Automotive Design & In-Cabin Expo North America 2026

What changed for the Novi design and cabin expo in 2026?

Automotive Design & In-Cabin Expo North America runs October 27 to 29, 2026, at Vibe Credit Union Showplace in Novi, Michigan, USA. The organiser says it was formerly known as Automotive Interiors Expo, a change that broadens the scope from trim and materials to digital cockpits, exterior design and vehicle interfaces. It is part of four co-located events within Vehicle Tech Week.

The name change matters because the same visit can connect cabin decisions with neighbouring testing and intelligent vehicle disciplines. The current page should be read as a design and cabin briefing, rather than as a description of every co-located show.

Which vehicle design roles meet at the Novi expo?

The organiser's audience profile explicitly includes VP, Interior Engineering and Head of Interior Design roles. It also lists Digital Cockpit Programme Managers and Procurement and Commercial Leads. That mix makes the expo relevant to a supplier whose material, display or interface proposal needs both a design champion and a route into commercial evaluation.

The profile names titles, but does not quantify how many people hold each role. It describes intended participants rather than an audited 2026 attendance breakdown.

What are the October 27 to 29 show hours?

Automotive Design & In-Cabin Expo North America is scheduled for October 27 to 29, 2026. The exhibition opens 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday closes earlier, at 3:00 PM after a 9:00 AM opening. These are expo hours; individual conference sessions use their own published start times.

| Day | Public expo hours | | --- | --- | | Tuesday, October 27 | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM | | Wednesday, October 28 | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM | | Thursday, October 29 | 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM |

How does the three-day design programme unfold?

The free 3-day design conference spans the full expo period. Tuesday includes Vehicle Interior Design in the Age of AI and a Networking Reception on the show floor sponsored by Dewesoft. Wednesday turns to the Bridging the SDV validation Gap session, among other cockpit topics. The closing day has only 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM of public floor time, making it the shortest exhibition day.

The sequence moves from design direction and lighting into software-led cabin questions, while the shared floor remains open for supplier demonstrations.

Where are the design expo stands inside Vibe Showplace?

The 2026 event is at Vibe Credit Union Showplace, 46100 Grand River Avenue in Novi. The public directory gives stand examples such as Endeavor Composites at A114 and Hirosawa Automotive Trim at A109. The app says it can Explore the floor plan, but the separate public show-layout URL reviewed on October 8 returned a 404 page.

An expo-specific hall boundary or complete booth grid was therefore not independently readable. The stand numbers and app function establish a route to floor planning without supporting a drawn hall map in this briefing.

How do visitors get from Detroit to the Novi venue?

The organiser identifies Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) as the closest major airport, about 25 miles (40 km) from the site. Its travel page places the venue off I-96 at Novi Road. The venue says paid parking passes allow in and out privileges during the day. This supports car or rideshare planning without implying a free parking entitlement.

The official venue directions page also warns about construction, lane and ramp closures. The event site's separate arriving-by-car page describes Stuttgart, so its German directions were excluded from this Novi plan.

What registration and press access are available?

The official site invites registration for a free expo pass. The organiser describes the design conference as a free 3-day programme, with access through that expo registration. Its press page offers a free press pass to active media professionals. Those are different admission routes, and neither source states a paid general-conference tier for this edition.

Automotive Design & In-Cabin Expo North America is trade-only for people aged 16+ according to the FAQ. The public source does not explain cancellation or badge transfer rules.

What age and badge conditions apply at the expo?

The organiser describes a trade-only event for registrants aged 16+ at Automotive Design & In-Cabin Expo North America. It also advertises a free expo pass. The FAQ gives the address as 46100 Grand River Avenue, which is useful when matching a badge confirmation to the correct Novi venue.

As of October 8, the public FAQ did not publish badge transfer, cancellation or replacement terms. Those terms cannot be inferred from free admission, and this briefing carries no invented policy. International access requirements are likewise a separate matter from the expo's trade and age rules.

Which official hotels serve the Novi expo?

The organiser identifies FHTGlobal as the 2026 official housing bureau and lists uki-us@fht.global as its contact. The venue describes Hyatt Place Detroit/Novi as attached to the Showplace. This establishes the official booking route and one on-site hotel, rather than a ranked list of current room offers.

The readable public housing page did not show nightly prices, cut-off dates or a complete hotel inventory on October 8. Any quoted rate would require the current booking portal and cannot be stated as a published event price here.

What travel timing protects the opening hours?

Tuesday starts at 9:00 AM and runs to 5:00 PM, giving a full eight-hour floor window. Thursday also starts at 9:00 AM but ends at 3:00 PM, so a late arrival removes a larger share of the final day. The organiser puts Detroit Metropolitan Airport about 25 miles (40 km) from the venue.

Venue parking passes allow in and out privileges, which can support an off-site appointment between floor visits. The venue's warning about construction, lane and ramp closures makes the drive-time buffer more important than a simple distance estimate.

Which cabin suppliers and technologies appear on the floor?

The 2026 directory lists Endeavor Composites, Flocktex Inc, Hirosawa Automotive Trim and Accuride International among its visible exhibitors. The product taxonomy reaches from Recycled Fabrics and Materials to Haptic Feedback Technology. These are concrete signs of a material and interface mix, rather than a claim that every listed supplier sells to the same buyer.

The directory's public first page is a snapshot, and its pagination does not by itself establish a final exhibitor count.

How complete is the live exhibitor directory?

The public exhibitor directory names Endeavor Composites and Flocktex Inc, with stand A114 shown for Endeavor. Hirosawa Automotive Trim appears at A109. These entries are useful for account research because a company and physical stand can be linked before the expo opens.

The reviewed directory exposed paginated entries but no downloadable complete roster or verified total as of October 8. Consequently, its first visible page cannot support a claim about total exhibitors or share of a target segment.

Which design and cabin sessions are on the 2026 agenda?

The organiser calls its Vehicle Design & Cabin programme a free 3-day conference. Tuesday lists Vehicle Interior Design in the Age of AI with Paul Snyder, and New Developments in SAE's Ground Vehicle Lighting Standards. Wednesday includes Bridging the SDV validation Gap with Manoj Kumar. These named sessions cover studio, lighting and software validation concerns without treating the shared week as a single generic track.

The published agenda also lists floor formats and speakers, while session details may continue to change before October 27.

When can design teams meet suppliers around sessions?

The official app offers Book meetings before arrival, and the expo floor remains open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Tuesday. The programme lists a Networking Reception on the show floor sponsored by Dewesoft at the end of that day. Thursday runs 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, so its final supplier conversations have a shorter public window.

This makes Tuesday useful for both scheduled appointments and the published reception, while Thursday is better described as a closing window than another full show day.

Does the audience include design and procurement decision makers?

The organiser's named roles span VP, Interior Engineering, Head of Interior Design and Digital Cockpit Programme Managers. Procurement and Commercial Leads are also part of the stated audience. That combination fits products requiring design evaluation, technical integration and a commercial discussion, particularly in cockpit and interior programmes.

The title list supports audience fit by function. It does not prove seniority distribution, procurement budget or the number of buyers expected on the floor.

Can exhibitors size a target-account list from published counts?

The organiser projects 100+ product offerings and 3000+ industry professionals, but these are promotional figures on the event homepage. The live directory supplies named companies such as Endeavor Composites, yet not a verified total comparable with that attendance projection for this edition.

An attendees-per-exhibitor ratio would mix unlike denominators and imply more precision than the sources provide. The current evidence supports a company-by-company target list, while an audited buyer or exhibitor count remained unpublished in the reviewed public sources on October 8.

What can the Vehicle Tech Week app organise?

The official Vehicle Tech Week North America 2026 app is live and free to download. It offers Book meetings and Browse exhibitors functions. The organiser also lists Explore the floor plan, so routes can be assembled alongside appointments and sessions. These are planning features for the co-located event, including this design and cabin expo.

No public app description in the reviewed source specifies booth lead fields, scanner hardware or CRM exports. Those would require a different product specification.

Does the official app also capture qualified booth leads?

The current app description confirms Book meetings, Browse exhibitors and Explore the floor plan. Those functions can prepare a visit and locate suppliers, but they do not establish what happens to a booth conversation after a badge is read. The public 2026 exhibitor portal and app page reviewed on October 8 did not name an official capture product.

No scanner data fields, consent text or export format can be attributed to the app from those pages. The distinction matters for a team recording design requirements rather than appointments alone.

What is the published price of a 2026 booth?

The organiser routes stand discussions through event director Aaron Dombey and asks about stand size, location, or setup. Its exhibitor portal refers to an Exhibitor Manual, but that document is behind a login in the public view. The reviewed public inquiry and portal pages did not show a per-square-foot price, corner premium or service-rate calendar as of October 8.

This is a procurement gap, not evidence that exhibiting has no charge. Sponsorship options are also handled through an inquiry rather than a public rate card.

How many staffed floor hours does this show offer?

Tuesday and Wednesday each run 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or eight public floor hours per day. Thursday runs 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, adding six. The total is 22 hours across the three-day expo; two staffed representatives cover 44 rep-hours if both remain on duty throughout. The number is a scheduling capacity, not a forecast of qualified conversations. See the floor-hour planning method.

Which lead scanner is official for this expo?

The 2026 public Exhibitor Manual is referenced in a login-only portal, while the booth inquiry route goes through Aaron Dombey. Neither readable page names a contracted scanner, order form or badge-data provider for Automotive Design & In-Cabin Expo North America. The event app lists Book meetings, not an official scanner.

As of October 8, the vendor identity remains unconfirmed. The page therefore cannot name one or assign scanner features to a third party.

What data can the official booth scanner export?

The free 2026 app is described as a planning tool, with Book meetings among its published features. The exhibitor portal points to an Exhibitor Manual behind login. Those sources do not expose the official lead-capture specification, if one exists, so badge fields and export options have no verified basis here.

In particular, neither a contact-only export nor a richer qualification record can be promised for the organiser's unnamed tool. This evidence status is current to October 8.

How does B2Brain compare with the unnamed show scanner?

The event's public app supports Book meetings, and the public Exhibitor Manual sits behind the exhibitor portal. The booth inquiry is managed by Aaron Dombey rather than a published scanner vendor page. Those facts are insufficient for a feature-by-feature comparison with an official product.

The structured comparison on this draft therefore labels the event-side capture position "On your own" and limits itself to known app functions. It does not imply that the organiser has selected or rejected any particular scanner.

Can exhibitors choose a scanner based on the current service kit?

The public booth route asks about stand size, location, or setup, while the Exhibitor Manual is visible only as an E-zone resource. Aaron Dombey is the named event director for the inquiry. No current public kit was readable with scanner price, order deadline or data terms on October 8.

Without those inputs, a cost or compatibility rule for using an official device alongside another capture workflow would be speculative. The draft records the decision dependency without presenting an invented tool choice.

Which qualification details fit cabin design conversations?

The organiser's audience includes VP, Interior Engineering, Digital Cockpit Programme Managers and Procurement and Commercial Leads. Its product areas include Recycled Fabrics and Materials, Human-Machine Interface (HMI) and Haptic Feedback Technology. A useful conversation record can therefore distinguish design ownership, cockpit platform, material or interface requirement, purchase role and the next evaluation step.

Those fields follow the published mix of roles and exhibits. They do not require an assumed badge scanner to be meaningful.

Can the show floor support a defensible lead-quality estimate?

The homepage projects 100+ product offerings and 3000+ industry professionals; it does not present audited buyer counts. Tuesday's 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM floor window establishes time available, but not how many suitable buyers visit a given stand. The directory likewise lacks a reliable final denominator in the public view.

A visitors-per-booth or qualified-leads-per-hour prediction would overstate the evidence. The page uses named roles and products to describe fit, while leaving conversion estimates to actual conversations and subsequent measurement.

When should leads from the final day be followed up?

The expo runs October 27 to 29, 2026, and Thursday floor access runs 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. A same-day follow-up window therefore begins after 3:00 PM on October 29; one week later is November 5. The Networking Reception on the show floor sponsored by Dewesoft supplies an earlier meeting point, but it does not change the final close. See the date-based follow-up method.

Which inputs would make the show’s pipeline return calculable?

The organiser projects 100+ product offerings and 3000+ professionals, neither of which is a booth-spend figure. Its current exhibitor inquiry names Aaron Dombey but does not publish a price. The missing inputs include a quoted stand and service budget, a planned meeting target and observed qualification outcomes.

The absence of a public booth rate means this briefing cannot calculate cost per meeting or return on spend. It can describe the measurement fields without giving a speculative ROI number.