Every year, it’s the same question: which B2B trade shows should I attend? Between $3,000-a-badge conferences and free trade shows with no one in attendance, it’s hard to make sense of it all.
We’ve sorted them out for you. Rather than compile an endless list (that’s in our Excel file, downloadable for free below), we’ve selected the 30 most strategic B2B events of 2026.
The big trend of 2026? AI is everywhere. Not a single show on this list escapes it, even in heavy industry and energy.
If you only have the budget for one or two trips this year, you might as well choose the right ones.
Here are the 30 trade fairs listed by category to help you identify those that are relevant to you:
- Digital & IT (7 shows)
- Marketing & Communication (4 shows)
- Commerce & Retail (4 shows)
- Industry, Manufacturing & Automotive (3 shows)
- Transport & Logistics (1 show)
- Health, MedTech & Pharma (4 shows)
- FinTech & Financial Services (1 show)
- AI & Advanced Tech (3 shows)
- Energy & Environment (2 shows)
- Art, Culture & Content (1 show)
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Digital & IT
The digital and IT sectors will logically concentrate the largest number of major B2B events. Here are the 7 must-attend trade shows of 2026, from CES in Las Vegas to Slush in Helsinki:
#1 VivaTech 2026
- Date: June 17 to 20, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris, France
VivaTech is the benchmark trade show for innovation in France, and it has gone far beyond the country’s borders. The 2025 edition welcomed some 180,000 visitors and 14,000 startups, to say the least, and the 2026 edition is set to reach a new milestone, with a strong focus on AI, industry, mobility, climate and fintech.
It’s the must-attend tech event in France, whether you’re a startup looking for visibility, a major account on the technology watch, or an investor looking for nuggets. The 4-day pass is currently on presale from €350.
#2 CES 2026 – Consumer Electronics Show
- Date: January 6 to 9, 2026 (completed)
- Duration: 4 days
- Venue: Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, United States
CES once again set the tone for the year. The world’s largest electronics and technology show delivered on its promise for this 2026 edition, with a massive focus on embedded generative AI, home robotics and autonomous vehicles.
Despite its “general public” label, CES remains a very B2B event in practice: manufacturers, publishers, retailers, integrators and startups come together to forge partnerships and detect the trends that will shape the market over the next 12 to 18 months.
If you missed it this year, make a note of the dates for the next edition: January 6 to 9, 2027.
#3 MWC Barcelona 2026 – Mobile World Congress
- Date: March 2 to 5, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Fira Barcelona Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain
The MWC remains the world’s leading telecoms and mobile event. Operators, equipment manufacturers, cloud, IoT and 5G/6G players gather in Barcelona every year.
The event goes far beyond mobile in the strict sense of the term: themes now include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, industrial connectivity and next-generation devices. It’s also an ideal playground for European startups seeking to position themselves against the Asian and American giants.
#4 Google Cloud Next 2026
- Date: April 22 to 24, 2026
- Duration: 3 days
- Location: Las Vegas, United States
Google Cloud Next has become one of the most influential B2B conferences on cloud, data and applied AI in the enterprise. The event directly targets CIOs, CTOs, data leaders and integrator partners.
This is the kind of conference where product announcements have an immediate impact on the technology roadmaps of thousands of companies. If you work in the Google Cloud ecosystem or are evaluating cloud solutions for your organization, this is a must-attend.
#5 Web Summit Vancouver 2026
- Date: May 11 to 14, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, Canada
The North American version of the Web Summit comes to Vancouver for its second edition. The event is geared more towards North American scale-ups and investors, with a program focusing on AI, B2B SaaS and deep tech.
If you’re targeting the North American market or looking for investors on the other side of the Atlantic, this is an interesting alternative to the historic Lisbon edition.
Going further
#6 Web Summit 2026 – Lisbon
- Date: November 9 to 12, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Lisbon, Portugal
The Web Summit in Lisbon remains the largest tech/startup/investor gathering in Europe, with over 70,000 participants expected. A wide range of themes are covered: SaaS, fintech, marketing, AI, cybersecurity, tech climate…
The format is designed to maximize networking: pre-qualified appointments, “night summits” and a density of decision-makers per square meter rarely found elsewhere. If you can only attend one international tech show this year, it’s probably this one.
#7 Slush 2026 – Helsinki
- Date: November 19 to 20, 2026
- Duration: 2 days
- Location: Helsinki, Finland
Slush is a unique event in the European tech landscape. With 13,000+ participants, including some 6,000 startups and 3,500 investors, the ratio is extremely favorable for founders looking for financing.
The atmosphere is unique (meticulous scenography, hyper-curated programming) and the format makes it one of the most B2B events in existence: every minute is designed to create connections between founders and investors. If you’re preparing to raise funds, this is the place to be.
Marketing & Communication
Let’s move on to the B2B trade shows dedicated to digital marketing, Adtech and Martech. Here are the 4 major events of 2026:
#8 DMEXCO 2026
- Date: September 23 to 24, 2026
- Duration: 2 days
- Location: Koelnmesse, Cologne, Germany
DMEXCO (Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference) is the global benchmark for digital marketing and adtech. The show brings together brands, agencies, advertising platforms, martech publishers and specialists in retail media and analytics.
This is the event where the major trends in digital marketing for the coming year take shape. The program combines high-level conferences and a dense exhibition area, with a standard price generally around €220 for the 2-day pass.
#9 INBOUND 2026 – HubSpot
- Date: September 16 to 18, 2026
- Location: Boston, United States
INBOUND is HubSpot ‘s annual meeting place forinbound marketing, CRM and sales enablement. The event attracts thousands of B2B SaaS professionals, agencies and marketing managers from all over the world.
Beyond the keynotes (which always make a lot of noise), INBOUND is above all a concentrate of operational best practices. The most interesting sessions are often those given by practitioners, not vendors. At the time of writing, the exact dates of the 2026 edition had not yet been announced.
#10 Adobe Summit 2026
- Date: April 20 to 22, 2026
- Location: Las Vegas, United States
The Adobe Summit is the leading conference on customer experience, digital advertising and analytics. The event is highly B2B oriented, with concrete use cases in retail, finance, industry and services.
It’s also the time when Adobe unveils its new features and roadmap, making it a must for companies that rely on the Adobe ecosystem (Experience Cloud, Analytics, Commerce…).
#11 Retail Technology Show 2026
- Date: April 22 to 23, 2026
- Duration: 2 days
- Venue: Olympia London, London, United Kingdom
The Retail Technology Show focuses on retail tech & marketing: in-store technologies, payments, omnichannel, customer experience. It is aimed at European retail decision-makers looking for concrete solutions to deploy.
The event is more modest than the American behemoths, but that’s precisely what makes it so interesting: you’ll find more direct exchanges, less “bullshit bingo” and solutions that are often better adapted to the European market.
Commerce & Retail
Here are the 4 events to keep an eye on on the retail front:
#12 NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show
- Date: January 11 to 13, 2026 (completed)
- Duration: 3 days
- Location: Javits Center, New York, United States
The NRF opened the retail year with its 2026 edition in New York. As it does every year, the world’s largest retail trade show brought together between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors to focus on major retail trends: AI applied to the point of sale, intelligent supply chain, augmented customer experience and unified commerce.
The NRF remains the event where the world’s biggest retailers, tech publishers and startups looking to break into retail meet. If you missed it this year, the 2027 edition will be held again at the Javits Center from January 10 to 12.
#13 Shoptalk 2026
- Date :
- Shoptalk Spring (US): March 24-26, 2026
- Shoptalk Europe: June 9-11, 2026
- Duration: 3 days
- Location:
- Shoptalk Spring (US): Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, United States
- Shoptalk Europe: Barcelona.
Shoptalk is the benchmark conference on the future of commerce and e-commerce, with a very C-level audience. The event attracts retail and e-retail decision-makers who want to understand the sector’s mutations: conversational commerce, social commerce, retail media, personalization through AI…
What sets Shoptalk apart from other retail trade shows is the quality of its programming and the calibre of its speakers. Sessions are often very “what’s next” rather than “what’s now” oriented, making them an excellent strategic intelligence tool.
#14 NRF Retail’s Big Show Europe 2026
- Date: September 15 to 17, 2026
- Duration: 3 days
- Location: Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris, France
The European extension of NRF (formerly Paris Retail Week) has found its place in the French retail calendar. The event focuses on omnichannel commerce, e-commerce and retail tech, with a program that combines feedback from European retailers and technological innovations.
It’s the benchmark retail show in France. If you can’t make it to New York in January, it’s the ideal alternative for taking the pulse of the sector without crossing the Atlantic.
#15 EuroCIS 2026
- Date: February 22 to 26, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Düsseldorf, Germany
EuroCIS is Europe’s leading trade fair for retail technology. Retail tech, self-checkout, POS, in-store AI, IoT, data at the point of sale: the event covers everything that can concretely transform the in-store experience.
It’s a very operational show, less “visionary” than Shoptalk, but much more concrete. If you’re looking for solutions to deploy over the next 6 months, this is the place.
Industry, Manufacturing & Automotive
Here are the 3 trade shows not to be missed in 2026:
#16 Hannover Messe 2026
- Date: April 20 to 24, 2026
- Duration: 5 days
- Venue: Messe Hannover, Hannover, Germany
Hannover Messe is quite simply the world’s largest industrial trade fair. Industry 4.0, automation, energy, digital factory, robotics, AI for industry: the show covers the entire industrial value chain.
If you work in the industry, this is THE show of the year. The density of exhibitors and visitors is incomparable, and it’s often here that strategic partnerships are forged that will structure the sector for years to come.
#17 Automechanika Frankfurt 2026
- Date: September 8 to 12, 2026
- Duration: 5 days
- Venue: Messe Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Automechanika Frankfurt is the world’s leading automotive aftermarket show. More than 4,000 exhibitors present their solutions in the fields of spare parts, services, garage equipment, mobility and electrification.
The 2026 edition promises to be particularly interesting as the transition to electric vehicles accelerates, profoundly transforming the entire automotive value chain, including after-sales and maintenance.
#18 IMTS 2026 – International Manufacturing Technology Show
- Date: September 14 to 19, 2026
- Duration: 6 days
- Location: McCormick Place, Chicago, United States
IMTS is North America’s #1 trade show for machine tools, robotics and advanced manufacturing. With over a million square feet of exhibition space and more than 80,000 visitors, it’s an event on a scale that’s hard to imagine if you’ve never been before.
For European manufacturers, it’s an excellent opportunity to take the pulse of the American market and discover technologies that haven’t yet arrived on this side of the Atlantic.
Transport & Logistics
In transport and logistics, one show stands out in 2026:
#19 InnoTrans 2026
- Date: September 22 to 25, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Venue: Messe Berlin, Berlin, Germany
InnoTrans is the world’s leading trade fair for rail and transport technology. The event covers infrastructure, rolling stock, public transport, tunnels and all associated technologies.
InnoTrans is taking on an increasingly strategic dimension as policies to decarbonize the transport sector gain momentum. The rail industry, long the poor relation of innovation, is undergoing a technological revolution: digitalization of networks, autonomous trains, predictive maintenance…
Rounding out this category are SITL Paris (March 31 to April 2, 2026, Paris Nord Villepinte, Hall 7) and LogiMAT (March 24 to 26, Stuttgart). These are two high-quality events for supply chain and logistics professionals.
Health, MedTech & Pharma
Here are the 4 major events of 2026:
#20 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2026
- Date: January 12 to 15, 2026 (completed)
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: San Francisco, United States
The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference kicked off the healthcare year in January, as it does every year. This is not a trade show in the traditional sense, but an ultra B2B summit where C-levels from pharma, biotech and medtech, as well as investors and investment bankers from the sector, come together.
This is where the biggest M&A deals and partnerships in the healthcare sector are negotiated. The event is invitation-only and access is highly selective, but its influence on the industry as a whole is considerable.
#21 HIMSS Global Health Conference 2026
- Date: March 9 to 12, 2026
- Venue: Venetian Convention & Expo Center, Las Vegas
HIMSS is the benchmark event for health IT. Hospitals, publishers, integrators, security, data and telemedicine specialists: the entire digital health ecosystem is represented.
If you’re a software publisher in the healthcare sector or working on digital hospital transformation projects, HIMSS is probably the best place to take the pulse of the market and meet your future partners.
#22 HLTH Europe 2026
- Date: June 15 to 18, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
HLTH Europe is Europe’s leading summit for digital healthcare, healthcare innovation, medtech startups, insurers and hospitals. The event has rapidly gained recognition as the European counterpart to HLTH USA.
For European healthcare players unable to travel to the USA for HIMSS, HLTH Europe offers a high-quality alternative, with programming focused on the specific features of the European market (regulations, public healthcare systems, patient data, etc.).
#23 MEDICA 2026
- Date: November 16 to 19, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Venue: Messe Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
MEDICA is quite simply the world’s largest medical show. With over 5,000 exhibitors and 80,000 visitors, the event covers the entire spectrum of medical devices, diagnostics, imaging, health IT and hospital technologies.
The show also features forums and conferences on digital health, clinical laboratories and physiotherapy.
FinTech & Financial Services
#24 Money20/20 Europe 2026
- Date: June 2 to 4, 2026
- Duration: 3 days
- Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Money20/20 Europe is THE global stage for fintech and payments. Banks, neobanks, PSPs, card schemes, crypto players, regtech: the entire financial services sector comes together every year in Amsterdam.
The event is particularly interesting for B2B companies selling to financial players. The concentration of decision-makers is exceptional, and the networking formats (pre-arranged meetings, satellite events) are designed to maximize business opportunities.
AI & Advanced Tech
Artificial intelligence now has its own B2B events. Here are the 3 most interesting events of 2026:
#25 AAAI 26 – Conference on Artificial Intelligence
- Date: January 20 to 27, 2026 (completed)
- Location: Singapore
The AAAI conference is historically an academic event, but it is increasingly attracting the industrial world: Big Tech, applied AI labs, deep tech startups. It’s here that the research breakthroughs that will find their way into commercial products in 12 to 24 months’ time are presented.
If you work on advanced AI topics (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning…) and want to stay at the cutting edge of research, AAAI is a must.
#26 World Summit AI 2026 – Amsterdam
- Date: October 2026 (exact dates to be confirmed)
- Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
The World Summit AI is a summit focused on business use cases: AI in industry, finance, marketing, healthcare. It’s more concrete and business-oriented than the AAAI conference, with an audience of decision-makers and practitioners.
The event is regularly cited among the top AI conferences for its excellent value for money and the diversity of the use cases presented.
#27 Future of AI 2026 – Financial Times
- Date: November 4 to 5, 2026
- Location: London, UK
Organized by the Financial Times, the Future of AI is a high-level, C-suite-oriented event on the business impacts of artificial intelligence: governance, risks, strategy, regulation.
It’s the kind of event that interests managers and strategists rather than technicians. If you’re a CEO, CFO or comex member looking to understand how AI will transform your industry (and not just how to deploy it), this is the event to aim for.
Energy & Environment
The energy and environment sector has its own B2B events. Here are 2 for 2026:
#28 Pollutec 2027
- Date: October 12 to 15, 2027
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Eurexpo, Lyon, France
Pollutec is Europe’s leading trade show for environmental and energy solutions. Water, waste, energy, sustainable cities, climate: the show covers all the issues involved in the ecological transition.
The 2025 edition welcomed 51,000 participants and 2,000 exhibitors. It’s a particularly interesting show for French and European companies working on decarbonization, the circular economy and resource management.
#29 World Future Energy Summit 2026
- Date: January 13 to 15, 2026
- Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
The World Future Energy Summit was held in Abu Dhabi in January. It is a major B2B meeting on renewable energies, energy efficiency and clean technologies, driven by the Emirates’ ambition to position itself as a global hub for energy transition.
The event is of particular interest to companies targeting markets in the Middle East and Asia, where investment in clean energy is accelerating dramatically. The next edition will take place from January 12 to 14, 2027, again in Abu Dhabi.
Art, Culture & Content
#30 Paris Photo 2026
- Date: November 12 to 15, 2026
- Duration: 4 days
- Location: Grand Palais, Paris, France
Paris Photo is the leading international fair dedicated to photography. The event brings together galleries, publishers, collectors and cultural institutions from all over the world.
Beyond the artistic aspect, Paris Photo is a highly B2B event for the entire photography ecosystem: gallery owners, publishers, art insurers, online sales platforms and museum institutions. This is where the big deals are made, and where the trends in the photography market take shape.
