AAPEX 2026 Floor Plan, Measured: 2,315 Stands, and Half the Show Is a 10x10

AAPEX and SEMA run the same week in Las Vegas every November, and the industry talks about them as one giant automotive event. Their floor plans say otherwise. We measured every stand on the AAPEX 2026 plan - 2,315 drawn, 2,151 already reserved by 1,996 companies, 545,205 square feet sold as of late August - and the shape of this floor is nothing like SEMA's. What follows is what the plan says, not what the industry says about itself: a show of 10x10s, a 73% no-sign floor, and a size ceiling that stops even the giants at 3,000 square feet.

How we measured this

Every figure below comes from the AAPEX 2026 published floor plan — the same interactive plan any visitor can open on the show’s site. The plan stores each stand’s polygon and area, so every booth yields an exact width, depth, square footage and position.

From the geometry we derive what a booth number alone cannot tell you: how many sides of each stand face an aisle. Open sides set the booth class — inline, corner, peninsula, island — and the class sets the standard display rules: an inline or corner stand is typically limited to about an 8 ft back wall with no hanging sign; peninsulas and islands may go overhead. Counts below use the 2,151 stands marked reserved on the late-August plan; the plan draws 2,315 in total, with 143 still available and 21 on hold.

73% of exhibitors cannot hang a sign

AAPEX packs 1,572 of its 2,151 reserved stands into the two classes that cannot fly overhead signage. Only IMTS 2026, in our dataset, is as restricted.

Read the area column again: the 16% of stands that are islands hold 44.7% of the floor. If you are in the 73%, you will not out-build them — the fight inside an 8 ft back wall is light, contrast and a message readable from the aisle.

Half the show is a 10x10 - and even Bosch stops at 3,000 sq ft

1,127 reserved stands — 52.4% of the show — are 10x10s, and together they hold 20.7% of the floor. But what makes AAPEX unusual is the top end. On most floors a handful of giants dominate: at RE+ 2026 the top 100 stands hold 41.4% of the area. At AAPEX the top 100 hold just 24.7%, and the largest stand on the entire plan is 3,000 sq ft — Bosch, Denso and the Auto Care Association, all at the same size, with East Penn, NOCO and Autel right behind at 2,500.

This is the flattest big floor we have measured. Nobody towers at AAPEX — which cuts both ways: a mid-size exhibitor is closer to the leaders here than at any comparable show, and the leaders have to win on booth quality rather than booth acreage.

Level 1, Level 2 and the AAPEX Forum are three different shows

The plan splits the Venetian Expo into three rooms, and they price out very differently per company.

Level 1 is the 10x10 hall: 902 stands averaging 154 sq ft. Level 2 carries the size — more than half of every measured square foot of exhibit space sits on the upper level and the Forum, and that is where the 3,000 sq ft islands live. Your booth number tells you your room: V-numbers from 19,000 up are Level 1, V-numbers below 8,600 are Level 2, F-numbers are the Forum.

Across the street, SEMA is the opposite floor

Same week, five minutes apart, two floors built on opposite philosophies. Figures for SEMA are from our own measurement of the SEMA 2026 plan (re-pulled late August, 2,454 drawn stands).

SEMA is a builder’s show — big islands, overhead rigging, spectacle. AAPEX is a catalog show — thousands of parts makers in compact stands. If you exhibit at both, the same booth strategy cannot serve the two floors: SEMA rewards height and area; AAPEX rewards whatever reads from six feet away in a 10-foot frontage.

Still open on the late-August plan

As of our August 29 pull, 143 stands were still marked available: 87 on Level 1, 32 on Level 2, 24 in the Forum. Most are corners (65) and inlines (37), median 100 sq ft — but 12 small islands were still open, including 220 sq ft corners-of-the-aisle positions that carry hanging-sign rights the 10x10 rows around them do not have. If you are booking AAPEX late, an island at 10x22 beats a 10x10 in the middle of a row by more than the size difference suggests.

What this means if you are exhibiting at AAPEX 2026

• You probably cannot go overhead, so win the back wall. In a 10x10 with an 8 ft cap, an edge-lit SEG lightbox or an LED poster is the difference between a lit stand and wallpaper.
• Check your booth-number band before you plan. V19000+ means Level 1 and a 154-sq-ft average peer group; V1–V8500 means Level 2, where the average neighbour is twice your size.
• If you hold an island or peninsula, use the air. Only 27% of the floor may hang a sign; on the flattest big floor we have measured, a hanging sign or a 2mm-pitch LED wall is visible leverage nobody can out-spend by much.
• Vegas logistics still apply. The Venetian Expo has its own dock, drayage and rigging rules — tell us your booth number and we will quote to them.

Frequently asked

What percentage of AAPEX exhibitors can have a hanging sign?

About 27% - the 349 island and 230 peninsula stands on the 2026 plan. The other 73.1% are inline or corner stands, typically limited to around an 8 ft back wall with no overhead signage. The class is set by how many sides of the stand face an aisle.

How big is the typical AAPEX booth?

The median reserved stand on the AAPEX 2026 plan is 100 sq ft - a 10x10. Just over half the show (1,127 of 2,151 reserved stands) is exactly that size, and the largest stand on the plan is 3,000 sq ft.

Is SEMA bigger than AAPEX?

On the floor plans, yes - about 2.3x. The SEMA 2026 plan draws roughly 1.31 million sq ft at the Las Vegas Convention Center against AAPEX's 567,245 sq ft at the Venetian Expo, and SEMA's median stand (300 sq ft) is three times AAPEX's (100 sq ft). They run the same week, November 3-6 and 3-5, 2026.

Are booths still available for AAPEX 2026?

On the show's own plan as of August 29, 2026, 143 stands were still marked available - mostly 100 sq ft corners and inlines on Level 1, plus a dozen small islands. Availability changes daily; check the official AAPEX floor plan for the current state.