Six separately run defence events in one Tallinn week, from a free innovation day to invitation-only policy talks, around a sold-out expo of about 100 companies.
An annual week of defence and security events in Tallinn, Estonia, held for the second time in 2026 under the theme "How to Win the Next War?". It is not one conference with one ticket. It is a brand carried by the Estonian Defence and Aerospace Industry Association (EDIA) in cooperation with the Estonian Ministry of Defence, under which six events with their own organisers, badges and registration run back to back: Defence Innovation Day, the Defence Industry Symposium, the Annual Baltic Conference on Defence (ABCD), the Tallinn Defence Expo, the NATO Open Innovation Conference and Expo (NOICE) and the City Resilience Hack. Ministerial meetings and invitation-only receptions ran on the margins. At the 2026 edition the venue was security-controlled, most components were by invitation, and every visitor needed a personal badge and a wristband issued against a passport or national ID card.
21 to 25 September 2026 (last edition, held), in Tallinn, Estonia, on Estonian summer time (EEST, UTC+3). As of 26 October 2026 the organiser had not announced exact dates or a venue for the next edition; its official page says the event returns in week 39 of 2027 (27 September to 3 October 2027). The main venue was the Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel), Kursi 3, Tallinn; the Energy Discovery Centre at Põhja puiestee 29, a building connected to it, hosted the symposium workshops and the hackathon. Day by day, as published on the official accreditation page on 9 September 2026:
The Accreditation Centre sits on Level 0 of the Creative Hub and opens 08:00 to 22:00 on Monday, 07:30 to 19:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 07:30 to 18:00 on Thursday.
The Estonian Defence and Aerospace Industry Association (EDIA, Eesti Kaitsetööstuse Liit or EKTL in Estonian), in cooperation with the Estonian Ministry of Defence. EDIA was founded in February 2009, says it represents more than 200 companies, and is based at Lõõtsa 2b, Tallinn. Its team page lists CEO Kalev Koidumäe (kalev.koidumae@defence.ee) and programme manager Liisa-Helena Tagam (liisa-helena.tagam@defence.ee); its council is chaired by Taavi Veskimägi. It owns the week, runs the Defence Industry Symposium and the Tallinn Defence Expo, issues expo visitor invitations and press accreditation, and answers general enquiries. Each other component has its own organiser:
The official site lists six organisers of EDW 2026: EDIA, the Ministry of Defence, Tehnopol, ICDS, International Mission Estonia and the City of Tallinn. Accreditation and exhibitor services run through kingent.ee and confenta.com addresses.
The organiser expected 4,000+ participants in 2026 (a pre-event figure; no post-event figure had been published as of 26 October 2026), against about 3,000 from 35 countries reported for the 2025 edition. The audience is political and military decision-makers, defence industry executives, investors, startups and researchers, with policymakers, military officials, academics, analysts and media at the ABCD and NATO bodies, Allied nations and military end-users at NOICE. The Tallinn Defence Expo announced around 100 companies from more than 15 countries, including Germany, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and the United States. The organiser's own country counts vary by release: "more than 25 countries" in one 2026 announcement, "more than 30 countries" for the symposium alone, and 36 countries (unverifiable information) for 2025 in another. Defence Innovation Day reported participants from 29 countries in 2025.
Each component published its own roster. The lists below are the programmes published as of 10 September 2026, before the event; the symposium programme was labelled preliminary and subject to change.
Defence Innovation Day, 21 September (published programme): Siim Sukles (Undersecretary for Defence Industry and Innovation, Estonian Ministry of Defence), Anne-Liisa Elbrecht (Head of Tehnopol Accelerator and of the NATO DIANA Estonian Accelerator), Major Ivo Peets (Estonian Defence Forces), Kadri Tammai (Regional Director, NATO DIANA), Kaimo Kuusk (Permanent Secretary, Estonian Ministry of Defence), Janne Hietala (CEO, Kelluu), Martin Karkour (CRO, Quantum Systems), Veiko-Vello Palm (Management Board Member, Frankenburg Technologies), Rait Maasikas (CEO, UP Catalyst), Martin Jõesaar, Oleksii Havrysh (CEO, Armor Systems), Martin Appo (CTO, Ark Robotics), Artem Kurbatov (Deputy Commander, Unmanned Systems Regiment "Pilum", First Corps Azov, National Guard of Ukraine), Egert Belitšev (Director General, Estonian Police and Border Guard Board), Darek Saunders (Head of Research and Innovation, Frontex), Jean-Luc Daroux (Delair), Oliver Väärtnõu (CEO, Cybernetica), John Kent (ICEYE), Rubén Gil Fontán (CEO, Vig-Sec Drone) and Ricardo Mendes (CEO, TEKEVER). Moderators: Kaur Maran and Fiona Alston (journalists), Anastasiia Ostrovska, Vootele Päi (Tehnopol) and Martin Slijkhuis. Startup pitches: SkyFi, DATAMBIT, IS-Wireless and Spacedrip.
Defence Industry Symposium workshops, 21 September (published programme): Dr Katrin Franke (KONGSBERG AI Centre of Excellence), Anastasiia Ostrovska, Christophe Muratet (Milrem Robotics), Martin Karkour (Quantum Systems), Arnaud Castaignet (Skeleton Technologies), Marko Kaseleht (Nortal, moderator), Stephen Airey (European Space Agency), Silver Lodi (CEO, Spaceit), Gloria Kõrgel (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, moderator), Siim Sukles, Robert Jakobson (Threod Systems) and Ingvar Pärnamäe (CEO, Vegvisir, moderator), with Hevi Optronics, Metrosert and Enterprise Estonia representatives listed as to be confirmed.
Defence Industry Symposium, 22 September (preliminary programme): Johannes Tralla (Estonian Public Broadcasting, moderator), Taavi Veskimägi (EDIA council chair), the Minister of Defence of Estonia, Major Ivo Peets, Kristjan Prikk (Ambassador of Estonia to NATO), Andrius Kubilius (European Commissioner for Defence and Space), Elmar Vaher (Director General, Estonian Centre for Defence Investments), Kadri Tammai (NATO DIANA), Peter Sarlin (Foundation PS and PostScriptum), Mikk Murumäe (CTO, Threod Systems), Sven Weizenegger (CEO, Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub), Ricardo Mendes (TEKEVER), Mart Noorma (Darkstar Ventures), Pascal Legai (Senior Security Adviser to the ESA Director General), Paul Liias (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications), Paula Hartley (Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control), Teele Kaljuvee (moderator), Annika Berg Molin (Saab), A. Donald Steinman III (Axnes), Kuldar Väärsi (Milrem Robotics), Engelbert Theisen (db-matik), Dr Clemens Kaiser (Rivada Space Network), Junior Sergeant Peter Talos (Azov) and Kalev Koidumäe (EDIA). An Airbus Defence and Space slot has no named speaker.
Annual Baltic Conference on Defence, 22 and 23 September (published roster on abcd.icds.ee, "updated constantly"): Kristen Michal (Prime Minister of Estonia), Hanno Pevkur (Minister of Defence of Estonia), Theo Francken (Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade of Belgium), Johnny Stringer (Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe), Kaimo Kuusk (Permanent Secretary, Estonian Ministry of Defence), Kristjan Prikk (Permanent Representative of Estonia to NATO), Tarja Jaakkola (NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Industry, Innovation and Armaments), Zamir Nicholas Catsaras (NATO Assistant Secretary General, Defence Policy and Planning), Mark Pullan (Director Operations and Planning, NATO International Military Staff), John Mead (Deputy Commander, Joint Force Command Brunssum), Guillaume Thomas (Deputy Commander, Allied Air Command), Wilfred Rietdijk (Deputy Commander, German-Netherlands Corps), Gert-Jan Kooij (Commander, Land Component Command, Royal Netherlands Army), Benoît Desmeulles (Commander, 1st Army Corps), Ilmar Tamm (Commander, Estonian Defence League), Ivo Peets (Commander, Force Transformation Command, Estonian Defence Forces), Sébastien Vallette (French Ministry of the Armed Forces), Marshall Billingslea (Hudson Institute), Ian Brzezinski (Atlantic Council), Patrycja Bazylczyk (CSIS), Kristi Govella (University of Oxford and CSIS), Michaela Dodge (National Institute for Public Policy), Sarah Fainberg (Elrom Center for Air and Space Studies), Héloïse Fayet (French Institute of International Relations), Nicole Grajewski (Sciences Po), Zuzanna Gwadera (independent researcher), Guy Hazoot (Institute for National Security Studies), Masafumi Iida (National Institute for Defense Studies, Japan), Jungsup Kim (Sejong Institute), Rob Lee (Foreign Policy Research Institute), Eoin Micheál McNamara (Finnish Institute of International Affairs), Marion Messmer (Chatham House), Jagannath Panda (Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs), Jacob Parakilas (RAND Europe), Patrick Sensburg (University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration), Louis Wierenga (Baltic Defence College), Yu Koizumi (University of Tokyo), Nimrod Aloni (strategic military and defence advisor), Ross Allen (Hypersonica), Timothy McGuire (Constellation), Nicholas Nelson (Archangel Capital Partners), Roy Saar (40RTY Fund), Jaanus Tamm (Defsecintel Solutions), Emma Burrows (European Security Correspondent, Associated Press) and Mareike Müller (freelance journalist). The agenda adds Kristi Raik in the opening keynote discussion.
NOICE and City Resilience Hack: no speaker roster is published.
Five changes against the first edition. The 2025 week ran from 22 to 26 September across the Tallinn Creative Hub and Tartu Ülenurme airport, ending with a demonstration at the Tartu airfield; the 2026 week stayed in Tallinn. The expo grew from two days and 80 exhibitors in 2025 to three days and around 100 companies, and it sold out all space before the event. NOICE, NATO ACT's innovation conference, joined the week after a 2025 edition in Copenhagen with nearly 300 participants. The hackathon changed hands: the 2025 one, led by the European Defence Tech Hub, drew 70+ participants, while the 2026 City Resilience Hack was run by the City of Tallinn and Tehnopol on urban resilience challenges with a 75,000 EUR prize fund. The symposium, titled "The Power of Disruption" in 2025 with European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen among its speakers, extended to a workshop afternoon on 21 September at the Energy Discovery Centre, and a meeting of Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) ministers of economy and industry, plus a JEF National Armaments Directors' meeting, ran on its margins. Lockheed Martin was the 2026 main sponsor.
The 2026 week's theme was "How to Win the Next War?", framed by the organiser as turning growing European defence spending and technology into operational capability. Its recurring subjects were defence innovation, autonomy and AI, space as defence capability, NATO open innovation, and Baltic and Nordic security. By component:
Keynotes, moderated panels, fireside chats and on-stage startup pitches at Defence Innovation Day and the symposium; pre-registered workshops on the symposium's first afternoon; closed plenary and breakout sessions at the ABCD; conference sessions, a curated expo and hands-on workshops at NOICE; and a two-day on-site hackathon in teams. The Tallinn Defence Expo is an indoor and outdoor exhibition across three halls of the Creative Hub (Arena A in the Cauldron hall, Arena B in the Small hall, Arena C in the Atrium hall) and a fenced outdoor area, with a Networking Area and an online matchmaking platform open to confirmed participants before and after the event. Defence Innovation Day adds a showcase of more than a dozen startup booths.
The published ones are closed to the general public:
The organiser also refers to "several specialised side events" through the week without listing them, and states that most side events require separate registration or an invitation. The Catering Tent and official side events are open only to the badge types listed for them.
No component sold a public ticket, and there was no registration at the venue. Access in 2026, component by component, as published on 10 September 2026 (no access terms or fees had been announced for a later edition as of 26 October 2026):
Accommodation was not included. The official site published an EDW2026 discount code for 21 to 25 September 2026 at Tallink City Hotel and Tallink Spa and Conference Hotel (standard single or twin room 109 EUR, deluxe 169 EUR, suite 239 EUR) and Tallink Express Hotel (standard room 77 EUR), breakfast and VAT included, subject to availability.
Not publicly disclosed: no open call for speakers was published for any component of the 2026 week, and the Defence Innovation Day and symposium programmes were already filled. No call for a later edition had been published as of 26 October 2026. Symposium speakers hold an invitation-only badge. Defence Innovation Day pitches come from NATO DIANA Estonian Accelerator cohort and alumni companies, so the practical route there is the accelerator; the Tehnopol contact for the day is project manager Kati Kirsipuu (kati.kirsipuu@tehnopol.ee). ABCD speaking invitations come from ICDS (abcd@icds.ee), and NOICE presentations are reserved for NATO Enterprise bodies, nations and industry projects aligned with ACT priorities. For the symposium, EDIA answers at info@defence.ee.
As of the last check on 10 September 2026, you could not exhibit at the 2026 edition: every stand package is sold out, exhibitor registration closed on 28 August 2026, and 24 percent Estonian VAT is added to participation fees. The packages were Arena A (Cauldron hall), Arena B (Small hall) and Arena C (Atrium hall), each a 3 square metre stand of 2 by 1.5 metres, and an outdoor space of 6 by 3 metres; each included up to five exhibitor passes, a place in the online expo catalogue and Networking Area access. Sponsorship packages and prices are not published on the site. The expo is managed by Kingent Management, the official expo vendor and technical partner, whose expo manager is Merlyn Paomets (merlyn@kingent.ee, +372 5840 0583); stand services and team changes go to helpdesk@confenta.com and expo@kingent.ee. Custom stand designs had to be submitted by 12 June 2026. The general terms state that fees cover application, stand, cleaning, electricity, lighting and heating, that a stand not occupied on opening day counts as a withdrawal with no refund, and that late set-up is penalised at 500 EUR per day. Exhibitors should expect security and background checks on their staff; late team registrations cannot be guaranteed clearance.
As published on the official expo page on 10 September 2026:
No tier names or sponsorship prices are published. The ABCD has its own partner list on abcd.icds.ee, separate from the week's sponsors: organised in cooperation with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, with Threod Systems, DefSecIntel Solutions, Diehl Defence, MBDA, Saab, Tangent Link, Nortal and KNDS as partners.
Estonian defence and dual-use companies are the largest group on the published list of around 100 expo exhibitors, alongside Nordic suppliers (mostly Finnish and Swedish) and a smaller set of large international primes; the organiser publishes no breakdown by country or size for 2026. For 2025, Trade with Estonia reported that about 60 percent of the 80 exhibitors were Estonian. The 2026 floor plan also shows a Country Area on the Small Hall balcony and a showcase area. The published exhibitor list, by hall:
Add the sponsors (Lockheed Martin, Saab, Milrem Robotics, Threod Systems, TEKEVER, Quantum Systems, HEVI Optronics) and the fifteen NATO DIANA startups. By type, the floor is weighted to unmanned and autonomous systems, electronics and communications, software and cyber, with only a handful of weapons and missile makers (Lockheed Martin, Diehl Defence, Eurosam, Frankenburg Technologies).
By invitation only: EDIA registers accredited media, and the contact for press is info@defence.ee. The PRESS badge was valid from 21 to 24 September 2026 and opened the Tallinn Defence Expo areas and the press facilities; conference sessions were accessible only by prior arrangement with EDIA. The ABCD and NOICE admit media through their own organisers (ICDS at abcd@icds.ee, and NATO ACT), and ABCD sessions run under the Chatham House Rule unless stated otherwise, so speakers may not be named or quoted by affiliation. Accreditation requires a passport or national ID card at the Accreditation Centre, and name or organisation corrections must reach the organiser by 15 September 2026. No separate press accreditation deadline or named press officer is published.
Not documented beyond the organiser's channels in the sourced material for the 2026 edition. The traceable announcements come from EDIA's own news page on edw.ee, from Trade with Estonia and estonia.ee, the Estonian state's investment and export channels, and from the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service's event listing. The 2025 edition's figures (about 3,000 participants, 35 countries, 80 exhibitors) were reported by Trade with Estonia. No media partner is published by the organiser.
Weak as independent evidence. Placed coverage: none identified, since no media partner is published. Independent but promotional: Trade with Estonia, estonia.ee and the Canadian Trade Commissioner listing are government promotion channels that relay organiser figures rather than check them. Predictable but not confirmed: Johannes Tralla of Estonian Public Broadcasting, Kaur Maran and Fiona Alston are booked as moderators, and Emma Burrows of the Associated Press and freelance journalist Mareike Müller sit on ABCD panels, which makes coverage likely but does not commit their outlets to publish; the ABCD's Chatham House Rule also limits what can be attributed. Organiser-claimed: the attendance, country and exhibitor counts all trace back to EDIA releases. Independent trade coverage of the 2026 edition was not found.
Because the room is the product. The venue is security-controlled, every badge is issued against a passport or national ID card and bound to a wristband, registration data may be passed to Estonian authorities, and expo visitors are invited only after a background check. That is what lets an Estonian Minister of Defence, a European Commissioner, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe and a Ukrainian National Guard commander appear in the same building as sponsors selling to them. The cost is openness: the only door without an invitation, Defence Innovation Day, is already on a waiting list, and the 4,000 figure describes the sum of several guest lists rather than a market anyone can walk into.
Because the buyers are in Tallinn and the stands are cheap to fill. The symposium's own programme notes that Estonia will spend 5.43 percent of GDP on defence in 2026, that large programmes are led by foreign primes, and that domestic firms mostly supply software, sensors, electronics and autonomous functions. That explains the floor: dozens of Estonian and Finnish suppliers on 3 square metre stands next to Airbus Defence and Space, Diehl Defence and Rohde and Schwarz, and Lockheed Martin as main sponsor in the year it announced a HIMARS sustainment partnership with the Estonian Ministry of Defence. A supplier exhibits here less to be seen by the public than to be within walking distance of ministries and primes for three days.
Because every count comes from the organiser and the counts do not agree with each other. The same 2026 edition is announced for more than 25 countries in one release and more than 30 countries for the symposium alone in another; the 2025 edition is given 35 countries by Trade with Estonia and 36 in EDW's own hackathon release. The 2026 attendance is "4,000", "approximately 4,000" and "more than 4,000" depending on the page, and the expo is "100+" on the home page and "around 100" once it sold out. None of this is audited, and no component publishes a headcount of its own.
Anyone without an invitation or an approved registration: there is no registration at the venue, the expo is invite-only after a background check, and the symposium, ABCD and NOICE are by invitation. Companies that hoped to exhibit in 2026, since every stand was sold out and registration closed on 28 August. Speakers who looked for a slot, since no open call existed. Anyone who cannot show a passport or national ID card, because driving licences, company cards and photos of documents are refused. Visitors hoping for a large land-systems show with vehicles in halls: indoor stands are 3 square metres and heavy kit is limited to the outdoor area. Whether non-Allied nationals are refused is not publicly disclosed; the organiser only states that all registrations are checked and that several events are by invitation.
In the late-September slot, as the Nordic-Baltic defence industry meeting point rather than a large generalist show. In 2026 it came two weeks after MSPO, the International Defence Industry Exhibition in Kielce, Poland, held on 8 to 11 September 2026, and in a year without DSEI, the London show that runs in odd years. Its distinguishing features are regional: an Estonian and Nordic supplier base, the NATO DIANA and NOICE innovation strands, the ABCD, which has run as a policy forum since 2006, and ministerial meetings on the margins. Events Index tracks it in the defence vertical. No sourced attendance comparison with other defence shows is available, since only organiser figures exist.
No. The 2026 edition was held entirely in Tallinn. The 2025 edition had a Tartu component, a demo day at Tartu Ülenurme airport on 26 September 2025, which is not repeated in the 2026 programme. Two of the week's components have lives of their own: the ABCD has been held since 2006 and joins EDW for the second time, and NOICE moves between host cities, with its 2025 edition in Copenhagen.
English. Defence Innovation Day is "held in English", the ABCD states that its conference language is English, and the City Resilience Hack's working language is English; the symposium and NOICE programmes are published in English. The official site is available in English and Estonian.
Largely no. Defence Innovation Day is in person only and the City Resilience Hack is an on-site event. No livestream or recording policy is published for the symposium, the ABCD or NOICE, and the ABCD's Chatham House Rule makes public replay of its sessions unlikely. The online expo matchmaking platform is the only remote element, and it is open only to confirmed participants, before and after the event. The organiser states that photography and filming take place throughout the week.
For visitors there is nothing to refund, since no component sells a public ticket. For exhibitors, the Tallinn Defence Expo general terms apply: the total invoice must be paid by the organiser's deadline even if disputed; a stand not occupied on opening day counts as a withdrawal, with the full fee including VAT still due and no refund; unused paid exhibitor passes are not refunded; and the organiser may cancel or postpone the expo for insufficient applications or force majeure, with the exhibitor bearing the costs it incurred. No refund terms are published for the other components.
Not publicly disclosed. The official site publishes no accessibility statement, no wheelchair access information, and nothing on captioning, interpretation or assistance for any component. The venue is a reconstructed 1913 power plant with indoor halls, an outdoor expo area and a separate Energy Discovery Centre building; access requests would go to the organiser of each component, EDIA at info@defence.ee for the expo and symposium.
The Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel) is at Kursi 3, Tallinn, on the edge of the Kalamaja district, within walking distance of the Old Town and a few hundred metres from Viru Gate and the Port of Tallinn. The organiser gives the distance to Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport as 6.5 kilometres. Trams 1, 2 and 5 stop nearby, as do buses 3, 21, 21B, 41, 41B, 66 and 73; taxis have good access, and paid parking is near Tallinn City Hall. The Energy Discovery Centre, for the symposium workshops and the hackathon, is at Põhja puiestee 29, connected to the main building, with a satellite accreditation desk from 13:00 on 21 September for workshop participants. For the 2026 edition, attendees had to bring a passport or national ID card: badges were collected in person at the Accreditation Centre on Level 0, and nobody could collect a badge for a colleague. The ABCD set a dress code of civilian business attire or service dress, and noted that roadworks in central Tallinn might lengthen the trip to the venue.
Official site: edw.ee/en/estonian-defence-week/, with component pages for Defence Innovation Day (/did/), the symposium (/symposium/), the ABCD (/abcd-conference/), NOICE (/noice/), the hackathon (/hack-day/), the expo (/expo/, /exponents/, /for-exhibitors/, /expo-visitor/), the accreditation rules (/accreditation-info/), the venue (/venue/) and accommodation (/accommodation-near-the-venue/). The ABCD's own site is abcd.icds.ee, with practical information at abcd.icds.ee/about-us/practical-information/, and the hackathon's page is tehnopol.ee/en/project/city-resilience-hack/. Contacts: EDIA, info@defence.ee, for expo visitor invitations, the symposium, press and general enquiries; accreditation@kingent.ee for missing QR codes; helpdesk@confenta.com and expo@kingent.ee for exhibitors; abcd@icds.ee for the ABCD; Tehnopol project manager Kati Kirsipuu for Defence Innovation Day and Tehnopol's Tiiu Treier for the City Resilience Hack, both listed on their event pages. EDIA's team is listed at defence.ee/contacts/ and its LinkedIn account is estdefence. Before the 2026 edition the organiser advised checking the accreditation page again before travelling; it was last updated on 9 September 2026 as of the last verification.