A Four-Day Buying Show on a Shoulder Week
Do it Best Corp. brings its Fall Market to the Indiana Convention Center from September 25 to 28, 2026. The venue forecasts 12,000 attendees on its event page. The market's own site counts 9,300-plus attendees, 1,200-plus vendors, 566,000-plus square feet of market floor and 75 learning sessions. Each figure carries the publisher that printed it.
The show concentrates overnight demand into 22 hotels and one housing system. It also publishes the hours its attendees are off the floor, and those hours are what day-use operators price.
The Windows the Schedule Sets
The market floor opens Saturday at 8:30 am and runs to 5 pm. Sunday runs 7 am to 4:30 pm. Monday runs 7 am to noon. The three days hold 23 selling hours.
Two daytime programs sit ahead of the floor. Thursday, September 24 carries the Rental Center Training School in Room 131 from 8 am to 4 pm, and two Epicor bootcamps in Rooms 244 and 245 from 9 am to 4 pm at $200 per attendee. Friday's Power Preview runs 7:30 am to 1 pm in Parking Lot B.
Quiet Hour runs 7 am to 8 am on Sunday and Monday for dealers. The Monday floor day closes at noon, so the last daytime window of the show runs a half day.
The Rate Read Going In
Engine's Indianapolis page puts the average nightly par rate at $128 across 1.2 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. September sits at $117, 9 percent below that average. February is the cheapest month at $107, 16 percent below. May is the most expensive at $158, 23 percent above. The page states that rates swing 32 percent across the year.
A Downtown Indy Alliance snapshot cited by Bradford Allen in a March 19, 2026 article puts downtown Indianapolis occupancy at 64.7 percent, with the U.S. average printed at 62.4 percent. Average daily rate reached $209.11, a 12 percent year-over-year increase. Revenue per available room reached $135.20, a 13 percent increase, against a printed U.S. figure of $99.96.
Newmark's 4Q 2025 Indianapolis report draws on Kalibri Labs. It gives the market a year-to-date RevPAR change of minus 4.8 percent and a RevPAR index of 0.914 against the average of the top 104 U.S. markets. The report places Indianapolis second of 16 Midwest markets on that index.
The market holds its own block rate behind an account login. An open-market read on the city measures the rooms outside that block.
The Weeks on Either Side
The venue's event record lists 12 events from September 22 to October 15, 2026. One entry sits ahead of the market, the Economic Club of Indiana Luncheon on September 22. Three conferences take the building September 29 through October 1: MAPP Benchmarking and Best Practices, Association of Talent Development Core4 and Association of Talent Development OrgDev. The Gas Machinery Conference runs October 4 to 7, ISBA and IAPSS October 5 to 6, the Emerging Leaders' Summit October 7, FullScale and the American Dental Association Scientific Sessions October 8 to 10, the ABC Health and Fitness Expo October 10, and Metal Treating Institute Furnaces North America October 12 to 15.
Two open days sit inside that run. The floor stands empty on October 2 and 3, and again on October 11.
Supply Sitting Under the Week
Signia by Hilton Indianapolis stands skybridge-connected beside the Center. The venue's expansion page gives it 803 rooms and a December 2026 opening. Bradford Allen gives it 800 rooms. Newmark's supply table gives it 814 rooms, dates it to the fourth quarter of 2026 and names Kite Realty Group Trust as developer. The convention center's news item of April 21, 2026 reports reservations open for February 1, 2027. Hilton's reservations release gives December 9, 2026.
Cornovus Capital's Q1 2026 Midwest hospitality report reads the new supply as near-term occupancy pressure while it absorbs.
What Resolves the Last 30 Days
The market routes every attendee through one housing system. That system states its discounted rates are available only through its site and only for market attendees, describes them as lower than any online booking site, travel agency or hotel chain site, and instructs guests not to call the hotels directly. Rates sit behind an account login.
The block covers 22 hotels, each with a published distance band. Three connect to the Center: Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, Indianapolis Marriott Downtown and Westin Indianapolis. Six sit one block out: Courtyard, Crowne Plaza, Fairfield Inn and Suites, Holiday Inn Express, JW Marriott and SpringHill Suites. The remaining thirteen run from 1.5 blocks out to 5.5 blocks out, with Omni Severin at 1.5 and Tru by Hilton at 5.5.
The free shuttle covers seven hotels and runs roughly every 30 minutes from the entrance near the Maryland Street Canopy across from the Westin. Its windows run 10.75 hours Friday, 12.25 hours Saturday, 12.75 hours Sunday and 8 hours Monday.
Three levers set the final month. The block's channel discipline decides what the open market sees. The shuttle list names the seven properties the market moves guests from and back to. The floor hours fix the daytime windows.
The schedule adds one block inside those four days. Sunday runs the annual shareholders' meeting and CEO address from 5 pm, with the rebate reception in the 500 Ballroom and distribution ending at 6:30 pm.
What to Model
Price the daytime windows the schedule publishes. Overnight inventory sits inside a login-gated block across 22 hotels, and a daytime product sells into the hours around the floor.
Sunday opens at 7 am and Monday closes at noon. The last half day carries the shortest window of the week.