Heating Engineer Andy Gibbs shares his experience of InstallerSHOW 2026:
Well that was hot! I’m writing this as I’ve just landed back home after a lovely trip back down the M40 and M25 in 35° heat and I thought I’d get it all written down while I remember stuff!
What a show.
Once again I’ve had an incredible few days up at the NEC in Birmingham.
The show has definitely got much bigger than ever before. From the original heating and plumbing stuff, it now seems to contain something for almost every trade, from painters and decorators, to carpenters, there’s even stuff for the lowly sparkies to look at .
I started off on Monday evening having a few beers with a couple of friends who had already arrived. I’d promised myself I’ll only have a couple. Well we all know where 2 beers leads and before you know it 2 has become 5 and it’s time for bed!
I genuinely love the buzz of the first day, I didn’t even actually look at much in terms of tools and pipes and boilers. I see them every day. They can wait. The first day, for me is all about meeting up with all those people who I keep in touch with throughout the year, but only get to see in person at the show.
So having met loads of mates, it was time for my favorite part. The State of the Industry panel discussion.
I’ve been doing this annually since the early days InstallerSHOW at the Ricoh arena in Coventry. Back then I used to get so nervous about it.
It was a great discussion again, and I really enjoyed it a lot. It was looking back over the last year, looking forward to the next year, obviously all my points raised are correct and everything I disagreed with was wrong.
The rest of the day, I did manage to look at a boiler, and some other plumbing stuff. Day one ended with three very good and very oldest pals up in the bar on top of the Vaillant stand to enjoy some lovely German hospitality.
Day 2 was fun as well. Back in the hall nice and early to beat the rush, I spent all morning actually looking at stuff! As I said before, I don’t really go to look at tool bags and pipe clips and different drills, it’s not really me. But this time, I spent pretty much most of the day doing just that.
At one point I thought I’d best explore the entire show, so I set off through the bathroom products, then looked at the lowly electricians kit (not a broom in sight), followed by a gentle stroll through wood cutting things and tile cutting paraphernalia , until I felt the gentle waft of gloss paint hot my nose.
I realized at this point i was a long way from Kansas and it was time to set off back to home, back to where the copper is shiny and people sweep up after themselves.
I’d had a brilliant 2 and a bit days at the show, and although the show carried on for another day, sadly I had to get back to work and reality.
I’m already looking forward to next year, to meeting old mates again, and making new ones too. Might even stick to my own promise of only drinking 2 beers as well. See you there in 2027
