ITEC 2026 welcomed a record number of defence professionals to Excel London, reinforcing its position as Europe’s largest exhibition and conference dedicated to military training, simulation and education technologies. The three-day event brought together armed forces, government representatives, NATO personnel, academia and industry to examine how emerging technologies are transforming operational readiness.
Held under the theme Training Technologically Empowered Forces, the event attracted 1,747 attendees from 37 countries – a 37% increase on the previous year – alongside 76 exhibitors representing 19 countries. The conference featured 130 speakers across 76 sessions, while 1,044 delegates participated in the conference programme. Organisers also reported 220 business connections and 96 meetings arranged through the event’s MeetMe networking platform.
AI and emerging technologies dominate conference agenda
This year’s conference focused on the technologies reshaping modern military training, with artificial intelligence, immersive simulation, digital wargaming and multinational collaboration forming the core of the programme.
Sessions were organised across three theatres – Adaptive Edge, Human Performance and New Horizons – covering topics ranging from AI-enabled courseware and adaptive mission training to autonomous command and control, large language model integration and data exploitation in multi-domain wargaming. According to post-event feedback, conference session quality increased to 4.1 out of five, while 80% of delegates rated sessions as good or excellent.
Senior representatives from NATO, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, US Army, United States Space Force and defence organisations across Europe joined experts from academia and industry to discuss the future of military preparedness and training innovation.
International participation and networking continue to grow
ITEC 2026 also saw a substantial increase in international participation, with more than 100 VIP delegates attending from 37 countries – representing a 172% increase compared with the previous edition. Visitors included military personnel, government officials, defence ministries, NATO representatives and senior decision-makers responsible for defence training and simulation programmes.
Networking remained one of the event’s strongest attractions. Nearly seven in ten visitors cited networking with peers as their primary reason for attending, while networking opportunities received a satisfaction score of four out of five. Exhibitors also highlighted the quality of attendees, with 76% identifying this as the principal reason for exhibiting. More than half described ITEC as an essential event for business growth.
Alongside the main exhibition, the DualTech Zone returned in partnership with the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), showcasing dual-use technologies and hosting an interactive Wargaming Showcase exploring future hybrid warfare scenarios and AI integration within defence training environments.
Following the success of this year’s event, organisers confirmed that ITEC 2027 will return to Excel London from 11–13 May 2027, bringing together the international defence training and simulation community once again to explore the next generation of technologies and operational capability development.
