Find and Compare Exhibit Builders for AABB Annual Meeting 2026
The AABB Annual Meeting, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies, brings together 5000+ professionals in transfusion medicine, blood banking, and cellular therapies each October. The 2026 meeting runs October 17-19 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Exhibitorly helps you find and compare exhibit builders for AABB Annual Meeting 2026 with experience in medical laboratory, blood banking, and biotherapy trade show environments.
AABB Annual Meeting 2026
About the AABB Annual Meeting
AABB is an international not-for-profit organization representing professionals and institutions in transfusion medicine and biotherapies. Its mission focuses on making transfusion medicine and biotherapies safe, available, and effective worldwide. The annual meeting is where the community comes together around the latest research, operational best practices, regulatory updates, and technology advances in both fields.
The event includes both the main exhibit hall and the Biotherapies Pavilion, each serving different parts of the blood banking and biotherapies community. The main floor serves the traditional blood banking and transfusion medicine community. The Biotherapies Pavilion serves cellular therapy, CAR-T, cord blood, and related organizations with a dedicated networking space and a separate program. Who you are there for determines how your booth should work.
The 2026 keynote will be delivered by Frederick Appelbaum, MD, executive vice president at Fred Hutch and a decades-long leader in blood and biotherapies. The program also includes an "Ask the FDA and CMS/CLIA" session, a rare open Q&A format directly with regulators that draws significant attendance from laboratory directors and compliance professionals.
Two Audiences, Two Different Booth Strategies
The main exhibit hall serves the established blood banking and transfusion medicine community: laboratory directors, blood bank supervisors, transfusion medicine physicians, collection center staff, and quality managers. They are evaluating diagnostic systems, blood management software, apheresis equipment, testing reagents, blood bags, and laboratory automation. Their purchasing decisions are institutional, evidence-driven, and often committee-based.
The Biotherapies Pavilion serves a different group: professionals working in cellular therapies, CAR-T manufacturing, cord blood banking, gene therapy support, and related emerging fields. The Pavilion is a dedicated networking space with live open-mic conversations. It is not a traditional exhibit setup; it is a relationship and discussion environment. Recent participants have included bioMérieux, Eurofins CellTx, J&J Innovative Medicine, LabCorp, Save The Cord Foundation, Terumo, Versiti, and Vitalant.
Blood banking trade show exhibit design that tries to address both audiences without a clear layout logic tends to confuse both.
What Exhibit Builders for AABB Annual Meeting Actually Control?
Your regulatory and legal team approves claims. Your marketing team decides branding. Your science team handles technical content. Your exhibit builder controls the physical environment in which those conversations happen.
At AABB, what builders control matters in specific ways. Blood banking and biotherapy products are often regulated devices, reagents, or biologics. Laboratory equipment has weight, power, and connectivity requirements. Some products involve cold chain considerations that affect how samples or materials are stored and displayed at the booth. Medical laboratory custom exhibits that account for these requirements from the design phase avoid the costly fixes that come from discovering them on setup day. Builders who have not worked medical laboratory or biotherapy shows before may not think to ask about any of this.
Brief your AABB exhibit builder on:
- What your product requires to run or demonstrate
- How large or heavy the primary equipment is
- Whether anything needs power or network connectivity
- Whether you are participating in Passport to Prizes (affects entrance layout)
- Whether your team expects structured technical conversations that need a semi-private space.
A builder who starts with that information designs a different booth than one who starts with your brand guidelines.
Booth Design That Works for Blood Banking and Biotherapy Audiences
Blood banking trade show exhibit design works best when it accounts for who you are talking to. The main hall audience and the Biotherapies Pavilion audience evaluate exhibits differently, and your layout should reflect that from the start.
- Keep demonstrations visible from the aisle. Many attendees arrive looking for specific products or solutions. Make it easy to see and interact with your product without walking deep into the booth.
- Allow enough space for equipment. Diagnostic analyzers, apheresis systems, and laboratory automation equipment require more room than standard product displays. Plan enough space for demonstrations without creating bottlenecks.
- Show products in workflow context. Visitors want to understand how your solution fits into a blood bank, hospital laboratory, or cellular therapy workflow. Visuals and demonstrations that show the bigger picture are often more effective than standalone product displays.
- Use the Opening Night Reception for networking. Saturday evening is designed for introductions and relationship building rather than lengthy product demonstrations. Focus on meeting attendees and scheduling follow-up conversations for Sunday.
- Plan around the Science & Innovation Theater. If your booth is near the theater, expect increased traffic during scheduled sessions and staff accordingly. Even if you're elsewhere on the floor, keep your booth fully staffed while theater sessions are running.
Common Mistakes When Choosing the Wrong AABB Exhibit Builder
- Ignoring the two-audience structure. The main exhibit hall and the Biotherapies Pavilion serve different parts of the industry. Biotherapy exhibition stand builders who understand the Pavilion format will design a space for conversation and relationship building rather than a traditional product display. Medical laboratory custom exhibits designed without this distinction often end up feeling generic to both groups rather than relevant to either.
- Treating Saturday as a full exhibit day. Saturday is the Opening Night Reception, not a full demonstration day. Plan staffing, logistics, and booth activities around networking rather than lengthy product demos.
- Overlooking venue logistics. The Georgia World Congress Center uses A. Fassano & Company for exhibit management. An experienced AABB Annual Meeting exhibit contractor who knows A. Fassano & Company's procedures and the GWCC's freight process can help avoid the setup delays that catch first-timers off guard.
- Overlooking regulatory presentation. The audience includes laboratory directors and compliance professionals, and the meeting features an "Ask the FDA and CMS/CLIA" session. While your legal and medical teams approve product claims, your booth layout should present required information clearly and support compliant product messaging.
Georgia World Congress Center — Venue Details
The Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta is one of the largest convention venues in the United States. Choosing an AABB Annual Meeting exhibit contractor with prior experience at the GWCC removes a significant variable from your setup timeline and budget.
If your company also exhibits at technology or industrial events through the year, Exhibitorly covers those as well. Companies managing diverse calendars that include shows like exhibit builders for SEMICON West use the same quote and comparison process to find builders with the right venue and industry experience for each show.
How Exhibitorly Helps You Find Exhibit Builders for AABB Annual Meeting?
Finding the right exhibit builder doesn't have to be complicated.
Here's how it works:
- Submit your AABB Annual Meeting booth requirements.
- Receive free, non-binding quotes from vetted AABB exhibit builders with medical, laboratory, and biotherapy trade show experience
- Compare designs, pricing, and relevant event experience side by side.
- Choose the builder that best fits your goals and budget.
If your company exhibits at multiple events throughout the year, you can use the same process to compare exhibit builders for The Battery Show North America, Money20/20, and hundreds of other trade shows.
Who Should Exhibit at the AABB Annual Meeting?
AABB is the right event for companies and for biotherapy exhibition stand builders who serve them, whose products connect to blood banking, transfusion medicine, laboratory science, or the growing biotherapies sector. That covers diagnostic testing systems, blood collection and processing equipment, apheresis technology, blood management software, transfusion information systems, reagents and test kits, cellular therapy manufacturing support, cord blood banking, CAR-T related services, laboratory automation, cold chain logistics, regulatory consulting, and medical education.
If your customers include blood bank directors, transfusion medicine physicians, laboratory supervisors, cellular therapy program managers, or quality and compliance officers in hospital or blood center settings, your audience is at this meeting.
If your product has no connection to blood, transfusion, laboratory operations, or cellular therapies, AABB is not the right venue.
Exhibiting at AABB Annual Meeting 2026?
Find exhibit builders for AABB Annual Meeting with blood banking and biotherapy conference experience. Compare quotes before your planning window closes.
Is Saturday a full exhibit day at AABB 2026?
No. Saturday, October 17, is the Opening Night Reception from 4:30-7:00 p.m. It is a networking reception, not a demonstration day. The full exhibit days are Sunday (9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.) and Monday (9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.). Plan staff, logistics, and demo rotations around two working days, not three.
What is the Biotherapies Pavilion, and should my company be in it?
The Biotherapies Pavilion is a dedicated networking space within the exhibit hall for organizations working in cellular therapies, cord blood banking, CAR-T, and related biotherapies. It features live open-mic conversations rather than traditional booth formats. 2026 participants include bioMérieux, J&J Innovative Medicine, LabCorp, Terumo, Versiti, and Vitalant, among others. If your product or service is specific to the biotherapies sector, the Pavilion may be more effective than a standard booth. If your products span both traditional blood banking and biotherapies, discuss the trade-off with your builder and with AABB's exhibit team.
What is the Passport to Prizes activity, and does it affect booth layout?
Passport to Prizes is an engagement activity where attendees visit and scan participating exhibitor booths to earn prize entries. If you participate, it drives structured floor traffic to your booth from attendees who might otherwise pass. Your builder should know in advance because it affects how the booth entrance is set up, badge scanning should not block access to your demo area or create a bottleneck during peak periods.
Can I demonstrate laboratory equipment or biotherapy products at the AABB Annual Meeting?
Yes. Product demonstrations and workflow displays are standard and expected at AABB. Equipment with specific power, network, or space requirements should be included in your builder's brief before the floor plan is finalized. Cold chain requirements for biological samples or materials should also be discussed early. Ask specifically whether your builder has configured exhibits around refrigerated storage or temperature-sensitive product display before.
Does my booth design need to account for FDA promotional guidelines?
If your product is regulated (medical device, diagnostic, pharmaceutical, or biologic), your marketing and legal teams review claims and promotional language. Your builder's job is to create space that supports compliant display, a clear surface area for required labeling, an appropriate visual hierarchy, and a layout that does not inadvertently crowd out mandatory language. Brief your builder on what your regulatory team will need the design to accommodate.
Is Exhibitorly free to use?
Yes. The quote and comparison tools are free for exhibitors.
