Trade fair stand design and build at Rail Live (Madrid)Quality stand + expansion network

Rail Live brings both sides of the rail business together at IFEMA Madrid: operators and infrastructure managers on one side — Renfe, Adif, the metro and tram networks — and on the other the industry that supplies them, from train builders such as CAF, Talgo, Stadler, Alstom, Siemens and Hitachi Rail to the signalling, electrification, track, predictive-maintenance, cybersecurity and ticketing companies. It is run by the British organiser Terrapinn together with Adif, Renfe and Mafex, the Spanish rail industry association, which explains the visitor profile: engineers, maintenance managers and procurement heads from operators around the world, with delegations from dozens of countries. The exhibition floor runs alongside a conference programme spread over several stages, and that programme sets the rhythm of the aisles.

What exhibitors bring is heavy: bogies, catenary sections, switches, signalling cabinets, seats and full-size coach interior mock-ups. That shapes the stand before any aesthetic consideration — load-rated floor, forklift access, cable routes — and it means talking to the venue before drawing anything. The second thing is that here almost everything closes sitting down: a signalling package or a fleet renewal plan is not negotiated standing in an aisle, so we reserve a closed or semi-closed room and keep the front open to catch visitors in the minutes when the sessions empty the halls. Software demonstrations — predictive maintenance, asset management, ticketing — need power and wired networking, not venue wi-fi. And since two years pass between editions, we build the structure so it can be stored whole in our workshop and come back with only the graphics changed. The full service for the city is at stands for trade fairs in Madrid.