Author: William Griggs
Founder @ Trade Show Labs
Last Updated: September 14, 2026
San Jose shows are tech shows, and the booths that hold a crowd at the McEnery Convention Center are the ones with something to do. This page covers what we bring to San Jose and the peninsula, who has used it, and how a job here runs from Houston.
Trade Show Labs brings branded games and booth activations to San Jose and Silicon Valley from Houston. Our event managers set up, staff and strike; your team works the leads.
What we bring to San Jose
The social media vending machine is the San Jose unit with a track record, in a CoreWeave booth at GTC through their exhibit house, and SwagBot Beam laser engraving ran up the peninsula in Palo Alto. Both have already made the trip from Houston, so a McEnery Convention Center booth built around either is the easy case. The F1 race simulator, the VR flight simulator and the golf simulator come as staffed rigs for a stand with floor space. The AI photo booth, Tablet Jeopardy, the Are You Smarter Than An AI Bot? trivia game and Batak Pro suit a Santa Clara or Palo Alto hotel event. The branded claw machine, mini-drone racing and the giant Plinko board draw a line on their own. VR headset packages cover a lighter booth, and SwagBot Print 3D printing makes the giveaway beside the engraver.
Deciding between two units for a 10x20 at the McEnery is what our guide to the best trade show booth games is for. The interactive trade show ideas list goes past games into demos and photo activations, and the full list of trade show games and activations page has a current photo of each unit.
A VR-heavy booth with more headsets than a package and its own staff is a job for our sister company VirtualRealityRental.co, which handles VR booth rental in San Jose.
Trade Show Labs in San Jose
CoreWeave ran our social media vending machine at GTC 2025 in San Jose, booked through their exhibit house. Pinnacle hosted us for a December 2023 event downtown and summed it up as "All went great!... All went very smooth 10/10!" Up the peninsula, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman ran SwagBot Beam engraving at a Palo Alto event in April 2026 ("Many guests requested contact information"), and Vessel Firefly hosted us in Redwood City. The San Francisco page has the rest of the Bay Area list, and we have a full-service job booked in San Jose for October 2026.
How a job in San Jose runs
Equipment ships from our Houston warehouse ahead of move-in. For a McEnery Convention Center show it goes to the show contractor's dock under your booth number; for a Santa Clara or Palo Alto hotel event it goes to the hotel's receiving dock with the event name on the label. A certificate of insurance naming the venue is issued on request.
Our event manager flies in for setup, runs the unit for the length of the show and strikes it after the hall closes. Your team works the leads; ours works the game.
Equipment-only rentals, like a VR headset package for an office event up the peninsula, ship by FedEx with return labels in the case. Either way we confirm the order at least seven business days before the event so the right titles and branding ship with the units.
Chamber of Commerce:
Additional Resources:
Before you book San Jose
If GTC or another McEnery show is on your calendar, tell us the booth size and the dates and we will say which unit fits. Trade Show Labs ships from Houston, so the earlier we know, the easier the freight.
Tell us about your San Jose show
Send the show name, booth size and dates below. We will come back with a unit that fits the space and the dock details for the McEnery or your hotel.
