Embedded World 2026 - demos, discussions, and a little bit of Byzantium

“You’ve got the whole of Byzantium here!”

Yes, this was an actual comment we heard at our booth during embedded world Exhibition&Conference 2026 in Nuremberg. And honestly? We are still smiling about it.

This time, we would like to take you with us to one of the most important events in the embedded world calendar - Embedded World Exhibition&Conference 2026 i n Nuremberg. This year was a special one for Somco Software, because we were there not just as visitors walking around the halls with coffee in hand and trying to see everything before our legs gave up. This time, we were there with our own booth, our own demos, our own conversations, and our own little corner of embedded reality .

Preparing for such an event took a lot of time, energy, and attention to detail. And although next year we would definitely prefer a better location than the far end of the venue, we came back from Nuremberg with something much more valuable than a perfect spot on the map: great meetings, meaningful discussions, positive feedback, and a lot of inspiration for what comes next .

So let us sit down for a moment and recap what happened.

A small team, a big presence

One of the nicest things about this year’s edition was seeing the reaction people had when they visited our booth.

We are not a giant corporation with endless resources and a stand the size of a small airport terminal. And yet, as always, we wanted to show that a smaller team can still come extremely well prepared, bring strong technical know-how, present polished demos, and have real, valuable conversations with the people who stop by.

And that worked.

We heard many good words from visitors, partners, and people from the industry. One of our favourite comments came from a visitor who looked at our booth and said:

“Your demos look so good I had to come and check them out… and touch them.”

We genuinely love feedback like this. Because it captures something that is very important to us.

It is one thing to talk about embedded systems, GUI performance, hardware integration, or software architecture. But it is something entirely different when people can come to the booth, interact with the devices, test the responsiveness, see the visuals, and simply experience the technology in action. That is when the conversation becomes much more real.

And yes, the “whole of Byzantium” comment also goes straight into our internal hall of fame.

What we saw at embedded world 2026

Trade shows are always a good moment to take the pulse of the industry. You walk around, talk to people, listen carefully, compare notes, and after dozens of conversations certain patterns begin to appear.

This year, a few topics kept coming back again and again.

1. Companies are increasingly looking for complete solutions

One of the strongest observations from our side was that companies are no longer looking only for a narrow, isolated service.

Very often, conversations did not start and end with “we need an HMI.” Instead, they quickly expanded into broader discussions: hardware selection, BSP work, creating custom Yocto Linux images, software architecture, UX/UI, long-term maintenance, security, and compliance. In many cases, what businesses are really looking for today is not a single missing puzzle piece, but a partner who can help them build and connect the whole picture.

And to be honest, this makes perfect sense.

Embedded products are becoming more complex, expectations are rising, and the cost of making the wrong technical decision early on can be significant. More and more companies want support that goes beyond just writing code. They want a team that understands the bigger context.

2. CRA and regulations are no longer “future topics”

Another major theme was the Cyber Resilience Act and regulatory readiness in general.

This was visible not only among companies offering services related to compliance, but also in the expectations and concerns of businesses developing products. There is a clear sense that the market is beginning to feel what is coming. Companies know that regulations are getting stricter and that “we’ll think about it later” is no longer a serious strategy.

This was especially visible in discussions around more demanding sectors, including medical devices, where processes, documentation, risk analysis, and cybersecurity are already essential parts of development.

In short: compliance is no longer a side conversation. It is becoming one of the main conversations.

3. The market is clearly curious about frameworks

Another thing we noticed very strongly was the number of questions about frameworks and technology choices.

We had many conversations about LVGL , Slint, Rust, Flutter , and of course the practical aspects surrounding them: performance, maturity, developer experience, maintainability, ecosystem fit, and trade-offs in real projects.

For us, this was a very interesting signal.

It suggests that there is a real shift happening. Companies are actively exploring alternatives, comparing approaches, and trying to understand which technologies make sense for specific embedded use cases. Some are looking for lighter solutions, some for safer ones, some for faster development, and some simply want to know what is worth investing in for the next few years.

The level of interest also confirmed that this is exactly the kind of topic the industry is actively trying to understand today. That is one of the reasons we prepared our Embedded GUI Frameworks Comparison Report , to help teams compare options and make more informed technology decisions.

In any case, the appetite for these discussions was very visible.

4. AI was everywhere… although not always easy to define

Of course, no 2026 trade show recap would be complete without mentioning AI .

A lot of booths were promoting AI in one form or another. In some cases the message was very concrete, in others slightly more mysterious. Let us just say that sometimes “AI” was presented with great enthusiasm and somewhat less precision.

Still, this trend is worth noticing.

Even if some implementations are still finding their exact shape, it is clear that the industry wants to experiment, test new ideas, and build alternatives beyond the biggest players. And in the long run, more competition and more experimentation is healthy. This is how useful tools mature and how better solutions eventually emerge.

For a more grounded look at how AI features work in practice, we recently shared our thoughts on Qt AI Assistant in this article: “ Qt AI Assistant - Tutorial and honest opinion ” .

5. Supply chains, diversification, and geopolitics matter more than ever

This is a large and complicated topic, but it was impossible to ignore.

In many conversations, the themes of supply-chain resilience, hardware availability, regional dependencies, and diversification came up naturally. Companies are increasingly aware that technical decisions do not exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by logistics, manufacturing realities, regulations, and geopolitical uncertainty.

Nobody expects this topic to become simpler anytime soon. But many companies clearly recognise that they need alternatives, flexibility, and better preparedness than before.

Our ambulance HMI demo

One of the demos that attracted particular attention at our booth was the ambulance HMI concept designed and implemented by Mateusz Fejcher .

This interface was built with LVGL and ran on an STM32 board . The idea was to explore how a modern control panel for an emergency vehicle could look and behave: clear structure, responsive interactions, practical layout, and a form that feels contemporary without losing sight of usability.

At the booth, it sparked many interesting conversations.

And that is exactly what a good demo should do. Not just look nice, but open the door to discussions about real needs, technical possibilities, user expectations, and product direction. We were very happy to see visitors engaging with it so naturally.

Great conversations with partners and guests

Trade shows are about technology, yes. But they are also very much about people.

We would like to say thank you to our partners from STMicroelectronics, NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics, Toradex, Qt Group, LVGL, and Riverdi for all the joint ventures already behind us and the ones still ahead of us.

We also had the pleasure of having many valuable talks at the booth and around the event. Special thanks go to Carlos Gonzalez Mancebo, Daniel Lang, Gábor Kiss-Vámosi, Mihaly (Mish) Szilagyi, Simon Hausmann, Vincent Desespringalle, Łukasz Kowalski, André C., Jonathan Hoffmann, Otto Aureliano Rolloff, Tobias Morell , and many others we had the chance to meet during those intense days in Nuremberg.

A special thank you as well to Daniel Lang from Toradex, Łukasz Kowalski from Riverdi, and Gábor Kiss-Vámosi from LVGL for the especially interesting discussions at our booth.

Events like embedded world remind us why face-to-face meetings still matter so much. You can exchange thoughts online, schedule calls, send long emails, and comment on LinkedIn posts. But nothing replaces standing next to a running device, talking with someone directly, and exploring ideas in real time.

And yes, we also had the pleasure of meeting Mateusz Salamon , a well-known Polish YouTuber covering the embedded hardware world, which was a nice bonus.

What we are taking home

Looking back, embedded world 2026 was not just a successful event for us. It was also a very useful checkpoint.

It confirmed that the market is moving toward broader cooperation, stronger technical accountability, and more serious conversations around long-term product development. It also showed us that people still respond strongly to something simple but powerful: well-prepared demos, real expertise, and honest discussion .

We are proud of what our team achieved.

The Somco crew put together a booth we truly liked, presented demos that people wanted to interact with, had many meaningful conversations, and represented the company in exactly the way we hoped: with professionalism, enthusiasm, and a healthy amount of embedded geek energy.

Ending and… see you next time

To put it simply: we had a great time.

Embedded World 2026 brought us inspiration, good feedback, new ideas, valuable meetings, and confirmation that what we do - and how we do it - resonates with people. And while next year we may try to negotiate a location slightly less remote than the edge of the known universe, we are coming back from Nuremberg very satisfied.

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth, talked with us, tested our demos, shared observations, and helped make this event such a good experience.

See you at the next one.