If you can believe it, Chicago Design Week — NeoCon and Fulton Market Design Days, begins in less than four months. And since the events are going through so much change and churn, I thought I would provide you with an update of what’s happening, which is also available in much more detail in Converge, the magazine we publish with THE MART. You can find the latest issue of Converge here.

It includes all the latest changes to NeoCon and a profile of Keilhauer and its plans to expand at THE MART in time for NeoCon 2026. I encourage you to check it out. If you are interested in what’s new at NeoCon for 2026, read on.

This year’s NeoCon — scheduled for June 8-10 — includes a new Preview Day on June 7. Though Preview Day is now becoming an “official” day of NeoCon, the fact is, many of us have been around THE MART on the Sunday prior to NeoCon’s opening for years. For officeinsight magazine, the weekend prior to the show allows us to get a jump start on covering the event. Many others are already in the building on Sunday, including some brands that are putting the finishing touches on their showrooms and lots of dealers and reps who are there to learn about new products and for showroom tour training. For those who have never walked THE MART on Sunday, I highly recommend it. You can get a lot of ground covered before the crowds arrive on Monday morning.

Officially, the theme is “Where Design Connects,” a tagline that signals broad ambition: bring architects, designers, manufacturers and thinkers into a crossroads of commerce and conversation.

There are big names anchoring the marquee. Three keynote speakers — entrepreneur Jessica O. Matthews, futurist Nick Foster and digital strategist David “Shingy” Shing — bookend the three days with perspectives that range from invention to cultural prediction.

The real story this year is happening on the seventh floor.

NeoCon is introducing two initiatives for 2026 that materially adjust how exhibitors participate and how attendees experience the show floor: Collab Space and Illuminate at NeoCon. Both are located on the seventh floor.

Collab Space replaces the conventional booth model with fully designed installations that present products in context. Instead of isolating a chair, table or surface under trade show lighting, brands are integrated into cohesive, real-world environments. The premise is practical: designers and specifiers can evaluate products as they would actually appear in finished projects, not as standalone objects. For attendees, that means a more immersive and application-driven experience. For exhibitors, it reframes visibility around storytelling and adjacency rather than raw square footage.

NeoCon has structured Collab Space as a turnkey package. Participation includes exhibition space, design services, drayage and a set of exhibitor benefits. Brands receive identifiable presence within the curated setting, access to host programming and hospitality events, promotion through NeoCon’s marketing channels and eligibility for Best of NeoCon awards. The location reinforces the emphasis. Positioned prominently off the main aisle on the seventh floor, Collab Space is not treated as overflow; it is positioned as a central feature.

The model is particularly relevant for small- and mid-sized manufacturers. Not every company requires a large showroom or can justify the cost of a fully independent build-out. At the same time, many seek more than a standard booth. Collab Space offers a middle ground: curated exposure, association with like-minded brands and placement within a professionally designed narrative. It shifts participation from scale-driven presence to context-driven relevance.

The second initiative, Illuminate at NeoCon, establishes a dedicated platform for lighting manufacturers. Framed as a “show within a show,” Illuminate launches in 2026 with approximately 70 to 80 design-oriented architectural lighting brands exhibiting in booth formats ranging from 5×10 to 10×10 feet. The move addresses a longstanding structural issue. Lighting is fundamental to commercial interiors and specified by the same architects and designers who attend NeoCon, yet lighting brands have historically lacked a unified identity on the show floor.

Illuminate consolidates these manufacturers within a distinct, professionally designed environment. The space will feature interactive vignettes demonstrating lighting effects in situ, educational programming led by subject-matter experts and targeted events intended to increase dwell time and networking. The educational component is significant. Lighting performance and quality are often difficult to evaluate under standard trade show conditions. Programming embedded within the exhibit area creates an incentive for designers to engage more deeply with the category.

Participation pricing is structured to be accessible, allowing smaller lighting brands to enter the NeoCon ecosystem without the expense of a standalone presence. NeoCon is supporting the launch with dedicated marketing across its communications platforms and by expanding Best of NeoCon award categories to include lighting. That addition introduces competitive visibility and further legitimizes lighting as a defined vertical within the show.

Together, Collab Space and Illuminate signal a strategic shift. NeoCon is starting to move from a floor plan defined primarily by booths and showrooms to one shaped by curated environments and category-specific ecosystems.

And finally, I’ll leave you with some good news that I received recently from Tim Bell, vice president of global environments at MillerKnoll and chairman of Fulton Market Design Days Neighborhood of Brands.

He said Fulton Market Design Days has “heard loud and clear from the design community that they were looking for collaboration between the two events.” To that end, he said they are adding to the free shuttle transportation and increasing the number of buses to reduce wait times. And they are beginning to work with THE MART in small but significant ways. For the first time, promotional messaging on the exterior of the shuttles will reference both events. FMDD is also sharing with its brands the new seventh floor opportunities at THE MART.

Let’s hope coordination between NeoCon and Fulton Market Design Days continues.