The 2026 Healthcare Design Conference + Expo wrapped up its four days in New Orleans with more educational sessions, dedicated time in the expo hall, and the announcement of its new booth awards.
Here are some highlights from the final day of the event. For more details and the full schedule, visit hcdexpo.com.
HCD Booth Design Awards
Conference attendees voted in the first HCD Booth Design Awards, a new program celebrating exhibitors across six categories, including brand storytelling, outstanding small footprint, best attendee engagement, and people’ choice.
Voting via the HCD Connect mobile app, attendees recognized the following exhibitors:
Best Brand Storytelling: Kimball International, booth #1219
Outstanding Small Footprint Exhibit: Wolf-Gordon Inc., booth #1237
Best Attendee Engagement: Cortech USA, booth #1437
People’s Choice Award: Steelcase Health, booth #1711
Outstanding Large Footprint Exhibit: Falkbuilt, booth #2219
Best New Exhibitor: Arthrex, Inc., booth #2749
$10,000 Giveaway Winner
Closing out the activities on the show floor this year was the $10,000 Cash Giveaway.
Attendees visited 11 booths to get their entry cards stamped to be eligible for the prize, which was sponsored by Ever Chairs, Ghent Healthcare, Inpro, National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association, OneFlor USA, Proximity Systems, Sitmatic, Trinity Furniture, and Visa Lighting.
During a drawing in the Solutions Theater, Kyal Klawitter, vice president of project management at MedCraft Healthcare Real Estate (Hopkins, Minn.), was named the cash giveaway winner.
This year’s expo hall featured more than 250 vendors including 50-plus first-time exhibitors.
Speaker Insights From HCD Conference and Expo
The final day of the conference featured a variety of educational sessions. Here are some notable quotes from speakers:
“Research data and thoughtful design can be used to better understand the gaps in access to care and, more importantly, how we translate that into meaningful, community-centered solutions. Our goal is to understand how and where care is delivered so that access is not determined by a person’s zip code.”—Nicole Czapek, vice president, studio practice leader, health interiors, HKS (Chicago), during the session “Designing Access to Care: Research-Driven Responses to Healthcare Deserts.”
“The difference between target-value delivery and the traditional method is that, traditionally, design influences the budget versus now the budget influences the design.”—Dan Sullivan, healthcare operations director, O’Shea Builders (Springfield, Ill.), during the session “Design-Build + Target Value Delivery: A Lifeline for Rural Healthcare in Times of Uncertainty”
“The future of sitting is not still.”—Sam Amenson, Senior Product Marketing Managers, KI, on the company’s Kiaura Collection built with Cognetic Technology, which took home the 2026 Best of Competition in the 2026 Nightingale Awards.
“In general, what we’re seeing is the future of healthcare is now putting the latest and greatest technology … into yesterday’s buildings.”—Pier Vettorazzi, senior principal, director MEQ, Introba (Houston), discussing the challenges of renovating older healthcare facilities during the session “The Death of Schematic Design: Lessons From Two Interventional Platform Projects at UVA Health.”
Save the Date for the 2027 HCD Convention + Expo
The 2027 Healthcare Design Conference + Expo heads to Savannah, Ga., Nov. 7-10. The annual event will be held at the Savanna Convention Center.
Registration opens in May 2027. To stay up to date on event news, visit hcdexpo.com.
More news from the 2026 HCD Conference + Expo
Look for more coverage of the 2026 HCD Conference and Expo in Healthcare Design’s November/December issue. For more conference news and updates, go here.