Change is coming: the Eurosatory show

Every two years, Eurosatory gathers an international audience, including visitors, exhibitors and journalists. Edition after edition, the exhibition organiser does its best so that all five continents can be represented

Today, the world faces a wide range of conflicts, terrorist threats and emergencies that are increasingly intense. In light of this, states and private citizens need defence and security solutions to ensure peace, safety and stability.

Eurosatory is one of the leading international land and air defence and security exhibitions. In 2016, it gathered 1,571 exhibitors, 212 official delegations, 57,024 international visitors and 700 journalists from all over the world.

The event constantly follows the evolution and trends of the defence and security domain, and offers novelties, putting forward creativity and innovative technology from exhibitors. In 2018, visitors will see some changes in Eurosatory’s organisation and showcases.

Optimisation of the exhibiting area

The new hall 5B completes the indoor exhibition area of Eurosatory, with a third hall that will be dedicated mainly to security issues. It will showcase technological clusters such as intelligence, civil security; crisis management and people security; security of critical infrastructures and sensitive facilities; and CBRNe.

Moreover, the discovery village will be installed in the hall, as well as some national pavilions. This makes it an ideal venue to host business meetings and strategic consultancy gatherings.

Live demonstrations

The live demonstrations zone will be moved to an area close to the exhibiting halls, so visitors will only have a short walk to watch events. For the first time, a variety of military, emergency and police services will take part in the Eurosatory Live Demonstrations week programme.

Among them are the French army and police; Special Operations Command; National Gendarmerie Intervention Group; the Research and Intervention Brigade; and the Paris Fire Brigade.

Lab work

For 2018, Eurosatory has created a new start-up area, covering 900m², called Eurosatory LAB. This is dedicated to international start-ups in the defence and security domain. Eurosatory will select up to 80 of the most groundbreaking start-up companies to exhibit alongside 1,600 other companies. In addition, internationally renowned keynote speakers will liven up the LAB with presentations on relevant topics.

The start-ups will come from as far and wide as Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the US. Twice daily, key industry leaders will hold open 'pitch' sessions where each start-up will have the opportunity to present its projects and technologies. Areas of expertise covered are surveillance and intelligence; cybersecurity and IT; personnel support; intervention and force engagement; communications; production, equipment, maintenance and logistics; and enabling technologies.

Conferences and talks

Eurosatory 2018 offers a large programme of conferences and discussions. These have an international focus and have been shortened to run under two hours. The conferences and talks attract a high-level panel of speakers, including operational staff, manufacturers, media, experts, think tanks and high-ranking officials. More than 70 conferences will be held across the entire event. France’s defence minister, Florence Parly, will open proceedings on 11 June. Subjects covered throughout the calendar include CBRNe, homeland security, European defence affairs, artificial intelligence, maintenance, and defence career development among a myriad other issues.

Business at Eurosatory

Eurosatory 2018 offers a new businessto- business meetings programme. To organise business meetings before the exhibition, exhibitors and visitors can use Vimeet, a platform created by Eurosatory’s partner, PROXIMUM Group. To enhance their networking opportunities during the five days of the exhibition, all the attendees are invited to use the Swapcard app, a connection tool for participants with common interests.

Themed events

The exhibition and conference will also present a new international thematic event dedicated to CBRN issues. This new event has been organised with the participation of French and foreign ops officers, exhibitors from the defence and security domains, state representatives, experts and VIPs. This event complements the existing technology cluster and live demonstration programme that is dedicated to CBRN issues.

International think tanks

To enhance the strategic vision of exhibitors and visitors, Eurosatory has also set up a dedicated area for think tanks. The organisations will present research and will hold daily workshop and debates on current topics of interest to the defence community. They will also take part in a variety of conference cycles during the exhibition.

In 2016, the participation of research institutes and groups of experts gave the show a valuable depth of information when it came to geopolitical analysis and defence and security concepts. Think tanks, through the organisation of conferences, contribute to the exhibition, and act as an influence and forum for ideas.

Outdoor demonstrations

An special outdoor area has been set up to present equipment or weapons systems on a specially tailored obstacle track. An ops staging with live commentary and pictures projected on large screens will ensure the success of this presentation, which remains a unique aspect of Eurosatory. Manufacturers can highlight their technologies and products at the outdoor event. This format offers benefits for participating companies in the form of significant visibility and increased number of visits of their booths. The presentations at the outdoor events have been much praised by visitors and media.

Security and defence sector products will be dynamically displayed. In the upcoming exhibition, the location for live demonstrations area has been reconsidered and has been brought much closer to the exhibition halls, making pedestrian access easy. This change not only allows greater participation in live demonstrations, but also optimises the attendance time of visitors, journalists and, to a certain extent, exhibitors at Eurosatory. In 2016, the eight performances across the live performance week attracted 4,000 attendees. The exhibitors’ satisfaction rate was about 84%.

Security measures

Eurosatory has also strengthened its security measures before and during the exhibition. All attendees should pre-register online with a unique email address, uploading an electronic copy of an identification document, such as a national identity card or passport, and a personal identity photo. Eurosatory is the major exhibition for key players in the air and land defence, and security world.