JEC World 2026 draws 45,000 professionals and records 49% jump in business meetings

JEC World 2026 closed in Paris with more than 45,000 professional visits from 94 countries, matching 2025 attendance figures despite airline disruptions affecting travelers transiting through Gulf hubs and ongoing instability in the Middle East. The three-day event brought together over 1,400 exhibitors from more than 50 countries, including more than 150 first-time participants, across the full composites value chain.

Pre-scheduled business meetings through the JEC Business Meetings Service reached 20,300, a 49% increase over the prior edition.

“The strong international turnout at JEC World 2026 once again demonstrated the need for in-person collaboration across the global composites industry to foster business, partnerships, and knowledge sharing,” said Eric Pierrejean, President of JEC.

The biggest show in the world for the composites industry is also a great place to see the latest developments in composites’ additive manufacturing, with some of the most advanced materials. However, while past editions hinted at new composite 3D printing processes such as continuous fiber reinforcement, this edition confirmed that the only economically viable 3D printing process for composites remains large-format additive manufacturing — either via robotic arms or Cartesian gantry systems — using chopped-fiber, pelletized materials. Here, you can find our full coverage of AM at JEC World

The 2026 edition delivered its largest conference program to date, with over 100 sessions and more than 200 speakers across three stages. A masterclass by Professor Steve Tsai on Double-Double laminates drew notable attendance, alongside SAMPE Technical Sessions covering circularity, digitization, advanced manufacturing, and extreme composites. The SAMPE Global Emerging Engineers Challenge was won by Nico Peters and Nick Elderfield of the University of Calgary for their work on lightweight spacecraft structures.

More than 70 startups exhibited, and JEC hosted its second consecutive Investor Day, connecting venture capitalists with approximately 50 startup founders. The JEC Composites Startup Booster named three winners from 20 international finalists drawn from over 160 applications: Soarce (USA) for nanofiber composite reinforcement technology, nebumind (Germany) for production data analytics, and Plastalyst by AC Biode (Luxembourg/Japan) for low-temperature recycling of hard-to-recycle waste.

The SMC BMC Design Award 2026, themed “Live Better, Live Green,” gave its Gold prize to Hedera, a modular vertical garden system for building facades developed by students at Elisava Barcelona.

JEC World 2027 will take place March 2–4 in Paris Nord Villepinte. Half of the exhibition space had already been reserved at the time of publication.