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19th to 21st of May 2026
19th, 20th & 21st
MAY 2026

- CONFIRMED DATES -

NAVALIA 2018 will count on a space specially dedicated to entrepreneurship within the naval sector

The event will set up an exhibition area for the start-ups to divulge their products and another one to hold meetings with potential investors. Furthermore, the exhibition will host a conference that will give us the key of entrepreneurship within the naval sector.

When we talk about accelerator companies, start-ups, entrepreneurship, etc. At present the naval isn’t sector that is closely related to these concepts. That is why this morning the Entrepreneur Association of Galicia has hosted the presentation, in cooperation with Navalia, of Océano Azul, an accelerator company of the Official Naval Engineering Association, in which Xunta de Galicia, University of A Coruña and Aclunaga participated. Projects of this accelerator company will be pioneers in participating in the new space implemented by the Shipbuilding Exhibition with the aim of encouraging the entrepreneurship among the sector. When we talk about accelerator companies, start-ups, entrepreneurship, etc. At present the naval isn’t sector that is closely related to these concepts. That is why this morning the Entrepreneur Association of Galicia has hosted the presentation, in cooperation with Navalia, of Océano Azul, an accelerator company of the Official Naval Engineering Association, in which Xunta de Galicia, University of A Coruña and Aclunaga participated. Projects of this accelerator company will be pioneers in participating in the new space implemented by the Shipbuilding Exhibition with the aim of encouraging the entrepreneurship among the sector. 
This will be an exhibition area for start-ups to divulge their product, and another one to hold meetings with potential investors. Navalia is expected to hold the presentation of between 6 and 8 projects, fundamentally related to easily applicable advanced technology and affordable investment. Furthermore, the initiative also considers the holding of a conference focussed on how to be an entrepreneur inside the naval sector. “The idea is that this technological space, which is already very widespread in other exhibitions, consolidates itself in the next editions in order to promote entrepreneurship among the naval sector, a sector that has great potential, as well as the automotive one, to which we would like to resemble to”, explained Javier Arnau, CEO of Navalia. 
With regard to the last figures of this new edition, Mr. Arnau affirmed that this will be, without any doubt, the best of the exhibitions organized to date." In the absence of the new pavilion, still under construction and with a two-month timeframe, both pavilions 1 and 2 of IFEVI are complete and the organization has been working for months in the space of the pavilion 3, with 50% of exhibitor occupation plus the spaces dedicated to business meetings and technical conferences. These figures increase in 30% the number of exhibitors comparing to Navalia 2016. “This growth is, mainly, international. We are receiving requests from many European countries, also from American companies and some from Dubai or South Africa, to mention a few examples” explained the manager of the event, which will take place the 22nd – 24th May 2018. To Mr. Arnau, much of the success of the new exhibition, which is in the top 4 of the European exhibitions, would be the good health of the naval sector itself, as well as the boom of the cruise sector, the fishing fleet renewal (Spain, Morocco, South Africa and India) and the military vessels. Javier Arnau expects some announcements to be made about the assignment of new ships during Navalia, from both shipyards from Galicia or from the rest of Spain.