Exhibiting at McCormick Place: A Practical Guide for First-Timers

McCormick Place is the largest convention center in North America, and exhibiting there for the first time is a meaningfully different experience from a regional show. Most of the difficulty is not the venue itself — it is the rules, the jurisdictions, and the costs that are not obvious until you are already committed. Here is the practical briefing.

One caveat throughout: the definitive source for your show is always the exhibitor manual issued by show management, not general guidance. Rules vary event to event within the same building. Read it early, because most of the expensive mistakes are deadline mistakes.

Booth types and what you can build

Your booth type determines what you are permitted to construct, and it is the first thing to check.

• Linear (inline) booths — open on one side, typically 10 feet deep. Height is generally capped at 8 feet along the back wall, with side areas restricted to around 4 feet so you do not block neighbors. Hanging signs are not permitted.
• Peninsula booths — open on three sides, typically 20x20 minimum. Hanging signs are commonly permitted up to 20 feet to the top of the sign.
• Island booths — open on all four sides. Hanging signs are commonly permitted up to 25 feet to the top of the sign.

Those height figures are typical rather than universal — confirm against your manual. What is universal: nothing goes above the stated maximum. That includes signage, banners, truss, lighting, and display structure.

The rule that catches people out is the hanging sign eligibility threshold. Booths generally need to be at least 20 feet by 20 feet to qualify, and every hanging item requires show management approval in advance. If a hanging sign is central to your booth concept, verify eligibility before you design around it, not after.

Union jurisdiction: the part that surprises everyone

Chicago venues operate with defined labor jurisdictions. Certain work must be performed by union labor regardless of whether your team is capable of doing it. This is not negotiable on the show floor, and arguing about it costs you setup time you do not have.

The most consequential jurisdiction for exhibitors: anything that leaves the floor and goes overhead — hanging signs, lighting truss, suspended structures — falls under IATSE. You will not be rigging your own sign.

Other work — freight handling, electrical, and depending on scope, booth installation and dismantle — has its own jurisdictions. There are usually allowances permitting exhibitor staff to set up smaller booths themselves within defined limits, but the limits are specific and stated in the manual.

The practical implication is budgetary. Labor is a line item you must plan for, and it is materially cheaper ordered in advance than arranged on-site.

Drayage: budget for it properly

Drayage — officially material handling — is the charge for moving your freight from the dock to your booth space and back. It is billed by weight, usually per hundredweight with a minimum, and it is routinely the single most surprising cost on a first invoice.

Two things reduce it:

1. Ship lighter. This is where display choice becomes a financial decision. A tension fabric backwall that packs into one bag costs meaningfully less to handle than a crated system of equivalent size, every single show.
2. Consolidate shipments. Multiple small deliveries arriving separately each incur handling. One consolidated shipment is cheaper than four boxes from four suppliers.

Also understand the difference between shipping to the advance warehouse (arrives before the show, generally cheaper and lower-risk) and direct to show site (arrives during a narrow move-in window, higher risk if anything is delayed). For a first show, advance warehouse is almost always the right call.

Order services early — the deadlines are real

Electrical, internet, rigging, furniture, and labor all have advance-order deadlines, and prices step up sharply once they pass. The difference between ordering electrical three weeks out and ordering it on-site can be double.

Put every deadline in the manual into a calendar the week you receive it. This single habit saves more money than any other piece of show preparation.

Designing for the space you actually have

A few things that consistently separate booths that work from booths that do not at a venue this size:

• Sightlines are long. Aisles are wide and halls are enormous. Your primary message needs to be legible from across the aisle, not from three feet away. One clear message in large type beats four competing ones.
• Overhead lighting is not enough. Hall lighting is functional and unflattering. Booths without their own lighting read as dim next to booths that have it — this is the highest-return upgrade per dollar available.
• Floors are concrete. Ten hours a day standing on unpadded concrete is genuinely punishing. Padded flooring is as much a staff-welfare decision as an aesthetic one.
• Bring spares. Zip ties, gaffer tape, a multi-tool, spare bulbs, and a power strip. Something always needs improvising.

The other Chicago venues

McCormick Place is not the only game in town. The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont is smaller, considerably easier to load into, and close to O'Hare. Navy Pier hosts a different profile of event with its own constraints. Rules and jurisdictions differ at each — do not assume what you learned at one applies at another.

Why working with a local exhibit house helps here

The advantage is not primarily the hardware — it is proximity when something goes wrong. A cracked frame, a graphic that shipped to the wrong hall, or a panel damaged in transit is a survivable problem when your supplier is twenty minutes away in Bensenville, and a show-ending one when they are in another state.

We are at 546 York Road in Bensenville, close to O'Hare and a straightforward run to all three venues. We deliver, install, and — when needed — turn up mid-show with the part that broke.

If you are exhibiting in Chicago for the first time, talk to us early — ideally before you finalize the booth design. Most of the expensive mistakes are made at the design stage, and they are all avoidable.