WFCT 2026: San Antonio Becomes the Industry’s Week of Record

The short version

WFCT 2026—the International Window Film Conference and Tint-Off™—is the year’s densest gathering for automotive and architectural film, PPF, wraps, and coatings. It runs August 27–29, 2026 at the Henry B. González Convention Center (Halls 1–2) in downtown San Antonio, with a full pre-event education day on August 26.

It is organized and managed by Window Film magazine and PPFMag (Key Media & Research), co-located with Auto Glass Week™, and actively promoted on wfctevent.com and @WFCTevent on Facebook / social.

If you only send one trip this year for training, product reconnaissance, and competitive benchmarking, this is the calendar block.

What WFCT actually is (and isn’t)

WFCT is not a local meet-and-greet. Official positioning is blunt: it is the only event designed specifically for the automotive, architectural, decorative, security, and energy film industry—plus paint protection, vinyl wraps, and ceramic coatings.

Who belongs on the badge list:

Shop owners and multi-bay operators
Lead installers and competition-minded techs
Manufacturers and film distributors
Software / tools / insurance vendors
Trainers, association members, and industry media
Creators and influencers who move product demand

What you get on the floor: product launches, education tracks, live competitions, demos, Hall of Fame programming, and social events that actually matter for deal flow.

Dates, venue, hotels

| Piece | Detail | | --- | --- | | Pre-event education | Wed, Aug 26, 2026 | | Main show | Thu–Sat, Aug 27–29, 2026 | | Venue | Henry B. González Convention Center, Halls 1–2 | | Address | 900 E. Market Street, San Antonio, TX 78205 | | Host hotels | San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk + Marriott Rivercenter | | Group rate | $189/night (single/double) + tax/fees | | Group code | AGWFCT (ask for WFCT / Auto Glass Week) | | Hotel deadline | Mon, Aug 3, 2026, 5:00 p.m. CT |

Book early. River Walk inventory evaporates once AGW + WFCT room blocks fill.

Register as an attendee at wfctevent.com/attending. Competitors register at wfctevent.com/competing. Exhibitor interest goes through wfctevent.com/exhibitor-contract or Barry Atkins (batkins@glass.com).

Co-location with Auto Glass Week matters

WFCT and Auto Glass Week share the San Antonio week and registration portal (events.american-tradeshow.com/agwwfct26). That means ADAS/calibration conversations, windshield workflows, and film/PPF bays are in the same downtown footprint—useful if your shop sells glass-adjacent packages or partners with glass networks.

Registration tiers (published for the combined portal) include:

Deluxe AGW + WFCT (~$750) — full education, floor, keynote/highlight speakers, Closing Party & Awards, AGW cocktail/Hall of Fame events, Window Film Hall of Fame Luncheon
Full Attendee (~$550) — education + floor (Closing Party optional/extra)
Partial / floor (~$155) — exhibition, competitions, demos, socials
Child (ages 6–16) (~$10) — floor + Family Day activities Aug 29

Window Film magazine’s attendee brochure also pushed early discounts (including promo codes such as DWFM26F for $100 off—confirm on the live registration form before checkout). Best-discount messaging has pointed at mid-August cutoffs; treat published promo windows as time-limited.

Competitions: the reason techs beg for the trip

Competition coordinator Sarah Bauder’s public line this year is simple: prepare for anything. The competitive slate includes:

Automotive Tint-Off™
Architectural Tint-Off™
Decorative Film Competition
PPF Competition
Vehicle Wraps Competition

Competition registration deadline for the Architectural Tint-Off, Automotive Tint-Off, PPF Competition, and Vehicle Wraps Competition was set at July 15, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Eastern—if you are reading this after that date, verify waitlist / late options directly with WFCT before assuming a lane is closed.

For owners: sending a competitor is a recruiting and brand asset. Medal photos move local Google reviews and Instagram trust more than another stock bay reel.

Education & workshops already on the board

Pre-event isn’t filler. Confirmed programming highlights heading into late July:

Special Marketing Workshop — Wed, Aug 26, 2–5 p.m., hosted by Gabe Fletcher (Detailing Growth) — buyer behavior shifts, AI/digital advertising, and what shop marketing has to become next (Window Film Mag event coverage).
IWFA Education Day sessions — including practical risk/insurance content; LinkedIn/@WFCTevent has highlighted Trevor Hayes (TintingInsurance.com) on protecting and growing tint businesses.
Broader education tracks, keynote, and highlight speakers fold into Full/Deluxe badges (exact daily grid continues to update on wfctevent.com and social).

Operator rule: put education on the calendar first, booth crawling second. The floor will still be there after class.

Family Film Day (new for 2026)

Senior events director Tricia Lopez announced a structural addition: Family Day / Family Film Day on Saturday, Aug 29—kids get a firsthand look at what parents do for a living, with planned activities (register children in advance so AGW/WFCT can plan supplies).

This is not a throwaway soft feature. Labor shortage shops keep talking about “who grows the next tech.” Showing the craft as a career day is culture work.

Window Film Hall of Fame — Aug 27 luncheon

Two 2026 inductees will be honored Thursday, August 27, at the Window Film Hall of Fame Luncheon:

Erik Devash — founder & CEO of Tint Wiz, recognized for operations/software leadership that changed how film shops run
Chris Brooks — VP at Kauff’s Signs, Wraps, & Tint, multi-medal Automotive Film competitor and long-time mentor figure (34 years in the trade)

If you sell software or compete in Tint-Offs, that luncheon is not optional networking—it’s where the industry writes its own continuity story.

WFCT’s site lists diamond → topaz sponsor tiers and continues adding logos through Q2/Q3. From official sponsor announcements and the live wfctevent.com logo wall, the 2026 participation picture includes (non-exhaustive; tiers shift as contracts close):

Major film / PPF brands & manufacturers

Terminax (Diamond) — high-performance PPF with coating/color techniques; auto window film
Eastman Performance Films (Ruby)
Madico (Ruby)
Geoshield (Ruby) — window + PPF
Solar Gard (Emerald) — architectural + automotive film / PPF
United Auto Film (Emerald)
GSWF Global (Emerald) — PPF, tint, ceramics
XPEL / XPEL Architectural Films
Avery Dennison
3M (Accent / enhancement presence on the logo wall)
Johnson Window Films, Global Window Films / Global Hi-Tech Films, Rayno, Autobahn Performance Films, Cosmo Films USA, Onyxhield, Ivios, Sumiron, Ultrafit, and others visible on the 2026 sponsor grid

Tools, software, services, associations

Tint Wiz, Tekmetric, morecuts, Fusion Tools, EDTM, Monster Squeezy, Prolayers
TintingInsurance.com, Eye Magnet Management, Midwest Marketing, Detailing Growth, Detailers Roadmap
IWFA, Tinters For A Cause, KMR Research, Decorative Films, FDC Graphic Films, IOMTEK, Secure / Z-Secure, iSOURCE, and additional Topaz/Emerald names still being announced

Why this list matters for your trip plan

Walk the floor with a buy list, not a souvenir list:

Two film lines you might actually switch or dual-source
One cutter/plotter or software decision you are delaying
One insurance / CRM conversation that reduces admin drag
One competition or training contact who raises your bay standard

Official channels to watch between now and show week:

Website: wfctevent.com
Facebook: International Window Film Conference and Tint-Off / @WFCTevent
LinkedIn company posts from WFCT Event (Hall of Fame, education teasers, sponsor drops)
Sister coverage: windowfilmmag.com/eventnews, ppfmag.com

Expect schedule “surprises,” speaker adds, and last-minute floor maps there first—not in your distributor’s group chat.

Operator playbook for WFCT week

Decide the job of the trip before you buy airfare: recruit, compete, switch film line, or steal marketing systems.
Badge correctly. Floor-only saves money and wastes half the value if you skip Aug 26 education.
Hotel by Aug 3 on the AGWFCT block—or budget for walk-up River Walk rates.
Book Hall of Fame + Closing Party intentionally; that is where distributor politics surface.
Bring a one-page shop brief (bay count, monthly film volume, software stack) so vendor conversations stay concrete.
Photograph process, not just booth selfies—edge work, cutter nests, training boards you can implement Monday.
Debrief within 72 hours of landing: one keep, one kill, one pilot for Q4.

Bottom line

WFCT 2026 is the industry putting San Antonio on the calendar as a four-day operating system: education on the 26th, competitions and Hall of Fame gravity on the 27th–29th, Family Film Day as a culture bet, and a sponsor wall that now spans diamond PPF brands through software and insurance.

Miss it and you will still hear the product news secondhand. Attend it and you leave with primary signal—the kind Installer Report exists to turn into decisions.

Sources for this briefing include wfctevent.com, Window Film Magazine event news, PPFMag’s WFCT Spring 2026 guide, the combined AGW/WFCT registration portal, and public WFCT social posts on Facebook/LinkedIn.