The INFORMS Annual Meeting 2026 runs Sunday, November 1 through Wednesday, November 4 at Moscone Center South, 747 Howard Street, San Francisco. The venue page for the meeting lists the dates, the building and the host organisation. The meeting organiser publishes the hours that matter to anyone planning an afternoon on Howard Street, and it publishes one access rule that decides who can walk the exhibit floor at all.
The exhibit floor takes a paid registration
The registration page states the rule in a single sentence: "INFORMS does not offer one-day registrations." A second line states that all attendees, including cluster and session chairs and speakers, must register and pay the registration fee. A third states that name badges are required for all INFORMS functions. The exhibit area sits inside that fee. The same page reads: the registration fee admits you to all technical sessions and receptions, coffee breaks, and the exhibit area, with lunch on your own.
A full registration is the only published route onto the floor for an analytics team that wants one afternoon on it.
Hall A hours, day by day
Exhibits sit in Exhibit Hall A at Moscone Center South, which the exhibitor information page names as the location. Exhibits and posters share the space with the Sunday evening Welcome Reception.
Exhibits open 11am to 4pm on Sunday, November 1, and continue 6:30 to 8:30pm for the Welcome Reception. Monday and Tuesday run 9am to 5pm. Wednesday carries no exhibit hours, and exhibitor move-out runs 8am to noon.
Coffee breaks land at 9:15 to 9:45am and 2:30 to 3pm on Monday and Tuesday. Sunday's morning break runs 9:15 to 9:30am. The agenda page puts the Sunday afternoon break at 2:30 to 2:45pm and the exhibitor page puts it at 2:30 to 3pm. The organiser states that coffee and snack breaks run daily and that all meals are on your own, with the Sunday Welcome Reception as the evening exception.
Registration opens at 7am
Registration runs 7am to 5pm on Saturday, October 31, 7am to 7:30pm on Sunday, 7am to 5pm on Monday and Tuesday, and 7 to 11am on Wednesday. Conference check-in sits in the South Lobby on the Lobby Level. The Marriott Marquis runs a satellite check-in on Saturday and Sunday only. Anyone who wants a badge in hand before the first session on Monday should use the Saturday window at the Marriott or the Sunday desk.
The day-use slots against the published day
hotelSlots sells four daytime slots: Morning 6AM-12PM, Afternoon 12PM-6PM, Evening 6PM-12AM, and Overnight 12AM-6AM. The platform publishes 103,857+ hotels across 46 states, day-use rates of 30-75 percent less than the nightly rate at the same property, and no booking fees. Its glossary defines a day-use room as a room booked for daytime hours, typically 6 to 8 hours.
A Morning slot opens at 6am on Monday, an hour before registration, and runs to noon, covering the 9:15am coffee break and the first three hours of the floor. An Afternoon slot covers the afternoon sessions and runs two hours past the 5pm close of the exhibits. Two slots cover the whole exhibit day. The organiser names Hall A, the plenary and keynote rooms and the South Lobby as the meeting's spaces. The venue runs more than 20 hydration stations, and the organisers recommend a sweater because meeting rooms can run cool.
Rates and the 94103 ZIP
A read of the Dayuse San Francisco page on October 14, 2026 returned a city average of $119.61 for a day room and nine city-scoped cards from $85 to $159: Hotel Bijou at $85, The Mosser Hotel at $91, Hotel Caza Fisherman's Wharf at $107, Hilton San Francisco Financial District at $116, Axiom Hotel at $122, Hotel Zeppelin at $138, Hotel Zelos at $144, Hotel Zetta at $152 and Taj Campton Place at $159. The Mosser card carries the line that the hotel sits within a five-minute walk of the convention center. The Zetta card puts Union Square and Moscone within ten minutes' walk. Day rates move, so recheck the figure on the day you book.
The platform's directory lists 562 San Francisco properties. Thirty-eight of them carry ZIP 94103, the ZIP that holds Moscone South. That group includes the San Francisco Marriott Marquis at 780 Mission Street and the InterContinental at 888 Howard Street, the two official block hotels the organiser names.
Registration cost and getting there
Early pricing ended September 2, 2026 at 11:59pm EDT, so regular rates apply: $900 for an INFORMS member and $1,250 for a nonmember. The early rates were $750 and $1,080. Groups of 10 or more from one organisation book at $675 per member and $945 per nonmember through the named group contact, and the organiser asks that the group list arrive before any registration is submitted. Customer service answers at 443-757-3500 from 8:30am to 5pm EDT on weekdays. The meeting is fully in person.
SFO sits about 12.7 miles from the hotels and the convention center on the organiser's figure, with a 20 to 30 minute drive and a $45 to $60 taxi or rideshare fare. BART reaches Powell Street Station for roughly $10 to $11 each way, and the walk from there runs about ten minutes.
Two published lines on parking disagree. The Moscone Center site states that the center has no on-site parking. The INFORMS page states that Moscone Center South offers the Moscone South Garage at 747 Howard Street, with the entrance on Howard Street between 4th and 5th Streets, and names four nearby garages. Confirm the arrangement with the venue before driving in.
