HCD Healthcare Design Conference to Be Held in New Orleans in October, Co-Located with IFHE World Congress for the First Time

Healthcare Design Conference + Expo will be held in New Orleans from October 17 to 20. It is the largest edition to date and will be co-located with the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering World Congress for the first time, with more than 400 exhibitors. ^¹

Healthcare Design Conference + Expo (HCD) will be held in New Orleans from October 17 to 20. The organizers say this is its largest and most broadly scoped edition to date, with participants including architects, interior designers, healthcare executives, engineers, facility managers and contractors.

This edition will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and co-located with the 29th World Congress of the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE). This is the first time the 2 events have shared a venue, bringing together designers of healthcare environments with operations and engineering personnel.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Consensus Construction Forecast of July 2026 projects that healthcare construction spending will grow 2.6% in 2026 and accelerate to 4.4% in 2027, with demand driven mainly by construction of hospitals, outpatient facilities and nursing homes amid the aging of the U.S. population.

Gina Parker, Healthcare Strategy Director at dealer Henricksen, notes that furniture solutions for healthcare projects must simultaneously address cleaning protocols, infection prevention, material performance, aesthetics and budget, and that there are fewer replicable standard spaces. Clinical knowledge is needed to support specialized spaces such as laboratories and pharmacies, and the same 1 lounge chair may not be suitable for an infusion room, a mother-and-baby room or a general patient room.

The conference features more than 110 educational sessions covering topics such as behavioral and mental health, sustainability, technology, outpatient care, research and project delivery, organized into 13 tracks. Among them, 3 tracks are new in 2026: Technology and Innovation, Design Forward and IFHE sessions.

The organizers say the exhibition area has been expanded, with more than 400 exhibitors showcasing products and services for hospital and clinic environments, and a Solutions Theater where exhibitors and industry partners will give short presentations on emerging tools, products and approaches to addressing healthcare challenges.