As expectations for events continue to rise, McCormick Place is evolving to meet them with expanded offerings across sustainability, experience design, and community engagement.
As meeting and event professionals plan for 2026 and beyond, Chicago remains a top-tier destination for conventions, trade shows, and meetings of all sizes.
At the heart of the city’s meeting ecosystem, Chicago’s dynamic McCormick Place convention center remains a cornerstone of the industry. The largest and most flexible convention center in North America, McCormick Place offers 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space and hosts hundreds of national and international events each year.
Here is what meeting planners should know when considering McCormick Place.
A Global Leader: 2026 Centers of Excellence Honors
McCormick Place entered 2026 with significant momentum, recently securing two prestigious honors from EXHIBITOR magazine’s Centers of Excellence Awards: World’s Top 25 Convention Centers and Best Facility over 1 Million Square Feet.
McCormick Place has also been awarded GBAC STAR accreditation, the gold standard in establishing a comprehensive system of cleaning, disinfection, and infectious disease prevention.
Culinary Innovations at McCormick Place
One of the most important aspects of the meeting experience? The menu. In 2026, attendees expect food to be more than a break in the schedule — they are looking for sustainable, personalized options that reflect the local culture.
Here are just some of the culinary innovations that you can expect at McCormick Place:
Eco-conscious menus
Planners and attendees are increasingly prioritizing sustainability. McCormick Place has shifted from “disposable luxury,” which offers convenience at the expense of the environment, to circular elegance. This redefines “luxury” as a closed-loop system where nothing is wasted, and every element is designed to be reused, recycled, or returned to the earth. New menu items include artisanal cheeses and vegetables that are locally farmed, upcycled orchard fruit and vegetables, and honeycomb from our rooftop terrace and garden.
Global and local flavors
Meeting attendees want experiences that authentically reflect the local dining culture. In Chicago, that means cuisines that represent our 77 diverse, global neighborhoods. New menu items include mini al pastor tacos from Pilsen/Little Village; a build-your-own “chaat stop” featuring vegetable pakora and samosas in bamboo boats from Devon Street Chaat Bar; and pressed-to-order mini jibaritos with crispy plantains, garlic-marinated skirt steak, and “piquante” aioli from Humboldt Park.
Plant-forward and whole ingredients
Plant-based is not going away, but the focus is shifting from substitutes toward plant-forward dishes that stand on their own. New menu items include blistered shishitos, kimchi fried potatoes, salt-roasted golden beets, and hen of the woods “wings” made with hand-torn maitake mushrooms.
Sustainable Events Made Easy
As one of the largest green-certified convention centers in North America, McCormick Place weaves sustainable practices into each and every event, from the new campus composting program to the largest farm-to-fork rooftop terrace and garden in the Midwest.
Last year, McCormick Place achieved the Events Industry Council’s (EIC) Gold Level Certification to EIC’s Sustainable Event Standards. The certification recognizes McCormick Place’s continued leadership in environmental and social responsibility.
Sustainable initiatives at McCormick Place include:
- Onsite nonprofit partnership committed to food rescue
- 100% of electricity usage offset with certified wind renewable energy certificates
- Catering that incorporates eco-friendly packaging and prioritizes local sourcing
- Campus composting and AI-guided waste sorting technology
McCormick Place’s onsite sustainability team
Make sustainability part of your event strategy, not an afterthought. Our onsite sustainability team partners directly with planners to integrate practical, high-impact solutions — from waste diversion and food recovery to energy efficiency and sustainable sourcing. You’ll get hands-on guidance that simplifies execution, delivers measurable results, and helps your event meet its sustainability goals.
Community Impact on Campus
McCormick Place is dedicated to being a responsible and involved member of the Chicago community. This means fostering meaningful connections and strengthening relationships with staff, partner organizations, event professionals, visitors, and residents through a variety of on-campus programs and outreach efforts.
Here are just a few of the ways McCormick Place is giving back and connecting to the neighboring communities:
Community non-profit partners
UNITE HERE (UHCHI)
UHCHI delivers hospitality-focused job training programs that help cultivate new talent for the industry and guide participants into union career paths. Many program graduates go on to build successful careers at McCormick Place.
Chicago Botanic Garden
The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest Apprenticeship offers a nine-month urban agriculture program that utilizes McCormick Place’s rooftop terrace and garden. The initiative emphasizes experiential learning, advances sustainable urban farming practices, and contributes to a more environmentally conscious local economy.
Fight2Feed
A fully volunteer-led organization, Fight2Feed utilizes donated supplies, storage space, and kitchen facilities at McCormick Place to repurpose surplus event food into wholesome meals for community members facing food insecurity.
Supplier diversity
The Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority (MPEA), owner and operator of McCormick Place, is strongly committed to supplier diversity. Each year, it invests more than $24 million with Minority-Owned and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE) and offers educational training sessions to support MBE/WBE certification efforts.
The post McCormick Place Meetings: 2026 News and Updates appeared first on Associations Now.
