Automate 2026
- Date
- 2026-06-22
- Location
- McCormick Place, Chicago, United States
- Host
- Association for Advancing Automation (A3)
About this event
Automate 2026 is where the future of manufacturing shows up in working form. If you want to see how robotics, AI, machine vision, and industrial automation are actually being deployed across factories and production environments, this is one of the most concentrated places in North America to do it. With 800+ exhibitors and 200+ speakers, the event brings together a serious cross-section of the automation ecosystem under one roof. It is built for people who need more than trend headlines: operators evaluating systems, technical teams comparing capabilities, leaders planning investments, and anyone tracking where advanced manufacturing is heading next. About the Event Automate 2026 is an in-person trade show and conference focused on robotics and automation, hosted at McCormick Place in Chicago. At its core, it is a large-scale industry gathering designed to help attendees explore technologies, meet solution providers, and hear directly from experts working across industrial robotics, AI, machine vision, and broader automation systems. The format combines a major exhibition floor with a substantial speaker program. That matters because the value of an event like this is not just seeing equipment and software in isolation, but understanding how pieces fit together across real manufacturing workflows: inspection, handling, motion, sensing, integration, data, and decision-making. This is especially relevant for teams navigating practical questions such as where automation can deliver measurable returns, how vision systems are improving in reliability and flexibility, and how robotics is being adopted across different industrial use cases. Whether your focus is operations, engineering, strategy, or sourcing, the event is structured to support hands-on discovery as well as higher-level learning. Because it is one of the largest events of its kind in North America, attendees can expect a broad mix of established players, emerging technologies, and application-specific conversations. That scale makes it useful both for deep technical comparisons and for getting a wider read on the direction of the market. What to Expect Expect a show floor built for exploration. With 800+ exhibitors, there should be a wide range of technologies and providers represented across robotics, industrial automation, AI-enabled systems, and machine vision. For many attendees, the exhibition is the fastest way to compare approaches side by side, ask detailed product questions, and see how different vendors position performance, integration, and usability. The speaker lineup adds depth beyond the exhibits. With 200+ speakers, the conference content is likely to cover a mix of technical, operational, and strategic topics relevant to advanced manufacturing. Instead of relying only on vendor conversations, attendees can also hear broader perspectives on implementation, trends, and lessons from the field. You can reasonably expect activity across areas such as: Industrial robotics and robotic applications in production settings AI in automation for smarter systems, optimization, and decision support Machine vision for inspection, guidance, quality, and sensing Industrial automation technologies that connect equipment, processes, and control Advanced manufacturing workflows and system-level integration considerations The event is best approached with a plan. Large trade shows reward focus, so it helps to identify the categories, problems, or vendor types you most want to investigate. Some attendees come to evaluate a near-term purchase; others come to benchmark the market, scout partners, or understand which capabilities are becoming standard. Automate 2026 supports all of those goals. Why Attend The biggest reason to attend is efficiency. In a single trip, you can meet a large number of exhibitors, hear from hundreds of speakers, and gather a clearer view of the automation landscape than you could through weeks of separate calls and research. If your role involves technology selection, process improvement, manufacturing strategy, or industrial innovation, that concentration of information is valuable. It is also a strong environment for making better decisions. Seeing solutions in person helps you move past abstract claims and into practical evaluation: what looks robust, what appears easy to integrate, what seems tailored to your environment, and where the real differentiators are. That is especially important in areas like robotics and vision, where implementation details often matter more than marketing language. Attendees may leave with benefits such as: A sharper understanding of the automation market and where it is moving Qualified vendor and partner conversations that can continue after the event New ideas for improving throughput, quality, flexibility, or labor efficiency A clearer view of how AI and vision are being applied in industrial settings Practical insight into what technologies may be relevant now versus later For teams in advanced manufacturing and industrials, the event can also help align internal thinking. Engineers, operations leaders, and business stakeholders often evaluate automation through different lenses. A shared visit to a large event like this can give everyone the same reference points and accelerate internal decision-making. Practical Details Automate 2026 takes place in person at McCormick Place in Chicago, United States. The in-person format is a major part of the appeal: this is the kind of event where walking the floor, seeing systems up close, and having live conversations can make a meaningful difference in what you learn. The event is listed for Monday, June 22 at 12:00 AM UTC. If you are traveling internationally or coordinating across time zones, it is worth double-checking local timing and planning your itinerary accordingly. For most attendees, this is likely to be a multi-hour or multi-day on-site experience given the size of the show and the number of exhibitors and speakers involved. A few practical ways to prepare: Review your priorities in advance so you can focus your time on the most relevant exhibitors and sessions Wear comfortable shoes and plan for substantial walking, especially at a venue as large as McCormick Place Leave room in your schedule for discovery, not just preplanned meetings Bring specific questions about applications, integration, performance, and deployment timelines If you work in robotics, automation, machine vision, or manufacturing transformation, Automate 2026 is the kind of event that can help you compress research, widen your perspective, and have more informed conversations afterward. It is big enough to show the breadth of the market, and focused enough to be useful for people who need practical answers.
Who should attend
If you work where physical operations, production, or warehouse performance matters, this is the place to see what automation looks like now and what is coming next. - **You lead manufacturing, operations, or plant strategy** and want a clearer view of which robotics and automation investments are practical, scalable, and worth prioritizing. - **You are an engineer, integrator, or technical decision-maker** looking to compare solutions across robotics, AI, machine vision, and industrial automation without relying on vendor decks alone. - **You run continuous improvement, process optimization, or digital transformation efforts** and need real examples of how teams are improving throughput, quality, safety, and labor efficiency. - **You are sourcing technology for factories, warehouses, or production lines** and want to evaluate a large range of exhibitors in one place, ask detailed questions, and shorten your buying cycle. - **You are building your expertise in industrial robotics** and want to learn from a deep speaker lineup, understand where the market is heading, and leave with a sharper sense of what matters. - **You are a founder, investor, student, or industry newcomer focused on automation** and want a fast, credible way to understand the landscape and meet the people shaping it.