The Changing Tides of Bizav Events

When NBAA wrapped up its 78th annual Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (BACE) in October in Las Vegas, much looked familiar. It had a static display with about 50 aircraft, a convention hall filled with a diverse set of exhibitors pushing their wares, an opening general session that featured famed country singer and aviator Dierks Bentley and honored aviation and business visionary Steuart Walton, and the familiar range of receptions and celebrations.

But yet, for an association that is a veteran in the events business, the 2025 convention was also a time of “test and learn.”

“We were extremely enthusiastic about NBAA-BACE 2025 for several different reasons,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “I think there was an energy there that was palpable. We tried several new things, and they seemed to be very well received and created opportunities for us to build upon.”

Jo Damato, senior v-p of events and professional engagement for NBAA, explained the changes, ranging from a “reimagined” set-up of the static display called “Aircraft Connection” to the addition of a “Military Connect” transition program.

“They were [developed] to meet the imperative of BACE as a community—a place where we wanted everyone to be able to find what was created for them; simply put, to help people find their people,” Damato continued. “That’s important for our exhibitors, our sponsors, our attendees, our volunteers, and our speakers. So, the test-and-learns that we created were done knowing that the feedback was going to be how we determined the path forward. We have done a lot of listening.”

Like so many other events, BACE, which has been an anchor for NBAA and the gathering place for the business aviation community, is facing the shifting tides of conventiongoers and, importantly, exhibitors.

Events such as BACE and its global counterparts—EBACE in Europe, ABACE in Asia, and LABACE in Latin America—have not only connected people but have served as a central location to show off aircraft, parts, and services to potential customers, and to interact with vendors and the greater community within their respective regions. However, in recent years, they have faced challenges.

The Covid Response

Long-time attendees and industry leaders, such as industry analyst and data specialist Rolland Vincent and aircraft broker Jay Mesinger, pointed out that many of the changes came as Covid reshaped how people interact. At the very least, it sped up those changes with the manufacturers. 

“This is an issue that has been front-and-center with the big trade associations and, of course, the OEMs for several years,” said Vincent, president of Rolland Vincent Associates. “As with many other industry and societal trends, Covid has been the underlying great accelerator.”

Mesinger pointed out that several things happened during Covid: the industry grew—unpredictably—while the high-net-worth-individual population swelled. Yet the corporations weren’t flying.

With the onset of Covid, many events were cancelled. The OEMs kept selling and making airplanes, but they needed to find a way to reach out to the buyers, Mesinger said. “We’ve created some new methods of getting in touch with these people.” OEMs and other companies instead stepped up their activities surrounding private events. And there, they found substantial success.

Aviation businesses already felt the strain of the expense of exhibiting at the major business aviation gatherings, as well as the other events—the Paris Air Show, Dubai Airshow, and Farnborough Airshow, among them. Private events enabled a contained audience and controlled costs. This altered strategies at companies, particularly the OEMs, which instead focused on their own events but also tried out new or different events to reach untapped or different markets.

Aero Friedrichshafen, for instance, long thought of as a light general aviation show rather than a business aviation convention, increasingly became more attractive as it opened a door to the Central European market. Dubai provided a gateway to a potentially lucrative Middle East market, as well as the growing defense markets where business aviation is finding increasing success.

Shows such as ABACE disappeared altogether, leading some manufacturers to find their way to Singapore before experimenting with newcomers Aero Asia in Zhuhai, China, which held its second edition last year, and the inaugural Business Aviation Asia Forum & Expo in Singapore. And of course, Paris and Farnborough have always attracted the defense businesses. Even in Latin America, shows such as the Catarina Aviation Show in Brazil began to gain steam.

Security Breach

And then came the May 2023 security breach, where anywhere between 80 and 100 protesters cut through the fence at Geneva Airport in Switzerland and entered the static display at EBACE. Seven protestors handcuffed themselves to a Gulfstream—three attached to the nose gear and four on the jet’s cabin entry door handrails. Others secured themselves to other aircraft.

Vincent pointed out the magnitude of the moment. “I was actually on the ramp just moments after the protester attack at EBACE, a moment when you-know-what hit the turbofan. It was shocking to witness, and in some ways a signal of the end of an era,” he said.

EBACE organizers increased the protections the following year, but neither Gulfstream nor Bombardier exhibited despite that stepped-up security. However, neither cited security as their reason for opting out, instead highlighting their strategic decision to focus on other events.

Then NBAA sold its stake in EBACE, leaving the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) as the sole show manager. The parties never fully explained the split, but it came at a time when EBAA was increasing its voice in Europe, and the move enabled it to highlight this activity.

But aside from the protestor breach, EBACE was already facing complaints about it being staged only in Geneva, which many found an expensive show. European operator Luxaviation in 2019 publicly withdrew from EBACE, citing the high costs involved with the show.

All of this was colliding with larger macro events. “The value of the Big Box trade shows is no doubt linked to economic and business cycles. With new business aircraft order backlogs at two-plus year levels—and inflationary events and travel pricing attracting management attention on marketing expenditures—it is difficult to say that there is much near-term ROI to be had right now,” Vincent pointed out. “Elevated security and personal health and safety concerns (remember Covid?) are coinciding with the very high costs and risks of having aircraft demonstrators onsite at an event in which there can be too many uncontrollables.”

Swinging Pendulum

But for Vincent, this is not a fait accompli. “This feels like the pendulum has firmly swung in one direction, but things change, and this too shall pass. Change brings opportunity and pressure to innovate. We are already witnessing examples of this happening at EBACE and NBAA-BACE in particular.”

Once EBAA and NBAA ended their decades-long partnership in August 2024, EBAA recommitted that there would be an EBACE in 2025. The event, held in May 2025, was significantly scaled down with no static display, no press conferences, and large networking “lounges” and topical stages strategically placed throughout a downsized footprint where exhibitors once occupied the space.

However, the networking lounges proved a success, drawing the European business aviation community and beyond together, and the range of topical sessions often brought standing-room-only attendance to the three stages. The buzz of the show became where would EBACE be held next; EBAA officials were holding discussions about potentially moving the show, or at least rotating it.

However, after EBACE, EBAA went through a leadership change with the departures of secretary-general Holger Krahmer and COO Robert Baltus, and the appointment of Stefan Benz—a former Luxaviation executive—to lead the organization.

In the weeks following, EBAA made an announcement that surprised some—EBACE would return to Geneva. Further, it was bringing back the static display. But it would adopt an every-other-year approach for alternating locations.

Benz told AIN, “We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the positive and supportive reaction to EBACE remaining in Geneva with a static display. Switzerland remains the center of business aviation in Europe, and Geneva combines outstanding connections, a strong financial ecosystem, and a clear appeal to the industry’s end users.”

Benz further maintained that, in the past, the true value of Geneva was not fully realized. “For EBACE 2026, our goal is to build on that foundation and ensure the city’s strengths, its accessibility, professionalism, and global outlook are used to their full potential.”

But he recognized the importance of EBAA focusing on evolving the show. The organization wants to take a holistic view of the event, he said. “There was a wish for change.” He pointed to the slide over the past couple of years in visitors and the movement toward more of a classic B2B environment and networking-focused event, rather than also serving as a B2C, client-based event.

This movement, along with the shift of EBAA as the sole host of EBACE, prompted a review of “what do we want to do,” Benz said. While NBAA is no longer a part of hosting the event, Benz stressed the ongoing cooperative relationship the organizations maintain as they both advocate for the business aviation community.

In charting a path forward, EBAA gathered feedback from exhibitors and other stakeholders and found a desire to return more to an event that draws clients, whether high-net-worth individuals, family offices, or others involved in business aviation, he said.

Logically, he continued, that was a driver for OEMs to exhibit and, as a result, for a return of the static display. However, Benz added, EBAA is considering only holding the static display when EBACE is held in Geneva every other year. This appears to be more in line with the preferences of OEMs, which are working to spread their activities among multiple shows in a given year, he maintained.

At the same time, Aero Friedrichshafen is leaning into the business aviation community. Aero Friedrichshafen had grown into Europe’s largest general aviation show, having attracted everything from experimental and novelty up to turbine aircraft. In 2025, however, the show opened a business aviation dome to extend the reach into the full scope of the sector and attracted interest from the largest business jet OEMs and their suppliers as they looked to tap into the Central European market. This helped fill a void left by the lack of a static display at the 2025 EBACE.

Speaking at the Irish Business and General Aviation Association’s fourth annual International Business Aviation Conference (another upstart event growing in popularity), Dennis Schulz—Aero Friedrichshafen’s project manager of international sales in EMEA, North America, and China—gave a glimpse of the plans for the 2026 show. He noted that organizers are paving the way to accommodate substantially more exhibitors and aircraft on static display next year.

He noted that in 2025, the organization had to turn away displays. “We simply just ran out of space…There were just so many inquiries.” The organization had set up a 2,000-sq-m (21,500-sq-ft) dome adjacent to the exhibition Hall A1 at Messe Friedrichshafen to host the business aviation activity. But organizers quickly discovered it was not big enough, so they are doubling the dome size for the 2026 event.

In addition, organizers are opening up Hall A1 to business aviation to provide even more space. “We realized that the dome alone will not accommodate the business aviation community,” Schulz added.

Business aviation exhibitors are already lining up for the space, with many returning from the 2025 show. They include most of the major business aircraft OEMs such as Textron Aviation, Gulfstream, Bombardier, Pilatus, Dassault Aviation, Daher, Piaggio, and Honda Aircraft. “As you can see, our show is growing,” Schulz concluded.

Aero Friedrichshafen organizers say the goal is not to replace EBACE, but rather to complement the pure-play business aviation convention. Whether this will have an effect on EBACE and its static display remains to be seen.

Little and Big Changes

NBAA also mixed up its static display at Las Vegas Executive Airport in Henderson, Nevada, again hoping to make it more attractive for a steady stable of OEM exhibitors. As part of the test-and-learn mantra, it shortened the renamed Aircraft Connection availability to a day and a half, eliminating large chalets to provide views all around, and planning a “golden hour” celebration to draw attendees. Unfortunately, the golden hour was canceled for high winds, but something was clearly embraced by attendees.

Not only were these changes designed to draw attendees to the static, but they also provided a little relief for the manufacturers with less time they would have to keep aircraft on the ground and out of operation. Additionally, NBAA tried something new: a family-office time to attract key buyers, again moving back to a B2C environment.

These were among the myriad changes with the association looking at the critical needs of the industry, including the workforce. To that end, it introduced a Military Connect day, to go in tandem with its Collegiate Connect and Career Zone, featuring multifaceted programming.

In addition to its traditional safety programming that not only bookends the convention but is threaded throughout, NBAA built on its educational programming and professional development courses, highlighting a range of topics from maintenance to legal, regulatory, and airports. These sessions provided learning opportunities for the gamut of industry professionals, from flight attendants and pilots to corporate flight department leaders.

These were among the many changes, some subtle and some substantial, made at the most recent BACE. “We’ve been looking at the survey results, and what we’re seeing as overarching themes are an imperative on education,” Damato noted.

But most of the changes have drawn positive reviews. “None of our test-and-learns came back with the results that you should throw that away,” she noted. Importantly for NBAA, which hosts an array of events throughout the year, it is seeing which efforts might be portable to its other gatherings.

Key to all of this in the future, Damato believes, is helping shape the experience for attendees. “We wanted to create energy, create a cohort opportunity, and create a way for people to focus their journey so it didn’t feel like ‘Here’s the whole apple, figure out how to eat it,” she said. “We wanted to try to curate for them how they could approach it. That is how we’re going to drive 2026 and beyond with the volunteers and the staff members.”

Damato added that the association has received strong feedback on increasing networking opportunities in addition to educational sessions, and conversations for 2026 have already begun.

Early feedback also has been positive surrounding the Aircraft Connection—“that was a huge evolution for us,” she said. “There were so many benefits to everyone involved with this. It allowed the exhibitors to be more surgical with their time on the ground of the aircraft and with the staff needed to support it. It allowed us to drive some other activities like focusing on the food trucks, the shuttle buses, and experiences such as the Tribute to Flight pavilion, housing historic aircraft.”

The elimination of large chalets “created that community atmosphere that is so popular at our regional forums and brought some of that energy and that feeling to this event. So definitely we have feedback to continue to evolve this,” she said, but like the other new features, that has been “a good job...keep going.”

The changes may be critical for the associations. “For the OEMs and the trade association event organizers, the latter who depend on these events to fund a significant portion of their operating budgets, the $64 million-plus question around the table is: ‘How do we attract real customers to these events?’” Vincent asked. “With bizav continuing to spread its wings internationally, emerging customers will expect to experience firsthand the latest technologies on offer. In this environment, no OEM will want to be conspicuous by their absence.”

Mesinger is seeing signs that the pendulum may be ready to shift. “We are just now getting back to a place where the OEMs are saying, ‘You know what? It is important to stand on a tarmac next to our competitors and let our customers come and go from one to the other,’” he said. “I think the manufacturers are starting to say, ‘We need to get this going again.’ And this last show in Vegas was sort of the beginning of that in a small but important way.”

The key question is how to accomplish those goals, and he pointed to NBAA’s first effort to specifically host family offices. While a small start and new phenomenon, Mesinger noted how this presents a new opportunity. “Hopefully that’s going to grow every year.”

The Magic

Perhaps what gets lost in the business of conventions and exhibitions is the networking that EBACE and NBAA are trying to grow. For many conventiongoers in the business aviation community, this has been a key attraction for them.

“There is a tremendous desire for networking opportunities, connection opportunities, and thought leadership, and I think what we have at NBAA is an ability to bring different cohorts together and to make a big event,” Bolen said. “We have the opportunity help people find ways to have a big event become small and intimate at times, but also feel the energy and the scope of the entire industry.”

For Mesinger, this is possibly the most important aspect of the convention. “I think magic occurs when we get together. And I’d hate to think of an industry without magic.”