A Guide to Chillventa for First-Time Exhibitors
Chillventa is the world's leading exhibition for refrigeration, air conditioning, ventilation and heat pump technology, and the 2026 edition runs 13–15 October at the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg. It has been held every second year since 2008 and is organised by NürnbergMesse. The 2024 edition drew 1,010 exhibitors from 49 countries and 33,076 trade visitors.
Two things about the 2026 edition are worth knowing before you plan. Hall 1 has been added to the exhibition footprint and the hall concept reworked, so the floor is not laid out as it was in 2024. And the Chillventa CONGRESS opens on 12 October, the day before the exhibition floor, which affects when the stand needs to be finished if anyone from your team is presenting.
Who Exhibits at Chillventa and What Visitors Want
The floor covers refrigeration and insulation technology, controls and automation, air conditioning, ventilation and heat pumps. Exhibitors range from component and refrigerant suppliers through to manufacturers of complete packaged plant. The visitor is a refrigeration contractor, an installer, a building services designer, a facility manager or a specialist wholesaler — people who will install, specify or resell what they see.
That audience is unusually hands-on. They will want to look inside a unit, understand serviceability, and ask what happens when a component fails in year four. They also arrive with regulation on their minds: F-gas phase-down, PFAS restrictions and the move to low-GWP refrigerants all carry dates attached. Stating your refrigerant and your regulatory position plainly, at readable size, does more qualifying work than any other element on the stand.
Stand Size: Choosing Between 9, 18, 24 and 48 Square Metres
Nine square metres works for component, refrigerant, insulation and controls suppliers whose product is physically small or is essentially a specification. You get a counter, a back wall and standing conversations. What you cannot do at this size is run equipment with any circulation around it.
Eighteen square metres suits distributors and specialists who need a display and a proper conversation, and it is the largest size we would attempt without a serviced equipment position.
Twenty-four is the threshold at which a running unit becomes practical: enough floor for the plinth, the service runs and a route for visitors to walk around the equipment rather than past it. If you intend to demonstrate anything that needs water, treat 24 m² as the working minimum.
At 48 m² you can service two equipment positions and still hold a private conversation, which matters when a contractor wants to discuss a project rather than a product. From 80 m² upward, a double-decker adds meeting capacity without consuming the ground-floor area that serviced equipment needs — and on this floor that ground-floor area is at a premium.
What a Chillventa Stand Costs by Size
Ranges below are all-in for design, fabrication, graphics, domestic freight, install and dismantle. They exclude the floor space rental you pay to NürnbergMesse, and the electrical, water and waste orders placed with the venue.
- 9 m² modular: €4,100–€8,700
- 18 m² modular: €4,800–€10,100
- 24 m² custom with one serviced equipment position: €11,500–€15,000
- 30 m² custom with enclosed meeting room: €15,000–€19,000
- 48 m² custom with two serviced positions: €19,000–€26,000
- 80 m² premium or double-decker: €34,000–€48,000
Common Mistakes, in Order of Frequency
The most common is designing the stand first and working out the water and drainage afterwards, which is how a condensate hose ends up crossing the most visible corner of the floor. The second is underestimating equipment weight, so the floor build and access route have to be reworked on site. The third is writing the back wall in idiomatic German for a floor where three quarters of exhibitors and more than half of visitors are international. The fourth is leaving the refrigerant and regulatory position off the wall entirely, which forces every conversation to start with a question you could have answered from the aisle. The fifth is planning from the 2024 hall layout, which no longer applies. All five are settled at design stage or not at all.
Getting Started
Send your stand size, your hall and stand number if NürnbergMesse has issued it, and the equipment list — crated weight, dimensions, power draw and whether it needs a water feed. That last detail changes the design more than anything else you can tell us. You get a 3D design and an itemised all-in quote, at no charge and with no obligation.
Because Chillventa is biennial, the two-year gap makes a reusable system frame a particularly sensible purchase here — the structure stays in our Frankfurt warehouse between editions and the next show costs a graphics refresh rather than a rebuild. Our modular exhibition stands are built for exactly that pattern.
