The position
Indianapolis can plan four nights from Wednesday 28 October to Saturday 31 October 2026. The venue publisher forecasts 15,000 attendees. The organiser's own convention site states nearly 10,000. Two published counts sit five thousand people apart, and the dates hold either way.
What four nights require in rooms
Downtown Indianapolis holds 7,100 hotel rooms by the venue's own count, with 4,700 connected to the Center by skywalk.
Fifteen thousand attendees need 7,500 rooms at two occupants a room. That total is 105.6 percent of the downtown base. Three occupants a room bring the requirement to 5,000 rooms, or 70.4 percent. Four bring it to 3,750 rooms, or 52.8 percent.
The organiser's near-10,000 runs the same ladders. Two occupants a room need 5,000 rooms, or 70.4 percent of the base. Three need 3,333 rooms, or 46.9 percent. Four need 2,500 rooms, or 35.2 percent.
The skywalk-connected set holds 9,400 people at two occupants a room. That is 62.7 percent of the venue's forecast, and it leaves 5,600 people outside the connected set.
The counts behind the two numbers
The organiser's 2025 edition in Philadelphia drew close to 10,000 attendees, 346 exhibitors and 763 interview booths, by the organiser's count. The 2026 convention site carries 250-plus exhibitors and 200-plus speakers. The Philadelphia numbers are a count of a completed edition. The 2026 figures are targets.
A plan built on 15,000 carries 5,000 people the organiser's own page does not count. The four dates produce two different room-night totals from one published pair.
The block, the ladder and the cut-off dates
Nine properties carry negotiated rates. Conrad Indianapolis $249, Indianapolis Marriott Downtown $269, Hyatt Regency Indianapolis $269 and JW Marriott Indianapolis $269. SpringHill Suites Indianapolis Downtown $214. Fairfield Indianapolis Downtown $194. The Westin Hotel Indianapolis, Courtyard Indianapolis Downtown and Omni Severin Hotel $189 each. The median is $214, and four nights run $856 at that median.
Regular registration closes 7 October at 5 p.m. ET. Late registration closes 31 October at 12 p.m. ET. A student ticket runs $345 to $625 across the windows, a professional ticket $480 to $760, and a non-member ticket $775 to $960.
Resume uploads close 26 September. The organiser states that employers begin reviewing resumes weeks before the convention and may contact candidates to schedule interviews ahead of arrival. The interview floor then runs on published hours from Thursday to Saturday.
Engine puts the Indianapolis annual average nightly rate at $128 across 1.2 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. The publisher defines those as par rates, the cheapest publicly available price at the time of each search, and states that they are not negotiated or booked rates. October reads $134, which is 5 percent above the annual average. The block median of $214 sits above every month in that published table.
Why the dates repeat
The organiser's future conventions list puts Indianapolis on 28 to 31 October 2026, Houston on 6 to 9 October 2027, Denver on 8 to 12 November 2028, Indianapolis on 17 to 20 October 2029, Orlando on 29 October to 1 November 2031 and Indianapolis on 3 to 6 November 2032. The 2030 edition reads TBD. Indianapolis appears three times across the seven published entries.
What settles it
Housing closes 14 October and hotel-direct booking opens 21 October. The organiser allocates rooms first-come, first-served and states that rooms may sell out before the housing deadline. The venue calendar puts the National FFA Convention & Expo four days before this opening at a 70,000 forecast, and the National Science Teaching Assn Fall Convention four days after the close at 4,000.
The dates and the four-night shape are dependable. The size is the open item, and the five thousand people between the two published counts are where it sits.