The main XR trade shows and conferences from September 2026 through 2027 are United XR Europe in Brussels, CES 2027 in Las Vegas, MWC Barcelona, GDC, Laval Virtual, AWE USA in Long Beach, AWE Asia in Shanghai, SIGGRAPH in Anaheim and the academic pair IEEE VR and ISMAR. This list gives verified dates, cities and organizers for each of them.
In short:
- What it is: a dated calendar of in-person augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and spatial computing events worldwide, from September 2026 to the end of 2027, checked against each organizer's own site on September 3, 2026.
- What it is not: a ranking. Events appear in date order, and no organizer paid to be listed.
- Where a date is missing: the entry says "2027 dates not announced" and gives the most recent edition instead.
- Attendance figures: only quoted where the organizer publishes them and labeled organizer-reported.
Which XR events are scheduled from September 2026 through 2027?
Twenty-four editions of XR, AR and VR trade shows and conferences have a confirmed or recurring in-person date between September 2026 and December 2027. The table is in date order. Events without published 2027 dates sit in the month of their most recent edition.
Venues named by organizers: Isola del Lazzaretto Vecchio (Venice Immersive), Maison de la Poste (United XR Europe), Fira Gran Via (MWC), Moscone Center (GDC), Espace Mayenne (Laval Virtual), Makuhari Messe and Tokyo Big Sight (NexTech Week autumn and spring), TFT Hall Ariake (Unreal Fest Tokyo), Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and Tokyo International Forum (SIGGRAPH Asia 2026 and 2027), Messe Stuttgart (XR Expo) and the Katoenhuis (Immersive Tech Week).
Which XR trade shows are the largest?
By organizer-reported attendance, the largest events with an XR presence are CES and MWC Barcelona, and neither is an XR show as such. The Consumer Technology Association's independently audited count for CES 2026 was 148,392 participants and 4,100 or more exhibitors. GSMA reports more than 105,000 attendees and more than 2,900 exhibitors, sponsors and partners for MWC26.
Among events built around XR, organizer figures are smaller and mostly projections. AWE projects 5,000 or more attendees and 250 or more exhibitors for AWE USA 2027. Laval Virtual states that more than 5,000 visitors attended its most recent edition. The Society for Information Display reports 5,400 or more attendees and 225 or more exhibitors at Display Week 2026. RX Japan reports 33,612 visitors for the spring 2026 NexTech Week, a figure covering every show under that banner.
A trade show is an exhibition where companies rent floor space to show products to buyers. A conference is a program of talks. CES and MWC bring buyers and press from outside XR. AWE, Laval Virtual and United XR Europe bring the XR industry to itself.
Which augmented reality conferences focus on enterprise?
The Augmented Enterprise Summit is the only event on this list devoted entirely to business and industrial use of AR, XR and digital twins. BrainXchange runs it in Atlanta on October 13 to 15, 2026 and projects 1,200 or more attendees. It began in 2015 as the Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit and took its current name in 2022, so older calendars listing EWTS refer to the same event.
Four trade shows carry an enterprise program alongside developer content. AWE USA and AWE Asia both list enterprise adopters as a core audience, and United XR Europe inherits the AWE exhibition model. XR Expo in Stuttgart describes itself as a B2B event for virtual, augmented and mixed reality. The industrial XR expo inside NexTech Week Tokyo is aimed at manufacturing buyers in Japan.
Which virtual reality conferences are academic?
IEEE VR and ISMAR are the two peer-reviewed conferences for virtual and augmented reality research. IEEE VR 2027, the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, runs February 27 to March 3, 2027 in Melbourne. ISMAR, the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, holds its 25th edition in Bari on October 5 to 9, 2026 and has announced Kobe for October 11 to 15, 2027, with a note that dates may change.
Three further conferences publish XR-relevant research. SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia cover computer graphics and interactive techniques with technical papers programs. The SPIE AR, VR, MR conference at Photonics West covers the optics, displays and sensors inside headsets and smart glasses. Display Week carries a technical symposium on the display panels those devices use.
Which XR conferences are for developers?
GDC, Unite and Unreal Fest are the developer events with the most direct bearing on XR software. GDC 2027 runs March 1 to 5, 2027 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and is organized by Informa. Unity Technologies holds Unite Tokyo on November 17, 2026. Epic Games holds Unreal Fest Tokyo on November 3 to 4, 2026 at the TFT Hall in Ariake. Epic says further 2026 Unreal Fest stops are planned but had published no dates for them.
AWE USA, AWE Asia and United XR Europe all run developer tracks alongside their exhibitions. SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia draw graphics engineers as well as researchers.
Which XR events are in Europe?
Europe hosts seven of the editions on this list between September 2026 and the end of 2027. In order: Venice Immersive in Italy in September 2026, ISMAR 2026 in Bari in October, United XR Europe in Brussels in December, MWC Barcelona in March 2027, Laval Virtual in France in April 2027, then XR Expo in Stuttgart and Immersive Tech Week in Rotterdam, whose 2027 dates were not yet published.
United XR Europe is the newest name here. It replaced AWE EU and Stereopsia Europe. AWE and Stereopsia co-produce it, and the 2026 edition runs December 7 to 9 at Maison de la Poste in Brussels. Laval Virtual is the oldest, run since 1999 by the Laval Virtual association, with its 29th edition on April 7 to 9, 2027. Immersive Tech Week succeeded VRDays Europe under the same foundation.
Which XR events are in Asia?
Japan hosts the densest cluster of XR events in Asia over this period, with Unreal Fest Tokyo, two editions of NexTech Week Tokyo, Unite Tokyo, ISMAR 2027 in Kobe and SIGGRAPH Asia 2027 in Tokyo. Elsewhere in the region, SIGGRAPH Asia 2026 is in Kuala Lumpur on December 1 to 4, 2026 and AWE Asia moves to Shanghai on July 14 to 16, 2027, after a Singapore edition in February 2026.
RX Japan's industrial XR expo runs inside NexTech Week Tokyo twice a year: at Makuhari Messe in Chiba on November 11 to 13, 2026 and at Tokyo Big Sight on April 21 to 23, 2027. Older calendars list an RX Japan show called XR Fair Tokyo. That name was absent from RX Japan's XR schedule on September 3, 2026, so the NexTech Week edition is listed instead.
Which XR events were left out and why?
Meta Connect, the VR/AR Global Summit, Realities360 and GITEX did not meet the criteria below. Meta's Connect page describes the September 23 to 24, 2026 edition as a two-day livestream with no in-person component. The VR/AR Association listed no dated in-person summit for this period. The Learning Guild showed no Realities360 edition for 2026 or 2027. GITEX Global in Dubai runs December 7 to 11, 2026, but the organizer's site describes no XR track, so it is not treated as an XR event here.
How this list was built
An event qualifies when it is held in person, has a public organizer page and has either a confirmed next edition or a recurring annual edition whose most recent dates are published. Every date, city, venue and organizer name above was read from the organizer's own site on September 3, 2026, not from third-party calendars. Where the organizer had not published the next edition, the entry says "2027 dates not announced" and gives the last edition instead of a guess. Attendance figures appear only where the organizer publishes them and are labeled organizer-reported or, for CES, audited. No organizer paid for placement. No sponsorship was involved. The order is chronological, not ranked.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What is the biggest augmented reality trade show?
By organizer-reported attendance the biggest show with an AR presence is CES, whose audited 2026 count was 148,392 participants. Among shows dedicated to AR and VR, AWE USA projects 5,000 or more attendees for June 14 to 17, 2027 and Laval Virtual reports more than 5,000 visitors at its most recent edition.
2. When is AWE 2027?
AWE USA 2027 runs June 14 to 17, 2027 in Long Beach, California. AWE Asia 2027 runs July 14 to 16, 2027 in Shanghai. AWE's European show is now United XR Europe, which runs December 7 to 9, 2026 in Brussels.
3. Which virtual reality conferences are for researchers?
IEEE VR 2027 in Melbourne, February 27 to March 3, 2027, and IEEE ISMAR in Bari, October 5 to 9, 2026, are the peer-reviewed conferences for VR and AR research. SIGGRAPH 2027 in Anaheim, August 8 to 12, and SIGGRAPH Asia cover the graphics research behind them.
4. What happened to AWE EU and Stereopsia?
They merged. United XR Europe replaced both AWE EU and Stereopsia Europe and is co-produced by AWE and Stereopsia. Its first edition ran in Brussels in December 2025 and the 2026 edition runs December 7 to 9, 2026 at Maison de la Poste.
5. Is Meta Connect an in-person event?
No. Meta's page for Connect 2026 describes it as a two-day livestream on September 23 and 24, 2026, with a keynote and then developer sessions. It has no exhibition floor, so it is not listed as a trade show here.
