What changed for GITEX 2026

For years GITEX filled Dubai World Trade Centre. For 2026 the four-day exhibition moves to the Dubai Exhibition Centre, roughly 35 km away, inside Expo City Dubai. Only the GITEX Summit stays at DWTC, on 7 December.

That is more than a change of address. The halls, delivery routes and technical submissions all follow the rules of the new venue, so a stand sized and routed from last year's plan is planned for the wrong building. Check your hall, your stand number and the exhibitor manual before anyone draws anything.

If your team is at both events, plan them separately. The Summit is a one-day programme at DWTC, and the exhibition build-up runs at Expo City, so the people, deliveries and hospitality for each need their own schedule.

Shell scheme or custom stand

A shell-scheme booth is the organiser's standard package of walls, fascia, lighting and carpet. It suits a startup or a first-time exhibitor who needs to be present without a design project.

A custom exhibition stand is designed around what you need to show. For technology companies that usually means live demonstrations, power and data at the point of use, screens at standing height and a quiet room for conversations that cannot happen in the aisle.

There is a middle route. A modular stand can be reused at later shows, which suits a company exhibiting at both GITEX and GISEC, or at several shows a year.

Design the demonstration first

GITEX visitors cover a very large floor quickly. CIOs, government technology leads and investors decide from the aisle whether to stop, and a looping video rarely earns that. What earns it is a product being used.

Start with the demonstration, then build the stand around it. How many people can watch at once? Where do they stand without blocking the aisle? Does the presenter need a microphone? Where does the conversation go once someone is interested? Those answers fix the layout before any styling starts.

Plan the meeting space on the same drawing. If the commercial conversation matters, it needs a door, a table and a place for coats and laptops, not a stool beside a screen.

Budget: what to ask for

Beauty Sky quotes custom stands in Dubai from AED 1,000 per square metre on a 24 m² minimum, with AV, LED and interactive hardware quoted as separate lines. That separation matters at a technology show, where the screens can cost more than the structure.

Ask any contractor what is excluded. Space rental, electrical supply, internet and rigging points are normally billed by the organiser or the venue, and they are easy to leave out of a first budget.

The first concept and 3D design from Beauty Sky are free, so you can compare a real proposal before committing.

Timing: the time left before December

A custom stand normally needs ten to twelve weeks from brief to opening. The first thing to run out is usually workshop capacity, not the organiser's deadline, because December competes with every other show in the Dubai calendar.

If you are reading this inside that window, a large custom build may no longer be realistic, but a compact custom stand or a modular build often still is. Send your hall, stand number and size and ask for a straight answer on what can be delivered in the time left.

Whatever the size, submission deadlines in the exhibitor manual come first. Drawings, structural calculations for anything above a single storey and rigging requests all have their own dates.

Choosing a stand contractor for GITEX

Ask whether the contractor fabricates in its own facility or subcontracts the work, who will be on site during build-up, and whether you can see finished photographs rather than renders.

Ask what they know about the new venue specifically. Because this is the show's first edition at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, an honest answer is more useful than a confident one: experience of the venue's rules and delivery routes counts, and so does knowing what still has to be confirmed with the organiser.

Beauty Sky designs and builds from its own 15,000 m² facility in Dubai, with one team running the project from concept to dismantling.