CADSI hot take - it’s time to make CANSEC 3 days.
By Vincent Marmion of CanadaxEurope
You were there. Halls so crowded you mistook it for a rock concert.
Only Ottawa’s comicon generates more buzz.
As CADSI’s number one supporter, take this suggestion from a place of love for the industry.
CANSEC punches above its weight for a 2-day show – the 2026 exhibit proved it (See Guide to Cansec). But as Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy sharpens its focus on sovereign capability and closing the production and scaling gap with American & European allies, the format itself has become a constraint.
CADSI should seriously consider extending CANSEC to 3 days.
AUSA, Black Sea Defence, FEINDEF: 3 days.
DSEI & DSEI Germany: 4 days.
Eurosatory, Farnborough, Paris Airshow, World Defence: 5 days.
Canada's flagship defence show gives its industry two.
2 Day Ceiling
Now if I’m honest, I used to like the two-dayer. With all the side events it stretched into a week with client meetings wedged on either side. (Thought Cansec was just two days?) But it feels like a quaint recollection of a time when 1.3% was an achievement.
If you travelled from Vancouver, Quebec or Waterloo, you’ll spend more time travelling than at the show itself.
2 days was from a time before the event was visited by Prime Ministers and premiers, major procurement announcements and at capacity crowds.
Even the protesters might approve of it lasting longer.
What a 3rd Day Delivers
Primes alone won’t build Canada's sovereign capability ambitions in munitions, naval systems, C4ISR, or cybersecurity. The Defence Industrial Strategy is explicit: SMEs are the innovation and production backbone of a resilient industrial base.
SMEs lose out under CANSEC's 2-day schedule (Bring back SME Day!).
First, there’s a manpower gap: Primes deploy 10 reps, SMEs bring 2. Compressed floor time, B2B meetings, and panels force SMEs to prioritize. This triage undermines SME-centred sovereign capability growth.
Most Primes have an office in Ottawa, while SMEs are spread across the country.
NATO allies (particularly the UK, France, Germany, and Poland) have also scaled defence production at a pace Canada aims to match or complement. They go to CANSEC with serious procurement and partnership mandates.
2 days is insufficient for the relationship-building depth those conversations require, especially for Canadian SMEs that aim to enter Tier 2/Tier 3 supply chains.
A structured, purpose-driven 3rd day could dedicate programming specifically to sovereign industrial capacity, especially in:
SME/Prime teaming,
Export readiness workshops oriented toward European procurement vehicles, and
Direct engagement between SMEs and allied acquisition officials.
DSEI and Eurosatory both embed this kind of structured SME access within their extended formats, and both have measurably strengthened their respective nations' Tier 2 and Tier 3 export pipelines.
https://www.dsei.co.uk/visit/sme-engagement
Other shows use the last day for students and recruitment.
For CADSI, this is also an opportunity to position the organization. Extending CANSEC signals to DIA, DND, PSPC and allied partners that Canada's premier defence forum matches the country's industrial ambitions, not just the current industrial footprint.
The Ask
3 days. One structured explicitly around sovereign capability development and SME scaling pathways into allied supply chains.
The marginal cost to CADSI is manageable. The strategic signal and concrete business outcomes for SMEs that the Defence Industrial Strategy depends on are significant.
Three days. More deal-making. More allied engagement. More opportunity for Canada's defence industry to show the world what it's capable of.
The Canadian defence sector is growing. The show should grow with it.