CES, MAGIC & SEMA: Booking Models for Vegas' Biggest Shows

A booking during a city-wide show is not the same product as a booking in an ordinary week. Same booth host, same five-hour shift, same city — except the pool of experienced people around you has shrunk, and every other exhibitor is calling the same rosters you are.

CES 2027 runs January 6–9, 2027, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. That is the only date in this guide you should plan against as fixed. For every other show below, pull the current dates from the official site before you commit budget, because editions move.

Why does a city-wide show change how you book?

Four things compress at once, and they compress in a specific order.

Talent supply goes first. Las Vegas has an unusually deep bench of experienced convention staff, but it is still a finite bench, and a show that fills the convention campus can absorb most of it in a single week. The people who go first are the ones with a track record on a floor, not the ones who are simply available.

Cost of getting people to the floor goes next. Hotel rates climb, rideshare surges in the windows either side of doors, and Strip resort self-parking becomes a real per-person line item across a crew. None of that shows up in an hourly rate, and all of it shows up in your total.

Badge allocation tightens third. Every person working your booth needs an exhibitor badge, agency staff included, and shows allocate badges by booth square footage. On the largest shows, name-change policies get stricter and on-site registration gets more expensive.

Load-in windows are the last constraint, and the least forgiving. Your hall gives you a fixed window, and a booth that is not ready does not get an extension because your staff briefing ran late.

What do exhibitors at each of the big Las Vegas shows need?

Each show has a different floor culture, and that culture drives the role mix more than the industry does.

CES rewards language coverage more than any other show in the city. Bilingual booth staff sit at $50 to $90 per hour in the Las Vegas market, and at CES that premium is usually the best-spent money on the booth. Verify fluency rather than accepting a checkbox.

SEMA and World of Concrete both put staff on their feet around vehicles and equipment, often partly outdoors. Stamina, closed-toe footwear rules, and weather contingency matter more than they do in a carpeted hall.

MAGIC runs on a buying calendar, so appointments and showroom flow dominate. NAB Show concentrates around scheduled theater sessions, which means staffing spikes on a timetable rather than spreading evenly across the day. Role definitions for all of these are on our services page.

How far ahead do the big shows sell out an agency's roster?

Not all at once, and not evenly. Specific requests disappear long before general availability does.

1. CES and SEMA — begin six to nine months out. These are the two that most reliably absorb the city's experienced convention staff.
2. MAGIC — four to six months out, earlier if you need consistent talent across both editions in a year.
3. NAB Show and World of Concrete — three to five months out for a standard booth crew.
4. Any show, any size — bilingual staff, on-camera spokesmodels, and category-experienced demonstrators are effectively gone first. Treat those as the constraint that sets your timeline.

If you rebook the same team year over year, place the hold for the next edition while you are still on the floor. Repeat crews already know your product, and that is the cheapest performance gain available to an exhibitor.

Do rates go up during peak convention weeks?

There is no separate peak-week rate card. What happens is simpler: quotes land at the top of the standard Las Vegas market ranges rather than the middle, because talent that week is choosing between competing offers.

Three additions apply the same way they do in a normal week. Custom or branded uniforms typically add roughly $5 to 5 per hour depending on complexity. Agency commission runs roughly 20 to 40 percent and sits inside these rates rather than on top of them. Las Vegas agencies commonly set a four- or five-hour minimum per person, and time beyond a standard day is normally billed at an overtime premium. Confirm both the minimum and the overtime terms in writing when you request a quote.

Booking early does not buy you a discount off these ranges. It buys you casting choice, which is the thing that actually varies during a show week. Profiles are in our gallery and on the models page.

What does a booking timeline for a city-wide show look like?

Work backwards from the hour doors open, not forward from today.

1. Nine to six months out. Confirm booth space, pull the exhibitor services manual, and read your badge allocation before you size the crew. Brief the agency and place a hold.
2. Six to four months out. Review the casting slate and confirm people by name. A signed agreement and a deposit are what hold the booking. Lock headcount and shift pattern now, because an eight-hour floor day usually needs two shifts.
3. Three months out. Start custom wardrobe production if you need it, and register agency staff by name against your badge allocation.
4. Eight to six weeks out. Submit certificates of insurance and any exhibitor-appointed contractor paperwork the show requires. Ask your agency for its general liability limits and how quickly it can issue a certificate of insurance naming the show.
5. Four weeks out. Send the one-page brief: opening line, three qualifying questions, lead-tagging rules, dress code, and who receives a hot lead.
6. Two weeks out. Final headcount. Most agencies allow changes without penalty up to a stated cut-off, so find out where yours falls. This is the last cheap decision point.
7. Show week. Confirm call times, parking or rideshare drop points, and badge pickup. Call time is 30 to 45 minutes before doors, and it is paid.

The mechanics of what happens once people are on the floor — shifts, breaks, briefing, cost per qualified lead — are covered in our trade show booth staffing guide. If your show is smaller or your dates are closer, start with how far in advance to book.

Where to start

Confirm your show dates from the official site, pull your badge allocation, then size the crew and place a hold. Send us your show and booth number and we will tell you what is realistically castable for that week.