Registration for Automation Fair 2026 is open, and the first decision isn't which sessions to attend — it's which pass to buy. Rockwell Automation offers two options for the November 16–19 event in Boston, and the difference between them comes down to one question: how much hands-on technical training do you want out of the week?
At HESCO, we get this question every year, usually from engineers trying to justify the upgrade or managers trying to decide who on the team gets which pass. This article breaks down what each pass includes, what the pricing windows look like, and how to match the pass to the role — so the registration decision takes five minutes instead of a meeting.
Here's the short version: the General Access Pass covers the core event [CD1] — keynotes, the Expo, Summits, Off-site Tours, and hundreds of sessions. The General Access + Advanced Training Pass gives you the complete event: everything in General Access, plus unlimited advanced-level Hands-on Labs and technical training and the Professional Development Hour (PDH) credits that General Access does not include. If your week is about seeing what's out there and connecting with the right people, General Access is enough. If your week is about coming home with new skills on specific platforms, the Advanced Training upgrade pays for itself. Either way, register by September 15 — early pricing saves $300 to $700 per attendee. And if you're a Connecticut manufacturer, the state's Incumbent Worker Training program may reimburse half the cost of the Advanced Training pass.
The General Access Pass is required to attend and covers all four days. It's more comprehensive than “base pass” usually implies:
For executives, managers, and anyone whose goal is evaluating direction — which platforms, which partners, which investments — this pass covers the decision-making agenda end to end.
The General Access + Advanced Training Pass includes everything above, plus four days of unlimited advanced-level Hands-on Labs and technical training sessions [CD3] — the deep-dive product and technology sessions where you work directly with hardware and software alongside Rockwell domain experts, on your specific scenarios.
For scale on what that access is worth: Rockwell does not publish training prices, but authorized-distributor catalogs list a single four-day instructor-led course — Studio 5000 Logix Designer Level 3, for example — at roughly $3,200 per student. The Advanced Training pass is $1,595 at the early rate, and the upgrade from General Access accounts for $1,100 of that. That $1,100 buys four days of unlimited advanced training — about a third of what a single standalone four-day course costs, and the clearest math in the pass decision.
Two details matter here. First, the advanced-level sessions are eligible for Professional Development Hour credits (valid in the US and Canada) — a concrete, documentable professional-development outcome from the week. Second, “unlimited” is the operative word: with 500+ hours of advanced training on the catalog, an engineer who plans their schedule can fill all four days with lab time.
The practical decision point: if the people attending are the ones who will configure, program, commission, and maintain the systems — controls engineers, integrators, maintenance leads — the upgrade is where the value is. If they're attending to evaluate and connect, General Access is the right call. And if you're a Connecticut manufacturer, read the next section before you decide — the state may reimburse half of what the upgrade costs.
If you are a Connecticut-based manufacturer, the Advanced Training pass may cost your company half of what the price table says. Connecticut's Incumbent Worker Training (IWT) program — administered by the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) and funded through the state's Manufacturing Innovation Fund — reimburses eligible manufacturers for 50% of qualifying employee training costs, up to $50,000 per calendar year and $100,000 over the life of the program per employer. Applied to the Advanced Training pass at the early rate, that is roughly $798 net per attendee.
The mechanics matter more than the headline. It is a reimbursement, not a discount at checkout: you pay Rockwell in full, then submit for the 50% back. And CCAT's process is documentation-driven — the piece people most often miss is proof that the training actually happened. Plan on keeping the registration invoice, proof of payment, and a signed attendance record for each training day. CCAT publishes a sample attendance sheet on the program page; download it before you leave for Boston and have attendees sign in for the lab sessions they complete, because reconstructing that after the fact is difficult.
Eligibility, application timing, and what counts as a qualifying training cost are all determined by CCAT — and some CCAT grant programs require you to apply before the training takes place. Start there before you register, not after. Program details, the sample attendance sheet, and the application are on CCAT's IWT program page at grants.ccat.us.
|
Pass |
Early (by Sept 15) |
Advance (Sept 16 – Nov 13) |
On-site |
|
General Access |
$495 |
$795 |
$895 |
|
General Access + Advanced Training |
$1,595 |
$1,895 |
$2,295[CD4] |
Connecticut manufacturers: if your company qualifies for the IWT reimbursement described above, the net cost of the Advanced Training pass is roughly $798 early, $948 advance, and $1,148 on-site — reimbursed after the fact, not deducted at checkout.
Three pricing windows apply to both passes. Early registration runs through September 15 and is the number to act on — both passes are $300 less than advance pricing, and $400 (General Access) to $700 (Advanced Training) less than the on-site rate. Advance pricing runs September 16 through November 13, and on-site registration is available November 14–19 at the highest rate.
One more reason not to wait: sessions are first-come, first-served, and capacity varies by session. The session catalog indicates which sessions are included with each pass, so you can review the full catalog before choosing — but the popular labs fill early. Discounted hotel blocks at official event hotels near the convention center are also open now, and they don't last either.
A pattern that works for most teams we talk with: send decision-makers on General Access and hands-on staff on the Advanced Training pass. A plant sending a controls engineer, a maintenance lead, and an operations manager might buy two Advanced Training passes and one General Access — the engineers spend their days in labs while the manager works the Expo, Summits, and Off-site Tours. With Boston within driving distance for much of our region, the travel budget stretches to cover more of the team than it would for a flight-and-hotel week.
Registration is open at rok.auto/automationfair. Once you're registered — or while you're deciding who goes — tell your HESCO rep. We're attending with customers this year, and we can help you pick the sessions, Summits, and Expo stops that map to your actual projects, and connect you with the right Rockwell people on the floor. Talk to the team at hesconet.com/contact-us.