HCD Conference + Expo and IFHE World Congress To Colocate In New Orleans, Oct. 17-20
- For the first time, the HCD Conference + Expo will colocate with the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering’s World Congress, sharing keynotes, networking events, and expo hall access.
- Attendees can expect global perspectives on healthcare planning, construction, and design along with critical topics such as sustainability, resiliency and access to care to shape conversations across both conferences’ shared programming.
- New initiatives debut at 2026 event, including a first-time attendee program, expanded exhibitor space, and the HCD Booth Design Awards.
This year’s Healthcare Design Conference + Expo, Oct. 17-20 in New Orleans, marks a new moment in the conference’s history: For the first time, the event will co-locate with the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering’s (IFHE) World Congress, hosted in partnership with the Association for Medical Facility Professionals.
In this Q+A, Vice President and HCD Brand Director Jennifer Kovacs Silvis discusses how the collaboration came together, what it means for attendees on both sides, and how a global perspective will shape conversations around healthcare design as well as complex topics such as sustainability, resiliency, and access to care. She also shares details on new initiatives for 2026, including a first-time attendee program, expanded exhibitor space, and the debut of the HCD Booth Design Awards, as the show returns to one of its most popular host cities.
For more information on the HCD Conference + Expo, visit hcdexpo.com.
Healthcare Design: For attendees who may be unfamiliar with IFHE or the concept of conference co-location, what does this partnership mean? How will attendees experience both events?
Silvis: The International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE) is a global organization that brings together healthcare professionals from around the world to share knowledge, best practices, and innovation in the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and management of healthcare facilities. Every two years, IFHE stages its World Congress, each time in a different host country. We partnered with the Association for Medical Facility Professionals (AMFP) to host the World Congress here in the United States.
The IFHE World Congress will take place concurrently with the HCD Conference + Expo at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, with its own dedicated conference programming and events organized by AMFP. However, we’ve also worked to integrate several shared experiences to allow all attendees to benefit from being onsite together for a truly global gathering of healthcare design professionals.
Those include shared keynotes, networking events, as well as the expo hall, where we’ll have a dedicated IFHE Pavilion of exhibitors and the IFHE Exchange stage where programming will take place. Those offerings are open to all attendees—both HCD and IFHE.
For those who are interested in experiencing the IFHE conference programming, we’re also offering a combo registration option that allows attendees to go between sessions for both HCD and IFHE.
HCD: Although each conference maintains its own educational program, attendees will share keynote sessions, the expo hall, and networking events. What opportunities does that create?
Silvis: This is truly an unprecedented event. The HCD Conference + Expo has never co-located with another show, nor does IFHE traditionally stage the World Congress alongside another event. We’ve worked extensively with AMFP to ensure we create a platform where this opportunity benefits everyone onsite, regardless of which event they’re attending.
It would be such a miss to have these two groups in the same building without providing ample time for knowledge-sharing and cross pollination of ideas. We always hear from our HCD Conference attendees the desire for more international perspectives; to better understand how other countries are responding to the same challenges we are but in different ways. We didn’t want to create events so siloed that that opportunity would be missed.
With this structure, both HCD and IFHE attendees and exhibitors will have the chance to spend meaningful time together while still enjoying their home event.
HCD: How do you think that IFHE perspective will enrich conversations around healthcare planning, design, and operations?
Silvis: IFHE members represent more than 30 countries. And while largely focused on healthcare engineering, the association also serves professionals working in architecture, technology, facility management, construction, maintenance, and real estate. Alongside our existing HCD Conference attendee base, this co-location brings the entire project team to the table—with a global lens. Every perspective that contributes to how healthcare spaces are planned, designed, built, and maintained will be onsite at the HCD Conference + Expo .
That’s always our mission—to be the epicenter of healthcare design; this year, we’ll have a few more friends joining us. It’s an incredible opportunity to tackle complex issues like sustainability, resiliency, and access to care at a global level, right here in the U.S.
HCD: If an HCD attendee is wondering whether the co-location will change their conference experience, what would you tell them?
Silvis: The beauty of how we’ve approached this is these will be two separate and distinct events, each serving the needs of their respective attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors. From there, the choice is yours regarding how much or little time you spend experiencing the other, from the combo registration option to exploring the IFHE Pavilion and stage programming in the expo hall to chatting with IFHE attendees at networking events.
The core experience of the HCD Conference + Expo will be the same, and we hope everyone enjoys the bonus of connecting with IFHE peers in some capacity. This may never happen again, so I certainly encourage our HCD attendees to embrace the moment and make the most of it.
HCD: Walk us through what else is new this year at the HCD Conference?
Silvis: There are a few other new initiatives this year I’m excited to share, starting with our First-Time Attendee program. We want to make the HCD Conference + Expo as accessible as possible, especially for young and emerging professionals. To help ease the way, we introduced a special rate of $899 for a Full Conference badge to qualified industry members who have not attended in the past. I’m happy to help as many people as possible engage with our brand and event, and I can’t wait to welcome these newcomers to New Orleans.
We’ll also welcome 50 (and counting!) new exhibitors to the expo hall this year. They’ll join hundreds of others to create what’s our largest HCD expo yet, with 67,000-plus square feet of exhibit space to be filled with product manufacturers and service providers all offering specialized solutions for healthcare design needs.
And to help celebrate the hard work that all these companies put into planning, designing, and executing their booth presence, we want to shine a spotlight on some of the ways they’re doing just that. This year, we’ll introduce our HCD Booth Design Awards. After walking the hall, attendees can vote for their favorite booths via our mobile app, calling out exhibitors across six categories, including Peoples’ Choice and Best New Exhibitor.
HCD: This is the third time we’ve brought the HCD Conference + Expo to New Orleans. Why do you think the city is such a draw for attendees?
Silvis: New Orleans is one of those cities that has an undeniable draw. The history, culture, music, art, and food together create an experience that’s so unique and energizing. In fact, New Orleans has been home to some of our largest HCD Conferences, and it was a key factor in helping us secure the opportunity to host the IFHE World Congress this year—the group’s international base specifically expressed a desire to visit New Orleans.
The city offers a rich healthcare design backdrop, as well, serving the complex medical needs of the Gulf South region while simultaneously responding to its inherent weather risks by way of resilient design. It’s a setting that naturally inspires important conversations around planning, design, construction, and the future of care environments.
HCD: What’s one thing you want attendees and exhibitors to walk away saying about the 2026 HCD Conference?
Silvis: The HCD Conference + Expo is the premier event serving the healthcare design industry, drawing thousands of professionals representing the biggest design firms, manufacturers, and healthcare organizations. There’s truly nothing like it in this space. The differentiator is how we approach our time together. We strive to deliver an engaging, immersive experience that, from start to finish, drives opportunities for meaningful connection and knowledge sharing that directly contribute to the critical work of this industry.
In the end, if our attendees and exhibitors walk away with that, with relationships and takeaways that are deeply valuable to their business and projects over the next 365 days, then I know we succeeded. And I can’t wait to keep building on that next year and for years to come.
For more on the 2026 HCD Conference + Expo, including the full schedule and to register, visit hcdexpo.com.