2026 Exhibit System of the Year

One of the most prestigious honors presented during our annual ExSys Awards Ceremony is the System of the Year Award, which goes to the system manufacturer that earned the most cumulative points by winning Gold, Silver, and Bronze ExSys Awards in the competitions 20+ categories. This year, the award went to bematrix.

The bematrix system was used in nearly 20 of this year’s award-winning exhibits, and the company received a Gold, a Silver, and four Bronze awards for its own exhibit at EuroShop 2026 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Here, the Belgium-based company's owner and Chief Innovation Officer, Edwin Van der Vennet, discusses what that award means, how bematrix has evolved over the years, and what the future might hold for system-based experiential design.

TEDA: What does being named the 2026 ExSys System of the Year mean to bematrix?

EV: We feel this award is a strong validation of the direction we are taking. I feel like it does not only recognize the system as such but also the roadmap. It recognizes the 25-year evolution of dedication and persistence in innovation. Evolving from a great reusable aluminum wall frame system in the nineties to a system that enables designers and builders to create both awesome looking customised experiential booths as well as clean and efficiently designed booths, using the same building blocks.

TEDA: Where do you think the system has evolved most significantly in recent years?

EV: The biggest change is that we've evolved from a wall system into a much broader building ecosystem. The logic now connects the frame structure with LED solutions, flooring, architectural elements and outdoor applications into one system. This system allows designers to be way more creative with fewer boundaries and a higher ROI.

TEDA: One of the biggest misconceptions about system-based design is that “modular” means “cookie cutter.” How do you respond to that perception?

EV: I think you are right. In my opinion, the misconception comes from confusing “modularity” with “boredom.” A good system standardizes the engineering, not the design. Today, different designers can work with the very same components and create completely different environments. The system is simply a tool to remove technical complexity so designers can focus more on architecture, storytelling, and experience. Modularity makes more ideas possible, not fewer.

TEDA: How much of bematrix's innovation comes from responding to what designers and exhibit builders are asking for versus anticipating needs they haven't even articulated yet?

EV: Our innovation process is built to translate ideas by both listening and observing. A lot of innovation starts by listening to our clients and looking at what people are trying to achieve, then removing the obstacles to do so.

We listen very closely to designers and builders because they are constantly pushing the system in real projects. When different designers come up with similar creative solutions, we try to find common ground and translate this into meaningful standardized products.

At the same time, we also observe. The “beMAX “is a good example of this approach, as we saw plenty of builders trying to clad existing truss systems with our frames in a complicated effort to make something unattractive into something more exciting.

TEDA: Technology has become increasingly integrated into physical environments. How has the development of solutions such as LEDskin changed the way designers think about the relationship between structure, architecture, content, and digital experiences?

EV: Before LEDskin was developed, so up until 2016, screens were often added after the architecture had already been designed. With LEDskin, the digital surface becomes part of the architecture itself. That changes the design process because content, structure, light, and movement could be considered one integrated environment.

This was a tipping point, because it enabled people to embrace technology since it was no longer a pain to engineer. It gives designers more freedom in terms of the ideas they want to bring into reality.

TEDA: Sustainability is obviously an important part of the system's value proposition. But sustainability claims in the events industry can sometimes be reduced to simply “it's reusable.” What does genuine sustainability look like to bematrix?

EV: Reuse is important, but for us, it’s our starting point regarding sustainability.  We want to look at the full lifecycle: how the material is produced, how much recycled content it contains, how efficiently it is transported, how it is being used, how often it can be reused, and what happens at the end of its lifespan.

For us, the real goal is to keep materials in use for as long as possible and reduce impact at every single step. Not only the steps in our own process, but also during the “use” phase. For example, that entails keeping (reusable) materials as local as possible to minimize the impact of freight. We now have 11 owned rental centers as close as possible to major venues. We also try to keep labor as local as possible to minimize passenger transport with our large international customer network of beMasters.  

Next to that, sustainability also needs to become tangible and measurable! It is not enough to state something is reusable or green; we all need to understand where the impact actually comes from and to be able to compare things and work toward reduction.

TEDA: Many of the bematrix wins in this year’s ExSys competition honored your EuroShop 2026 exhibit. What was the initial inspiration for that design?

EV: The central idea was actually based on one of our main fundamentals: “one grid, infinite possibilities!” We wanted the booth to be an experience rather than a collection of components. Visitors moved through an environment where structure, LED, light, sound and interaction all worked together.

The EuroShop audience is very knowledgeable. These are people who already understand exhibit building, so the challenge was to show what happens when you really push the system creatively. For us, the booth was about showing that grid creates order, but creativity determines what you do with it.

TEDA: Did you have a favorite element from that exhibit that you personally loved being able to showcase in Dusseldorf?

EV: I particularly like our newly launched “LEDskin E,” a 496x62mm LED component. It’s a new innovation based on our LEDskin technology that allows designers to add creativity on a smaller surface, making it less expensive. I feel like this is another step toward more freedom for designers without huge investments.

TEDA: Looking ahead three to five years, where do you think system-based experiential design is going?

EV: Event building will undoubtedly remain part of the marketing mix in the future. Artificial Intelligence brings a lot of uncertainty on what is real and what is fake. It feels like face-to-face meetings will even become more important for that very reason.

In this environment, experience obviously will remain key to really convince an audience to make the effort of going somewhere. On top of that, the audience also wants us, the event industry, to become even more sustainable — so systems have a bright future, as long as we can keep fulfilling the creative wishes of marketers, designers, and exhibitors. Bematrix is ready to embrace the adventure ahead!

For a full list of the 2026 ExSys Award winners, click here.