The Portland National College Fair took Hall D at the Oregon Convention Center for two days, 18 and 19 October 2026. NACAC's invitation to schools puts the floor at over 200 colleges and universities. The organiser lists every national college fair as free and open to the public.
The fair page marks three sponsors beside the institutions: US Army ROTC, 7Sage College Prep and North Avenue Education. University of Galway carries a GTCF entry labelled testing only.
The clocks the floor ran on
Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Six and a half hours of exhibition time across the two days.
The venue dropped its own page
The convention center's event page for the fair returns a 404. The slug has left the venue sitemap, which lists 181 URLs and four October 2026 events. The fair sits on neither.
The organiser's page stays live. It carries the hours, the address and the institution list.
The district around the hall
The convention center sits in the Lloyd neighborhood. The venue describes the area as surrounded by hotels, transit, shopping, the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The venue runs the Convention District Safe Connect Program with Portland Metro Chamber and Portland Downtown Clean & Safe. Public safety coordinators work the area, and the program offers wayfinding and escort between the convention center, nearby hotels and transit stops.
MAX light rail stops 300 times a day at the front door and connects to PDX, eight miles away. The Streetcar A Loop arrives every 15 minutes at NE MLK and Hoyt.
Four property types, four jobs
A full-service property with meeting space takes the admissions team. NACAC tells exhibitors to arrive 30 minutes before the open and stay for the entire program. No more than three representatives may staff a booth at one time. That team wants a room to brief in before a 9:00 a.m. door and a place to hold the boxes the decorator delivers.
A limited-service property near the hall takes the family that works one session. One bed, one bathroom, one night.
An extended-stay property answers a two-night school trip, with a kitchen and a laundry on the list beside the room.
A property with its own coach bay takes the bus group. The venue garage takes no RV, camper or trailer, and it bans overnight parking.
The coach cannot wait at the door
NACAC parks school buses at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry during the fair. That lot sits 1.9 miles from the hall on the OSRM drive route read on 23 October 2026.
Four turnouts handle the drop and the pick-up: two on NE Holladay, two on NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. The letter bars a bus from waiting in the pick-up zone.
The letter warns that PBOT will cone off the longer MLK turnout when traffic builds. TriMet's use of the turnouts cannot be blocked.
Cards in the building, cash at the desk
The convention center takes cards and touchless payment only. The drive-through parking booths run the same rule.
A cash-only guest trades notes for a Visa card at the reverse ATM off the MLK Lobby welcome desk. The load happens once and carries no fee.
Wi-Fi runs free in the lobbies and meeting rooms. Elsewhere the venue sells Basic at $12 a day and Business Class at $50 a day.
NACAC supplies exhibitors a light fare snack service. Its FAQ calls the service site-specific and separate from the registration fee.
The month around the fair
The venue's October calendar lists four events after the fair. The Oregon Podiatric Medical Association runs 22 to 24 October in Room F150-151. Functional Fabric Fair runs 27 to 28 October in Halls B-C-D-E. ZERO to THREE runs 28 to 29 October in Hall A. CANVAS runs 30 October to 4 November in Halls A1-B-C.
Those four bookings hold the building through 4 November. A property in the district reads one venue's calendar and plans its fortnight after the fair.
What the desk can price
NACAC's fee table for the national fairs, headed Spring 2027, prices a booth at $825 for members and $1,045 for non-members at the regular rate. The early-bird rate runs $770 and $990 to 17 December.
NACAC's exhibitor FAQ says it is working on room blocks for each in-person fair and will send details to registered exhibitors. No rate reaches a public page.
Three questions for the desk. Where does the coach sit overnight. What does the property do with luggage between a noon close and an afternoon flight. Does the rate hold across a Sunday arrival and a Monday departure.