PINBALL EXPO 2026 – SEMINARS

One of the outstanding features which sets Pinball Expo apart from other shows is the sheer number of seminars hosted in the dedicated Seminars Room which is the left half of the large Schaumburg Ballroom, called Schaumburg West.

The seminars are recorded by Pinball News and uploaded to YouTube once the final seminar for each day has concluded. Video equipment and computers are provided by Pinball News. Ron Coon, Jr. provides all the audio equipment and cables, while Pinball Expo supplies the screens, lights and assorted power cabling.

Over the last few years, Pinball News has been bringing seminars equipment over from the UK to build up a stockpile of tripods, a camera, power supplies, a laptop, HDMI splitter, along with a large cache of HDMI, Ethernet and power cables. Keeping these in a large box alongside the other Expo paraphernalia obviated the need to bring so much kit across the Atlantic each year.

Access to set up was delayed by a breakfast networking event which was hosted in the Schaumburg West room on Wednesday morning. By the time everything had been cleared away and the stage built, it was after 3pm before we could start bring in equipment and running cables.

It was soon after that the equipment box was missing and, it appeared, had not been transported from Ohio along with all the other Pinball Expo items. As the Ohio location is about a six hour drive away from Schaumburg, there was no possibility of fetching it in time for the first seminar at 8am the next day.

As a result, we had to cobble together the best set-up we could using backup items we’d brought along in case anything failed mid-show, together with some hastily purchased basic tripods. We got everything recorded but it proved pretty stressful, without the opportunity to check much of the equipment before having to hit the record button.

So, the seminars schedule began at 8am on Thursday and continued throughout the day, with the same on Friday and again on Saturday.

This year there were even more seminars across the three days of Pinball Expo than at last year’s show. As a result, on Saturday a second Seminars Room was opened up for additional speakers’ presentations which ran alongside the main Seminars Room’s talks. This ‘Euphoria’ room was located on the floor above the main Seminars Room, next door to the room hosting the Autograph Session.

As we didn’t have the equipment or staff to cover two simultaneous seminars at once, we agreed to just record the audio in the second room. So, we installed an audio recorded in the room, pressed record just before the first seminar at 10am on Saturday and came back once the final presentation of the day had concluded. It mostly worked, but, as you’ll see later, not entirely.

So, let’s get on with the Pinball Expo 2026 seminars schedule.

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

So, that concludes our video coverage of the Pinball Expo seminars schedule. However, as we said earlier, we also have a number of audio recordings from the second Seminars Hall on the Saturday of the show.

The smaller hall had a wide range of subjects, with talks hosted by well-known pinball people from around the world. Each talk was introduced by either David Fix or David Marston.

Unfortunately, at the end of the previous seminar the microphone was switched off and wasn’t switched back on for Steve’s seminar, so we don’t have this recording.

Unfortunately, at the end of the previous seminar the microphone was switched off and wasn’t switched back on for Brad and Lisa’s seminar, so we don’t have this recording.

Although this recording began successfully, after around five minutes had elapsed recording stopped. So, we can only bring you the introduction by Andrea. That also meant the subsequent Content Creators seminar wasn’t recorded either.

That concludes this report on the seminars held at Pinball Expo 2026. Check out our main Pinball Expo report for coverage of the rest of the show.

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