three warnings before power is cut for the day, and anything handed out beyond the booth is a paid sponsorship. Hall floors are rated for 350 pounds per square foot, which matters for heavy displays.
Better Stands and reusable builds at Licensing Expo
Informa's Better Stands program asks exhibitors to replace single-use booths with reusable and recyclable structures, graded bronze, silver, and gold. Its criteria run from a reusable structure, walls, raised floors, furniture, AV, and lighting through recyclable signage and banners, reusable graphics and rigging, and reused carpet. Licensing Expo's one-page guide says the show set a bronze-level goal and that clause 19 of the exhibitor contract covers the commitment.
The show's sustainability guide adds practical asks: design the stand so its structure is used again, choose FSC-certified lumber and low-VOC paint and glue, use LED lighting, skip foam packing peanuts, and break down cardboard for recycling. A modular booth with swappable graphics suits this show anyway, because portfolios change every year while the frame, counters, and meeting furniture don't, so exhibit storage between shows belongs in the plan. Leaving a booth behind costs money too: exhibitors who abandon booth properties are charged for removal and disposal.
Licensing Expo move-in, GES freight, and labor
GES is the general contractor. In 2026 its advance warehouse at 7000 Lindell Road accepted freight from April 15 through May 8 without surcharges, with carriers checked in by 2 p.m. for same-day unloading. Targeted move-in ran Friday through Monday, May 15 to 18, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no direct shipments before the first day, and a clean floor policy cleared wood crates by 4 p.m. Sunday and cartons and pallets by 3 p.m. Monday. A booth still empty at 8 a.m. on opening day was presumed abandoned. Move-out ran from 3:30 p.m. on closing day to noon Saturday, and parcel carriers such as UPS and FedEx don't collect at the docks.
Teamsters Local 631 handles freight and any exhibit installation not done by your own full-time employees. Exhibitors can plug in up to four small clip-on lights; electricians take over beyond one 20-amp, 120-volt circuit, and stagehands install LED walls and programmable lighting. An outside builder needs the organizer's EAC form and a certificate of insurance (April 20 in 2026), plus the GES notice of intent and agreement, which GES requires 30 days before move-in. EACs must be union signatories doing display work only, and one person collects wristbands for the crew, good for all of move-in but not for show days.
A Licensing Expo 2027 planning timeline
As a rough guide, with the 2026 deadlines shifted to a show that opens May 25, 2027. The Las Vegas trade show calendar keeps the date, the RFP template helps compare builders, and the trade show checklist covers the rest:
- Winter 2026 to 2027: book space and settle the mix of meeting rooms, property walls, and character or signing areas
- Early spring: concept and 3D design inside the visibility and height rules, sized for the property lineup
- Mid- to late April: booth review drawings, sign and vehicle requests, and EAC forms (April 20 in 2026)
- Late April to early May: discounted orders (April 28 for Mandalay Bay and April 30 for GES in 2026), early-access and character forms, and freight to the warehouse
- May: targeted move-in over the days before the May 25 opening