March 3-7 | Las Vegas

CONEXPO/
CON-AGG

140K+

55%

Attendees from around the world

At senior leadership level

85%

50%

Influence purchasing decisions

Planning purchases within 12 months

2.9M SQ.FT.

2K+

Total exhibition space

Exhibiting companies

What CONEXPO Signals Now

From Taylor’s View:

CONEXPO is not like the other shows in this series. It is bigger, louder, and the buying decisions are heavier.

This is not a discovery show. It's a decision show. Attendees are evaluating equipment that will be deployed on real jobsites, often within the next 6 to 12 months. The investments are measured in hundreds of thousands — sometimes millions — of dollars.

That context changes everything about how brands show up. At CONEXPO, experiential is not about storytelling alone. It's about proving performance, demonstrating capability, and building confidence in the investment.

The strongest programs were the ones that made it easiest for attendees to answer one question:

Will this work on my jobsite?

How Brands Answered That Question

  • At a show where machines span entire outdoor lots, static displays and video walls have almost no impact. The exhibits that commanded attention were the ones where equipment was running — digging, lifting, paving, grading. For exhibitors, the implication is direct: if your product can operate live, it must. Everything else is a brochure.

  • Construction equipment is no longer just hardware. Across the floor, machines were positioned as part of larger ecosystems — telematics, fleet data, predictive maintenance, autonomous operation, and jobsite planning software working together. Caterpillar's Performance Center demonstrated remote operations, AI integration, and a full animated jobsite through VisionLink HQ. Exhibitors that showed the individual machine without the system around it looked a generation behind.

  • CONEXPO is massive by design. Caterpillar's 70,000-square-foot Operator Stadium, John Deere and Wirtgen's Silver Lot footprint, and Volvo CE's Festival Grounds presence all used scale to signal market leadership. But scale alone wasn't enough. The programs that worked used their footprint to create clear product groupings, logical navigation, and focused demo areas. Big worked best when it was structured for understanding, not overwhelm.

  • This is what separates CONEXPO from every other B2B event. The Festival Grounds, Silver Lot, and Platinum Lot are where buyers go to see machines work under real conditions — dust, noise, terrain. Volvo’s "Power Your Ambition" themed 55,000-square-foot booth allowed visitors to explore more than 20 machines, alongside live demos, hands-on operating experiences and integrated displays from Volvo Trucks and Volvo Financial Services. For exhibitors evaluating where to invest, the outdoor demonstration areas consistently outperformed indoor spaces for engagement depth and buyer confidence.

From the Floor.

The experiences that landed were the ones that helped buyers evaluate, compare, and make decisions quickly.

Across the indoor and outdoor activations, the strongest programs shared a consistent pattern:

They reduced friction.

They made complex equipment and systems easier to understand.

They gave attendees a clear path from interest to confidence.

Engagement came from making it easy for a buyer to say:

“I understand this, and I trust it will work.”

Standout Experiences

These experiences show how a handful of companies translated those principles into real experiences across the show.

Volvo

CONEXPO-CON/AGG

What we built

Taylor partnered with Volvo CE to design, engineer, fabricate, and execute a 55,000-square-foot exhibit on the Festival Grounds — one of the largest and most visited destinations at CONEXPO 2026.

In the middle of one of the world's loudest trade shows, the space was intentionally designed as an oasis — balancing the scale CONEXPO demands with the hospitality and focus that meaningful buyer conversations require.

More than 20 machines were on display, including 14 new or first-look models representing roughly 40% of the renewed Volvo Group portfolio. The booth was organized by application — quarry, mining, building, and utilities — so buyers navigated directly to what mattered to their operation. A live operating pit let visitors run diesel and electric excavators, including the 23-ton EC230 Electric. A live arena featured machine demonstrations in real-world scenarios.

Digital experiences throughout the space made Volvo's connected ecosystem tangible. An immersive site office demonstrated tools like Load Ticket, Connected Map, and ActiveCare Direct. A dedicated area introduced Equipment as a Service. A Passport program guided attendees through the full environment. Integrated displays from Volvo Trucks, Volvo Penta, and Volvo Financial Services reinforced the complete Volvo Group offering.

Why it worked

The design challenge at CONEXPO is unique: how do you create focus inside 3 million square feet of noise? Volvo and Taylor solved it by building a destination, not a display.

Buyers spent less time navigating and more time in relevant conversations. The operating pit put them in the seat. The site office connected machines to the digital layer around them. And the Volvo Group presence showed buyers that the machine, the truck, the financing, and the services are all part of the same system.

The result: a space thousands of attendees treated as a home base throughout the week. In a show defined by scale, Volvo and Taylor proved that the strongest programs don't just occupy space. They create a reason to stay.

Volvo and Taylor built an oasis.

55,000 square feet designed for the conversations that move business forward.

More from the floor

Hitachi. Calm in the chaos.
(Festival Grounds)

In one of the show's most unexpected moves, Hitachi built a 30,000-square-foot booth inspired by Japanese landscaping traditions — an actual Zen garden with raked gravel, sculptural stones, and quiet pathways. Themed "Connecting Harmony to Innovation," the space invited attendees to slow down amid the noise while exploring the company's machinery lineup and next-generation technical solutions. At a show where every exhibitor fights for volume, Hitachi won with stillness.

John Deere. Make the unseen tangible.
(Silver Lot)

John Deere and Wirtgen rolled out 24 new machines across their Silver Lot footprint, supported by live demos and digital tool showcases. The exhibit anchored around lighted plexiglass engine prototypes for the upcoming JD5 and JD8 industrial engines — a technique that made unreleased products tangible and drove conversation around the engineering before the machines themselves arrive.

Komatsu. Lineup earns dwell time.
(West Hall)

Komatsu's sprawling West Hall exhibit framed one of its strongest equipment lineups in years, with several machines making their North American debut. The signature brand colors and massive presence reinforced market position, while the lineup depth gave buyers a reason to spend serious time evaluating.

Bobcat. Context changes perception.
(West Hall)

Mid-sized machinery set in a naturalistic landscape — rocks, plants, greenery — that provided visual relief in a sea of iron and showed the equipment in context rather than on concrete. Inside the booth, the Jobsite Companion — an AI-enabled system for real-time operator insights and jobsite guidance — signaled where compact equipment is headed.

Caterpillar. Inside and Out.
(Festival Grounds + West Hall + South Hall)

The most layered program at the show, split across indoor and outdoor locations. The 70,000-square-foot Operator Stadium on anchored the outdoor experience with the Global Operator Challenge finals — crowds watching from three-story bleachers as operators competed on live machines. Inside, the booth centered on compact equipment and smart technology for small contractors, while South Hall featured Cat Industrial Power Systems engines in a visually striking exhibit. A Checkpoint Challenge connected all locations into one cohesive journey. Average Stadium dwell time: over an hour.

Kubota. Scale draws. Depth holds.
(West Hall)

A transparent LED tower with engine imagery drew traffic from across the hall. Product stations with expert staffing offered deep technical dives. And a personalized paint-splash cap customization station drew consistent queues — proof that when attendees connect with a brand, they'll invest time for something that feels personal.

Liebherr. Hands on the future.
(Festival Grounds)

One of the largest footprints at the show, themed "Hands on the Future." More than 30 machines, daily live demos, and a dedicated digital technology pavilion featuring fleet management, 3D lift planning, and operator simulators. The TA 230 articulated dump truck ran live alongside electrified machines like the LH 60 M Industry E material handler. The pavilion gave Liebherr something most outdoor exhibitors lacked — a focused indoor space for the technical conversations that happen after the iron gets someone's attention.

Isuzu. Craft earns credibility.
(South Hall)

Celebrating 50 years in North America, Isuzu presented its new engine lineup in museum-grade showcases — clean, elevated, and lit with artwork-style LED fixtures that turned industrial products into objects worth studying. It was a reminder that presentation signals confidence, and even in heavy equipment, how you display the product shapes how seriously buyers take it.

CDE. Build the next best thing.
(North Hall)

You can't bring a wet processing plant indoors. CDE solved that with a highly detailed mockup and guided walkthrough that made large-scale industrial systems tangible in a convention hall. A smart approach for any exhibitor whose product doesn't fit on a display table.

Topcon. Draw the in.
(West Hall + Festival Grounds)

A custom IndyCar stopped traffic. The Capture Reality portfolio and new 3D-MC Edge machine control feature rewarded the visit. Spectacle earned the attention. Substance earned the conversation.

Strategic Recommendations

CONEXPO operates at a scale and stakes level that most B2B shows don't reach. These recommendations reflect what separated the strongest programs from the rest.

  • If your equipment can run, let it run. Live operation is the single most powerful credibility tool at CONEXPO. Buyers trust what they see working over anything they read or watch on a screen. Outdoor demo areas consistently drove deeper engagement and longer dwell time than indoor displays.

  • Buyers are evaluating platforms — telematics, fleet management, predictive maintenance, autonomy — not just iron. The programs that demonstrated how the machine connects to the broader jobsite ecosystem positioned themselves for the conversations that lead to larger, longer-term deals.

  • A large footprint signals market leadership at CONEXPO. But without clear navigation, focused demo areas, and logical product groupings, scale becomes a liability. The strongest programs used their size to guide the buyer through a sequence — not overwhelm them with options.

The exhibit isn't a marketing moment. It's a sales environment.

Design it that way.

Looking ahead

CONEXPO is where experiential marketing meets capital investment.

The decisions made on this floor involve real money, real operational risk, and real deployment timelines.

The programs that win here don't just display equipment. They put buyers in the seat, show the system working, and build the confidence that leads to purchase orders.

The strongest programs at CONEXPO 2026 understood that.

That's the shift we'll continue tracking.

Build environments where buyers can evaluate, compare, and commit.


Not just browse.

Turning insights into execution

Want to see how these trends apply to your programs?

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