WESTEC 2027 (No 2026 Show): Dates & Exhibitor Guide

What is WESTEC? 🏭

WESTEC is the West Coast's long-running advanced manufacturing and machine tool trade show, organized by SME. It brings together builders of machining centers, cutting tools, robotics, metrology and software with the manufacturers of Southern California: aerospace, defense, medical devices, automotive and precision machining.

Since the 2025 edition, WESTEC has been presented as the flagship of the Manufacturing Technology Series WEST (MT Series WEST), co-produced by SME and AMT, The Association For Manufacturing Technology. The event also features the Smart Manufacturing Experience, SecureShop and Bright Minds. The MT Series groups four regional shows: WESTEC, EASTEC, SOUTHTEC and HOUSTEX.

These regional shows are held in the years when IMTS, AMT's national show in Chicago, does not take place. IMTS ran from September 14 to 19, 2026, which is why there is no WESTEC 2026: the West Coast edition returns in November 2027.

The venue has moved over time. Los Angeles hosted WESTEC for decades; the show moved to the Long Beach Convention Center in 2019, was held there again in November 2023, then went to the Anaheim Convention Center for its October 2025 edition, the first under the MT Series WEST name. In 2027 it returns to Long Beach.

WESTEC 2027: dates, venue and practical information 📅

The Long Beach Convention Center has three exhibit halls that combine into up to 224,000 sq ft of contiguous space, served by loading docks with 5 truck bays plus a ramp for Hall A, 3 bays for Hall B and 8 bays plus a ramp for Hall C. For comparison, the 2025 edition used 203,000 sq ft in total. Dock traffic is marshaled by the venue's own dock controllers, so delivery slots for heavy machines matter.

Who exhibits and who visits: the 2025 figures 📊

The organiser's 2025 post-event audience report (Anaheim, October 7 to 9, 2025) gives the most recent official figures:

Exhibitors cover the whole shop floor: machining centers, CNC controls, cutting tools and workholding, grinding, EDM, lasers and waterjet cutting, additive manufacturing, robotics and automation, metrology and inspection, CAD/CAM and ERP software, industrial IoT and cybersecurity.

Visitors are mostly regional and hands-on: owners and executives, manufacturing and design engineers, quality managers and buyers. Top attending companies in 2025 included Boeing, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, Gulfstream Aerospace and Toyota Motor North America.

The show is organized around several sections:

• WESTEC exhibits: the main floor of machine tools, tooling, automation and software, with live equipment demonstrations.
• Smart Manufacturing Experience: a theater and Knowledge Bars on digital adoption, automation and AI for small and medium-sized manufacturers.
• SecureShop: cybersecurity for manufacturers, from shop-floor defenses to compliance.
• Bright Minds Student Summits: high school students and educators discover manufacturing careers.
• AeroDef Manufacturing: according to SME, the aerospace and defense showcase will be deployed at MT Series WEST in Long Beach in 2027.
• Keynotes and networking: the Executive Perspectives Keynote Series and networking receptions ran in 2025; the 2027 program is to be confirmed by the organiser.

How much does a stand at WESTEC cost? 💶

Separate three budget lines before comparing quotes: the floor space, booked with SME (2027 rates to be confirmed by the organiser); the show services ordered from the official contractors (electrical, compressed air, material handling, rigging, cleaning); and the stand itself, which is your investment and can be reused.

Indicative build prices, excluding floor space, show services, freight and machine rigging. Each quote is itemized line by line.

To give an order of magnitude, a 20×30 ft island (about 56 m²) built as a custom stand represents €33,600 to €84,000 of construction, depending on height, finishes and AV equipment. The price per m² also depends on the floor space: it is easier to negotiate on a 100 m² stand than on an 18 m² one. Our guide to exhibition stand cost details every line of a stand budget.

Which stand format for WESTEC? 🎯

The right format depends less on your budget than on what you want the show to achieve. A software vendor meeting buyers does not need what a machine builder running spindles for three days needs. The quick test below recommends a stand format based on four answers: your goal, your trade show experience, your timeline and your floor space.

If you exhibit at several US and European shows a year, a modular trade show booth lowers the cost per show. If the stand has to frame heavy machines and live demos, a custom exhibition stand is built around them. And if you want a single contact from design to dismantling, see our turnkey exhibition stand service.

Designing a stand for machines and live demos ⚙️

At a machine tool show, the stand is designed around the equipment, not the other way round. These are the points we settle before the first sketch:

• Floor loading: list the weight and footprint of every machine. Heavy machines usually sit directly on the hall slab, with the stand floor built around them, or on spreader plates. The permitted floor load for the 2027 halls is to be confirmed by the organiser.
• Machines first, stand second: heavy equipment is placed by the official material handling and rigging contractor, usually by forklift. Leave an open path for the machine and its crate, and plan the build sequence accordingly.
• Power: US halls run on 60 Hz, with 120 V and 208 V or 480 V three-phase supplies. A machine built for European 400 V / 50 Hz may need a transformer or a US-rated version. Order electrical service early, with cable routes planned under the stand floor.
• Compressed air and fluids: specify pressure and flow for each machine, and plan drip trays, coolant containment and chip collection. Noisy compressors belong away from the meeting area.
• Live demo safety: guarding, interlocks and emergency stops stay active; visitors stand behind barriers or enclosures, with safety glasses when chips or lasers are involved. The demonstration rules for 2027 are to be confirmed by the organiser in the exhibitor manual.
• Height and sightlines: US shows apply different rules to inline, peninsula and island booths. The 2027 height limits are to be confirmed by the organiser; design with a margin until the manual is published.
• A quiet place to talk: buyers decide around a table, not next to a spindle. Plan a meeting area away from the demo cells, and a lead-capture routine: 23,000 leads were scanned in 2025.

Exhibitor timeline for WESTEC 2027 ⏱️

A custom stand with working machines needs 10 to 12 months from brief to opening, especially when equipment crosses the Atlantic. Here is the schedule we recommend for November 2027:

Common mistakes at WESTEC ❌

• Waiting for a 2026 edition: there is none. Companies that plan now get the best locations on the 2027 floor plan.
• Designing before knowing the machines: the stand layout depends on weights, footprints, utilities and safety zones. Freeze the machine list first.
• Missing service deadlines: electrical, compressed air and material handling ordered late cost more, and some slots fill up.
• Underestimating material handling: in the US it is usually billed by weight, so heavy machines and crates weigh on the budget.
• Applying European habits: booth sizes in feet, sightline rules by booth type and contractor-only tasks differ from European shows.
• Too many machines, no seats: a crowded stand with no meeting area loses the conversations that turn into orders.
• No follow-up plan: leads go cold within days. Our guide to trade show ROI explains how to measure the return.

How Decore Studio Events builds stands in Los Angeles 🛠️

Decore Studio Events is a French exhibition stand designer and builder with more than 25 years of experience. We design, manage production with selected partner workshops that we supervise piece by piece, and install stands for international shows, including in Southern California, as exhibition stand builders in Los Angeles.

For WESTEC, that means one contact from brief to dismantling: reading the exhibitor manual, a layout built around your machines, production supervised piece by piece at our partner workshops, coordination with the official contractors for power, air and rigging, on-site assembly and storage between shows. See our services, browse our achievements check our calendar of trade shows, or contact our team with your WESTEC floor plan.