XPONENTIAL Europe became Europe's leading convention for uncrewed systems and robotics from the start. Despite the excitement surrounding its successful premiere, Messe Düsseldorf quickly turned its attention to the future. The aim is to build on this promising start with renewed energy and a sharpened offering profile, not only to confirm the success of February 2025 but to significantly surpass it on 24-26 March 2026.

The most visible change between XPONENTIAL Europe in 2025 and 2026 will be the greater presence of defense and critical infrastructure protection topics. This is a response to growing security policy challenges and market dynamics.

„At a time when security and defense are central issues in European politics and industry, it makes sense to include this area in the portfolio“, explains Director Malte Seifert. However, Seifert does not want this seen as a starting point for developing a traditional defense technology trade show. „XPONENTIAL Europe remains an innovative technology trade fair for autonomous systems and robotics. In this function, it will be an important hub for exchange between research, industry, politics, and regulation across the entire spectrum as it presents itself in the market.” 

Two sides of the same coin

Given the current security situation in Europe and the rest of the world, it is clear that dual-use technologies and military applications are now an integral part of the drone economy. Commercial drone use in civilian applications and military use are therefore largely two sides of the same coin. „What we need in Germany and …