The numbers around Automation Fair 2026 are easy to find: 14,000-plus attendees, a 500,000 square-foot Expo, 150-plus interactive exhibits, 250-plus sessions, 500-plus hours of advanced training. None of that tells you what the week feels like from inside it.
The number that actually shapes your trip is four — four days, November 16–19 at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, and they are not interchangeable. Here's what to expect at Automation Fair 2026, day by day, from someone reading the published schedule rather than the brochure.
The shape of the week
Two things jump out of that grid. The Expo doesn't open until Tuesday, and Monday's keynote sits in the middle of the afternoon instead of first thing. Plan around both.
Monday: the setup day, and the odd one
Registration opens at 6:30am and stays open until 5:00pm every day of the show, so there's no reason to queue. Monday is where the schedule diverges from what you'd expect:
- No Expo at all. The floor doesn't open until Tuesday at 9:45am.
- Keynotes run 1:00–2:15pm — the only day they're not first thing in the morning.
- Advanced Training starts at 8:00am, the earliest start of the week, and runs to 5:30pm.
- General Access sessions run 9:00am–5:00pm.
- The Process Solutions User Group (PSUG) Summit takes the whole day, 8:00am–4:30pm.
- Off-site tours run 7:30am–5:30pm.
- Automation Fair Orientation runs 3:00–4:00pm — worth an hour if it's your first year.
Because there's no Expo competing for your attention, Monday is the cheapest day to spend off-site or locked into a full-day summit. If you were going to take a tour, take it Monday.
Tuesday and Wednesday: the full days
These two days run the same shape. Keynotes at 8:30–9:45am, then the Expo and Connection Zone open at 9:45am and run to 5:00pm. General Access sessions run 10:00am–5:00pm; Advanced Training sessions and labs run 10:00am–5:30pm. Lunch is served 11:00am–2:00pm both days.
The summits are where the two days differ. Tuesday carries two — Secure Digital Operations (10:00am–2:00pm) and OEM Leader-to-Leader (11:30am–3:30pm) — which overlap by two and a half hours, so Tuesday forces a choice. Wednesday carries one, Production Logistics, 11:30am–3:30pm.
Both days also have targeted lunches worth knowing about: the Life Sciences Industry Lunch on Tuesday (11:30am–1:00pm), and on Wednesday both the Women in Manufacturing Luncheon and the ATOM lunch — Advanced Training Opportunity to Mingle — exclusive to Advanced Training Pass holders, also 11:30am–1:00pm.
Thursday: everything moves earlier, and then it's over
Thursday compresses. The Expo and Connection Zone open earlier, at 8:30am, and close at 4:00pm. General Access sessions run 9:00am–4:00pm. Advanced Training runs 8:00am–5:00pm. The Smart Safety Summit runs 9:00am–2:00pm. Off-site tours end at 2:00pm. There is no Thursday keynote.
If you're booking a flight home, note that the Expo floor is live until 4:00pm and Advanced Training runs an hour past that. Thursday afternoon is a real working block, not a wind-down.
What the Expo actually is
Half a million square feet, 150-plus interactive exhibits with live demonstrations of equipment and software, plus Discovery Theater talks and expert-led tours of the floor. Access to the Expo and the Connection Zone requires a General Access Pass — there is no Expo-only ticket.
The Connection Zone runs alongside the Expo on the same hours and is the designated place to actually sit down with someone. Global Lounges give international attendees their own version of that.
What's in the ticket, and what isn't
Both passes include lunch, coffee and snack breaks all four days, the keynotes, the summits, the off-site tours, the 250-plus sessions and the Expo. Hotel and travel are yours — discounted rates at official event hotels open up after you complete registration.
Session seats are limited and assigned first come, first served, which is the single most consequential piece of logistics at this event. The mitigating factor: many sessions repeat across the four days, so a conflict is often not a real conflict. Check for a repeat before you agonize over a clash.
Practical details that catch people out
- The venue is at 415 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210. Logan International (BOS) is four miles away.
- All attendees must be 18 or older.
- Attendee substitutions are not permitted — if the person you registered can't go, you can't swap in a colleague.
- Boston in November averages daytime highs in the low 50s and nighttime lows in the high 30s. The walk from the hotel is short but it's not warm.
- ROKathon, the hackathon, actually starts Saturday November 14 — two days before the fair opens — with winners announced Wednesday on the Discovery Theater stage.
The short version
Monday is for tours, full-day summits and training, because nothing on the Expo floor is competing for you. Tuesday and Wednesday are the dense days where keynotes, Expo, sessions and summits all stack. Thursday is a genuine working day that ends at 4:00pm. Build your agenda in that order and the week stops feeling like a scramble.
If you want a second pair of eyes on your agenda — which sessions map to the systems you actually run, which tour is worth the half day — the HESCO team knows this show. Get in touch and we'll help you plan it.
