The land and air solution – Eurosatory 2016

Every edition of the Eurosatory exhibition confirms its uncontested leadership in matters of land and air defence, and security technology. The 2016 event, held 13-17 June at Paris Nord Villepinte, Paris, will grow this success further, helping Eurosatory continue its ascent as a major exhibition for players in this domain with an unrivalled label of quality.

A global affair

Eurosatory welcomes a variety of international players from the land and air defence and security fields. International attendance grows with every exhibition, whether through exhibitors, visitors or media presence. In 2014, the exhibition welcomed more than 1,500 exhibitors from 59 countries, and its 55,784 professional visitors hailed from more than 140 countries. The event also hosted 172 official delegations from 87 countries. Besides this, the event saw 707 journalists attending from all over the world, and more than 7,800 representatives of armed and security forces from 110 countries. The exhibition also opened its doors to 180 'Eurosatory guests' - high-level experts - from 36 countries.

Eurosatory 2016 will see new countries represented among attendees, such as Colombia. This newcomer strengthens Latin America's presence alongside Brazil and Argentina. Asia will bring a stronger presence to the event with Japan returning to Eurosatory for the second time, while South Korea will be represented by about 30 companies.

Business platforms

Eurosatory was set up as a business platform for industries from land and air defence and security fields, and armed and security forces. The entire defence and security industry is represented at the exhibition, from prime contractors to subcontractors, and a lot of tools have been developed in order to facilitate their exchanges and help companies in their export strategies.

The exhibition offers business meetings to gather major company buyers with manufacturers offering customised solutions. The Networking Exhibitors & Visitors service enables easier exchanges between players: before the show, visitors can prepare meetings with exhibiting companies that applied for the service. This helps them make their sales more profitable and boosts their business opportunities.

Experts in industrial strategy from different countries are selected by Eurosatory based on their capacity to escort companies looking for export outlets in their national markets - particularly SMEs. This year, Eurosatory will increase exhibitors' support by proposing services in export financing credit and insurance in political risk for defence export contracts.

Life-sized showcase

The largest technology showcase is presented across an indoor exhibition area of 94,260m² and an outdoor area of more than 50,000m². The unrivalled number of equipment and weapon systems exhibited makes Eurosatory the true leader in its field. A large number of industry players are taking advantage of the event to launch new products, due to its high media influence and the quality of its visitors.

Every other year, the exhibition struggles to highlight all of the exhibited equipment, even after organising thematic paths and technology clusters. It is a huge showcase for companies evolving niche technologies. Defence showcases may appear to be predominant throughout the exhibition, due to the size of the equipment presented in this field, but a review of the exhibited products shows a great balance, with 60% of the exhibitors having a defence-dominant feature and 40% having a security-dominant feature. Plus, more companies seem to be dedicating themselves to both of the fields, due to the duality of employed technologies. Eurosatory is enhanced by its exhaustiveness: in all the fields covered by the exhibition, it features a complete offering.

Expert attendees

Relying on the presence of thousands of defence and security experts from around the world, Eurosatory has organised more than 70 conferences and workshops dealing with geopolitical, technological, administrative and legal subjects.

A range of players are involved, including manufacturers, media players, experts and higher authorities. These conferences are crossroads of reflection, and enable participants to better understand the concepts and evolutions of the future of defence and security. Four think tanks will present strategic analyses on these issues.

Eurosatory also gives the floor to exhibitors. It offers Exhibitors' Conferences that enable them to highlight their companies and products, and 'Do Business With' conferences give them the opportunity to highlight their industrial strategies, and procurement and standards policies. These conferences can lead to business meetings with a selection of subcontractors.

Eurosatory is increasing its offering of unmanned ground systems (UGS), as well as cyberdefence/cybersecurity themes. The UGS field is constantly growing, with more than 100 exhibitors of the sector registered for the exhibition at time of printing. The number of conferences dedicated to this sector has also increased.

A visitor-friendly event

This offering is unrivalled in Europe for a sector that is looking to see major growth in the coming years.

Cyberdefence and cybersecurity are fast-developing fields, with more than 50 companies within them already registered, and the exhibition offers two days of conferences dedicated to these subjects. The issues will be presented by speakers from around the world, representing a wide range of players: the armed forces, governments, manufacturers, think tanks, and defence associations and organisations.

Cyberdefence and cybersecurity, alongside six other sectors (including simulation and training, CBRNe, protection of infrastructures and sensitive facilities) are also the subjects of themed promotional flyers, which will enable attendees to more confidently identify companies during the exhibition.

The Eurosatory app, available on Android and iOS, gives access to a range of information and content. The 'exhibitors and map' section brings together all the exhibitors' records and indicates their locations with an interactive map. Users can also mark stands as 'favourites' in order to organise their exhibition visit. The exhibition programme also offers a schedule of live demonstrations, conferences and colloquia, and so on.

All these features make Eurosatory a centre of excellence, with high rate of loyalty among visitors and exhibitors. Eurosatory's success is based on an unrivalled quality requirement for all the major players attending the exhibition.