Eurosatory 2026
Villepinte (Paris Nord).

What Eurosatory is, in two lines

Eurosatory is the leading international trade fair for the land and air-land defence and security industry, reserved for sector professionals. It is held every two years (even years) in Paris Nord Villepinte and combines an indoor exhibition, dynamic outdoor demonstrations, strategic conferences and official delegations from all over the world. The 2026 edition is set to feature over 2,600 exhibitors from 68 countries, 185,000 m² of floor space (with the opening of a new pavilion) and over 350 official delegations from 100 countries; the last completed edition, in 2024, recorded 76,285 professional visitors.

It is not a passive showcase: it is the place where armed forces, ministries, prime contractors and internal security forces evaluate systems and select suppliers for programmes that last years. But the announcements that make headlines are only the tip of the iceberg: most of the real purchasing decisions mature in the following weeks, in negotiations that begin with a contact made at the stand. In a sector with long cycles and structured procurement, for an exhibitor lead management is worth as much as the presence itself at the show.

What to exhibit, where to exhibit

In Villepinte the exhibition spreads across four covered halls (4, 5a, 5b, 6) over 185,000 m², plus the outdoor areas for the dynamic demonstrations of vehicles and systems. The positioning logic revolves around three axes:

• 40 national pavilions: the backbone of the show. Many exhibitors present themselves under the banner of their own country (the Italian, French, German pavilion, and so on), an arrangement that helps foreign delegations map the offering by origin.
• 17 institutional pavilions: ministries, agencies, procurement bodies and government organisations. This is where the “official” side of relationships is concentrated, often the first point of contact for visiting delegations.
• Thematic Technology Clusters: groupings by technology domain (vehicles and weapon systems, dual-use technologies such as AI, cyber and robotics). They are the natural stopping point for technical buyers looking for a specific capability.

The practical rule: choose your location based on how your buyer navigates the show. If you sell to state procurement and delegations, a presence in (or near) the national and institutional pavilion makes you easy to find for those moving country by country. If yours is a dual-use technology or a specialised system, positioning within the right thematic cluster intercepts the technical buyer at the moment they are comparing solutions. The dynamic outdoor areas are irreplaceable only if you have a vehicle or a system that “needs to be seen in motion”.

Visitor profile

Eurosatory is a strictly professional show with a strong institutional component: access is reserved for sector operators, with a weight of public procurement that you won’t find at purely commercial fairs. The confirmed 2024 figure was 76,285 professional visitors, joined in 2026 by over 350 official delegations from 100 countries.

At a defence/security exhibitor’s stand, the people who turn up are mainly:

• Armed forces and defence ministries, with officers and programme managers (indicative range 20-30% of qualified traffic)
• Official government delegations and state procurement, often with locked agendas and planned itineraries (~15-20%)
• Defence industries and prime contractors, looking for sub-suppliers, partners and technologies to integrate (~20-25%)
• Internal security forces and civil protection (police, gendarmeries, emergency bodies) (~10-15%)
• Buyers and procurement managers from the defence/security segment (~10%)
• Startups and deep-tech suppliers in AI, cyber and drones, also via Eurosatory LAB (~10%)

The decision-making profile is senior and international: those who travel all the way to Villepinte are almost always already inside a programme or a supplier-selection process. Expect a very multilingual audience, with English and French as working languages, and a marked presence of delegations that move in groups on tight schedules. For a supplier this means one thing: conversation windows are short and must be qualified on the fly.

How to prepare in the 4 weeks before the event

Week -4 → Messaging audit

Make sure your value proposition answers, in 30 seconds, the three questions a defence buyer asks at the stand, ideally in English and French:

1. What you do, in one sentence (the system, the subsystem, the capability, not the category)
2. For whom, a precise segment (e.g. “sensors for anti-tank land platforms for NATO armed forces”)
3. What changes, a credible benefit for the domain: operational performance, reliability in hostile environments, interoperability, technology readiness level (TRL), compliance with standards and requirements

At a show where everyone talks about “innovation” and “sovereignty”, technical and operational specificity is what sets you apart. A clear sentence, repeated identically by every member of the team, is worth more than any brochure.

Week -3 → Stand operation playbook

Define who does what across the five days, with particular attention to handling delegations:

• Who staffs the stand and qualifies spontaneous traffic
• Who handles the official delegations and scheduled appointments, often booked well in advance and with precise protocols
• Who stays in the back office to run live follow-up already during the show (a real competitive advantage, see below)
• Who attends the strategic conferences (over 140, with 300+ speakers) to capture contacts away from the stand

Over five intense days, fatigue is the first enemy of data quality: plan shift rotations by time slot and don’t leave peak hours to junior staff. With delegations, always assign a dedicated senior contact.

Week -2 → Qualification form

Every contact collected must be qualified on the spot, not “later”. For defence and security the three critical questions are:

1. Programme/need, which programme or operational requirement are you working on, and on what horizon (in service, in development, in the selection phase)?
2. Role, are you armed forces/agency, prime contractor, integrator, state procurement, internal security force?
3. Decision, who validates the supplier choice and which requirements (certifications, qualifications, export/ITAR constraints) are needed?

Everything else (affiliated organisation, known programmes, location) can be reconstructed with good automatic enrichment starting from a few data points, without stealing precious time at the stand.

Week -1 → CRM integrations

The classic mistake: business cards, photos of badges, scattered scans, and nobody pouring them into the CRM until it’s too late. In a sector with long cycles and many decision-makers, being first with the follow-up is what keeps you on the shortlist of considered suppliers.

Configure the system so that every scan, at the fair, lands directly in the company CRM, with an event tag + qualification answers + a voice note from the salesperson. Not in an Excel file, not only in the official app’s catalogue, not in a sheet “we’ll sort out on Monday”.

Is the official Eurosatory app worth it?

Yes, the official Eurosatory app exists, is available for iOS and Android (usually from late April) and should be downloaded: it is a companion before, during and after the fair, with an exhibitor catalogue, map, conference programme and personalised features after login with a valid badge. Across four halls and 185,000 m², it is a valuable orientation tool, both for you and for the visitors looking for you.

But it is important to be honest about what the app does not do, because it is not designed as a commercial tool for the exhibitor:

• It is not a lead-capture system at the stand: it serves to browse and to be found, working from the visitor’s side.
• It does not export contacts into your company CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive).
• It does not automatically enrich data: if you collect only a name + organisation, that’s what you keep.
• It does not send follow-ups to the prospect: the follow-up is up to you, manually, afterwards.
• It does not generate an executive report on your stand’s performance.
• And like every show app, it changes with every edition: the data does not stay yours, it lives within the fair’s ecosystem.

In other words, the official app is excellent for getting around the show and for visibility, but precisely for that reason it makes an owned capture system even more necessary, one that carries the contact from the scan all the way to the CRM. This is exactly the workflow Linkly runs, with the chain capture → enrichment → qualification → follow-up entrusted to a team of six AI agents. Here’s how Linkly works.

What to do during the 5 days of the fair

Day 1 (Monday 15 June), opening and calibration

• Team briefing at 8:15: review the three messages, the roles and the delegation appointment schedule
• Calibration: the first leads of the day serve to tune the qualification questions
• Check the stand map and the conference programme (useful for planning the team’s absences)
• At the end of the day, a first debrief: what works, what to fix tomorrow

Day 2 (Tuesday 16 June), the show in full swing

The flow reaches full capacity. Expect the first peak of technical buyers, prime contractors and delegations. Keep a senior person always present and manage the already-scheduled appointments punctually: the most strategic prospects have tight schedules and little margin.

Day 3 (Wednesday 17 June), the decision-making core

Historically one of the days with the most qualified traffic, and even denser with events: this date hosts the Defense Funding / ECOFIN Day, which brings investors and defence-financing operators to Villepinte. It is the moment for substantive meetings with armed forces, ministries and integrators. Maximum attention to on-the-spot qualification: every serious contact from this day goes into the CRM by evening, not “by the end of the week”.

Day 4 (Thursday 18 June), a full day

Traffic still high, ideal for closing the remaining appointments and for deeper conversations with the warm leads from previous days. It is also the right window to dedicate time to Eurosatory LAB and the Technology Clusters, where partnerships and deep-tech suppliers emerge.

Day 5 (Friday 19 June), closing

The last day, with dismantling on the horizon: traffic drops, but those who stay are often very focused and have more time to dedicate to an in-depth conversation. Use the day for the team’s final debrief, to consolidate the data collected and to make sure that every qualified lead is already in the CRM before leaving Villepinte. Follow-up starts on Monday, not in ten days.

What to do in the 7 days after the fair

In defence and security, sales cycles are long and the decision-makers many, but precisely for that reason first-contact speed is what keeps you on the shortlist of considered suppliers. Whoever calls a buyer back within 48 hours, while the conversation at the stand is still fresh, starts with an advantage that’s hard for someone who shows up weeks later to recover.

The follow-up playbook:

1. Within 24h, a personalised email to every qualified lead. No templates: a reference to something specific said at the stand (the programme they’re working on, the operational requirement they mentioned).
2. Within 7 days, an assigned account contact for each qualified lead, with a specific scheduled touchpoint (call, demo, demonstration). No undifferentiated batch emails, even less so in the world of official delegations.
3. Within 14 days, keep the promises made at the stand (technical datasheets, qualification dossiers, compliance documentation). Extractable automatically from the salesperson’s voice notes, if the system recorded them.
4. Within 30 days, an executive report on performance vs objective: lead distribution by segment (armed forces, procurement, prime contractors, internal security), by country, estimated pipeline. It is what you need to justify the investment in the next edition to management.

Practical FAQ

How much does it cost to exhibit at Eurosatory?

Costs are not public and vary widely depending on square footage, position (hall, national pavilion, outdoor area) and stand build. To give a realistic order of magnitude for a supplier with a modestly sized stand in a hall: indicatively from €20,000-45,000 for space alone, on top of which come the stand build, technical services, logistics, travel and staff for the week, easily reaching €50,000-100,000+ in total. Presences with vehicles or systems in the dynamic outdoor areas climb to higher orders of magnitude. It is often worth considering a location within your own country’s national pavilion: for SMEs it reduces costs and logistical complexity. For official price lists, refer to COGES Events.

Which is the best day for lead collection?

The central days (Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 June) generally concentrate the most qualified traffic of technical buyers, delegations and procurement; Wednesday also coincides with Defense Funding / ECOFIN Day. The first day serves to calibrate, the last (Friday) has less footfall but more focused visitors with more time. There is no “dead” day: the nature of the traffic changes, not the quality of the individual contact.

When do visitor registration and badges open?

Generally in the months before the show, on the official website. Eurosatory is an event reserved for professionals: access is subject to profile verification, and the app’s personalised features only activate after login with a valid badge. Make sure invitations and accreditations for your buyers and partners are requested in good time. Check eurosatory.com for the pre-registration opening dates.

Is it worth participating through the national pavilion?

For many SMEs, yes. The national pavilion reduces costs, simplifies logistics and, above all, makes you easy to find for foreign delegations that map the offering by country. The downside is lower individual visibility compared with a well-positioned standalone stand. The choice depends on your budget and on how specific your capability is: if you sell a highly vertical dual-use technology, positioning within the right thematic Technology Cluster may pay off more.

What’s the alternative to the business card for collecting contacts?

Paper and photos of badges are the worst option: digitisation time, errors, leads lost between one appointment and the next. Three practical alternatives:

1. The show’s official app, useful for being found and getting around, but it is not a contact-collection tool at the stand, nor does it connect to your CRM (see the section above).
2. A CRM with native mobile scanning (HubSpot, Salesforce have dedicated features), works if the team knows how to use them with discipline, which is not a given amid delegations and back-to-back appointments.
3. A dedicated lead-capture system + AI agents for enrichment, qualification and follow-up, the pattern Linkly runs: from scan to CRM with event tag, qualification answers and voice note. Here’s how it works.

Page updated ahead of the 2026 edition. For official information and exhibitor/visitor registration, refer to the eurosatory.com website and the organiser COGES Events.