Libby Zbaraska, Eazy Marketing
Three days, three halls, 900+ exhibitors, 40,000+ visitors, 11 live content streams and countless conversations later, InstallerSHOW 2026 has wrapped up, and it feels like much more than an exhibition. It’s a live snapshot of where the industry is heading next.
I’ve seen the show grow massively since the Ricoh Arena days, and this year at the NEC, it was officially the biggest yet.
But beyond the scale, what stood out most was the breadth of it. Heating, plumbing and HVAC remain at its core, but InstallerSHOW now stretches much wider than it used to, covering electrical, renewables, kitchens, bathrooms, controls, ventilation and cooling all under one roof.
And while these might seem like separate parts of the industry, the conversations between them are becoming increasingly intertwined.
Decarbonisation is the default
If there was one thread running through almost every stand, panel and conversation, it was decarbonisation.
As a result, heat pumps were everywhere. But not in the “emerging technology” way they may have been a few years ago. They feel extremely established. For the first time, it genuinely looked like there may have been more heat pumps on display than gas boilers.
This shows that the conversation has moved on. It’s less about if these technologies have a role to play, and more about how they can be successfully applied, optimised and scaled.
That sense of momentum was echoed across stands too. As one heat pump manufacturer put it: “When you’re surrounded by this much innovation in HVAC technologies, it reinforces that there’s a shared direction of travel. That challenges all of us to keep evolving, improving and pushing standards higher and, for us, that can only be exciting.”
Cooling can’t be ignored
It’s impossible to ignore the other shift happening around us: our summers are getting hotter. And, this week, it was hot.
Quite fitting, really, for a show packed with cooling solutions.
For years, cooling in the UK sat outside the core conversation. Now, with UK homes with air conditioning doubling to more than four million in three years, it’s becoming impossible to overlook. Across the show floor, that shift felt tangible. What was once niche now feels like one of the hottest topics and one of the next major growth areas.
Skills were front and centre
One of the strongest themes this year was skills. From the World Plumbing Conference and WorldSkills UK competitions to Super Trowel and the Great British Slate Off, InstallerSHOW put practical competency on full display.
For an industry constantly talking about shortages, standards and attracting younger talent, these features felt more than entertaining. They felt necessary.
It’s easy to talk about raising standards. It’s harder to show what good looks like. InstallerSHOW did that well.
As Jerry Whiteley, Technical Manager of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) put it: “The future of the industry depends on competency. It’s not just about bringing new people in, but making sure they have the right skills, knowledge and standards behind them to deliver quality work.”
The community that keeps on growing
And it’s the people that continue to set InstallerSHOW apart. It feels social. From CIPHE’s “Evening with Friends” to Fix Radio broadcasting live and brands recording installer-led podcasts on stand, it still feels like an event built around people as much as products.
As Charissa Redfern at Rosefern Communications put it: “There’s such a sense of community as you walk through the halls. It’s a brilliant opportunity to catch up with familiar faces and make new connections.”
Because while every brand arrives with its own objectives, the industry shares the most important ones. And at the centre of them is quality. Quality of products, quality of installation and quality of long-term performance.
Concluding the event, InstallerSHOW’s Event Director Mike Costain said: “When there’s this much innovation and ambition in one place, it’s hard not to feel like it’s a really exciting time to be part of this industry.”
And he’s right.