McCormick Place in Chicago, IL

Building-specific planning at McCormick Place

Confirm which building — Lakeside Center, North, South, or West — before routing any freight

Order material handling through the show's official labor process, not a generic freight quote

Plan power and rigging through the venue's exclusive electrical provider

Use the Grand Concourse for foot traffic between North, South, and West only

Four buildings, four different jobs

Lakeside Center, the original 1971 building, sits on the lake side of Lake Shore Drive and has its own dedicated dock and marshaling area, physically separated from the other three buildings by the drive itself. North, South, and West connect to each other through the Grand Concourse and share campus roads for freight staging.

This matters because a truck routed for Lakeside Center takes a different path than one headed to West Building, and mixing them up on a busy move-in day means a driver stuck circling the campus while the dock window closes.

Lakeside Center freight and North/South/West freight use different approach roads and marshaling areas

Material handling and drayage

Material handling at McCormick Place runs through the show's designated labor process, with Teamsters jurisdiction covering drayage and freight movement on the floor. Crate counts, weights, and delivery windows need to be locked in with the show's exhibitor services team well before the truck leaves the yard.

Booth installation above the hand-carry threshold — generally anything requiring tools, a ladder, or more than one person for more than a short stretch — falls under carpenter and decorator jurisdiction. Electrical tie-ins to house power go through the venue's exclusive electrical provider, not a booth's own crew.

The Grand Concourse and campus movement

The Grand Concourse ties North, South, and West together and is built for foot traffic — attendees, staff, and light equipment on carts, not crated freight. Marriott Marquis Chicago connects into this concourse as well, giving West Building shows a direct hotel link.

Between buildings, plan on real walking distance. This is a campus measured in tens of acres, and a booth staffer who needs to run back to a hotel room between sessions should factor in more time than a downtown conference center would require.

Winter move-ins on the lakefront

McCormick Place sits directly on Lake Michigan, and Lakeside Center in particular catches wind off the water that the forecast for the rest of the city doesn't capture. A January or February move-in should plan for genuinely colder conditions on the dock apron and outdoor staging areas than a downtown venue a mile inland.

Freight arriving through O'Hare's cargo terminals adds another winter variable — de-icing delays and customs holds at the airport push back the local trucking leg into the McCormick Place dock, so international shipments need real buffer time before a hard deadline.

Expect colder, windier dock conditions at Lakeside Center than the general city forecast suggests

Build buffer time for O'Hare cargo delays on international freight during winter shows

Scoping the right footprint

McCormick Place makes sense for national and international trade shows, medical and manufacturing expos, and any program needing more floor space than Stephens Convention Center or a hotel ballroom can offer. Smaller regional shows are often better served, and better priced, at a suburban hall like Stephens or Schaumburg.

Getting on and off campus without a car

The Metra Electric District stops directly at McCormick Place, giving crews and attendees a way to reach the campus without depending on shuttle timing or parking availability, which matters most during a big show week when the surrounding lots fill early and rideshare pickup zones back up.

For a small crew running early-morning setup before the general labor call, this is often the most reliable way to get on campus, especially in winter when road conditions on Lake Shore Drive slow down surface travel more than the train schedule does.

Booth power thresholds and exhibitor self-installs

Reforms to exhibitor rules over the past decade widened what a booth staffer can do without calling union labor — full-time employees of the exhibiting company can generally set up a small booth by hand, without tools, in under an hour, without triggering a carpenter call. That threshold changes once ladders, tools, or a booth over a certain size come into play, so confirm current thresholds against the specific show's exhibitor kit rather than a rule of thumb from a different show or a different year.