Preparing for IRE 2026

By Emma Peterson. 

Industry leaders from NRCA, Informa and SRS share how they are building IRE 2026 into the biggest and most inclusive show in roofing. 

It might be hard to believe, but the 2026 International Roofing Expo (IRE) is less than four months away now! For those who aren’t familiar, IRE is the biggest roofing show in North America. The goal of this expo is simple, help roofing professionals expand their networks and improve their skills so that not only their businesses thrive, but also the larger roofing industry. And while four months might feel like a long time, The Coffee Shops® crew is already preparing for the soundstage we’ll be hosting there! To learn more about how other crews are preparing for the show, which will be happening January 20-22, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Alison LaValley, Julissa Chavez, Keenan Perry and Brandi McElhaney for a Coffee Conversations. 

Alison, who has worked with the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) for almost four decades now and currently is the executive director of the Roofing Alliance, opened the conversation by sharing a bit about the history of the show. She explained, “NRCA was founded in 1886, and we are now on our 139th annual convention.” Up until 2004, NRCA was the sole showrunner of IRE. 2004 marked when Informa came into the picture in 2004 to partner with them to run the show. Alison explained, “In 2004, we decided to partner with Informa, so we’re sponsoring IRE and they're running it. And it’s been great. They've been able to take the show, not even double our presence, but triple. We averaged maybe 5,000-8,000 people and now there's anywhere between 15,000-20,000 people annually.”  

Brandi, who has worked with IRE for almost 20 years from the Informa side, added some context from her perspective, sharing, “I've worked on several other shows that had associations involved, and you don't get a better relationship than we have with NRCA. They're always supportive of everything that we want to do for them, and with that partnership, it's helped us grow tremendously in size, exhibitors, partnerships.” 

As for looking ahead to the 2026 show in particular, Keenan, the director of event marketing at SRS Distribution, shared how they’ll be participating, saying, “As far as the expo floor and the show itself, we are going bigger and better than ever with our booth presence. We'll be doing a lot of training in our booth and we’re bringing the Para Latinos Lounge that we have sponsored in past years into the booth design this year!” Julissa, the director of Hispanic contractor strategy for SRS, added some more insight into the offerings for Spanish-speaking contractors, sharing, “We’re really excited to have the Para Latinos lounge in the booth, it’s become our annual Hispanic roofing safe space where we can all meet, we all know, ‘Hey, there's a space there for me.’ That’s huge because one of the biggest barriers for these contractors is the lack of these spaces. So, we’re really excited to be eliminating these barriers and be a part of this great show.”  

Listen to the podcast or Watch the episode to hear more from this panel about IRE 2026. And make sure to RSVP to stay up to date on exclusive deals, announcements and notifications about the show.