DEFSEC Atlantic 2022 :: Oct 4-6, 2022 :: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Last Revised June 30, 2022

Once you have confirmed your booth space and signed your exhibitor contract, please review the following checklist:

Process the invoice you have received for your booth space. If you have any questions about your invoice, please contact John Benson by e-mail at john@defsecatlantic.ca or by phone at +1 (902) 982-6985. Companies who have not paid their booth invoice in full will not be permitted to setup on the floor until payment is received.
Arrange for transportation, handling, installation, and enhancement of your booth (contact info for all suppliers can be found here):
1. If all of your material can be directly carried in by an individual going into your booth to setup in a single trip, you do not need to deal with Global Convention Services for material handling. Again, only If you can do so in a single trip, material may be brought in through the front door of the Halifax Convention Centre located on Argyle Street, then proceeding directly to the Exhibition Hall on the Convention Level. Or if you are parked underground at the Nova Centre Parkade, then please take the elevator, and exit on the Convention Level, proceeding directly to the Exhibition Hall.
  
  If you are not able to carry your materials in a single trip, you MUST use Global Convention Services to do your material handling via the loading dock located on Market Street. This service is not included with your booth, so be sure to contact Global Convention Services and fill out their requisite pages for Material Handling in the Exhibitor Manual that you will receive from us. If you require any additional handling such as advanced shipments to their warehouse and pre/post-show storage, you should also contact them and make those arrangements directly. Costs for these services will be provided and billed directly to you by them.
  
  An Exhibitor Appointed Contractor (EAC) is a third-party contractor hired by you, the exhibitor, to provide assistance with your equipment, display, or products during move-in and/or move-out and is not an employee of your company (with the exception of manufacturers� reps) or from Global Convention Services. If this is the arrangement you have for your booth setup and teardown, you MUST submit a completed EAC form by e-mail to registration@defsecatlantic.ca NO LATER than September 2, 2022.
2. If you are shipping items from out of country and require customs brokerage, our Official Customs Broker is PF Collins International Trade Solutions. Contact Jeremy Dennison if you have any questions and/or require assistance. As well, our official CBSA Event Recognition Letter is included in the Exhibitor Manual that we will be sending to you. A copy of this letter should be included with ALL international shipments being sent for the conference.
3. Our Official Trade Show & Exhibit Services Supplier is Global Convention Services. As noted above, they can handle your booth materials on arrival and departure from the Halifax Convention Centre. They also provide warehousing, electrical services, vehicle marshalling, wired internet services, booth decorating services, plants, furnishings, cleaning, turnkey setups and much more. As well, you should contact them for a quote and order for any rigging services that you require. They generally offer advance discounted pricing, but in order to take advantage of it, you must place your order and send payment in full by September 22, 2022. Their Exhibitor Kit is included as part of our Exhibitor Manual. As well, you can access their online catalogue until September 29, 2022, using the login information provided on the first page of their Exhibitor Kit. Be sure to contact Mike Klemm if you have any questions.
4. Our Official Custom Exhibits & Displays Supplier is Beaumont Exhibits. They specialize in creating and installing custom portable/turnkey displays & accessories. Contact James Court with any questions.
5. Encore Global are our technology experts and Official Audio/Visual Services Provider. Please contact them regarding audio/visual requirements, lighting services, presentation staging services, digital services, and electronics equipment rentals. Their order form is included in the Exhibitor Manual that we will be sending to you. Contact Keith Budgell to inquire.
You will be sent a document that will ask you for all of the relevant company contact information, description, etc. so that we can then create a company profile for you on the appropriate technology platforms. The sooner you send us that info, the sooner it can be entered into your company profile and visible to everyone who is registered for DEFSEC Atlantic this year. Again, we will NOT have a printed edition of the Show Guide this year, so this listing via our online platforms will replace what you would normally have written in a printed edition. Logos are automatically included with your listing and we will reach out directly to you if we do not already have a current logo on file for your company.

Any questions regarding your listing should be directed to John Benson, who can be reached via e-mail at john@defsecatlantic.ca or by phone at +1 (902) 982-6985.
Registration for exhibitors will be completely online and encompass registering each your attendees individually. Any booth and/or service requirements will be coordinated directly with the appropriate service provider. The process to follow is:
1. Register your personnel. The same as what was done last year, for a number of important reasons, ALL attendees MUST now be registered individually. A link will be sent out to all exhibitors, as well as posted on our web site once live. All attendees will either "pay" by using a coupon code provided to each exhibiting company for their "included" passes OR they will be required to pay by credit card AS they register. There is no post-event billing this year for attendees.
  
  To clarify how this will work, an example is that Company "A" has a 10'x10' booth which has an allotment of 2 Full Exhibiting Delegate On-Site Passes but would like to bring 3 people. Just before Online Registration opens to everyone, the Registration Desk will send an e-mail to Company "A" with a coupon code unique to that company that can only be used 2 times (i.e., the same number of times as they have allotted Full Exhibiting Delegate On-Site Passes). Two of the individuals will be given that unique coupon code by their company DEFSEC coordinator and one of them will have to pay right away using a credit card when they go to register. This will be the process for everyone who requires payment, there will be no exceptions.
2. Plan your lunch. It is important to note that this year that no attendee passes of any kind automatically include any meals and there will be no on-site lunches this year. There are well over 20 restaurants just within a 3-block radius of the Halifax Convention Centre and even more just outside of that distance. We also expect to again have Partner Restaurants where if you show your DEFSEC Atlantic name badge, they will offer a discount. Click here to view the list of participating restaurants.
  
  The only option we will offer for food service is for Exhibitors who will be given the option to have a "box lunch style" meal delivered directly to their booth. This option will be available to exhibitor employees when they register in the Online Registration System. This is primarily intended to give a viable option for those booths who have minimum manning and some of their employees are not able to or choose not to leave their booth during the allotted lunch period each day.
3. RSVP for official receptions. Both of our official receptions will be taking place in-person this year and all exhibitor passes include being able to attend those receptions. When completing your registration, each reception will have its own screen in your registration process and will also be available for you to add to your itinerary. We ask that when coming to these screens in the registration process that you indicate (to the best of your knowledge) whether or not you are planning to attend that particular reception.
4. ACADA Dinner & Awards Presentation. A popular event that takes place the Wednesday evening each year alongside DEFSEC Atlantic that creates a platform for Atlantic Aerospace and Defence member businesses to be showcased. Attendees typically include key national and international industry members, military and government representatives and delegates. The evening typically features a reception, high-quality meal, speakers & entertainment and presentation of the ACADA Industry Excellence Recognition Awards (AIERA).
  
  Individuals will have the option to purchase a single ticket for this event under their name directly through our registration process this year. However, it is very important to note that a number of exhibiting companies opted to include tickets to the Dinner when booking their booth. If you already have booked tickets for the Dinner using this route, there is no need for your employees to also individually purchase tickets as part of their registration process with us. The only exception would be if your company has a certain number of tickets purchased and that person would be over and above the number of tickets already paid for with the booth invoice.
  
  More details on the Dinner will be posted shortly. If you have any specific questions, you can also contact the organizer, Catherine MacDonald, either by e-mail at catherine@ac-ada.ca or by phone at +1 (902) 425-0070.
If you would like to have an insert placed into the bags being given to all of the attendees, please inquire with us as you can purchase this opportunity for a nominal fee of $400 + HST. Orders for inserts should be placed by September 2, 2022 and the items to be inserted should be received at the DEFSEC Atlantic office no later than September 23, 2022. For any questions or to place an order, please contact John Benson, who can be reached via e-mail at john@defsecatlantic.ca or by phone at +1 (902) 982-6985.
If your company requires a dedicated private meeting room, they are available for rent for One or Both Days during the Show. They are located on the Convention Level (same level as Exhibition), Argyle Level (one level above Exhibition) and Summit Level (four levels above Exhibition) of the Halifax Convention Centre. Detailed information about the private meeting rooms can be found by clicking here. Please direct any questions and/or orders to John Benson, who can be reached via e-mail at john@defsecatlantic.ca or by phone at +1 (902) 982-6985.
Make arrangements for transportation to the venue: Depending on where you are coming from, this could be as simple as driving and parking OR as complex as flying and getting transportation to downtown Halifax upon arrival.
1. If you are travelling from outside of Canada, make sure that you are aware of the requirements for entering into Canada. Click here for more details.
2. If you are travelling from within Canada, but outside Nova Scotia, there are no longer any restrictions.
Book your accommodations as early as possible to ensure availability. To find out more details about our partner hotels and to book your room, click here.
The next steps all involve our technology platforms. It should be noted that once they have launched, ALL technology platforms EXCEPT the B2B Meetings Platform will have their content available right up until the end of October. The technologies are:
1. One feature that is available right away as part of the Online Registration System & Presentations Web Platform will be the Itinerary/My Schedule module. This feature allows you to choose from a variety of "sessions" listed in the master schedule which you can then add to create your own personalized schedule which you can continue to update and eventually access in multiple ways including on-site at the event. You can continually update your content in this module all the way through the dates of our event.
  
  As with ALL of the modules built into the web platform, you will have access to them as soon as you register online and at the same time create a login/password combination in order to log back into the platform. This platform is optimized and highly recommended to be used and viewed on computers (PC or MAC), but can also be viewed on mobile devices such as phones and tablets, however the viewing experience is not ideal on portable devices.
2. The next portion of our technologies that will launch shortly after will be the Digital Exhibit Hall. This is built into the Online Registration System & Presentations Web Platform. It will essentially be a planning tool that lists ALL of the participating exhibiting and sponsoring companies, as well as their corresponding locations within the two exhibition halls. You can use this tool to review information on each company, access any downloads they have available and "put them in your briefcase" so you can create a list that you can then either print off or e-mail to yourself for easy reference while at the live event.
3. The last section built into the Online Registration System & Presentations Web Platform is the Video Presentations module. All presentations this year are planned to be in-person in the ACADA Presentation Pavilion. However, to give presentation access to all of our attendees (including virtual), we will also be recording all of them and then making them available shortly after as on-demand videos via this module. There may also be on-demand ONLY videos, which we would make available using this module.
  
  To use this module, you will have the ability to add them into your personalized schedule. In fact, in order to view any presentation, you MUST first add it into your personalized itinerary. Once we have made a particular video available to be viewed on-demand, you will see a link appear to the right on that video title that will then open and play that video for you.
4. The next technology platform to launch will be the B2B Meetings Platform. if you plan to participate in our facilitated B2B/B2G Program, whether online or on-site, it is critical to make sure that you register for this online platform. Just as the system is launched, all registered attendees will be sent an invite e-mail to register and setup their own personal account on the B2B Meetings Platform. Any attendees that register after the launch date should receive their invite e-mail within a business day of completing their initial registration.
  
  The platform combines matchmaking, scheduling, and browser-integrated video conferencing (for virtual meetings) all into one site. As well, the platform will facilitate the in-person meetings at our event. Besides being able to video conference online through the site, we will also have three large rooms inside the Halifax Convention Centre dedicated to B2B/B2G meetings known as the "ACADA B2B Zone". Inside them are 20 dedicated 10' x 10' divided spaces which will be setup for both in-person and hybrid meetings on Wednesday, October 5 and Thursday, October 6. This platform is planned to be launched approximately 4 weeks before the event week, so attendees will have a chance to find each other, make connections and plan arranged meetings using the system on the event days.
5. The last technology platform to launch will be our Mobile Event App. The details on this will be posted as soon as the app development is finalized.
Correspondingly with the technologies we make available, you should then have your employees plan their activities for when they are at our event. These can include:
1. Visiting both of the exhibition halls and viewing the exhibiting company booths.
2. Participating in networking opportunities and social events.
3. Attending the presentations and panels in-person, and watching what they missed or would like to view again via the on-demand videos.
4. Meeting with other attendees, both in-person and virtually to conduct and develop your business.
5. Take note of several peripheral/related activities taking place during the week of DEFSEC Atlantic and participate in those that interest them.
6. And enjoy the warm hospitality of the people of Halifax and Nova Scotia in general!
If you have special requests for your booth or require special arrangements or simply need a question answered, please do not hesitate to contact us. We'll do our very best to assist you!

If you have any questions, please e-mail registration@defsecatlantic.ca.

Exhibitor Checklist