IDEX 2027 Stands Built from Our Own Dubai Workshop

IDEX 2027 Opens on 25 January, Three Weeks Earlier Than Usual

IDEX and NAVDEX 2027 run from 25 to 29 January 2027 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, organised by ADNEC Group with the UAE Ministry of Defence and Tawazun Council. The 2025 edition opened on 17 February. Moving the show into January pulls every drawing deadline into December, which is the month when most of our clients' design teams are closing their year. An IDEX 2027 stand that is still a sketch on 15 December will not clear ADNEC's structural review in time.

According to the organiser's own figures for 2025, the show had 1,565 exhibitors and brands from 65 countries, 206,000 visitors and 181,501 m² of exhibition space, with 55 contracts worth AED 25.15 billion signed during the five days.

NAVDEX uses the marina behind the halls, where visiting warships berth, so naval exhibitors often split their presence between a hall stand and the quay. We build stands at defence fairs in Istanbul every year and we have a stand project underway for IDEX 2027. This page explains how our own workshop in Dubai handles an IDEX build, and what ADNEC expects from your design.

Space-Only or Pavilion Shell

Companies arrive at IDEX in two ways. Some book space-only through ADNEC Group: raw floor, nothing on it, full freedom within the ADNEC rules. Many others come inside a national pavilion, whose coordinator books a block and hands each company a shell scheme: carpet, fascia board, a few spotlights, a counter and two chairs.

We work with both. On space-only we design and build the complete stand. Inside a pavilion we keep the shell and change what visitors actually see: a printed back wall or lightbox instead of white panels, a proper reception counter, a display base for the exhibit, hidden storage, and a sample of the graphics in Arabic as well as English. The coordinator's rules on shell walls still apply, so we ask for the pavilion letter before drawing anything.

Tell us which of the two you have. The quote, the drawings and the timetable are different for each.

ADNEC Rules That Shape the Design

ADNEC applies the same construction regulations to every show in its halls; the IDEX manual adds the dates and fees on top. The figures we design to from day one:

Two of these change a stand before anyone talks about looks. No gypsum means our walls are MDF and timber frame. No enclosed ceiling means the dramatic black box that works at IDEF in Istanbul has to be redrawn as an open frame with a suspended banner, ordered through Capital 360 at least ten days before the show.

Heavy Exhibits Are Normal Here

A defence stand is rarely about brochures. It is about a turret section, a gun carriage, an armoured vehicle or a missile mock-up that weighs more than the stand around it. At IDEF in Istanbul we built a 48 m² stand for a Korean motion and control supplier whose displays were heavy steel components for self-propelled howitzer, main battle tank and rocket launcher systems. The counters were drawn around the base plates of those assemblies.

In Abu Dhabi the same logic applies with one extra step. Every exhibit over 1,000 kg goes on the heavy and oversized declaration with its dimensions, weight and delivery vehicle, and it comes into the hall in a window before the general build starts. If your exhibit arrives with the carpet, it waits outside.

VIP Tours and Two Languages

IDEX is a show of official tours. Ministers, chiefs of staff and procurement officers walk the halls in groups, with protocol staff ahead of them, and each company gets a few minutes to make its case. Three things follow from that. The reception desk must be able to receive a group of twelve without furniture being moved. A closed room with a door, even 6 m², earns more than another metre of open lounge. And the key message must read in Arabic as well as English, because the people who sign in the Gulf read both and notice when only one is there.

The crew side has its own protocol. Crew members enter ADNEC on wristbands issued against an Emirates ID or a passport and visa copy, wear PPE on build days and must be at least 16 years old. Our UAE partner registers the crew, so your company only supplies the names of its own stand staff.

Who Builds Your IDEX 2027 Stand

Design, 3D visuals, the ADNEC drawing set, production and installation all come from our own workshop in Dubai, under two hours by road from ADNEC. Nothing is shipped from Istanbul for an IDEX job. Walls, counters, lightboxes, printed graphics, platforms and flooring are made in the UAE, the engineering stamp and the ADNEC forms are handled locally, and the truck that leaves the workshop at dawn is unloading at the hall by mid-morning. The crew that cuts the panels is the crew that installs them at ADNEC, so if a graphic has to change on 19 January it changes in Dubai, not on the hall floor.

You deal with one project manager from the first email to the handback report. Communication is in English and quotes are in US dollars.

Need a stand at this fair?We design, produce and install custom exhibition stands for this trade fair. Talk to our project team today.hello@expoturco.comWhatsApp ChatWe'll get back to you within a few minutes, 24/7.Scan to chat on WeChat

Stand Sizes and What Moves the Price

At the defence fairs we build for, pavilion stands sit between 18 m² and 36 m², and space-only stands between 48 m² and about 100 m². The 54 m² naval stand we built at SAHA Expo in Istanbul is a typical mid-size space-only brief.

Two UAE stands we priced in 2025 and 2026, one of 24 m² and one of 72 m², came out between roughly 390 and 560 USD per m² turnkey. A defence stand with heavy exhibits, hanging banners and AV normally sits above that range. The items that move the figure most are:

• a raised floor (limited to 100 mm at ADNEC, with ramps above 40 mm), which changes the structure and the cable routing
• suspended banners and lighting frames, charged separately by Capital 360
• LED walls and display cases for scale models
• double-deck or over-height structures, which add the stamped calculations and the fee
• night or overnight work, which ADNEC charges per four-hour block, so we plan to finish inside normal hours

Send the floor plan with your stand number and we price the stand you actually have, not a template.

Construction Week and the January Problem

ADNEC Group confirms the exact construction days in the IDEX manual; space-only plots get more days than shell stands. Our own calendar for IDEX 2027: design signed off in November, ADNEC submission before 15 December, production in the Dubai workshop through the first half of January, crew in Abu Dhabi around 20 January, handover on 24 January, dismantling after the halls close on 29 January. Visitor hours are 9:00 to 17:00 each day.

For companies from East Asia there is a second calendar. Chinese New Year falls on 6 February 2027, one week after the show closes. Factories, shipping agents and your own team will be winding down from mid-January, so exhibits should leave the factory in December.

Defence Stands We Have Built

Our defence portfolio includes IDEF and SAHA Expo, the two defence fairs in Istanbul, and Eurosatory in Paris. A selection:

MNC SOLUTIONISTANBUL, TURKEYTELEDYNEISTANBUL, TURKEYNAVANTIAISTANBUL, TURKEYGETAC & NOYAIstanbul, Turkey

If you are exhibiting at IDEX or NAVDEX 2027, send us your hall and stand number, the type of space you have booked and a list of the exhibits with their weights. We reply with a first layout and a quote within a week. Please do not wait for January: ADNEC's structural review happens in December, and a design that reaches ADNEC in the new year has no path to approval before the doors open. Request your design at expoturco.com/Get-Stand-Design or write to us through the contact page.

Need a stand at this fair?We design, produce and install custom exhibition stands for this trade fair. Talk to our project team today.hello@expoturco.comWhatsApp ChatWe'll get back to you within a few minutes, 24/7.Scan to chat on WeChat