Held every three years, CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 brought together more than 140,000 construction professionals from 128 countries to the Las Vegas Convention Center and Festival Grounds. The trade show, which ran March 3-7, featured the latest in construction equipment, emerging technologies and solutions for the job sites of the future.
EM couldn’t resist donning our hard hat and saying “Hey, Cat” to a massive bulldozer. Here’s how brands crushed it at showing off heavy equipment and job-site innovation.
Attendees at the show attempted to beat the Guinness World Record for “Most people wearing high-visibility vests.” Above the headline, the big scene at the LVCC. (Photos: Courtesy of CONEXPO-CON/AGG)
Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas
Hitachi brought a surprising sense of calm to the bustle of the Festival Grounds with a 30,000-square-foot booth inspired by Japanese landscaping traditions and featuring an actual Zen garden. Built around the theme “Connecting Harmony to Innovation,” the space blended the company’s machinery lineup and next-level technical solutions with minimalist landscaping elements, including raked gravel, sculptural stones and quiet pathways, and invited attendees to slow down and explore.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Komatsu North America
Komatsu’s sprawling exhibit had a commanding presence in the West Hall, its signature brand colors framing an impressive lineup of excavators, dozers and next-gen equipment. Attendees could also explore the company’s digital technologies and service solutions, and learn about the new capabilities in the presentation theater that anchored the exhibit. Arguably, one of the most popular touchpoints was a race simulator presented with the Atlassian Williams F1 team, featuring a race car floating above the photo op. Large props at unique angles continue to gain speed as a design trend.
(Photo: Courtesy of Komatsu)
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Isuzu
Celebrating 50 years in the North American Market, the Japanese brand brought the new lineup of engines and placed them in a museum-grade showcase. Brand colors splashed across the overhead signs were illuminated with an artwork-style LED fixture, a trend gaining ground across trade show exhibits.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
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John Deere
To showcase the upcoming JD5 and JD8 industrial engines, John Deere anchored its exhibit with engine prototypes that highlighted the modular configurations and flexible applications. The lighted plexiglass model allowed the brand to introduce the models in anticipation of their availability.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Bobcat
Bobcat’s mid-sized machinery could be seen in their natural setting, complete with rocks and plants. In a sea of machinery, greenery provided a welcome reprieve while setting the brand apart.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Kubota
Kubota Engine America made a visual statement with its engines splashed across the transparent LED tower that anchored the exhibit. Product stations and vignettes offered a deep dive, with experts on hand to answer questions.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Volvo Penta
To showcase a broad portfolio of power solutions designed for a variety of construction environments, Volvo Penta augmented the actual pieces of equipment with an interactive table game where attendees could manipulate different types of equipment and learn more about the brand’s power ecosystem through hands-on tasks.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
CDE
Bringing an entire job site inside a convention center is hardly feasible, so CDE showcased its wet processing solutions for waste recycling and natural materials processing applications in a highly detailed mockup, and took attendees on a tour. Large screens on the sides offered a deeper dive into specific technologies.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Liebherr
Over at Festival Grounds, Liebherr’s 66,000-square-foot exhibit felt on-brand down to the last light-gray pebble. Framed by the theme “Hands on the Future,” the experience featured live demos of the latest equipment and interactive elements, including a technology pavilion with digital tools and simulators, expert walk-arounds, and social-media photo moments. The result was an environment that felt precise, polished and professional.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Caterpillar Inc.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary, Caterpillar invited attendees to explore the brand’s ecosystem across multiple locations around the show and had attendees participating in a Cat Checkpoint Challenge to unlock prizes and incentives. The brand’s presence was anchored by a 70,000-square-foot Operator Stadium on the Festival Grounds and a live-action arena where crowds cheered on the finalists of the brand’s Global Operator Challenge from three-story bleachers.
The Performance Center offered a deeper dive into tech innovations with live demo sessions showcasing remote operations, AI tech unveiled at CES 2026, interactive games, and a VisionLink HQ featuring a full construction job site in an animated world that attendees could experience based on their role. The average dwell time for the Stadium experience was over an hour (Design and strategy: Outerkind; Build: MC²).
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
Over at West Hall, the brand presented support solutions for small contractors that also featured multiple interactives, while at South Hall, engines and aftermarket offerings took center stage in a visually stunning exhibit with layers of engagement.
“Safety and productivity are top of mind for our customers, so we put a focus on it in our dirt demos and our Performance Center,” says Jordan Borders, senior marketing consultant at Caterpillar. “Also, Cat was the first EOM to bring an outdoor space to CONEXPO, so every time we’re thinking about how to expand on this and make it more exciting and real. We’ve expanded into demos that focus on the customers’ pain points to get the most out of their machines.”
The best part? Watching the excitement of the next generation of Cat fans climb into the driver’s seat for the first time.
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
(Photo: Anna Huddleston/Event Marketer)
For questions or to share an exhibit build credit for inclusion, email Anna Huddleston.
The post Field Report: The 10 Best Exhibits from CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 appeared first on Event Marketer.
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