If you exhibit in New York, there's a good chance you exhibit at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the glass hall on the far West Side along Eleventh Avenue. The problem on that floor is the same for everyone: every neighbor has a screen, a giveaway bowl and a badge scanner. A live print station gives people a reason to stop, wait, and stand in your space while something gets made for them.
This is a planning guide for Javits and the other rooms New York shows use: the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint, Pier 36 on the Lower East Side, and the hotel-ballroom expos around Midtown Manhattan. The logistics matter more here than in most cities, so start with the unglamorous parts.
Power, load-in and the Javits rules
Two things decide whether a booth station goes smoothly: electrical and move-in. Order booth power early through the show's electrical contractor. A live station needs about two dedicated 120V/20A circuits per press, and you don't want to find that out during move-in. Javits and each show set their own rules for labor and material handling between the dock and your booth. We work inside the venue's rules, so send us the exhibitor manual as soon as you have it.
Our gear ships in wheeled, labeled road cases, and the crew flies in a day before move-in. At Hudson Yards & Chelsea event spaces a few blocks from Javits, the limits are usually a freight elevator and a dock time. Either way, the station fits a 10×10 inline booth and grows to a 20×20 or an island without changing the core setup.
Throughput math: turning an aisle into a queue
A single press turns out up to 60 pieces an hour. Our standard build runs two presses and two printers, so a busy booth clears 100+ shirts an hour at full tilt, about two minutes from "that design, in a large" to a warm shirt in someone's hands. Every one of those is a person who stood in your booth long enough for your team to talk to them.
That wait is the point on a trade-show floor. It turns foot traffic into time in your booth, and time into conversations your reps would otherwise chase with badge scans. Bring a full size run (XS–4XL) so nobody walks because their size is gone, and get the art proofed before the freight ships so the first pull of the show is already right.
Which method fits a trade-show booth
The right method depends on your art and your audience. Live screen printing is the bold classic, and a real squeegee pull is the thing people film. Live DTF fits a full-color logo or on-demand personalization, like a name or a job title, with no screen to change between designs. Many exhibitors run both in one footprint. For beauty or wellness brands a live hat bar can out-pull apparel, and a printed tote from our promo & hard goods station carries your logo down every aisle for the rest of the day.
Javits checklist: order two 120V circuits per press through the show's electrical contractor, confirm your move-in window, send us the exhibitor manual, finalize art about a week out, and plan a full XS–4XL run.
Beyond Javits: the rest of the NYC show circuit
Not every New York trade show is at Javits. The Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint hosts maker, wellness and indie-brand shows where a hat bar or DTF station fits the crowd. Pier 36 on the Lower East Side is a big waterfront hall for consumer events. And plenty of industry events are ballroom expos in hotels around Midtown Manhattan: finance, legal, media and ad-tech summits where a clean embroidery or single-color press station suits the room. The plan is the same in each: confirm power and dock access, size the station to the booth, and let the press pull people in.
Working out a booth plan for an upcoming show? Start with what a venue needs to host live printing, then send us your show, dates and booth size for an itemized quote within 24 hours.