CEDIA Expo 2026 Denver – Complete Exhibitor Guide and How to Build a Booth That Wins the Smart Home Industry
If your company manufactures or supplies technology for smart homes, residential AV, home automation, lighting, control systems, networking, security, home cinema, or integrated commercial spaces, and you are planning to exhibit at CEDIA Expo and Commercial Integrator Expo 2026 in Denver, this is the most complete guide you will find before the show. We have covered everything — the dates, venue, exhibit hall hours, who attends and why they matter, the full product category landscape, The Launchpad for emerging brands, the Innovation Showcase, sponsorship and activation opportunities, the Sustainable Booth Contest, and most importantly, how to make sure your exhibit booth is designed and built to make the right impression on the integrators, installers, and custom integration professionals who will be walking that Colorado Convention Center floor.
At Interior Today LLC, we design and build custom trade show booths for companies at industry events across the United States. CEDIA Expo is one of the most brand-driven and relationship-focused trade shows in the residential technology world, and the standard your booth needs to meet here is genuinely high. We want to help your company arrive in Denver ready to recruit dealers, demonstrate products, and build the partnerships that define your growth for the next several years.
What Is CEDIA Expo and Commerfcial Integrator Expo 2026?
CEDIA Expo — combined with the Commercial Integrator Expo, or CIX — is the premier annual event for the residential technology and integrated AV industry in North America. Organized by CEDIA, the global trade association for the home technology industry, the combined expo is the single most important gathering point for the entire custom integration channel — manufacturers, suppliers, integrators, installers, dealers, distributors, architects, interior designers, builders, and every other professional who designs, specifies, and installs connected home and commercial technology systems.
What makes CEDIA Expo genuinely different from every other technology trade show is focus. This is not a general consumer electronics event. It is not a broad technology conference where the audience spans dozens of unrelated industries. CEDIA Expo and CIX is built entirely and specifically for the professionals who integrate technology into real homes and real commercial spaces — the people who actually specify your products, install them, program them, and recommend them to their clients.
For manufacturers and suppliers of smart home technology, this focus is what makes CEDIA Expo the most commercially valuable event on the annual calendar. The buyers in that room are not browsing. They are building their technology partner ecosystems, recruiting manufacturer relationships, evaluating new product categories for upcoming projects, and making the sourcing decisions that flow through to hundreds or thousands of individual residential and commercial installations every year.
CEDIA Expo 2026 Dates and Location
CEDIA Expo and Commercial Integrator Expo 2026 will take place September 1 through September 4, 2026, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado, USA.
The exhibit hall is open across three days with the following hours:
Wednesday, September 2 — 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Thursday, September 3 — 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Friday, September 4 — 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
The Colorado Convention Center is one of the premier convention venues in the United States — modern, well-equipped, centrally located in downtown Denver, and easily accessible from Denver International Airport and the city’s extensive hotel network. Denver itself is an excellent host city for this event. Its technology-forward culture, outdoor lifestyle, and vibrant downtown make it a city that attendees genuinely enjoy visiting, which contributes to the relaxed and open networking atmosphere that characterizes CEDIA Expo.
For corporate events, hospitality, and nightlife planning during CEDIA Expo week, Jampack is the official hospitality and nightlife partner. Visit jampack.com/group-services/cedia-expo-2026 to plan your corporate events.
Who Attends CEDIA Expo 2026 — The Professionals in That Room
Understanding exactly who attends CEDIA Expo is the most important foundation for planning your exhibit presence. This event does not attract a general technology audience. It attracts a highly specific, deeply qualified community of professionals who represent the entire custom integration channel.
The numbers behind CEDIA Expo 2026 make the opportunity clear. More than 15,000 industry professionals attend, and 75 percent of them only attend CEDIA Expo and CIX — meaning they are not spreading their attention across multiple competing events. More than 10,000 verified integrators, installers, dealers, distributors, consultants, and representatives attend. And more than 70 percent of attendees work at companies with annual gross revenue exceeding $500,000 — meaning this is not an audience of hobbyists or students. These are established, commercially active businesses with real purchasing power and active project pipelines.
The specific job functions and professional roles attending CEDIA Expo 2026 include integration company owners and founders, presidents and CEOs of custom integration businesses, system integrators across residential and light commercial categories, AV and smart home integrators, security installers, IT technicians, architects and interior designers, builders and remodelers, and smart home integrators who specify technology for high-end residential and commercial projects.
Every one of those people is a potential dealer, installer, or technology partner for the brands exhibiting at CEDIA Expo. And 75 percent of them are only attending this show — which means if your company is not present at CEDIA Expo 2026, you are invisible to three-quarters of the most qualified custom integration buyers in North America.
What Products and Technologies Are Featured at CEDIA Expo 2026
CEDIA Expo and CIX is organized around the full range of technologies that power today’s connected homes and integrated spaces. The top product categories featured at the 2026 event include:
Audio and immersive audio systems — from whole-home audio and distributed speaker systems to high-performance home theater sound and immersive formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Control systems and home automation — the hardware, software, and programming platforms that tie smart home systems together, from single-room solutions to full whole-home automation architectures.
Home cinema and video — projection systems, display technology, screens, mounting systems, and everything else that goes into a high-performance home theater or media room.
Lighting and ambiance — smart lighting control, motorized shading, circadian rhythm lighting, and the systems that create the mood and atmosphere of integrated living spaces.
IT and networking infrastructure — the backbone of every connected home, including routers, switches, access points, cabling, structured wiring, and network management tools.
Security and access control — surveillance cameras, smart locks, alarm systems, video doorbells, and the full range of residential and light commercial security solutions.
AI-enabled technologies — the rapidly growing category of artificial intelligence applications being built into smart home and commercial integration platforms.
Digital signage and commercial AV — the commercial integration side of the combined expo, covering digital display systems, AV distribution, conference room technology, and commercial AV integration solutions.
If your company’s products fit any of these categories and you are targeting the custom integration channel, your buyers are at CEDIA Expo 2026.
Why Exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2026 Is a Business Priority
The organizers of CEDIA Expo make a compelling and direct case for why exhibiting at this event delivers results that other marketing channels simply cannot replicate. Here is what exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2026 specifically enables your company to accomplish.
Recruit new dealers and integrators. For manufacturers and suppliers, dealer and integrator recruitment is the engine of channel growth. CEDIA Expo brings independent integrators from across the country and around the world to one location at one time — professionals who are actively looking for the right technology partners to specify in their upcoming projects. Three days of face-to-face interaction at CEDIA Expo can recruit more new integration partners than months of outbound sales effort.
Demonstrate complete product ecosystems. Smart home and integrated AV buyers do not purchase isolated products — they build systems. CEDIA Expo gives manufacturers the space to demonstrate how their products work together, how they integrate with partner platforms, and how they solve the real-world installation challenges that integrators face on every project. Ecosystem demonstrations build the kind of understanding and confidence that leads to long-term specification relationships.
Introduce training and certification programs. Integrators want to install products they are trained and certified to work with. Exhibiting at CEDIA Expo gives manufacturers the opportunity to introduce and promote their training programs directly to the technicians who will be installing their products — building a more capable and loyal dealer network.
Build long-term partner relationships. The custom integration industry is a relationship business. The integrators and dealers who specify your products season after season do so because they trust your brand, believe in your support, and feel valued as partners. CEDIA Expo creates the conditions for building those relationships — in person, face to face, at a scale that no digital marketing program can replicate.
The Launchpad — CEDIA Expo’s Dedicated Platform for Emerging Brands
One of the most exciting features of CEDIA Expo 2026 for newer companies is The Launchpad — a dedicated exhibit area specifically designed for brands that are new to CEDIA Expo and have been in business for less than three years.
The Launchpad is not just a smaller booth in a corner of the show floor. It is a curated, high-visibility platform where emerging brands in the smart home and commercial AV space are positioned in front of the custom integration community with the specific purpose of discovery. CEDIA Expo’s audience includes integrators who actively seek out The Launchpad specifically because they know it is where the genuinely new things are — the products and technologies that are not yet widely distributed and that represent the next wave of what their clients will want.
For companies that qualify — new to CEDIA Expo and in business for less than three years — The Launchpad offers a structured, supported entry into the custom integration channel with a captive audience already primed to discover breakthrough innovations.
If your company is considering applying for The Launchpad, the strong advice is to act early. Spaces are limited and the demand from emerging technology brands is high.
Our Exhibition Stand Design Portfolio In Denver.
At Interior Today we are offering flawless services for the exhibition and trade shows. We are working with brands and businesses of all sizes, designing and installing amazing stands. We believe in combining excellent design and superior project management to deliver high quality custom built exhibition stands. Just take a glance at some of our recent work given below.
Sponsorships and Activations — Extend Your Presence Beyond the Booth
CEDIA Expo 2026 offers a comprehensive range of sponsorship and activation opportunities that allow exhibitors to increase their brand visibility, drive targeted traffic to their booth, and connect with the custom integration audience across multiple touchpoints throughout the event.
Over 300 brands will exhibit at CEDIA Expo 2026. Sponsorships are the primary way to ensure your brand stands out from that crowd — visible before, during, and after the show floor hours. Here is an overview of the available opportunities.
Onsite activations include the Start-Up Pitch Reception Sponsorship — a chance to make a memorable first impression at the Day 1 networking happy hour — and the Booth Crawl Sponsorship, which on Day 1 at 3:30 PM creates a lively networking event at your booth with 100 servings of your chosen beer plus onsite signage. Additional in-booth services, lanyard sponsorships, bag inserts, and keynote sponsorships are also available.
Signage opportunities include Mega Signs and Tri-Mega Signs, Booth Extenders, Footprints and Floor Decals, and Light Boxes and Digital Screen Signage — all placed strategically along the path of attendees at eye level for maximum visibility.
Thought leadership opportunities allow exhibitors to speak directly to the custom integration audience through Coffee Talk sessions (45-minute speaking slot on Center Stage while guests enjoy coffee), Lunch and Learn sessions (60-minute speaking slot combining formal education with casual interaction), and Tech Theater Presentations (45-minute speaking slot demonstrating technical expertise in your field).
Digital exposure options include Online Hall Sponsorship, email campaign sends to the registered attendee database, Digital Branding Bundles, Product Category Sponsorships, Mobile App Banner Ads, Push Notifications, and Homepage Banner Ads.
Smart Bundle packages combine multiple digital exposure elements at significant savings versus individual pricing. Smart Bundle 1 saves 47 percent over a la carte pricing. Smart Bundle 2 saves 49 percent. Smart Bundle 3 — the most comprehensive digital package, which includes floor plan highlighting, online show highlight sponsorship, and print ad posters — saves 55 percent off a la carte pricing.
The Innovation Showcase — Highlight Your Latest Product
If your company has launched a new product within the last 12 months that you want to put in front of CEDIA Expo’s audience of engineers, integrators, and industry decision-makers, the MEDevice Innovation Showcase is a free entry opportunity that delivers significant visibility before, during, and after the event.
Before the show, your product is listed on the Event Dashboard and featured in a pre-show email campaign to all registered attendees. During the show, your product is prominently displayed in the Innovation Showcase Gallery with a QR code linking to your company, product, and booth information. Attendees vote on their favorite showcased product, with the winner announced at the awards luncheon on Day 2. After the show, your product remains featured on the Event Dashboard and the winner is promoted on the event website and social media.
There is no cost to enter the Innovation Showcase. The submission deadline is August 19, 2026 — well before the show opens on September 2. Exhibitors may submit up to three products per company.
Entry guidelines are specific. Products must have been released to market within the last 12 months and be available for purchase within 24 months of the event. Products must be manufactured or exclusively distributed by an exhibiting company. No prototypes are allowed and new company launches are not eligible. Products are judged on innovativeness, uniqueness, market potential, and relevance to the industry.
The Innovation Showcase Award for Innovation Excellence by Popular Vote at the most recent edition went to Canvys for their New Bionic Anti-Reflective Coating Technology for Monitors — a display coating technology inspired by the nanostructures found on moth eyes, offering advanced optical benefits as an alternative to optical bonding. The caliber and creativity of past winners sets the standard for what impresses the CEDIA Expo audience.
The Sustainable Booth Contest — Win Recognition and Real Rewards
CEDIA Expo 2026 runs a Sustainable Exhibitor Booth Contest that rewards companies for designing and operating their booth with environmental responsibility in mind. Entry is free and the prizes are genuinely valuable.
The Most Sustainable Exhibitor Booth at CEDIA Expo 2026 will receive a $250 service credit from Freeman for use in 2027, one Conference Pass for MEDevice Boston 2027, a $300 Marriott Hotel gift card, and recognition as the 2026 Sustainable Exhibitor Award Recipient on the CEDIA Expo event website. The 2025 Sustainable Booth Contest Winner was Wall Industries Inc.
The judging criteria covers your booth build — including use of recycled or repurposed materials, LED lighting, FSC-certified wood, rental booth properties, and taking 100 percent of your display property with you after the show. It also covers shipping consolidation, employee travel choices, and promotional item decisions including the environmental credentials of any giveaways.
For Interior Today LLC clients, we are happy to discuss sustainable booth design approaches as part of your overall booth concept. Using rental booth systems, LED lighting integration, and responsible material selection are all part of how we approach booth builds for clients who want to compete for the Sustainable Award or simply want to operate their CEDIA Expo presence more responsibly.
The Exhibitor Hub and Portal — Managing Your Digital Presence
CEDIA Expo 2026 provides a comprehensive digital platform for exhibitors to manage their online presence and directory listing before and during the event. Understanding how to use the Exhibitor Hub effectively is directly connected to how much organic foot traffic your booth receives from attendees planning their show experience.
The Exhibitor Hub at cedia2026.smallworldlabs.com is your central resource for maintaining your online and print directory listing, booking hotel rooms through the official room block, adding featured products to your exhibitor profile, purchasing digital upgrades, accessing the Exhibitor Services Manual, viewing invoices and payment information, and expanding your media exposure through the official PR partner Brand Definition.
Your digital listing is the primary way that the 15,000 plus CEDIA Expo attendees find your company when they are planning which booths to visit before the show opens. The keywords, product categories, company description, and product listings you enter in the Exhibitor Hub determine whether your company appears when an integrator searches for solutions in your category. Adding as many specific product keywords as possible — separated by commas — and selecting all relevant product categories maximizes the organic discovery of your listing in the official directory.
Profile levels range from Basic Exhibitor through Featured Exhibitor with increasing visibility and content capabilities at each level. Featured Exhibitor status provides 20-plus weeks of visibility on the event platform including digital leads, six product category tags, four product listings with content, one video upload, four collateral and whitepaper uploads, two exhibitor extras such as job board listings, one exhibitor event listing, five virtual business cards, and priority placement in all platform search results and the online exhibitor directory.
Why Your Booth Design Is Your Most Important Investment at CEDIA Expo 2026
Here is the reality of exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2026 that every experienced exhibitor already knows and that first-time exhibitors discover quickly: the custom integration channel is a sophisticated, design-aware, and highly aesthetic professional community.
Integrators and AV designers spend their working lives creating beautiful, seamless, and technically flawless technology environments for their clients. They understand design. They notice quality. They read the presentation of a company’s exhibit booth as a direct signal about that company’s understanding of the design standards their industry operates at.
A poorly designed, visually generic, or under-invested exhibit booth at CEDIA Expo does not just fail to attract foot traffic — it actively signals to integrators that your company may not share the design sensibility and attention to detail that defines their work. In a channel where your products are specified by professionals who pride themselves on invisible technology and seamless execution, showing up with a booth that does not reflect those values is a competitive disadvantage before a conversation has even started.
On the other hand, a well-designed exhibit at CEDIA Expo communicates all the right things. It shows that your company understands the premium, design-forward character of the custom integration channel. It creates an inviting, professional environment where integrators feel comfortable exploring your products and having real conversations about their projects. It demonstrates that your company invests in quality — and by extension, it reinforces confidence in the quality of what you are selling.
With over 300 brands exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2026, the booths that get remembered — and revisited — are the ones that look like they belong in the highest tier of the custom integration world.
How Interior Today LLC Builds Exhibit Booths for CEDIA Expo 2026
At Interior Today LLC, we understand the custom integration industry’s aesthetic values and build exhibit booths that reflect them. This is not a show where generic trade show design language works. Integrators respond to clean lines, quality materials, seamless technology integration, and design that feels premium without feeling cold. Your booth needs to embody those qualities.
Here is exactly how we work with CEDIA Expo exhibitors from first conversation through show day in Denver.
We begin with a brand and product consultation. We learn about your technology category — whether that is audio, control systems, networking, lighting, security, or any other integration-focused solution — your target dealer and integrator profile among the CEDIA Expo attendee community, your specific goals for the three days on the show floor, and what you want visitors to experience when they step into your space.
We develop a fully custom booth design tailored to your specific space at the Colorado Convention Center. For CEDIA Expo exhibitors, this often means designing a space that demonstrates products in context — showing how your technology works in a real installation environment rather than simply displaying hardware on a shelf. Immersive demonstration environments, integrated AV displays, and technology-forward design elements all create the kind of booth presence that resonates deeply with an audience of technology professionals.
We handle all fabrication, graphic production, installation logistics, and professional setup. Everything is built to our quality standards and ready before the exhibit hall opens on Wednesday, September 2.
For clients interested in competing for the Sustainable Booth Award, we work with sustainable materials, LED lighting specifications, and booth designs that minimize waste from the start rather than retrofitting sustainability as an afterthought.
Our team manages a complete dismantle after the show closes on Friday, September 4, so your team can leave Denver focused on following up with the integrators and dealers you connected with during the show.
Practical Tips for Getting the Best Results at CEDIA Expo 2026
A great booth is the foundation. Here are the additional strategies that experienced CEDIA Expo exhibitors use to maximize their results across the three days in Denver.
Optimize your Exhibitor Hub listing before the show opens. Attendees plan their show floor visits in advance using the online directory. A complete, keyword-rich listing with strong product photography and a clear company description drives organic foot traffic to your booth from integrators who are specifically looking for what you offer.
Use your exhibitor promo code to invite your dealer network. Every exhibitor receives a personalized promo code that gives customers and prospects 10 percent off a conference pass or a free expo pass. Use this aggressively — bringing your existing dealer network to CEDIA Expo creates the conditions for deepening those relationships while also giving you warm face-to-face interactions to anchor your show week.
Consider submitting to the Innovation Showcase. If you have launched a relevant product within the last 12 months, the free Innovation Showcase entry delivers pre-show marketing, on-floor display, and post-show recognition — all at no additional cost. The submission deadline is August 19, 2026. Do not miss it.
Design your booth for demonstration, not just display. CEDIA Expo integrators want to see technology working. A booth that shows your products installed and operating — not just on display — generates significantly more meaningful engagement and longer dwell time than a static product display.
Invest in a sponsorship or activation that extends your reach beyond your booth footprint. With 300-plus exhibitors on the floor, differentiating your brand through a Coffee Talk speaking slot, a Booth Crawl activation, or a digital campaign that reaches attendees before they arrive in Denver can dramatically increase the number of quality conversations your team has across the three days.
Follow up within 48 hours of the show closing. Custom integration professionals return to busy project schedules immediately after CEDIA Expo. A prompt, specific, and personalized follow-up while Denver is still fresh in their minds is how show floor introductions become dealer agreements and long-term specification relationships.
Start Planning Your CEDIA Expo 2026 Booth Today
CEDIA Expo and Commercial Integrator Expo 2026 runs September 1 through September 4 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The most qualified concentration of smart home and custom integration professionals in North America — over 15,000 attendees, more than 10,000 verified integrators and dealers, with 75 percent attending this event exclusively — will be in that building for three active show days.The brands that succeed at CEDIA Expo are the ones that show up with exhibit spaces designed for the design-forward, technology-sophisticated audience that defines this channel. A generic booth in a premium custom integration marketplace is not just a missed opportunity — it is a statement about where your brand fits in the industry, and not a flattering one.
At Interior Today LLC, we build exhibit booths that belong at CEDIA Expo. We understand the custom integration industry’s values, we design for the audience that walks this show floor, and we build with the quality that reflects the technology your company is proud to represent.
Reach out to Interior Today LLC today. Tell us your booth space, your product category, your target dealer and integrator profile, and what you want the CEDIA Expo audience to experience when they walk into your space. We will handle everything from there.
