Race simulator rental in Orlando
In shortOrlando is the second-largest convention center in the US and the one where venue rules drive the budget. The freight, power and Wi-Fi constraints here are specific, strict, and not what most planners expect.
We ship rigs into Orlando and staff them. Freight is inside the quoted price.
Orlando is the second-largest convention market in the country and the one where the building itself will cost you the most money if you do not know it. Three things decide an Orlando budget, and none of them is the day rate.
The thing that catches almost everyone
The Orange County Convention Center is two buildings on opposite sides of a six-lane road. The split that matters is West Building versus North/South Building. North and South are two concourses inside one building, internally connected. West is separate, across International Drive.
Each concourse has its own street address, and two of the three are not on the same street. West and South sit on International Drive. North sits on Universal Blvd. A crew that types a hall name into a GPS goes to the wrong road, on the morning that matters most.
Each building also has its own docks and its own parking. West has 97 dock slips and 1,450 spaces. North/South has 77 slips and 4,777. Arriving at the wrong lot on move-in morning costs you your dock target time, and the marshalling yard will not re-dispatch you on demand.
And on how far apart they are: IAAPA Expo, the first show big enough to need both buildings, tells exhibitors the bridge crossing is a short seven-minute walk, and runs a continuous shuttle between them. The shuttle is the tell.
Three venue rules that decide the budget
These are not labor rules and they are not negotiable. They are venue monopolies, and in Orlando they matter more than the labor picture does.
| Rule | What it means | Why it matters for a simulator build |
|---|---|---|
| The venue does not accept freight | Shipments go to the show's general service contractor or the onsite business center | Shipping to the convention center address simply does not work. We route to the correct advance warehouse or yard for your specific show, because the yard address changes by show and by contractor |
| The venue is the exclusive power provider | Electricity, aerial rigging labor and lighting, water, plumbing and compressed air. No competitive bid | Inverters and battery-to-120V converters are explicitly prohibited, so an undersized drop cannot be solved on the floor. Moving a utility after installation costs extra labor, so the plan has one free revision: the one before you submit it |
| You cannot run your own Wi-Fi | Telecom is exclusive, clients may not install their own Wi-Fi, other wireless needs written permission, exhibitor internet is broadcast-only on 5GHz | This is the one that bites a multi-sim leaderboard. We design Orlando builds around wired connectivity ordered through the venue, because the router we would otherwise bring is not allowed |
Labor, which is freer than Chicago and not freer on freight
Florida is right-to-work, and that phrase gets misread in both directions.
Misread one: no union on the floor. Wrong. The major general service contractor holds an agreement with the local IATSE union for display erection and dismantling, and union labor is required to operate any forklift, scooter, pallet jack or lift, with the contractor keeping custody and control of that equipment.
Misread two: Chicago rules apply. Also wrong. Full-time employees of the exhibiting company may set up and dismantle their own exhibit using hand tools and small power tools, with no published size or time cap of the kind that constrains exhibitors in some northern markets.
| You may | You may not |
|---|---|
| Set up and dismantle your own exhibit with your own full-time employees | Use a dolly, flat truck or any mechanical equipment, even rented |
| Use small power tools, specifically drills and power screwdrivers | Operate a forklift, scooter, pallet jack or lift yourself |
| Hand carry, using your own hands and a personal two-wheel cart | Unload at the front of the building |
| Plug in your equipment once power has been delivered | Install or move the electrical service itself |
| Assemble your own equipment, signs and products | Tip contractor employees. They ask you not to |
The accurate one-line version, which is what we work to: your own staff can build it, only your own hands and a two-wheel cart can carry it, anything on a forklift is theirs, and power and rigging are the building's. A cockpit on a pallet is not hand-carry.
One genuine cross-market difference worth knowing, because it contradicts the idea that right-to-work states behave alike: in Orlando you may plug in your own equipment after the drop is in. In Dallas, only electricians may plug it in. Same legal regime, opposite answer on the question that matters to a plug-in device.
The 21-day rigging cliff
Rigging plots are due at least 21 days before the event, drawings and diagrams at least three weeks in advance, and all signage requires engineer certification. Anything over 200 pounds means contacting venue rigging as early as possible. Hardware must carry a Working Load Limit rating.
Two details that change how you plan. The standard deposit buys a three-person aerial team for one hour up and one hour down, billed beyond that. And venue aerial rigging will not assemble your sign or structure: it must be fully built before they will hang it, and building it on the floor is your labor.
The consequence is blunt. A late-decided hanging banner is not possible in Orlando. Decide the overhead element when you decide the booth, not when you decide the graphics.
Floor protection, which is a real line item here
On carpeted and terrazzo areas the venue requires at least 6-mil polyethylene sheeting. For objects over 1,500 pounds it requires temporary carpet or plywood over reinforced sheeting. A motion platform plus its chassis plausibly crosses that threshold, so we budget the protection and the labor to lay it rather than discovering it at the dock.
Also governing how gear moves: gasoline-powered vehicles are not allowed inside the building, motorized vehicles with steel or hard metal wheels are barred from concourses, lobbies and registration areas, and trucks may not idle in exhibit halls. Crates, cardboard and fibreglass cases cannot be stored inside the building.
If a client wants a real car staged beside the simulators, that works, with the battery cables disconnected and fuel capped at a quarter tank or ten gallons, whichever is less. Note that this differs from other markets: Houston caps at a quarter tank or five gallons. The numbers are venue-specific, which is exactly why we do not carry a generic checklist between cities.
Venues worth knowing in this market
| Venue | Scale and load-in | What matters operationally |
|---|---|---|
| OCCC West Building | 1,103,538 sq ft exhibit, 97 dock slips, 1,450 parking spaces | 9800 International Drive. 2,500 ft of contiguous exhibit space, 0.47 miles end to end. Valencia Ballroom 62,182 sq ft to 6,000 people. 49 meeting rooms |
| OCCC North/South Building | 950,282 sq ft exhibit, 77 dock slips, 4,777 parking spaces | North Concourse at 9400 Universal Blvd, South Concourse at 9899 International Drive. 22 acres under roof. Grand Concourse Expansion under construction through about 2029 |
| Rosen Shingle Creek | Over 524,000 sq ft of function space, 17 load-in bays with 7 roll-up doors | One mile from the convention center. Three column-free ballrooms at 95,000, 60,000 and 40,000 sq ft. Column-free at that scale is rare in a hotel and it matters for leaderboard sightlines. Fact sheet is dated, so confirm current figures |
| Gaylord Palms Resort | 178,500 sq ft Florida Exhibition Hall, 19 dedicated docks | Kissimmee, 65-acre campus, outside the convention district. Publishes the best freight elevator spec in the market: three cars at 7 ft wide by 10 ft deep with a 6 by 7 ft door, plus one at 11 ft wide by 23 ft deep with an 8 by 8 ft door |
| Hyatt Regency Orlando | 315,000 sq ft of meeting space, largest room 54,638 sq ft | 9801 International Drive. Connected to the convention center by three pedestrian bridges, including a 400-foot span entering the West Building at the third level |
Scale check on the main hall, because it affects your labor bill. The West Building has 2,500 feet of contiguous exhibit space, which is 0.47 miles end to end inside one room. The venue's own illustration is that the main span of the Brooklyn Bridge would fit inside it. Across the campus: 2,053,820 square feet of exhibit space, 174 dock slips, 74 meeting rooms, 232 breakout rooms.
The rule we price to, and the one we would tell you to price to: budget an Orlando move-in on walking distance, not on build complexity. The build is the same as anywhere. The walking is not.
One more planning fact: a 560 million dollar expansion is building a 100,000 square foot ballroom and roughly 44,000 square feet of meeting space on the North/South Building, plus a new entry, with completion expected around 2029. Expect dock access, parking and entrances to move during that window, and confirm logistics per show rather than from an older kit.
The Orlando calendar
| When | What | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early January | Multiple shows stack | OCCC | A consumer and trade cluster in the same window. Treat January as compressed by default. |
| Late January | Rolex 24 At Daytona | Daytona International Speedway | 01/28 to 01/31/2027 on the 3.56-mile road course. About an hour northeast, and it pulls Central Florida hotel inventory. |
| Mid-February | Daytona 500 Speedweeks | Daytona International Speedway | 02/17 to 02/21/2027. The 69th Daytona 500 falls on 02/21/2027, moving off its usual Presidents' Day weekend. |
| Mid-March | Global Pet Expo | OCCC | 03/17 to 03/19/2027. Over 1,200 exhibiting companies and 3,500-plus booths. |
| Early May, every third year | NPE: The Plastics Show | OCCC | 05/03 to 05/07/2027. Triennial. The single biggest distortion event in the Orlando calendar, filling both buildings. |
| Late May | MEGACON Orlando | OCCC | A very large consumer show. It distorts rideshare, parking and corridor hotels on a different pattern from a B2B show. |
| September and January | Surf Expo | OCCC | Runs twice a year, so it recurs as background compression. |
| Mid-November | IAAPA Expo | OCCC, both buildings | Expanded into the West Building for 2026, which IAAPA says increases floor space by almost 50 percent. The attractions industry's own show. |
The worst window is early May every third year. NPE is triennial and next runs 05/03/2027 to 05/07/2027. It fills both buildings and strips regional vendor capacity, labor and freight slots at once, so an NPE-week activation wants booking nine months out rather than three.
Where to stay
| Hotel | Connection | Tier | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hyatt Regency Orlando | Genuinely connected, three bridges | Upper upscale | 1,641 rooms. The default headquarters hotel for a West Building show, and the best bed-to-booth route in the district. |
| Rosen Centre Hotel | Genuinely connected, skywalk to West near Hall A | Upscale | 1,334 rooms, 150,000 sq ft of meeting space. Strong value against the Hyatt at a similar walk. |
| Rosen Plaza Hotel | Genuinely connected, skybridge to West near Hall F | Upscale | 800 rooms, 26,000 sq ft grand ballroom, directly across from Pointe Orlando. Good crew-and-client blend. |
| Hilton Orlando | Connected but not close | Upper upscale | 1,424 rooms. Covered walkway to the South Concourse, but about a mile from the complex by road. Right for a South Concourse show, wrong for a West Building one. |
| Rosen Shingle Creek | Not connected, one mile out | Upper upscale resort | 1,501 rooms. The best self-contained alternative in the district if your event is the whole program rather than a booth. |
| Gaylord Palms Resort | Not in the district at all | Upper upscale resort | 1,416 rooms on a 65-acre Kissimmee campus. A destination in itself, about 20 minutes from the airport. |
Getting around a corridor, not a grid
The corridor is linear, not a grid. Nearly everything sits on one road, so a single incident or a show letting out congests the whole district at once, and there is no parallel route of equal capacity. The district holds 75 restaurants and 100 entertainment venues within two miles of the convention center, which is real density, but two miles on this road is a drive or a trolley ride rather than a walk.
Where to eat, by occasion
| Occasion | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Impress a client | The Capital Grille, Pointe Orlando | The default corridor steakhouse, walkable from the West Building, and the one your client has already heard of. Reservations are highly recommended during a major show and barely necessary outside one. |
| Impress a client | Ocean Prime, Restaurant Row | About ten minutes out. The reason to choose it over the other corridor steakhouses is five private dining rooms, which is a real operational advantage for a hosted dinner. |
| Team dinner, 10 to 20 | Taverna Opa, Pointe Orlando | Loud Greek family-style, built for a crew that has just struck a booth, and walkable from the West Building. |
| Team dinner, 10 to 20 | A Brazilian churrascaria | Rodizio Grill at Pointe Orlando or Chima on Restaurant Row. Fixed price, no menu negotiation, continuous service. The most reliable 10-to-20 crew format in this city. |
| Fast lunch | The convention center food courts | Eight of them, four in each building, plus three full-service restaurants. During a show this is almost always the right answer, because leaving the building costs you 40 minutes. |
| Fast lunch | Pointe Orlando | Twenty-plus restaurants and bars directly across International Drive from the West Building. The only real walk-out-and-back-in-an-hour option. |
| The underused move | A connected hotel's lobby restaurant | Cross the bridge, eat in the Hyatt or a Rosen property, never go outdoors. On a July afternoon this is worth more than the food. |
| A genuine institution | Honestly, not in the district | We looked. The corridor is 1970s-and-later tourist development, and everything with real Orlando history is 20 to 30 minutes north in Winter Park, Mills 50 or Audubon Park. We would rather say that than dress up a chain as local color. |
Taking a client out
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The strongest corporate outing in Central Florida, and the one that is actually about something. Private after-hours buyouts start an hour after public close. Published capacities include the Apollo and Saturn V Center at 500 seated or 2,500 standing, with a 363-foot Saturn V rocket as the backdrop, Space Shuttle Atlantis at 250 seated or 1,000 standing around a real orbiter, and Gateway at 150 seated or 400 standing. A veteran NASA astronaut can be booked as a guest speaker. It is east of the city, so confirm the drive time before you build an evening around it.
Orlando Auto Museum at Dezerland Park. On International Drive, inside the corridor rather than 45 minutes away, and thematically exact for a racing activation. Listed by the city's own meetings arm as an event space rental. The collection leans heavily on film and pop-culture vehicles. You will see it described as one of the largest private collections in the world with a figure attached: those are media claims, not verified facts, and we are not going to repeat them as though they were.
Andretti Karting and Games Orlando. Adjacent to the North Concourse, with karting, laser tag, bowling, VR and over 10,000 square feet of event space. Covered in the questions below, including the part where it competes with us. If a twenty-person offsite is what you need, this is the honest recommendation.
The racing gap in this city, and the competitor next door
There is no on-track driving experience near the theme park corridor any more. Walt Disney World Speedway closed in 2015 and was demolished, and the Richard Petty Driving Experience left Orlando at the same time. Stale pages still rank for this, so a planner searching for an Orlando racing experience finds things that do not exist. The nearest real on-track option is Daytona, about an hour northeast.
That gap is the honest commercial argument for what we do here: the demand is in the city and the on-track supply is not.
What we are not going to do is pretend we have no competition in this market. Andretti Karting and Games Orlando sits on Universal Blvd essentially next door to the North Concourse, and it already has racing simulators on site. If you want to take twenty people somewhere after the show closes, book it.
The distinction that matters is what each thing is for. Andretti is a destination you take a group to, in the evening, away from the floor. A simulator build is a branded activation inside your booth, running your livery, your leaderboard and your lead capture, in front of the several thousand people walking past your stand during show hours. Those are different jobs, and we only do the second one.
Orlando livery, using the city's own palette
The city's flag, adopted 07/24/2017, defines three colors with published hex values: a deep municipal blue at #005AA8, a warm saturated yellow at #F6BE07, and white. The flag's yellow ring is described by the city as a sun symbolising unity and timelessness.
That sunburst is the strongest single motif available here, because a radial sun also reads as a wheel, a rev-counter sweep or a radial speed blur. Secondary device: horizontal multi-stripe water banding, which the flag uses to suggest sunlight over waves, and which is locally true in a city with more than a hundred lakes. Citrus geometry is a third honest option, in a county literally named Orange.
What we never touch: the flag itself, the fountain glyph, the city seal, any citrus commission mark, any professional franchise or stadium identity, and any theme park reference of any kind. We use the palette relationship, which is not protectable, rather than the symbols, which are.
Proof, stated honestly
We have not published a named Orlando case study on this page, and we are not going to imply one. When we do it will name the client, the venue and the number they were measured on.
What is checkable today is everything above. The venue rules, the dock counts, the rigging deadlines, the labor picture and the calendar came from official venue documentation, show organizers and general service contractor work rules, read on 11/02/2026. Where official sources disagree, including on the venue's own exhibit square footage and on the airport drive time, we have published the disagreement instead of the number we preferred.
Orlando questions
Which Orange County Convention Center building is my show in?
Ask, because there are two buildings on opposite sides of a six-lane road, and the names mislead almost everyone. The split that catches people out is West Building versus North/South Building, not North versus South. North and South are two concourses inside one building, internally connected. West is a separate building across International Drive.
Each concourse has its own street address and two of the three are not even on the same street: West and South sit on International Drive, North sits on Universal Blvd. A crew that types a hall name into a GPS goes to the wrong road.
How far apart are the two buildings, really?
IAAPA Expo, the first show large enough to occupy both, tells its exhibitors the pedestrian bridge crossing is a short seven-minute walk, and it also runs a continuous shuttle between the buildings.
That shuttle is the tell. A seven-minute walk you need a shuttle for is not a seven-minute walk with a road case. No official source publishes a point-to-point distance in feet, which is itself worth noticing.
Can I ship the simulators to the convention center?
No. The Orange County Convention Center does not accept freight deliveries. Shipments go to the show's general service contractor or to the onsite business center. Shipping to 9800 International Drive does not work, and this is the most common first-time exhibitor mistake in the building.
We handle this as a matter of course: freight is inside our quoted price, and we route to the correct advance warehouse or marshalling yard for your specific show.
Can we plug in our own equipment in Orlando?
Yes, once power has been delivered to the booth. Orlando show sources list plugging in equipment after power delivery among the things an exhibitor may do themselves, alongside unpacking and placing merchandise, assembling displays with tools, and setting up signs.
This is a real difference between markets and it is worth knowing. In Dallas, only electricians may plug in your equipment. In Orlando you may do it yourself after the drop is in. Anyone who tells you the rules are the same across right-to-work states has not read the manuals.
Can we bring our own generator or battery inverter?
No, and the second half of that catches people out. The convention center is the exclusive provider of electricity, aerial rigging labor and lighting, water, plumbing and compressed air, so there is no competitive bid on power.
There is also no workaround: inverters, self-contained power supplies and devices that convert battery power to 120 volt power are explicitly prohibited. You cannot solve an undersized drop with a battery. Size the order correctly the first time, because moving a utility service after initial installation incurs an additional labor charge.
Can we run our own Wi-Fi for a leaderboard?
No, and for a multi-sim build with a shared leaderboard this is the single most important constraint in the building. The venue's telecom provider is exclusive, clients may not install their own Wi-Fi, and other wireless systems are prohibited without written permission. Exhibitor internet is broadcast-only on 5GHz.
We design Orlando leaderboard builds around wired connectivity ordered through the venue rather than a router we bring, because the router we bring is not allowed. Most vendors discover this on move-in day.
What is the rigging deadline?
Twenty-one days, and it is a cliff rather than a guideline. Rigging plots are due at least 21 days before the event, drawings and diagrams at least three weeks in advance, and all signage requires engineer certification. Anything over 200 pounds means contacting venue rigging as early as possible.
Two things people miss. The standard deposit buys a three-person aerial team for one hour up and one hour down, billed beyond that. And venue aerial rigging does not assemble your sign or structure: it has to be fully built before they will hang it, and building it on the floor is your labor.
The practical consequence: a late-decided hanging banner is not possible in Orlando.
Will a motion simulator need floor protection?
Plan on it. On carpeted and terrazzo areas the venue requires at least 6-mil polyethylene sheeting, and for objects over 1,500 pounds it requires temporary carpet or plywood over reinforced sheeting. A motion platform plus its chassis plausibly crosses that line.
Also relevant to moving gear: gasoline-powered vehicles are not allowed inside the building, and motorized vehicles with steel or hard metal wheels are barred from concourses, lobbies and registration areas. Budget the protection and the labor to lay it, as a line item rather than an afterthought.
Is Florida being right-to-work going to save us money?
On booth labor, yes. On freight, no. Both halves get misread.
People hear right-to-work and assume no union on the floor. That is wrong: the major general service contractor holds an agreement with the local IATSE union for display erection and dismantling, and union labor is required to operate any forklift, scooter, pallet jack or lift, with the contractor keeping custody and control of that equipment.
Others hear union show and assume Chicago rules. Also wrong: full-time employees of the exhibiting company may set up and dismantle their own exhibit using hand and small power tools, with no published size or time cap.
The accurate line: your own staff can build it, only your own hands and a two-wheel cart can carry it, anything on a forklift is theirs, and power and rigging are the building's. A cockpit on a pallet is not hand-carry.
How big is the walk inside the hall?
Bigger than between whole venues in some cities. The West Building has 2,500 feet of contiguous exhibit space, which is 0.47 miles end to end inside one room. The venue's own illustration is that the main span of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1,595 feet, would fit inside it.
Across the campus: 2,053,820 square feet of exhibit space, 174 dock slips, 74 meeting rooms, 232 breakout rooms and eight food courts. It is the second-largest convention center in the United States.
The rule we work to, and the one we would tell you to budget against: price an Orlando move-in on walking distance, not on build complexity. The build is the same as anywhere. The walking is not.
Does a connected hotel mean a short walk?
Not always, and this is a specific trap. Four hotels are bridge-connected to the convention center and together hold over 5,200 rooms. Three of them, the Hyatt Regency, Rosen Centre and Rosen Plaza, are genuinely a short walk to the West Building.
The fourth, the Hilton Orlando, has an elevated covered walkway, and is about one mile from the convention center by road, three to five minutes by car. Its bridge lands at the South Concourse, the far end of the complex from the West Building. Book it for a West Building show because it is connected, and your team has a shuttle ride plus a bridge walk plus a half-mile hall walk between bed and booth.
When should we avoid booking in Orlando?
Three windows, in order of severity.
Early May every third year. NPE, the plastics show, is triennial and next runs 05/03/2027 to 05/07/2027. It fills both buildings and strips regional vendor capacity, labor and freight slots. For an NPE-week activation, book nine months out.
Mid-November. IAAPA Expo, which for 2026 expanded into the West Building for the first time and says that increases floor space by almost 50 percent. It is also the attractions industry's own show, which makes it unusually relevant to us.
Late January. Several shows stack, and the Rolex 24 At Daytona sits on the same window about an hour east, pulling Central Florida hotel inventory and some crew with it.
One to watch for a different reason: MEGACON in late May is a very large consumer show, so it distorts rideshare, parking and corridor hotels in a pattern a planner pricing off trade-show norms will get wrong.
Is there a racetrack we could use instead, near the parks?
No, and almost every search result on this will mislead you. Walt Disney World Speedway closed in 2015 and was demolished, and the Richard Petty Driving Experience left Orlando with it. Stale pages still rank for this, so a planner searching for an Orlando racing experience will find things that no longer exist.
The nearest real on-track experience is at Daytona, about an hour northeast. For a group that is staying in the convention corridor and has a working day to protect, that is a round trip that eats the day.
Is there racing on the calendar we could tie an activation to?
Yes, and the timing is unusually good. Daytona's Speed Season runs January through mid-March, which sits directly on top of the January convention cluster and just ahead of the March shows.
Confirmed 2027 dates: the Rolex 24 At Daytona runs 01/28/2027 to 01/31/2027 on the 3.56-mile road course, with the 24-hour race across 01/30 to 01/31. Daytona 500 Speedweeks run 02/17/2027 to 02/21/2027, with the 69th Daytona 500 on Sunday 02/21/2027, which moves off its usual Presidents' Day weekend. Supercross follows on 03/06/2027 and the 85th Daytona 200 on 03/13/2027.
We are not citing dates for the Roar Before the Rolex 24, because the sanctioning body and the local tourism bureau publish dates a week apart and we would rather say so than pick one.
Is there a karting place near the convention center?
Yes, and we are going to be straight with you about it because you will find it anyway. Andretti Karting and Games Orlando sits on Universal Blvd essentially adjacent to the North Concourse, and it already has racing simulators on site, alongside karting, laser tag, bowling and VR, with over 10,000 square feet of event space and a published minimum spend.
If what you want is to take twenty people somewhere after the show closes, that is a good answer and you should book it. It is a destination you take a group to.
What it is not is a branded activation inside your booth on the show floor, running your livery, your leaderboard and your lead capture, in front of the several thousand people walking past your stand. Those are different jobs. We only do the second one, and if the first one is what you need, go there.
Where is the good food?
Not where the city's reputation suggests, and this one is worth hearing before you promise a client a local food experience near the hall. Orlando has Michelin-starred restaurants and none of them is near the convention center. They are in Baldwin Park, Winter Park, Audubon Park and at a Disney resort, 20 to 30 minutes north in neighborhoods a visiting planner has never heard of.
No starred or Bib Gourmand restaurant is listed on International Drive or on Restaurant Row. Restaurant Row, about ten minutes out, is an excellent national-steakhouse corridor and is also completely interchangeable with the same corridor in any other convention city. That is a fine place to take a client. It is not a local experience, and we would rather tell you that than let you oversell it.
Get a quote
Tell us about your event.
Tell us which building and which dates. Orlando rewards knowing the venue and punishes guessing at it, and we will tell you what the power, rigging and freight rules mean for your build before anything is signed.
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