OilMoney vs the Trade Show Budget: NAPE, OTC, and the Odessa Oil Show

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By Amanda Leon, founder of OilMoney.io. Houston-raised, came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, and has run Unrth, a brand and growth studio for oil and gas and industrial companies, since 2017, with her boots on client locations in Midland and Odessa. Last reviewed October 20, 2026.

Next year's show budget starts with the booth: a 10x10 at NAPE Summit 2027 costs $7,750 if you book by December 11, 2026 and $8,500 after, and 100 square feet at OTC 2027 runs $4,400 to $4,600, with extras and travel on top of both. If your product sells when a buyer sees it run, buy the booth; if your buyers need to know your name in the months between shows, that's what OilMoney's $23,200 minimum first commitment for one seat builds.

Whichever you pick, measure it. As Head of Marketing at Wetzel's Pretzels, I managed more than eight outside agencies: one building an app, one the website, one the brand, one graphic design, and one print design for the caps and aprons across 300-plus stores. Some of that work can't be measured with ROI. As much as we could, we tried anyway, even if it meant extrapolating what engagement could mean in pretzels sold.

Give a booth the same treatment. Before you sign, decide what you'll count when you get home: conversations at the booth, how many turned into a bid, and how many jobs you won from those bids. Then hold a profile to the same count. A spend that can't tell you what it brought back in jobs won is a spend you're taking on faith.

What a Booth Costs at NAPE 2027

NAPE Summit 2027 runs February 3 to 5, 2027 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, inside NAPE Week, February 1 to 6, 2027. NAPE's exhibitor page prices a 10x10 booth for a vendor or service provider at:

  • $7,750 through December 11, 2026.
  • $8,500 after December 11, 2026.

Badges, furniture, and electrical are not included, so the booth price is where the bill starts. If NAPE is on your list, book by December 11 and put the difference toward the extras.

What Floor Space Costs at OTC 2027

OTC 2027 runs May 3 to 5, 2027 at Reliant Park in Houston, and its first-time exhibitor page sells indoor space by the square foot:

  • $44 per square foot through December 18, 2026.
  • $46 per square foot after that.

So 100 square feet comes to $4,400 to $4,600, before shipping and drayage. Add what you'd ship in and set up before you compare it with another show's booth price.

If you'd rather walk OTC than exhibit, a four-day nonmember pass to OTC 2026 cost $495 early-bird, $595 standard, and $695 on-site, with member passes $200 lower. Those were the 2026 rates, so check the 2027 numbers before you budget.

The Permian Basin International Oil Show in Odessa

The Permian Basin International Oil Show says it has been held every other year since the end of World War II. There is no 2026 show. The 2025 show ran October 21 to 23, 2025, and the next one runs October 19 to 21, 2027 at the Ector County Coliseum in Odessa. By the organizer's own count, it draws more than 650 exhibitors, about 1,100 booths, and about 20,000 attendees.

The show doesn't publish booth prices online. Exhibitors apply through the show's website, so ask for the price when you apply. With no show in 2026, Odessa goes two years between shows, and something has to keep your name in front of Odessa buyers until October 2027. For a map of who buys there, see oilfield companies in Odessa, TX.

Travel on Top of the Booth

The booth is one line. Getting your people there is another. Federal travel rates for FY2027, October 2026 to September 2027, allow $133 a night for lodging plus $80 a day for meals in Houston, and $136 a night plus $74 a day in Midland and Odessa, before airfare. Use them as a starting number, not a show-week hotel quote.

Run it for NAPE. Two people, three nights, at the Houston rates: $798 in lodging and $480 in meals on top of the booth, before airfare, badges, furniture, electrical, and shipping. OTC is in Houston too, so the same rates apply there.

What The Rig-Up and The Rotation Cost

Every OilMoney client starts with The Rig-Up: $8,500 once, for one seat. That's the same number as a NAPE 10x10 booked after December 11, 2026, and the two buy different things. The booth buys a 10x10 spot at a three-day Summit. The Rig-Up buys your positioning, your voice guide, your LinkedIn profile rebuilt top to bottom, and one signature offer, built over four to six weeks and yours for good.

The Rotation follows at $2,450 a month with a six-month minimum: posts in your voice, three to five a week, never more than one a day. Nobody buys The Rotation alone, because a truck stuck in the mud needs traction before it moves. For one seat, the minimum first commitment is $23,200, The Rig-Up plus six months of The Rotation. That's a minimum first commitment, not a yearly price.

You own what we build with you: your profile, your posts, your voice guide, and your own lived experience. You approve every post on your own profile before it goes out. More on what that looks like for an owner is on our page for oilfield service company owners.

The Handshake a Booth Buys

A booth wins on handshakes. OTC reported that nearly 25,000 people came to OTC Houston in 2026 and nearly 1,000 companies exhibited, with participants from more than 100 countries. No post replaces a buyer standing at your equipment. When he can see it run or put his hands on it, the floor does a job a feed can't.

So if your product sells when it's seen in person, or your buyers are all in one hall that week, buy the booth.

When to Buy the Booth Instead

Put next year's money in the booth if most of these fit:

  • Your product sells when a buyer sees it run or gets his hands on it.
  • Your buyers are all in one hall that week, and you know which hall.
  • You have new equipment that needs a demo more than it needs a post.
  • You'll staff the booth with people who can carry a conversation to a next step on the spot.

Spend on your name instead if your buyers are spread across the basin, your product doesn't need a demo, or you're the reason customers buy. If what you really want is meetings booked this quarter, see OilMoney vs an outbound or appointment-setting agency. If you're weighing a whole marketing program for the company, see OilMoney vs a full-service marketing agency.

Before the Show, at the Booth, and After

By the time a buyer reaches your aisle, his shortlist may already be ranked and the seller he already knows has a head start (the 2025 buyer numbers behind that are in where oil and gas sales leads come from). So run them together at the same show.

Before it, posts in your own name tell buyers where you'll be and what's worth stopping for. At the booth, a buyer who has read your posts can walk up already knowing who you are. After it, your follow-up comes from a name he's seen in his feed, which beats a business card at the bottom of a tote bag. Your posts run on The Warm Walk-In™, which turns what you already know into a steady drip of posts in your voice, so the months between shows aren't silent.

Some of the moments that matter between shows aren't on any calendar, like a new operator taking over a customer. For that one, read how to get in front of a new operator after an acquisition. To pick your shows, start with which oil and gas trade shows are worth going to, and to work the one you pick, see how to get real business out of OTC and other conferences.

An Owner's Name Between Shows

The founder we work with is an owner budgeting from the same seat you are, and from Sep 15, 2025 to Oct 19, 2026 his posts earned 270,955 impressions, which kept his name in front of people through all the weeks with no show to stand at. An impression isn't a handshake, and I'd never sell it to you as one. Read the full story.

Next Show Dates

  • NAPE Summit 2027: February 3 to 5, 2027, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, inside NAPE Week (February 1 to 6, 2027). The 10x10 rate goes from $7,750 to $8,500 after December 11, 2026.
  • OTC 2027: May 3 to 5, 2027, Reliant Park, Houston. Floor space goes from $44 to $46 per square foot after December 18, 2026.
  • Permian Basin International Oil Show: October 19 to 21, 2027, Ector County Coliseum, Odessa. Exhibits are open 10am to 6pm on October 19 and 20, and 10am to 4pm on October 21. There is no 2026 show.

Get Your Bison Walk-Around

Next year's show is months off. The profile buyers will check after it is live today.

Send us your LinkedIn. We'll send back the Bison Walk-Around: five minutes of plain English on what's costing you callbacks and what we'd build. No call. No invoice. We give first.

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Sources and As-Of Dates

The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.