World of Concrete 2027 and AHR Expo: the January show plan

World of Concrete 2027 runs Jan. 19 to 21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. AHR Expo follows Jan. 25 to 27 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Take out Thanksgiving week and the stretch from Dec. 21 to Jan. 1, when little gets answered, and the meetings for both shows have to be booked in November and the first half of December.

Whether you exhibit or walk, results depend on meetings booked before you travel and, for walkers, a plan built around the distributors and contractors each show draws. Teams doing all three January shows can run this calendar alongside our IBS and KBIS plan, which starts the same week.

World of Concrete 2027 and AHR Expo at a glance

	World of Concrete	AHR Expo
Exhibit dates	Jan. 19 to 21, 2027 (education Jan. 18 to 21)	Jan. 25 to 27, 2027
Venue	Las Vegas Convention Center	McCormick Place, Chicago
Hall hours	Jan. 19 and 20, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Jan. 21, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.	Jan. 25 and 26, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Jan. 27, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Visitor registration	Exhibits-only $115 through Dec. 11, 2026; $145 after; $165 onsite, Jan. 17 to 21	Free through Jan. 23, 2027; $30 after and onsite
Co-located	50+ education sessions on Monday, Jan. 18	ASHRAE Winter Conference, Jan. 23 to 27; its registrants get into the show free
Scale	Over 75% of attendees play a role in purchasing, per the show’s post-show surveys	1,900 exhibitors and 50,000 attendees, per the show’s home page
Exhibitor list	2027 exhibitor list and floor plans	Exhibitor gallery
Next year	Jan. 25 to 27, 2028	Feb. 7 to 9, 2028, Orlando

Sources: World of Concrete, WOC 2027 pricing and hours, WOC exhibitor FAQs, WOC apply to exhibit, AHR Expo FAQ and AHR Expo home.

Register for World of Concrete before Dec. 11, when its exhibits-only pass goes from $115 to $145 ($165 at the door). WOC’s shuttle is free only if you book your hotel through the official housing service; otherwise a shuttle pass is $70 through Dec. 11 and $80 after. AHR Expo registration is free until Saturday, Jan. 23, and $30 after, so register for it at the same time and put the free link in every invitation you send to a customer.

Who walks each floor

World of Concrete is the commercial concrete and masonry show, and it lays out its floor by trade. The Central Hall carries material handling equipment (trucks, excavators, paving and placement equipment) and Work Truck LIVE! The North Hall holds the Producer Center for concrete producers, plus precast, concrete masonry and concrete reinforcement areas. The South Hall has repair and demolition, surfaces and decorative, and World of Masonry. The Silver and Bronze lots outside run live demos and heavy equipment. Find the zone your product belongs in, then mark every competitor and distributor in that zone on the exhibitor list. The marked list becomes your walking route and most of your target list.

AHR Expo is heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, and its audience is as much the channel as the contractor. The show’s 2026 attendance report, from the Las Vegas edition, counted 41,888 verified visitors. Contractors and dealers were the largest group at 13,118, and distribution came next at 12,008, more than one visitor in four. Manufacturers of HVACR equipment and components accounted for 7,852, and engineering, design and construction firms for 3,368; 66% said they have a role in purchasing. If you sell components, controls, motors, fans, coils or sheet metal through HVAC wholesalers, AHR is the most efficient week of the year to meet the wholesalers’ buyers and branch managers in one place, so book those meetings first.

The ASHRAE overlap matters for anyone whose product gets specified. The ASHRAE Winter Conference runs Jan. 23 to 27 in Chicago, and its registrants get into the show free. The conference starts two days before the hall opens, so Jan. 23 and 24 are the days to meet consulting engineers before the floor pulls them in every direction.

If you sell into both trades, the two shows sit six days apart, and one target list can serve both.

The countdown, by date

Date	Exhibitors	Walking visitors
Nov. 2 to 13, 2026	Register staff for World of Concrete and book hotels through the official housing service. Pull both exhibitor lists for competitors and partners. Pick 30 targets from your top accounts, distributors and prospects.	Register for both shows. Build a list of 15 to 20 booths to visit, covering competitors, distributors and adjacent suppliers who sell to your customers. Ask your distributors which of their people are going.
Nov. 16 to Dec. 11	Send meeting invitations with a specific time slot and the free AHR Expo registration link.	Send distributor meeting requests.
Friday, Dec. 11	Last day for the $115 World of Concrete pass and the $70 shuttle pass.	Same.
Dec. 14 to 18	Second touch to everyone who has not replied.	Second touch to distributors.
Dec. 21 to Jan. 1	Nothing new goes out.	Same.
Jan. 4 to 8	Last touch. Confirm meetings with a calendar invite and booth number. Load meetings into the AHR Expo app, which the show says it releases around December.	Confirm distributor meetings. Book them off the busiest hours or at the distributor’s booth.
Jan. 11 to 15	Write the follow-up emails for both shows. Brief booth staff on the meeting schedule and the lead form.	Write the intel template you will fill in at every competitor booth.
Jan. 18 to 21	World of Concrete.	Walk World of Concrete.
Jan. 22	Load WOC leads into the CRM and send the first follow-up.	File WOC notes the same day.
Jan. 23	Last day for free AHR Expo registration. ASHRAE Winter Conference starts; hold engineer meetings Jan. 23 and 24.	Same.
Jan. 25 to 27	AHR Expo.	Walk AHR Expo.
Jan. 28	Load AHR leads and send the first follow-up.	File AHR notes and send a one-page summary to sales.
Feb. 4	Follow-up deadline for WOC leads, 10 business days after the show.
Feb. 10	Follow-up deadline for AHR Expo leads.

Follow-up for two shows six days apart

The follow-up method, three messages per lead and every lead an opportunity or closed within 10 business days, is in our trade show ROI worksheet. What changes with two shows is the timing. Write both sets of emails in the week of Jan. 11, schedule the first World of Concrete messages for Jan. 22 and the first AHR Expo messages for Jan. 28, and give each show its own campaign tag in the CRM so the Feb. 4 and Feb. 10 reports stay separate. A supplier selling into both trades will meet some of the same distributors twice; log the second conversation on the first record rather than creating a new lead.

A walking plan if you are not exhibiting

Walking a show is cheap competitive research, if you go with a plan. At each competitor booth, capture the product they put in front, the claim on the main graphic, any price or lead-time promise, which distributors are present, and what visitors ask about. Photograph only with the exhibitor’s permission; World of Concrete’s terms require it, and the habit costs nothing elsewhere.

Distributors are the best use of a walking day, and at AHR Expo they made up more than a quarter of the 2026 visitors. Book time with them before the show, at their booth or nearby, and bring your sell-through numbers and the one new thing you want them to stock. Ask what competitors are offering them. You will learn more in 20 minutes than in a month of email.

Do not sell to exhibitors in their booths. World of Concrete’s registration terms include non-solicitation and no-suitcasing policies, and exhibitors who paid $55 a square foot for the space will remember who worked their aisle. (Our booth cost breakdown has the 2027 rates for the other January shows.)

What to do first

In the first week of November, register for both shows and pull both exhibitor lists into one spreadsheet, marked by World of Concrete hall zone and by competitor, distributor and target. Send the first meeting invitations by Dec. 11, with the free AHR Expo registration link in each one, and put Feb. 4 and Feb. 10 on the calendar as the follow-up deadlines.