FABTECH drew more than 32,000 industry participants to the Las Vegas Convention Center from Oct. 21 to 23, turning what had been a decade-long absence from the city into the biggest FABTECH crowd ever assembled outside Chicago. The show drew 32,530 industry participants, filled 727,251 square feet of exhibit space with 1,461 exhibitors, and sent attendees home with word of 628 new products unveiled on the floor.
The turnout marked FABTECH's highest attendance outside Chicago and its best-ever first-day showing, according to Canadian Metalworking. Fifty-nine percent of attendees were experiencing the show for the first time, and the event drew visitors from all 50 U.S. states and 80 countries, with roughly 41 percent coming from California, Texas, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
The show floor itself sprawled across the Las Vegas Convention Center's North, Central and South halls, organized into 40 product categories and eight specialized pavilions covering welding, automation, forming and fabricating, tube and pipe, finishing, job shop, and stamping and press automation, as reported by EIN Presswire. Among the 220 first-time exhibitors on the floor, many were reaching an audience largely new to FABTECH, Mark Hoper, senior vice president of expositions and media at FMA, said, per the same coverage.
AI Takes Center Stage on the Show Floor
A new Artificial Intelligence for Manufacturing Pavilion made its FABTECH debut as a dedicated space for manufacturing AI applications, joining the show's existing pavilions.
Panel discussions at the show also explored how AI and automation could improve productivity by trimming the time spent on data analysis and early-stage engineering, the Canadian Metalworking report noted, with panelists discussing how to measure that value in the hours saved on those same tasks.
Conference programming offered more than 180 educational opportunities across 12 tracks.
Jerry Rice at FABTECH
Former NFL star Jerry Rice delivered a keynote titled Championship Culture in Manufacturing: Discipline, Teamwork, and Excellence at the FABTECH Theater on Oct. 22.
The inaugural FAB Pass sold out.
Equipment Sales on the Floor
Cosen Saws sold five of the six machines it brought to the show directly off the floor.
Not every conversation was celebratory. A State of the Metal Fabrication Business panel on Oct. 21 identified equipment availability, supplier capacity, and recruiting and training as key challenges still facing the industry, and panelists recommended hiring for potential as well as experience. Other panelists pointed to turnaround time as a competitive strength shops can lean on even as those pressures persist.
FABTECH's artistic side also made its first appearance at the show, with the Metal Artist Collective debuting 60 artists whose work ranged from large sculptures to detailed fabricated pieces. The collective was created to recognize metal artists and their contributions to welding, and Stacia Mueller said it recognized metal artists, built relationships and inspired the next generation.
A Decade-Long Gap for Las Vegas
The Las Vegas edition followed a roughly ten-year gap for the city as host.
The last time FABTECH visited Las Vegas, in 2016, it drew 31,110 attendees and 1,500 exhibiting companies across more than 575,000 net square feet, per Industrial Equipment News. FABTECH 2026 drew 32,530 industry participants.
