Best trade show booth builders and trade show exhibit companies in the USA

The best trade show booth builders in the USA, on the evidence they publish, are Derse, STAR and Exhibit Concepts. All three are full-service trade show exhibit houses that handle booth design, fabrication, storage and on-site installation from very large workshops of their own, and each has decades of trade show programmes behind it. If you exhibit mostly in Las Vegas, LVE is the local builder to look at first. If you want a price before you talk to anyone, Team One Exhibits publishes starting prices for its rental booths, and Ion Exhibits gives a typical starting cost for a 10 x 10 booth.

Below you get the 11 trade show exhibit companies we rank, what each one builds, rents and publishes, and the kind of exhibitor each one suits. After the list we cover what a booth costs, how drayage, union labour and I&D work at US shows, and whether to rent or buy. All 11 have a full listing on Exhibition Directory, and you can see every firm we list on the stand builders in the USA page.

The best trade show booth builder for each kind of exhibitor

• A large programme of shows across the country: Derse, which lists 530 employees, 8,000+ events supported a year and 735,000 sq ft of design, manufacturing and warehouse space.
• An award-level custom booth at a flagship show: STAR, whose 3M booth at CES 2026 won a Best of CES award.
• A supplier-diversity requirement: Exhibit Concepts, which is certified as woman-owned by WBENC.
• A modular booth you can reconfigure: Ion Exhibits, a certified beMatrix AV partner with one of the largest beMatrix rental inventories in the Chicago area.
• Shows in Las Vegas: LVE, founded in 1994, which works from a 150,000 sq ft Las Vegas headquarters.
• A rental booth at a known price: Team One Exhibits, whose 10 x 20 ft rental kits start at $15,000.
• Exhibitors based in Texas: 2020 Exhibits, founded in Houston in 1987 and building a 150,000 sq ft headquarters there.
• Several shows a year on one rental: ColorCraft, whose ShowPak programme gives a discounted rate to exhibitors at multiple shows.
• Medical and pharma congresses: Access TCA, whose case studies are mostly life sciences clients.
• Kitchen, bath and home products: Deckel & Moneypenny, which reports 2,922 qualified leads for House of Rohl at KBIS 2024.
• A fixed budget ceiling: Hill & Partners, which quotes with a not-to-exceed pricing guarantee.

Trade show booth builders compared on design, fabrication and rentals

How we compared these exhibit companies

We started from the 18 stand builders listed for the USA on Exhibition Directory, added one firm that was missing, and re-read every company’s own website on 5 November 2026. We ranked them on what you can check yourself:

• whether the company designs and fabricates booths in a workshop of its own, rather than passing the build to someone else
• the scale and track record it publishes, such as founding year, staff, floor space and the shows it works at
• how much it shows you, including named clients, case studies with results, awards and any prices
• how easy it makes the work around the booth, such as rentals, storage, shipping and I&D

Nobody paid to be included or for their position, and a listing on our site earns nothing in the ranking. We have not hired these builders, so this compares what each one offers and publishes, not the finished booth. A few listed firms are not ranked: some mainly serve exhibitors coming from one region abroad (we name them under other firms worth a look), and for others we could not confirm a workshop of their own or load their website when we checked.

The 11 best trade show booth builders and exhibit design companies, ranked

1. Derse

Derse is the biggest exhibit house on this list. It is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was founded in 1948, and lists 530 employees, 8,000+ events supported a year and 735,000 sq ft of exhibit design, manufacturing and warehouse facilities. It also has offices in Northbrook and Waukegan near Chicago, Coppell in Texas, Rochester in Michigan, North Las Vegas, Warrendale in Pennsylvania, and in Poznan and Hamburg in Europe. Its published work includes booths for Interstate Batteries, Hologic, SentinelOne, and work for John Deere and Wirtgen Group.

You can buy a custom exhibit or rent one of its pre-designed kits, which come in four families (Angular, Curvilinear, Rectilinear and Core) and sizes from 10 x 10 to 30 x 30 ft, with graphics you can reuse across sizes in the same family. For its own booth at EXHIBITORLIVE 2025, Derse says its modular metal frame removed the need for overhead rigging and saved $40,000 in rigging costs. It also runs show portfolio planning for your whole trade show programme and its own lead capture app.

Best for: a large exhibit programme across many shows, run by one company with offices near most major US venues. See the Derse listing.

2. STAR

STAR (STAR Exhibits & Environments) is a Minneapolis exhibit house that has been in business for more than 33 years. It has four locations, in Minneapolis, Durham in North Carolina, Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas, a 250,000 sq ft headquarters, supports 300+ events a year and reports a 95% client retention rate. Its 3M booth was a 2026 Best of CES award winner, which STAR says put it among the top 1% of more than 4,000 exhibitors, and the same booth earned 3M the Best of beMatrix Designer’s Choice Award.

You can have a fully custom booth built in-house, or rent a custom booth on modular frameworks such as beMatrix so the layout and graphics can change between shows. Its Featherlite brand covers lightweight portable and modular display kits, and its Startranet portal lets you manage stored exhibit inventory and project files online. Published projects include JCB at Farm Progress 2025 and SRS Distribution at IRE.

Best for: a high-profile custom booth at a flagship show where design awards and measured results matter. See the STAR listing.

3. Exhibit Concepts

Exhibit Concepts was founded in 1978 by Ned Brown and is now owned by his daughter, Kelli Glasser. It works from a 200,000 square foot facility in Dayton, Ohio, with a Chicago-area office in Elgin, Illinois. It is certified by the Woman-owned Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), describes itself as one of the largest WBENC-certified organisations in the industry, and has achieved EDPA RFP Certification. Event Marketer magazine named it a Best Place to Work in Events.

You can buy a custom exhibit fabricated in its own facilities, rent, or mix the two. For Kellanova (formerly Kellogg’s), a client for more than a decade, it pairs booth property the client already owns with rental pieces and reconfigures the kit for shows such as the National Restaurant Association Show. It built Nestle Purina a custom modular 30 x 60 ft booth, and says it delivers turnkey exhibits at trade shows in more than 50 countries.

Best for: buyers who need a certified diverse supplier, and Midwest exhibitors who want owned and rented booth pieces managed as one programme. See the Exhibit Concepts listing.

4. Ion Exhibits

Ion Exhibits began in 1991 as a Skyline Displays distributor in Wood Dale, Illinois, and moved into its current headquarters in Carol Stream, Illinois, in 2023. It has more than 55 staff. Ion is a certified beMatrix AV partner and says it holds one of the largest beMatrix rental inventories in the Chicago area, so your booth can be built from modular frames with video walls and lighting built in. Its FAQ gives an example of converting a 20 x 20 island into a 10 x 20 inline with the same modular parts.

It is one of only two builders here that publish a figure you can plan with. Ion says a 10 x 10 trade show booth typically starts at $12,000, including booth rental, custom design, setup and logistics, and graphics. Its awards include 2025 ExSys Awards for Zero Systems and Beko, and its case studies cover Beko at KBIS and MGP Ingredients at IFT First.

Best for: a modular booth that you can resize and refresh from show to show, with a published starting point for the budget. See the Ion Exhibits listing.

5. LVE (Las Vegas Expo)

LVE has been building in Las Vegas since 1994. Its headquarters on Annie Oakley Drive covers 150,000 sq ft, including a 120,000 sq ft warehouse and a 10,000 sq ft carpentry shop, and it lists further locations in Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Southern California and Orlando. Las Vegas hosts a long list of the biggest US trade shows, including CES, the SEMA Show and NAB Show, so a builder whose crews and warehouse are in the same city can save you freight and storage between shows.

You can have a booth designed, fabricated in its own shop, shipped and installed, or rent an exhibit instead. LVE also works for show organisers on floor plans, rigging, drayage and crews, and acts as general contractor for CHAMPS Trade Shows, six annual North American shows with 900+ exhibitors. Its Wrangler case study describes more than ten years of turnkey booths at Cowboy Christmas.

Best for: exhibitors who attend several Las Vegas shows a year and want a local builder that understands the city’s venues. See the LVE listing.

6. Team One Exhibits

Team One Exhibits was founded in 2003 and builds in its own shop in Kennesaw, Georgia, north of Atlanta. It is the clearest builder on this list about price. Its rental kits start at $15,000 for a 10 x 20 ft inline, $20,000 for a 20 x 20 ft island, $30,000 for 20 x 30 and 20 x 40 ft islands, and $40,000 for a 40 x 50 ft island. It also builds custom exhibits, including a 50 x 70 ft island for j5create at CES 2024.

You deal with one crew from shop to show. The booth is built in its own shop and its own people travel with it, a Team One supervisor walks your booth every morning before the doors open to check power, graphics and AV, and install and dismantle are done by its own crew. When several of its clients attend the same show, supervision and crew costs are split between them, so each exhibitor pays less.

Best for: small and mid-size exhibitors in the Southeast who want a rental booth at a known starting price. See the Team One Exhibits listing.

7. 2020 Exhibits

2020 Exhibits was founded in Houston in 1987 by Bob Babine and has a second office in Fenton, near St. Louis. It has broken ground on a new 150,000 sq ft headquarters in Houston with a showroom of recent custom builds, and Exhibitor Media Group named it one of its Find It Top 40 exhibit producers in the United States and Canada. Its case studies include NOV at the Offshore Technology Conference, Autodesk at IMTS 2022 and AC Pop Comics at MegaCon 2026.

You can rent or buy island, peninsula, double-deck and portable booths as well as inline booths. 2020 Exhibits says it holds one of the largest rental inventories in the country, and its rental pages point out that renting avoids capital expenditure, storage fees, damaged property costs and property ownership taxes. If you exhibit in Houston, at NRG Park or the George R. Brown Convention Center, your booth is built and stored in the same city.

Best for: Texas exhibitors, and anyone who wants a large rental booth without owning or storing the structure. See the 2020 Exhibits listing.

8. ColorCraft

ColorCraft is a second-generation exhibit agency that works from a 100,000 square foot Orlando “Craftory” and says it has been building brand experiences for over 25 years. Clients named on its site include Microsoft, Hitachi, McDonald’s, Disney, Ford, The Home Depot and Kennedy Space Center. Its 50 x 70 ft booth for Origin Acoustics earned two best booth honours at CEDIA Expo 2026.

Its ShowPak custom rental programme is aimed at exhibitors who attend several shows a year, with a discounted rate while ColorCraft handles design, fabrication, shipping, storage, I&D and maintenance from show to show. Being in Orlando also helps if you exhibit at the Orange County Convention Center.

Best for: exhibitors with a full show calendar who want a custom look on a rental budget, and Florida shows. See the ColorCraft listing.

9. Access TCA

Access TCA is a specialty fabricator in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, that says it has been working for over 40 years. Most of the case studies on its site are for pharmaceutical and life sciences companies at medical congresses, such as Boehringer Ingelheim’s sponsorship at ATS and Insmed’s medical affairs exhibit at CHEST.

Its Top Shelf custom rental programme comes with what it calls No-Surprise Billing, with show services and logistics included in an upfront price, and it says it has managed projects from 100 to over 10,000 square feet for almost two decades.

Best for: pharma, biotech and medical device companies exhibiting at congresses such as the RSNA Annual Meeting. See the Access TCA listing.

10. Deckel & Moneypenny

Deckel & Moneypenny is a Louisville, Kentucky exhibit house that traces its history to 1964. It publishes measured results for its booths as well as photos. For House of Rohl it designed one booth for seven brands at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show and reports 2,922 qualified leads and the KBIS 2024 Best of Show award for a large booth. It also reports that GE Appliances won KBIS Best Booth twice with its booths.

It also designs touring brand experiences. Its Chevron Delo Traveling Technology Lab was built to be hosted at more than 50 locations a year, so it suits brands that need the same story on the show floor and on the road.

Best for: kitchen, bath and home product brands, and anyone who wants a builder that reports lead results. See the Deckel & Moneypenny listing.

11. Hill & Partners

Hill & Partners is based in Weymouth, near Boston, and publishes 30+ years in business, 5,800+ projects, work in 20+ countries and 40+ employees. Its published work leans towards technology and security shows, with work for Threatlocker at Zero Trust World 2026 and Sophos, and its own exhibit at ExhibitorLIVE.

Once the scope is agreed, it gives you a budget with a not-to-exceed pricing guarantee, which caps the bill. Its FAQ says most of its environments are built from a system of aluminium panels designed for reuse, and that its in-house team does most of the work, with a few long-standing partners where needed.

Best for: tech and B2B exhibitors who need a firm budget ceiling before they commit. See the Hill & Partners listing.

Other trade show exhibit companies worth a look

These firms are also listed on Exhibition Directory. They did not make the ranking above, mostly because they serve a narrower need, but one of them may suit you better.

• Florida: FX Design Group designs and fabricates custom booths, rentals and broadcast sets from its Orlando facility. Mueller International Exhibit Services in Cocoa is the US arm of a German stand builder and suits European companies exhibiting in the USA. Diper Exhibitions has an Orlando office and offices in Latin America, which suits Latin American brands at US shows.
• Las Vegas: One Stop Expo fabricates and prints in-house and offers co-build support to other exhibit houses. Fair Consulting International helps overseas exhibitors plan and manage US shows through a network of service providers.
• California: Laguna Displays in Laguna Beach covers portable displays through to custom hardwall booths, with I&D crews and freight.

What a custom trade show booth costs, and who publishes pricing

Most US exhibit houses do not publish prices. They quote per project once they know your booth size, the shows and how much of the work you want them to handle. Of the 11 builders we rank, only two publish figures, and both are starting points rather than quotes:

• Team One Exhibits rental kits start at $15,000 (10 x 20 ft), $20,000 (20 x 20 ft), $30,000 (20 x 30 and 20 x 40 ft) and $40,000 (40 x 50 ft).
• Ion Exhibits says a 10 x 10 booth typically starts at $12,000, including booth rental, custom design, setup and logistics, and graphics.

The booth is only part of what you spend. Derse’s FAQ lists booth space, functional requirements, design, materials and fabrication, shipping, staff travel and show services as the lines to budget for. Ion adds drayage, electrical and utilities, internet, and storage between shows. Two builders here make the final bill easier to predict: Hill & Partners quotes with a not-to-exceed guarantee, and Access TCA’s Top Shelf rentals include show services and logistics in the upfront price. If you usually work with an exhibition stand builder in Europe, note that US quotes rarely include these show services, and add the costs in our guide to planning an overseas exhibition budget.

Drayage, logistics, installation and dismantle at US shows

If you have exhibited in Europe, the way a US show floor works will feel different, and it affects what you pay your builder.

• Exhibit house or I&D company. An exhibit house designs, builds and stores your booth. Installation and dismantling (I&D) is the labour that puts it up and takes it down at the venue. Many exhibit houses send their own supervisors and crews, as Team One does, while others use I&D companies near the venue. Ask which yours does, because it changes the quote.
• Drayage, or material handling. At most US shows you cannot drive your crates straight to your booth. The show contractor (the general service contractor) moves them from the dock or the advance warehouse to your space and stores the empty crates during the show, and charges you for it through the exhibitor kit, usually by weight. Lighter modular booths cost less to move, which is one reason builders such as Derse and Ion push modular frames.
• Union labour. In many convention cities, some work on the floor must be done by union labour under the venue’s rules, and the exhibitor manual says what you may do yourself. Laguna Displays, for example, says its I&D teams work to US union jurisdictions. A builder that knows the venue’s rules avoids paying for idle crews.
• Advance warehouse or direct to show. Shipping to the advance warehouse before the show gives you a safety margin. Shipping direct to the show site needs a tight delivery window. Laguna Displays handles both, from a parcel of graphics sent straight to the show to crated exhibits sent to the advance warehouse.

Venues differ too. If your show is at the Las Vegas Convention Center, The Venetian Expo, McCormick Place or the Javits Center, read that venue’s exhibitor rules early and share them with your builder. For crates coming from abroad, see our guide to shipping exhibition equipment abroad.

Booth rentals or a custom build you own and store?

Booth rentals suit you if you exhibit at one or two shows a year, are trying a new show, or do not want to store and repair a booth. 2020 Exhibits points out that renting avoids capital expenditure, storage fees, damaged property costs and property ownership taxes, and ColorCraft’s ShowPak gives a discounted rate when you rent across several shows.

Buy if you exhibit often at the same size, or your booth needs custom features a rental cannot give you. Even then, most builders here suggest a mix. Exhibit Concepts pairs Kellanova’s owned pieces with rentals for each show, Derse designs its rental kits so graphics carry across sizes, and Ion’s modular booths can shrink from an island to an inline. Our guide to the best reusable exhibition stands covers the modular frame systems behind most of these booths.

How to choose a trade show booth builder

• Start with your goals for the show, then ask to see booths the builder has made at your shows, or at your booth size, rather than its best photos.
• Check where the booth is built and stored, and how far that is from your main venues.
• Ask who does I&D on site, their own crew or a local I&D company, and whether a supervisor gives on-site support for the whole show.
• Get the full cost, including storage, shipping, drayage estimates and show services as well as the booth itself.
• Ask whether a rental or a mix of owned and rented pieces would work, and whether parts can be reconfigured for other sizes.
• Check what happens after the show, such as storage, repairs, graphic refreshes and reporting on leads.
• If your company needs a diverse supplier, ask for the certificate. Exhibit Concepts, for example, is WBENC certified.

Trade show booth builder FAQ

What are the top trade show exhibit companies in the USA?

On published scale and track record, Derse, STAR and Exhibit Concepts lead our list. Derse lists 530 employees and 735,000 sq ft of facilities, STAR has a 250,000 sq ft headquarters and a 2026 Best of CES winner, and Exhibit Concepts works from 200,000 sq ft in Dayton.

How much does a trade show booth cost?

Among the builders we rank, published starting prices run from $12,000 for a 10 x 10 booth at Ion Exhibits to $40,000 for a 40 x 50 ft rental kit at Team One Exhibits. Space rental, show services, drayage and travel come on top, and most builders only quote per project.

What is the difference between an exhibit house and an I&D company?

An exhibit house (a trade show exhibit company) handles booth design, production, storage and management. An I&D company supplies the labour to install and dismantle it at the venue. Many exhibit houses on this list run their own I&D, while others book local crews.

Should I rent or buy a trade show booth?

Rent for one or two shows a year or a first try at a show, and buy if you exhibit often at the same size. Many exhibitors mix the two, as Kellanova does with Exhibit Concepts.

Who are the best trade show booth builders in Las Vegas?

LVE, founded in 1994, has a 150,000 sq ft headquarters in Las Vegas. Derse and STAR also have Las Vegas area offices, and One Stop Expo fabricates there.

Can a US booth builder handle shows abroad?

Some can. Exhibit Concepts says it delivers turnkey exhibits at international trade shows in more than 50 countries, Derse has offices in Poland and Germany, and Hill & Partners reports work in 20+ countries.

See all firms on the stand builders in the USA page, browse every country on the stand builders hub, or read choosing an international trade show before you book space.