15,000 Forecast Across Four Days
The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers brings its 2026 National Convention to the Indiana Convention Center from Wednesday 28 October to Saturday 31 October. The venue forecasts 15,000 attendees. The event runs across the convention center and the Lucas Oil Stadium campus.
The venue's own city figures give planners the sizing: 7,100 hotel rooms downtown, 4,700 of them connected to the convention center by skywalk, 200 restaurants within walking distance, and 15 minutes to Indianapolis International Airport.
Two Published Attendance Figures
The convention's own registration site counts "nearly 10,000 students, professionals, academics, industry leaders, and innovators." SHPE reports 10,000 attendees at its 2025 edition, with 346 exhibitors and 763 interview booths. The two published figures sit 1.5 times apart, so quote each with the publisher behind it.
A 15,000 forecast is 2.1 times the downtown room count for one night. At two occupants per room the group needs 7,500 rooms, or 1.06 times downtown stock. At three occupants it needs 5,000 rooms, or 0.70 times stock.
The Skywalk Route and the Room Supply
The 4,700 skywalk-connected rooms equal 66.2 percent of downtown stock. The convention center's skywalk page gives the operating window: lockdown at approximately 11 p.m. and reopening at approximately 6 a.m., which the center calls event-dependent.
Visit Indy publishes a larger connectivity figure. Its connected-hotels page counts 12 hotels and 5,200 rooms connected, and more than 10,000 rooms within walking distance of the center once the downtown pipeline delivers.
The Registration Ladder
Registration runs in three windows. Early bird closed on 9 September at 5 p.m. ET, regular closes on 7 October at 5 p.m. ET, and the late window runs from 8 October to 31 October at 12 p.m. ET, when registration closes.
Fees by category: non-member $775 early, $860 regular and $960 late; professional $480, $600 and $760; advisor $150, $300 and $475; undergraduate and graduate $345, $470 and $625. Bulk submissions close on 1 October at 5 p.m. ET, and promotional codes must be used within five business days and before 5 p.m. ET on 16 October.
The Programme
The convention site lists 250-plus exhibitors and 200-plus speakers. SHPE presents the event in partnership with Latinas in Tech, and Latinas in Tech programming runs inside the convention with no separate ticket.
The career fair runs two groups on Saturday 31 October: Group B from 8:30 to 11 a.m. and Group A from 1 to 3:30 p.m., both in Hall HIJ. Interview booths open in Hall BC on Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Attendee registration runs from Hall F.
The Calendar Around the Convention
The convention center's own calendar lists the SHPE National Conference on 28 to 31 October with a 15,000 forecast. The same calendar carries the State Board of Law Admission Ceremony on 26 October at 1,800 and the National Science Teaching Association Fall Convention from 4 to 7 November at 4,000.