HPE

5,160 visitors

When a global technology leader returns to the biggest AI event of the year to exhibit at the centre of the AI era, the environment that carries that message has to deliver on every level.

At The AI Summit London 2026, HPE came back to Tobacco Dock to do exactly that, showcasing its NVIDIA-partnered AI computing across a suite of live experiences, they trusted Tecna to design and build the flagship environment that brought it to life.

Across two days, the 115sqm space welcomed 5,160 visitors, a year-on-year increase of 1,237, and generated almost 6,900 tracked interactions across eight live demo experiences.

This is the story of how Tecna shaped HPE’s presence from the brief upward, and built an experience that earned both the footfall figure and the dwell time to prove its worth.

The Brief

This year, rather than waiting for a brief to land and responding to it, our team shaped the direction with HPE from the ground up, moving from early conversations about what had worked the year before into a clear, considered design direction that we presented and refined collaboratively.

This approach is exactly the kind of trusted-partner relationship that produces better events, because the outcome based thinking starts earlier and the client and the contractor are solving the same problem from the same side of the table from the start of the project.

HPE wanted a space that positioned the brand as a genuine leader in the AI conversation, somewhere that could host industry talks, run live demonstrations, hold real commercial conversations and still feel energising to walk into.

The design had to carry all of that while satisfying the strict brand requirements that came with showcasing HPE’s NVIDIA-partnered AI computing, since the co-branded content needed sign-off from both HPE and NVIDIA, each with detailed guidelines around messaging and look and feel.

Balancing those guardrails with Tecna creativity, right down to the façade artwork, was a defining part of the work, and the finished suite didn’t compromise on either.

The Creative Concept

The design translated HPE’s story into a physical experience. A dynamic angled brand element ran through the space as a signature motif, opening up into an arch portal that drew visitors from one part of the experience into the next. A large-scale video wall anchored the space, framed by the angled portal element, washed in HPE’s green and blue palette.

The journey was deliberately zoned, so that every step had a purpose. Visitors were met by brand ambassadors (a human touch first), then greeted by an AI avatar of HPE’s chief executive at a reception built around the Accelerate Generative AI theme.

From there, the suite opened into a sequence of themed demonstration zones, each one a distinct, differentiated experience rather than a repeated format, so that the further into the space a visitor travelled, the more there was to discover.

Dwell time was over two minutes a visit on average, and across all eight experiences the suite logged almost 6,900 interactions in total. Converting footfall into considered, measurable engagement.

Beyond the demo areas, the suite had silent-disco-style speaker sessions, an AI talks theatre, dual touch-table demos, a 75-inch touchscreen, and a nitrogen ice cream activation served in HPE’s own green and blue brand colours, a playful, shareable moment.

The Numbers

Every demo in the suite was tracked through sensors, which gave HPE precise, benchmarked insights into visitors engaged rather than a guess. We tailor event tech to the brief to ensure the right measurements are taking place during the show that help to calculate ROI after the event.

Although the headline footfall of 5,160 across the two days is impressive, the interaction data underneath it told the more valuable story. It showed how long visitors stayed and where the highest engagement happened.

This level of event tech is worth a consideration in your brief, because it is the kind of insight that justifies exhibition investment to a finance team. The right technology can be hugely insightful to tracking how your stand is performing and to help you understand what is working and what isn’t.

The Challenge

Because the suite showcased HPE’s NVIDIA-partnered AI computing, every visual output needed approval from both HPE and NVIDIA, each with detailed brand guidelines, and that was one of the defining elements of the project.

It meant aligning everything from the demo graphics to the full façade artwork against two sets of brand rules at once, while still protecting the excitement and design ambition.

Bringing those requirements together into one coherent, energising environment, rather compromising is precisely the kind of work that separates a capable contractor from a trusted creative partner.

A Heritage Venue

Tobacco Dock is a beautiful, historic, listed building, and like all heritage venues it sets limits on what is possible.

This suite was delivered around fixed air conditioning units, a specific and in-depth health and safety process due to the age of the building, tight timings, spaces, and the constraints of a very old structure with unusual features.

The most significant surprise came from the lighting design. The historic space was designed to feel bright, vibrant and fully illuminated under the natural light of the venue’s glass skylight.

Push the Possible.

HPE needed a flagship presence at the most competitive AI event of the year, one that satisfied two sets of brand guidelines, told a complex story across eight live experiences, and proved its value in hard numbers.

We shaped that ambition, engineered it around the realities of a heritage venue and delivered a suite that drew the crowds, held attention and grew its audience year on year. That is full-service exhibition design and build at its boldest, and we do not settle for boring.