Automation Fair 2026

What is Automation Fair 2026, and who runs it?

Automation Fair 2026 is run by Rockwell Automation and takes place November 16-19, 2026 at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston. The 2026 edition carries a Future in Focus theme, and the organiser projects more than 14,000 attendees across four days. It is a vendor flagship, not an open trade show. The next edition moves to Chicago in 2027.

Who should attend or exhibit at Automation Fair 2026?

Rockwell frames the event for manufacturers, engineers, operations leaders, IT/OT professionals, executives and technology decision-makers advancing industrial operations. The program spans industrial AI, smart manufacturing, cybersecurity, digital transformation, workforce development, software and connected operations. Attendance covers 4 non-stop days in Boston. On the sell side, exhibiting is open only to Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program members, so partners and their customers fill the room.

When is Automation Fair 2026, and what are the daily hours?

Automation Fair 2026 runs November 16-19, 2026, opening Monday, November 16 and closing Thursday, November 19. Registration is staffed 6:30am-5:00pm each day. The expo floor runs three of the four days: 9:45am-5:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, then 8:30am-4:00pm on Thursday. Keynotes anchor every morning except Monday, whose keynote sits at 1:00pm-2:15pm.

How do the four Automation Fair days differ?

Monday, November 16 has no expo floor: its keynote runs 1:00pm-2:15pm after the morning summits. Tuesday and Wednesday are the full floor days, 9:45am-5:00pm, each led off by an 8:30am-9:45am keynote. Thursday, November 19 is the shorter close, with the floor open 8:30am-4:00pm. Long demonstrations fit the two midweek days; Thursday suits a decision or second meeting.

Where is Automation Fair 2026 held in Boston?

The venue is the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center (MCEC), at 415 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210. Rockwell and PartnerNetwork exhibits occupy 500,000 square feet of expo space that stays open across three full days. Stand positions and the hall layout sit on the official View Expo Map tool rather than a printed plan.

How do attendees reach the Boston convention center?

The center sits in Boston, MA, close to the waterfront and the main airport. Boston Logan International Airport is approximately 4 miles from the venue, the nearest of three options. Manchester-Boston Regional Airport is approximately 53 miles out, and Rhode Island T.F. Green is approximately 58 miles away. The two outer airports suit connecting fares when Logan is full.

What do Automation Fair 2026 passes cost?

A General Access pass is $495 at the early rate, $795 in the advanced window and $895 onsite. The General Access plus Advanced Training pass runs $1595 early, $1895 in the advanced window and $2295 onsite, and it adds the Professional Development Hour credits. Media, analysts, students, speakers and educators register at no charge.

What badge, tour and visa rules apply at Automation Fair?

A General Access pass carries admission to all 4 days, including keynotes, the expo, summits and off-site tours. Complimentary registration is set aside for media, analysts, students, speakers and educators. Off-site tours are capped at one Off-site Tour per qualifying attendee, and distributors, students and educators are unable to register for tours. International visitors can request a visa letter through the Create Visa Letter resource.

Where do Automation Fair attendees stay in Boston?

Maritz Global Events is the official housing company for the 2026 edition. Rockwell has negotiated discounted rates at a selection of official event hotels in Boston near the center. Rooms open at the discounted rate after you register, and a credit card is required for guarantee. Published nightly rates and the hotel list are not posted on the public pages, so the housing portal holds them.

What arrival and departure plan protects Automation Fair floor time?

The first keynote opens Monday at 1:00pm-2:15pm and the floor closes Thursday at 8:30am-4:00pm. With Boston Logan approximately 4 miles from the venue, a short transfer fits either end. A Sunday or early Monday arrival clears the opening keynote, and a Thursday evening flight clears the final floor hour without a sixth hotel night.

Set an event arrival and departure window.

Which companies and sectors exhibit at Automation Fair 2026?

The organiser invites attendees to meet 150+ exhibitors across the Rockwell and PartnerNetwork floor. Confirmed 2026 names include FANUC America Corporation at booth 1415, Cisco Systems Inc. at booth 1067 and Fortinet at booth 1119. Endress+Hauser sits at booth 543. Listings are grouped into product categories such as Industrial Cybersecurity.

How can teams work the Automation Fair exhibitor directory?

The directory groups the 150+ exhibitors by product category. The categories include Industrial Cybersecurity, Process Solutions and Manufacturing AI, and the floor runs to 500,000 square feet. The official View Expo Map pins each stand. Filtering by the category that matches a target account narrows a long floor to a short route, because the categories map to the buyer problem rather than the brand name.

Which keynotes, tracks and sessions matter at Automation Fair 2026?

The organiser lists more than 250 educational sessions alongside the keynotes. Monday opens with Colonel Chris Hadfield, Tuesday features Chairman and CEO Blake Moret, and Wednesday brings Adam Savage, with a fireside chat alongside NVIDIA's Rev Lebaredian. Featured tracks include Optimizing Operations with AI & Edge-to-Cloud Data and Securing OT & Industrial Systems. On the floor, the Discovery Theater runs short presentations.

How many Automation Fair expo floor hours are open for meetings?

The expo is open 9:45am-5:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 8:30am-4:00pm on Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday give 7.25 hours each and Thursday 7.5, so the floor offers about 22 hours in total. Those windows sit after each morning keynote, so the richest meeting blocks are late morning and afternoon.

Map bookable floor windows for a show.

Who attends Automation Fair, and does the audience fit the ICP?

Rockwell projects more than 14,000 attendees, and its exhibitor page counts 14,000+ attendees including executives and technical professionals. The named roles are manufacturers, engineers, operations leaders, IT/OT professionals, executives and technology decision-makers. That is an operations and engineering room rather than a pure procurement crowd. Open networking sits in the Connection Zone through the floor days.

Which exhibitor accounts have booth locations at Automation Fair?

Named 2026 stands give a route through the hall: FANUC America Corporation at booth 1415, Cisco Systems Inc. at booth 1067, Fortinet at booth 1119 and Endress+Hauser at booth 543. Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories sits at booth 1714, and distributor Wesco is at booth D-3. These are exhibiting companies, not a registered-attendee list.

What do the Automation Fair Session Catalog and Expo Map do?

The published planning tools are the online Session Catalog and the View Expo Map. The Session Catalog lists the program by track, such as Optimizing Operations with AI & Edge-to-Cloud Data, so an agenda can be built before arrival. ROK Studios adds an on-site broadcast studio that streams floor content. These are planning and broadcast tools, not a lead-capture product.

Where does the Automation Fair planner stop and lead capture begin?

The attendee-facing planning tools are published: the Session Catalog and the View Expo Map organise the program and the hall. What is not published for 2026 is any exhibitor-side lead-capture or badge-scanning product. Exhibitor logistics sit inside the PartnerNetwork portal, so the capture half of the workflow cannot be described from the current public pages as of October 29, 2026.

What is known about the cost of exhibiting at Automation Fair?

Participation is limited to Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program members, and the public pages set deadlines rather than prices. Exhibit and sponsorship sales opened March 17, sponsorship sign-up closed August 31 and exhibitor sign-up closed September 30. The floor runs to 500,000 square feet, and new sponsor options include a podcast recording studio and ROKathon. No booth rate or square-foot price is posted publicly.

How should a booth cover the three Automation Fair expo days?

The floor is open 9:45am-5:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday and 8:30am-4:00pm on Thursday, about 22 hours in all. At B2Brain's benchmark of 31 scans per productive rep-day, two reps cover 62 scans a day, or 186 across the three expo days. Staffing follows from that number rather than from booth size alone.

Size booth staffing from floor hours.

What official lead-retrieval tool does Automation Fair 2026 offer?

No official lead-retrieval vendor, device, price or order form is named for the 2026 edition in the reviewed public sources. The floor is reserved for Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program members, and exhibitor service materials sit behind that portal, so there is no current-edition order form or service kit to name a provider. The capture tool is unconfirmed as of October 29, 2026.

What can an Automation Fair capture tool record, and what are its limits?

Because no official capture product is named for 2026, its captured fields, export formats, device limits and price are not documented in the public pages. Any such specification lives in the partner exhibitor portal, which the current sources do not expose. A description of fields or limits here would be unsupported, so none is offered pending a published order form.

Is B2Brain an alternative to an Automation Fair capture tool?

A product-by-product comparison needs a named official capture tool with documented functions, and the 2026 edition publishes none. B2Brain can organise target-account research and preserve the Salesforce cloud footprint, business process and buying role alongside the contact record, which is what makes a follow-up specific. A head-to-head claim against an unnamed show tool would not be grounded.

Which Automation Fair capture workflow is documented for exhibitors?

The reviewed 2026 pages document the attendee program and the exhibitor eligibility rule, but not an exhibitor-side capture, export or data-handling workflow. That workflow sits in the PartnerNetwork portal, outside the public sources checked on October 29, 2026. The honest position is that the exhibitor capture path is undocumented publicly, not that it is absent.

What should reps capture in every Automation Fair conversation?

The named roles are manufacturers, engineers, operations leaders, IT/OT professionals, executives and technology decision-makers. The program covers industrial AI, smart manufacturing, cybersecurity, digital transformation, workforce development and connected operations. A useful note records the plant, the role, the current system, the constraint and the agreed next step, tied to the category that fits, such as Industrial Cybersecurity or Process Solutions.

How can teams judge Automation Fair lead quality on the floor?

Rockwell projects more than 14,000 attendees against more than 150 interactive exhibits, roughly 93 attendees per exhibit as a broad event-level ratio. B2Brain reports 52% Leads-to-Meeting, meetings booked divided by qualified booth leads, on the floor against an 8% industry average for post-event follow-up. A qualified note beats a raw scan count.

Judge booth lead quality against a benchmark.

When should Automation Fair follow-up start?

The expo's final hours run 8:30am-4:00pm on Thursday, November 19, and one week on is Thursday, November 26. B2Brain reports conversation-to-conversion probability of about 85% within two hours and about 9% after one week. Routing that begins on the floor, not the following week, catches the earlier window rather than the later one.

Set dated follow-up windows after a show.

Can Automation Fair booth ROI be calculated from public sources?

No booth rate, package price or square-foot rate is published for the 2026 edition, even though the expo floor runs to 500,000 square feet. Participation stays within Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program members, and the exhibitor prospectus did not render, so seller deal value and conversion rate stay private. A public cost-per-meeting or ROI figure cannot be computed, so it is omitted rather than invented.