Orlando is one of the easier US cities to exhibit in. That is exactly why exhibitors get caught out there: the rules are looser than Chicago, so people assume there are no rules.
The Orange County Convention Center is the second-largest convention facility in the country, with more than two million square feet of exhibit space split across two campuses. It hosts some of the biggest shows on the US calendar. Our shop is about ten minutes from the building, so this is the hall we know best.
Here is what actually decides how your move-in goes.
Know which building you are in
The OCCC is two separate campuses on opposite sides of International Drive, connected by a pedestrian bridge. Your show will be in one or the other, and occasionally in both. This matters more than it sounds, because dock assignments, marshalling, and the walk from parking are all different, and a crew that shows up at the wrong building has lost the morning.
Get the building and hall number from your space contract, not from memory of the last time your company exhibited. Shows move.
Right to work does not mean do it yourself
Florida is a right-to-work state, and Orlando is genuinely more flexible than the strictest union halls. Your own full-time employees can generally work on your booth, and your exhibit house can install it without being forced to hand the work to the show contractor.
That flexibility has limits, and the limits are the expensive part. Electrical work, rigging, forklift operation, and material handling on the show floor are typically controlled by the venue or the show contractor no matter who built your booth. You do not get to plug into the floor yourself, and you do not get to move your own crates with a lift.
Plan for those four to be somebody else’s scope and somebody else’s invoice.
Register your exhibit house as an EAC
If anyone other than the show’s general service contractor is installing your booth, that company usually has to be registered as an Exhibitor Appointed Contractor with the show organizer, in advance, with a certificate of insurance naming the right parties.
Miss the notification deadline and the outcome is not a warning. It is a crew standing outside the hall without wristbands on the morning of move-in.
- ✓Notify the organizer in writingDeadlines vary by show and are commonly several weeks out. It is in the exhibitor services manual.
- ✓File the certificate of insuranceNaming the show, the organizer, and the facility as required. No COI, no wristband, no exceptions.
- ✓Confirm receiptFiled is not the same as accepted. Ask for confirmation in writing.
A good exhibit house does all of this for you and tells you when it is done. If you are being asked to file it yourself, that is worth noticing.
Freight, marshalling, and your target time
Larger shows assign target times: a window when your truck is expected at the marshalling yard. Arrive outside it and you wait, sometimes for hours, and the labor you booked waits with you on the clock.
You also choose between shipping to the advance warehouse ahead of the show or direct to the show site during move-in. Advance shipping usually costs more per hundredweight but gets your crates to the booth space before you arrive, which is often worth it. Direct shipping is cheaper on paper and puts you in the queue on the day.
Either way you are paying material handling to move the crates from the dock to your space and back out again. See our guide to what drayage actually is for why that line is so large.
The orders with deadlines on them
Electrical, rigging, internet, cleaning, and furnishings all come from the show contractor on separate forms with separate cut-off dates. Ordering the same electrical drop three weeks earlier commonly costs meaningfully less than ordering it late, and ordering it on site costs the most of all.
This is free money for doing the same thing sooner. We wrote a full timeline in the exhibitor services kit guide.
What Orlando is genuinely cheaper at
Published comparisons consistently put Orlando’s material handling and labor rates below the strictest union markets, and well below Chicago. That is a real advantage if you have a choice of show city, and a real reason your budget from a Chicago show will not transfer cleanly.
What does not change is the physics. Your booth still weighs what it weighs, and weight is what drayage is priced on. A lighter booth is cheaper in Orlando and cheaper everywhere else too.
The document that outranks this page
Everything above is how Orlando generally works. The authority on your specific show is the exhibitor services manual issued by that show’s organizer and general service contractor. It carries the real deadlines, the real jurisdiction, the real height limits, and the real target times, and it can differ from the last show in the same hall.
Read it the week it lands. Not the week before move-in.
Exhibiting in Orlando? We are ten minutes from the hall.