sidec 2026 celje: exhibition stand.

SIDEC, the defence fair and conference, takes place from 10 to 12 November 2026 at the Celje Fair in Celje, Slovenia, open from 9 am to 5 pm. The dates come from the organiser programme (sidec.si); check them before you apply, because dates can move.

This is the second edition. According to the organiser, the first one in October 2025 drew more than 10,000 visitors and close to 180 exhibitors from 20 countries. For an exhibitor that means crowded aisles and little time per visitor, which decides the layout more than the floor area does.

The organiser builds the programme around four areas: cyber security, future technologies and research, energy efficiency and resilience, and artificial intelligence. The range of exhibits is correspondingly wide, from software that needs a screen and a quiet corner to hardware that needs a load-bearing floor and access from several sides.

An exhibit with weight and cables settles the stand before the graphics do. An Octafloor raised floor runs cables and hoses below the walking surface, levels out the hall floor you were given and carries the load; installed height runs from 42.5 to 225 millimetres, and that figure sets the step at the edge of the stand, which belongs in the floor plan rather than in the surprises of installation day.

The second thing is the space around the exhibit. A visitor looks at a machine from the side that shows what it does, so leave the approach open there and not on the side where a counter is easiest to place. With equipment that gets demonstrated, plan for a group stopping around it rather than one person.

Register the power connection with the organiser against the real load, not an estimate. When an exhibit draws in bursts or has its own inrush current, that figure has to come from your engineer, otherwise the connection is adequate on paper and not in the hall.

Three days in a full hall mean that most people see you for the first time from the aisle and in passing. Your company name and one sentence about what you do have to be readable from several metres away, above the heads of the people already standing in front of the stand. At a defence fair this is not decoration: a delegation working through the programme stops at what it recognises in a few seconds.

A lit surface does that better than a printed board, because it also works where the hall lighting is uneven. Octalumina illuminated frames turn a wall into an evenly lit surface, and spotlights with a colour rendering index of CRI 90, such as the ERON Pro line, keep the colour of a material the colour it actually is.

When the stand is an island or sits at the end of an aisle, visibility is bought with height. An Octarig ceiling structure carries spans of up to 12 metres, so the sign, a screen or a light hangs above the stand and the floor stays free for exhibits.

Defence and security procurement is not agreed in the aisle. Part of what gets discussed at SIDEC needs a corner where people can sit down, open a document and talk without a neighbour listening in. A stand with no such corner loses the one conversation you came for.

In a modular system the enclosed part is made with walls rather than with building work: Octawall frames or Maxima extrusions set up a partition you can move the next day. Be straight about what that space is and is not. It separates visually and takes the conversation out of the aisle; acoustically it is partial cover rather than a booth, so the hall stays audible.

When there is not enough floor plan, the room is found in height. An Octamax double deck puts the meeting above the stand and leaves the whole floor area to the exhibits, which at expensive square metres and with large machines often works out better than a wider stand.

Renting covers one appearance: a complete stand from the Octanorm system, delivered, installed before opening and dismantled after closing, with nothing left to store. Buying means your own kit, which in later years needs only adjustment and new graphics. A turnkey build is the third route, where design, production, installation and storage sit with one contractor.

For an exhibitor coming from outside the region, renting removes the part that is hardest to organise remotely. The kit, the delivery, the installation before opening and the dismantling afterwards are handled locally, so the first time your team stands in the hall the stand is already finished and the trip stays a single trip.

Buying starts to pay when the same layout repeats. The Octanorm system is the same whether it is rented or owned, so a layout you rent this year can be bought in the same form next year, once you know from a real hall which parts of it you actually used.

For a proposal we need the floor plan or the size of the space you booked, the stand number if you already have one, a list of exhibits with weight and power requirement, and whether the stand is inline, corner or island. Those four facts are enough to draw a layout; without them only a price range is possible.

What comes back is a layout proposal with renting and buying side by side, so the difference shows up as a number rather than as a description. Graphics go into production last, because the floor plan usually moves once more before then.

SIDEC is in November, which means the decisions are being made now. Send the floor plan and the dates and we will come back with a proposal.