IMTS 2026 Floor Plan, Measured: 1,638 Stands and a 73% No-Sign Floor

We measured every booth on the IMTS 2026 floor plan, the same plan any visitor can open on the show's own site: 1,638 stands across five exhibit levels at McCormick Place, 1,562 companies, 1,175,085 square feet of reserved floor. Among the seven floors we have measured this way, only PACK EXPO International's is bigger - and no floor has a larger average stand, because nothing else concentrates giants the way IMTS does. IMTS runs September 14-19, 2026, and the plan we measured on August 3 was nearly sold out: 38 stands available and 11 on hold, out of 1,638. It broke two of the patterns every other floor had set.

How we measured this

Every figure comes from the IMTS 2026 published floor plan, the interactive plan the show hosts for attendees. Booth polygons are stored in inches, so each stand gives an exact width, depth, square footage and position on the floor.

From the coordinates we derive the thing a booth number cannot tell you: how many sides of each stand face an aisle. A side is closed if another booth runs along it and open if it faces the aisle - 1 open side is inline (no hanging sign under standard rules), 2 is a corner, 3 is a peninsula, 4 is an island with full height and sign rights.

Checks before we trusted any of it: dimensions land on clean machine-tool-show sizes; the four famous anchor stands measure exactly equal at 17,000 sq ft each, which is what a correctly calibrated plan looks like. Our 1.18 million sq ft counts exhibitor stands only - the organiser's larger net-space figures also count features and meeting space, so the two measure different things. Counts are as the plan stood on August 3, 2026.

73% of exhibitors cannot hang a sign - the highest we have measured

Classifying every stand by its open sides: 588 inline stands and 610 corners - together 73% of the floor - cannot hang overhead signage under standard show rules. 297 peninsulas and just 143 islands can.

For comparison across the floors we have measured the same way: SEMA 2026 is 46% no-sign, AHR Expo 2027 is 56%, PACK EXPO International 2026 is 56%. IMTS is the floor where overhead visibility is scarcest - only one stand in eleven is an island.

The practical consequence: at IMTS, almost everyone's visibility lives at eye level, and the aisle-facing wall is the whole game. A machine on the stand draws the crowd that is already in your aisle; a backlit wall is what pulls the crowd from three aisles over. And with 37% of stands being corners - a high corner share - the second open side is widely available and worth pricing.

One level holds 43% of the show, and the giants on it booked identical stands

IMTS spreads across five exhibit levels, and they are not remotely equal. Four levels have a median stand of 200 sq ft. One - the level anchored by the machine-tool giants - has 258 stands at a median of 800 sq ft, holding 501,500 sq ft: 43% of the entire show's floor on a single level.

At the top of that level sits something we have not seen on any other plan: four direct competitors - Mazak, Okuma, JTEKT and FANUC - each booked exactly 17,000 square feet, in consecutive booth numbers (338300, 338500, 338700, 338900) along the same spine. Hurco (16,000) and Select Machining Technologies (15,675) sit just behind. On every other floor we have measured, the biggest stand is a statement by one company; at IMTS the statement is parity, enforced to the square foot.

The spread this creates is the widest we have measured: median 200, mean 739 - a 3.7x gap (SEMA's is 2x) - and the top 100 stands hold 45.0% of the floor. IMTS is simultaneously a small-stand show (a quarter of stands are 10x10s) and a giant-stand show, with very little middle.

What this means if you are exhibiting at IMTS 2026

The floor is effectively gone. 38 available stands out of 1,638, five weeks out. If you are booked, this is design-and-logistics season, not space-shopping season.

If you are one of the 1,198 no-sign stands, spend on the wall, not the ceiling you cannot use. A backlit SEG wall is the highest-visibility upgrade available to an inline or corner stand, and it is exhibitor-installable at McCormick: the Exhibitor Bill of Rights lets your own full-time employees set up a booth of any size with their own tools - a meaningful cost advantage over Las Vegas venues. Electrical past a standard outlet stays with IBEW; overhead rigging stays with the riggers (and with 73% of stands, mostly does not apply). Our McCormick Place union labor and drayage guide has the specifics.

Weight is the budget line at a machine-tool show. Drayage is billed by the hundredweight, and IMTS freight is the heaviest in the industry. The booth structure is the one shipment you can make lighter: tension-fabric walls and modular frames cut structure weight by hundreds of pounds against custom hardwall - money that goes straight back into the machine you are there to show.

We measured PACK EXPO International the same way - same building, five weeks later - and the two floors could not be shaped more differently: see the PACK EXPO International floor-plan analysis. The series also covers AHR Expo 2027 (also McCormick), SEMA 2026 and RE+ 2026.

Exhibiting at IMTS? Send us your booth size and we will tell you what fits it - and what it weighs.

Frequently asked

How many exhibitors are at IMTS 2026?

We measured 1,638 stands belonging to 1,562 companies on the published floor plan as of August 3, 2026, totalling 1,175,085 square feet - with only 38 stands still available, so the show is effectively sold out.

What is the average booth size at IMTS?

The median stand is 200 sq ft, but the mean is 739 sq ft - the widest gap we have measured on any floor. IMTS is a show of 10x10s and giants: a quarter of stands are 10x10s while the top 100 stands hold 45% of the floor, topped by four 17,000 sq ft anchors.

Can I hang a sign over my IMTS booth?

Probably not: 73% of stands on the 2026 plan are inline or corner positions, which under standard show rules cannot hang overhead signage - the highest no-sign share of any floor we have measured. Only 143 stands (9%) are islands.

When and where is IMTS 2026?

September 14-19, 2026 at McCormick Place, Chicago (dates from the organiser's site, checked August 2026). IMTS is biennial - it runs in even years.

Which are the biggest booths at IMTS 2026?

Four companies share the top spot at exactly 17,000 sq ft each: Mazak, Okuma, JTEKT and FANUC, in consecutive booth numbers on the same level - followed by Hurco at 16,000 and Select Machining Technologies at 15,675.