HIMSS vs AAOS vs RSNA: How Booth Planning Differs
By Buzzbox Media · Last reviewed July 27, 2026 · 12 min read
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Bottom line: HIMSS, AAOS, and RSNA are three of the most significant exhibit opportunities in medtech, and almost nothing about a booth plan transfers between them. The buyer is different, the demonstration is different, and at RSNA the venue itself imposes costs the other two do not. Companies that ship one identical booth to all three underperform at all three. This guide covers what each show actually demands.
Why One Booth Plan Does Not Travel
Most exhibit programs are built around a single booth property that gets shipped from show to show. That is sensible economics. The mistake is treating the booth plan as equally portable.
Three variables change the plan more than anything else:
- Who the buyer is, and whether they buy alone. An orthopaedic surgeon evaluating an instrument makes a different kind of decision, on a different timeline, than a hospital IT committee evaluating an enterprise platform.
- How the product gets demonstrated. Something a surgeon must physically handle needs bench space. Something that lives on a screen needs seats and a monitor. Capital imaging equipment needs a footprint and floor loading.
- What the venue permits and charges. Labor rules and material handling costs vary enormously between convention centers, and they can move the all-in cost of an identical booth substantially. See exhibit logistics.
Run those three against each show and the booth plan writes itself.
HIMSS: Selling Software to Committees
HIMSS is the flagship health information technology meeting. For 2026 it is at the Venetian Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.
Who is walking the floor. CIOs, CMIOs, IT directors, informatics leaders, health system executives, consultants, and a substantial contingent of vendors. This is an institutional audience. The person at your booth is rarely the person who signs, and is frequently gathering information for a committee evaluation that will run for months.
What that means for the booth.
- The booth is a meeting venue. The highest-value outcome at HIMSS is usually a scheduled conversation, not a scanned badge. Budget space for private or semi-private seated discussion. A booth that is all standing display and no conversation capacity wastes the audience.
- Demonstrate on screens, properly. Screen-based demos need to be legible, rehearsed, and short. Have a two-minute version and a fifteen-minute version, and know which one you are giving.
- Staff for the actual questions. The questions at HIMSS are about integration, interoperability, data standards, security posture, implementation timeline, and total cost. A booth staffed only with people who can describe features will lose to one staffed with people who can answer an integration question on the spot.
- Pre-book meetings. Because the audience is institutional and their calendars fill before they arrive, the pipeline at HIMSS is substantially determined by outreach done weeks before the show. Booth traffic supplements the meeting schedule rather than replacing it.
- Las Vegas venue considerations. Las Vegas convention venues carry meaningful labor and material handling costs. Confirm current rules in the exhibitor services manual.
Adjacent shows worth considering if HIMSS is oversubscribed for your budget: CHIME for a concentrated CIO audience and HLTH for a more investor and innovation oriented crowd.
AAOS: Surgeons Who Want to Touch It
AAOS is the orthopaedic surgeons' annual meeting. For 2026 it is at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.
Who is walking the floor. Orthopaedic surgeons, fellows, residents, and OR staff. This is a clinical audience with a strong individual influence on product selection, even where the purchase runs through a hospital value analysis committee.
What that means for the booth.
- Hands-on is the entire proposition. Surgeons evaluate implants and instruments tactilely. A booth where the product is behind glass, or represented only in renderings, is failing the primary evaluation mode of the audience. Plan bench stations with sawbones, anatomical models, and real instrument trays.
- Budget open floor per visitor. A hands-on bench takes more square footage per simultaneous conversation than a screen demo does. A booth sized for screen-based traffic will feel congested at AAOS at the same visitor volume.
- Standing, not seated. Conversations happen at the bench, at working height, in short bursts. Heavy seated-meeting furniture is largely wasted floor here.
- Staff with clinical credibility. A surgeon asking about approach, fixation, or instrumentation technique needs someone who can discuss it substantively. Product specialists and clinical staff outperform general sales at this show more than at almost any other.
- Plan for peak. Orthopaedic meeting traffic tends to concentrate around session breaks. Staff for the peak, not the average, or you will have surgeons standing unattended at your bench during the only twenty minutes they had.
Compliance note. Hands-on demonstration of devices, particularly anything not yet cleared for the demonstrated use, carries real constraints. Review FDA conference compliance before finalizing what goes on the bench.
RSNA: Scale, Capital, and McCormick Place
RSNA is the Radiological Society of North America annual meeting, among the largest medical meetings in the world, held at McCormick Place in Chicago.
Who is walking the floor. Radiologists, imaging physicists, radiologic technologists, imaging department administrators, and health system imaging leadership, drawn internationally.
What that means for the booth. Two things dominate.
1. Scale, and being found. The major imaging manufacturers build very large, sometimes multi-level stands with substantial presence. A smaller exhibitor placed near them does not compete on spectacle and should not try. What works instead:
- Position over size. A well-placed smaller booth on a traffic path beats a larger booth in a dead zone. Study the floor plan against entrances, session rooms, and food service before selecting.
- A single clear proposition. On a floor this large, an attendee scanning for relevance needs to categorize you instantly. See booth branding for the hierarchy that survives this environment.
- Drive traffic rather than await it. Pre-show outreach, session sponsorships in your subspecialty, and app placement linked to your booth number matter more at RSNA than at a smaller meeting where a walk-the-floor attendee will pass everyone anyway.
2. McCormick Place. McCormick Place is a strict union venue with significant material handling costs. For an imaging exhibitor this compounds, because the product itself is often heavy capital equipment.
- Drayage scales with weight, and imaging hardware is heavy. This is a material budget line, not a rounding item.
- Labor rules restrict what your staff may do. Read the exhibitor services manual before planning your install.
- Rigging for hanging signs is reserved work and priced accordingly.
- Order everything at the advance rate. The advance-to-onsite spread at a show this size is substantial money.
If your product is capital equipment, model the logistics cost before committing to booth size, because the relationship between booth footprint, equipment weight, and total cost is not linear.
Side by Side
| HIMSS | AAOS | RSNA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary audience | CIOs, CMIOs, IT and informatics leaders | Orthopaedic surgeons, fellows, OR staff | Radiologists, physicists, imaging admins |
| Decision mode | Committee, long evaluation cycle | Strong individual clinical influence | Departmental and capital committee |
| Demo mode | Screen-based, rehearsed | Hands-on bench, tactile | Equipment presence and image quality |
| Booth priority | Conversation and meeting space | Open bench space per visitor | Position and sightlines at scale |
| Staffing | Integration, security, implementation | Clinical and technique credibility | Applications and physics literacy |
| Furniture | Seated meeting areas | Standing bench height | Mixed, equipment dominant |
| Biggest cost risk | Meeting space that goes unused | Undersized floor at peak traffic | Material handling on heavy equipment |
| Pipeline driver | Pre-booked meetings | Bench conversations at session breaks | Pre-show outreach plus position |
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes HIMSS different from other medical conferences for exhibitors? HIMSS is a health IT meeting where the buyer is typically an institutional committee rather than an individual clinician. Attendees include CIOs, CMIOs, IT directors, and health system executives, with committee-driven purchasing and long evaluation cycles. The booth functions as a meeting venue rather than a product display, so prioritize conversation space, screen-based demonstration, and staff who can answer integration, interoperability, and implementation questions.
What kind of booth works best at AAOS? AAOS draws orthopaedic surgeons who evaluate implants and instruments by handling them. Plan hands-on bench stations with sawbones, anatomical models, and real instrument trays. Budget more open floor per visitor than a screen-based booth requires, plan for standing conversations rather than seated presentations, and staff with people who can discuss surgical technique credibly.
What should I know about exhibiting at RSNA? RSNA is one of the largest medical meetings in the world, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Scale means a smaller booth needs deliberate positioning and pre-show traffic driving rather than relying on walk-by. McCormick Place is a strict union venue with significant material handling costs, which compounds for heavy imaging equipment. Model logistics cost before committing to booth size.
Can I use the same booth at HIMSS, AAOS, and RSNA? Reuse the structure, but reconfigure the interior, graphics, furniture, demo assets, and staffing for each. HIMSS needs meeting space, AAOS needs hands-on bench space, RSNA needs equipment footprint and sightline strategy. Treat the booth as a reconfigurable shell rather than a fixed build.
How far in advance should I book a booth at a major medical conference? Plan on 9 to 15 months for flagship shows. Space is generally assigned by priority point standing, with selection often occurring during or just after the current year's meeting. First-time exhibitors should expect limited location choice regardless of budget and treat year one as entry into the priority system.
Show details reference publicly available information for the 2026 meeting cycle and are subject to change. Venue rules, labor provisions, and rates vary by year and are governed by each show's exhibitor services manual. Confirm current details with the organizer before budgeting or committing.
This guide is published by Buzzbox Media, a healthcare marketing agency in Nashville. We run medical device marketing for medical device companies.