McCormick Place Event Production
Everything you need to know.
McCormick Place Event Production Everything you need to know.
If you’re producing an event at McCormick Place, you already know you’re working with one of the most impressive venues in the world. The largest convention center in the Western Hemisphere. Four interconnected buildings. Nearly 2.6 million square feet of event space. A venue that has hosted auto shows, medical conferences, trade shows, political conventions, and everything in between.
What you may not know — especially if this is your first time producing here — is that McCormick Place has its own set of rules, relationships, and logistics that shape everything about how your event comes together. Understanding those specifics ahead of time is the difference between a production that runs like clockwork and one that runs into expensive, avoidable problems.
We’ve been producing events at McCormick Place for over 30 years. We have an office on-site. Here’s what you need to know.
McCormick Place at a Glance
Before we get into logistics, a quick orientation for anyone who hasn’t produced here before.
McCormick Place is made up of four main buildings — the Lakeside Center, the North Building, the South Building, and the West Building — connected by enclosed walkways and served by a dedicated bus terminal and the Cermak-McCormick Place CTA Green Line stop. Each building has different ceiling heights, rigging capacities, loading dock configurations, and technical infrastructure.
This matters for production because a setup that works perfectly in the West Building’s Grand Ballroom may require a completely different approach in the Lakeside Center’s Arie Crown Theater. A production company that knows McCormick inside and out doesn’t have to figure that out during your event.
The Approved Contractor Requirement
This is the most important thing to understand before you hire anyone for a McCormick Place event.
McCormick Place requires that AV and production companies hold approved contractor status to work in the facility. This isn’t a preference — it’s a requirement. An unapproved vendor can create liability issues, insurance complications, and in some cases simply isn’t permitted to do the work.
Absolute Production Services is an approved AV and Production Contractor at McCormick Place. We also have a dedicated office on-site at 2301 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive — which means when your production begins, we’re already there. No commute, no unfamiliar facility, no learning curve.
When you’re vetting production companies for a McCormick event, this should be one of your first questions: are you an approved contractor here? If the answer is anything other than a clear yes, keep looking.
Union Labor at McCormick Place
McCormick Place operates under union labor agreements — and the jurisdictions are specific.
Different types of work at McCormick fall under different union locals: electrical work, rigging, staging, and general labor each have their own rules about who does what, when, and how. These rules affect how your crew is structured, how long setup takes, and what your labor costs look like.
This isn’t something to navigate for the first time during your event. You want a production partner who has been working within these agreements for years and knows exactly how to plan and staff a McCormick show within them.
Absolute manages union labor coordination through our sister company, Labor Boss, which specializes specifically in union labor hiring and management for the events industry. We handle this piece so you don’t have to.
Load-In: The Part that Surprises Most First-Timers
McCormick Place is one of the busiest convention facilities in the country. It regularly runs multiple shows simultaneously across its four buildings — which means the docks are busy, the freight elevators are shared, and your load-in window is fixed.
First-time producers at McCormick are often surprised by how tight the timelines are. Load-in may happen overnight or in the early morning hours. Access to certain areas may be limited based on neighboring shows. Freight scheduling has to be coordinated in advance with venue operations.
An experienced McCormick production team plans for all of this from day one. They build realistic timelines, coordinate with venue ops early, and know from experience which contingencies are worth planning around. That kind of institutional knowledge isn’t something you can look up — it’s earned over years of shows.
What Production at McCormick Place Typically Involves
Every event is different, but most McCormick Place productions draw on some combination of the following.
AV systems designed for large rooms
McCormick’s largest spaces — the Lakeside Center, the Grand Ballroom, Hall A — are enormous. Designing AV systems for rooms of that scale requires a different approach than a hotel ballroom. Line array speaker systems, large-format LED video walls, long-throw projection, and distributed confidence monitor networks all need to be engineered for the specific dimensions and acoustics of the room.
Staging and scenic
For general sessions, keynotes, and awards productions, the stage is the visual centerpiece of the event. At McCormick’s scale, staging often involves custom-built platforms, large scenic backdrops, integrated LED elements, and detailed rigging to support overhead components.
Rigging
Rigging at McCormick requires certified professionals who understand the facility’s specific overhead infrastructure — which varies by building and section. Certified riggers who have worked the facility before know the rated load points, the house rigging systems, and the coordination required with venue operations.
Lighting
Large convention spaces present specific lighting challenges: high ceilings, expansive floor areas, and the need to create a focused, branded environment within a vast neutral space. Corporate lighting design at this scale involves significant trussing, a large fixture count, and careful attention to color and direction to ensure the stage looks polished on camera and in person.
Labor and crew management
A McCormick Place production requires a larger crew than most other venues. Coordinating that crew — across union jurisdictions, across multiple load-in days, across the various departments that make a large show run — is a logistics challenge in its own right.
What Makes McCormick Place Different to Produce
A few things set McCormick apart from other Chicago venues that are worth knowing if you’re coming from a different type of facility.
Planning Your McCormick Place Event: A Timeline
For a mid-to-large production at McCormick Place, here’s a general sense of when key milestones should happen.
12+ weeks out: Select your production partner and begin design conversations. Confirm approved contractor status. Begin coordinating with venue operations on space assignment and load-in windows.
8–10 weeks out: AV design, staging drawings, and lighting plots underway. Labor planning begins. Union coordination initiated.
4–6 weeks out: Finalize run of show. Collect presentation files and media assets. Confirm freight and dock scheduling with venue.
1–2 weeks out: Final production meetings. Technical riders confirmed. Crew call times set.
Load-in days: Equipment arrives and is installed according to the venue-approved schedule. Rigging happens first, followed by staging, then AV and lighting.
Technical rehearsal: Mandatory for any event with stage presentations. Every element is tested. Presenter walk-throughs are completed.
Event day: Your production team is on-site and fully operational before the first attendee arrives.