Every year, around the same time as EXPO, the rest of the world gathers for its own major industry conference in Southern Europe — it alternates each year between Lyon and Barcelona. (This year it's Piscine Global in Lyon.) If you're looking for a comprehensive pool and spa trade show, but with European flair, you should check it out. Like EXPO, it's filled with pools and spas and saunas, but they add a lot of old world charm, and they have some ideas our North American trade shows might want to try.
On my first visit, three years ago, what struck me most was the "café life" woven into every booth — pastries and coffee in the morning, followed by wine and tapas in the afternoon (this was the Barcelona show). There was an unhurried sense that people were there to be together, not simply to transact. And last November, I noticed an unmistakable, industry-wide embrace of art and beauty as part of the product story itself.
Enjoying the relaxed, convivial atmosphere. From right: Mike Echols of McEwen, me and Julia Pou Fernandez of RENOLIT.
One manufacturer built an actual mini art gallery into its booth, devoting more than half the space to three artists' interpretations of the essence of water through paintings and mixed media, with visitors invited to respond and reflect. Another booth recreated the beauty of Gaudí's Park Güell on the show floor. Pump room equipment was designed to be seen, not hidden behind a wall. Automatic pool cleaners looked like objects you'd want to display, not simply tools you tolerate. Everywhere I turned, the underlying message was the same: Beauty isn't a luxury add-on to a good pool or spa product — it's an essential part of it.
The second night of the show took that spirit even further. Rather than everyone leaving to find dinner elsewhere, the floor stayed open until 10 p.m., with booths transforming into DJ stations, jazz trios and even rock bands, while dinner, tapas and cocktails were served throughout. It had a spirit similar to the concerts and social events many of our own shows host — but here, the experience was woven directly into the exhibitor booths rather than held in a separate space afterward.
I connected with a Canadian pool professional there, Allan Horwood of Pool Patrol, who specializes in automatic pool cover installation. "I was so fired up by everything I saw," he told me. "I was particularly impressed by the beauty of the products offered by manufacturers in Europe — products I'd love to see offered in North America." What struck Horwood just as much as the products, though, was the posture of the people selling them. Booth staff weren't in a hurry to qualify him as a lead. They wanted to talk, trade ideas, and enjoy the conversation. "We get to know one another, and hopefully we like each other and want to do business in the future," he said, "but it's not an immediate transaction."
Artwork interpreting the essence of water.
That distinction is worth noting. Underneath the celebration, there was substance. One manufacturer ran a second, dedicated booth solely to explain its approach to water conservation and the industry's responsibility for prudent water use — treating sustainability not as a marketing line, but as central to the business. In the wellness section, packed seminars brought in landscape architects to discuss sustainable building and planning, including how communities and backyards can be both beautiful and ecologically responsible, with real attention to erosion control and groundwater sustainability.
The show's ambitions weren't just European — there were events built specifically for Latin American attendees, and a general international energy that made the floor feel like a genuine crossroads rather than a regional gathering.
So here's the question I keep coming back to: What would it look like to bring even more of that spirit — beauty, connection and sustainability as integral parts of the business itself, not just around its edges — into our own shows here in North America?
Why is there a tendency in our industry to default to utilitarian, purely functional design for heaters, pumps, and controllers, when the rest of the backyard — the pool, the landscaping, the furniture — gets so much care for how it looks and feels? What would it look like to build products and events that treat beauty as part of their value from the very start?
And maybe it's worth asking, too: What would it look like to spend a little more time on the floor building relationships and a little less time qualifying leads? What would it look like if we leaned even further into sharing ideas and collaborating on the things that elevate the entire industry, not just one company's booth?
What a beautiful red heat pump!
I'm not suggesting we import Barcelona or Lyon wholesale, DJ booths and all. But I do think there's something worth taking seriously in the idea that a trade show can be a place where an industry invests in its own culture — its aesthetics, its sustainability commitments, its sense of community — without sacrificing good business. If anything, those investments might be exactly what reinvigorate it.
We are, after all, in the business of bringing joy. What if our trade shows could reflect that a little more directly?
Don't get me wrong, I think our North American trade shows do a lot right. They're great places to do business, we've built strong education programs, and plenty of shows now offer evening concerts and social events off the main convention floor. But I've also heard from more than a few colleagues who'd love to walk away feeling even more inspired — more surprised by what's new, more energized by the ideas on the floor itself, not just by the sessions and events built around it. Perhaps that means a little more focus on curiosity and collaboration, and a little less on the close.
