Wind for Goods · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated November 2026

Key takeaways

• Wind for Goods is the trade show for wind-powered maritime transport: two days in Saint-Nazaire where equipment makers, shipowners, naval architects and financiers meet around sails, prototypes and vessels in demonstration. The organiser presents it as the only event in the world entirely dedicated to wind propulsion.
• Next edition: the 4th, on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 June 2027, at the Base sous-marine de Saint-Nazaire, 9 boulevard de la Légion d'Honneur. The 2027 opening hours and the alvéole to be used have not yet been published.
• Organiser: Nantes Saint-Nazaire Développement, a non-profit association (loi 1901) and the local economic development agency, in collaboration with Wind Ship and the International Windship Association (IWSA). Official website: windforgoods.fr.
• Frequency: every two years. The trade show was held in 2021, 2023 and 2025.
• Results of the latest edition, in June 2025: 74 exhibitors, over 1,000 visitors, 35 nationalities, 69 speakers, 24 conferences and workshops. For 2027, the organiser announces nearly 80 exhibitors and over 1,200 visitors: these are targets, not results.
• Exhibiting: the 2027 price list is public. A 6 m² stand costs €1,300 excl. VAT, excluding the registration fee and the compulsory panel.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The trade show sorts its exhibitors into eight families: ship construction and wind propulsion systems; shipowners, charterers and carriers; ship design; digital solutions; logistics and handling equipment; service providers; regulatory bodies, professional associations and institutions; HR and training.

According to the press kit published before the 2025 edition, the 74 exhibitors included 26% international players, against 15% in 2023, 29% from the Nantes and Saint-Nazaire area and 45% from the rest of France. The 2027 presentation brochure also lists 36 wind propulsion companies worldwide, 11 of them French: part of the exhibitors therefore come from the value chain around these manufacturers, from engineering to banking and research. This is what makes the trade show accessible to a supplier with no sail to show.

Notable exhibitors

The official list of 2025 exhibitors remains the only one published to date: no 2027 exhibitor appears on it yet. On the propulsion side it includes Norsepower, bound4blue, Econowind, Oceanwings, SolidSail, Airseas, Wisamo Michelin and Beyond the Sea; among shipowners, Neoline, Grain de Sail Logistics, Zéphyr et Borée, Windcoop and Iliens; for design and equipment, VPLP Design, Mauric, Liebherr, Honeywell, Schottel, Becker Marine Systems, Vaisala, Wichard Groupe, Porcher Industries and Dimension Polyant.

Banks, research and institutions are also on the stands: CIC, Crédit Maritime, Centrale Nantes, IRT Jules Verne, MARIN, Sintef Ocean, as well as Nantes Métropole, Saint-Nazaire Agglomération and the Pays de la Loire Region. According to the organiser, 95% of the 2025 exhibitors wish to take part in the 2027 edition.

Visitor quality

The 2025 breakdown, based on information provided by visitors, is as follows: manufacturers 26%, technology developers 18%, engineering firms 11%, associations and clusters 11%, local authorities 7%, public sector 6%, supply chain 6%, research and training 6%, support services 5%, investors 4%. Among the participants, the six most represented countries after France are Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Tunisia, Belgium and Sweden.

The trade show is an industry gathering: more than half of the declared visitors are manufacturers, technology developers or engineers, profiles that can be partners as much as customers. Profiles on the demand side weigh less: supply chain and investors together account for 10%. Shipowners do not appear as a separate category in this breakdown. For an exhibitor coming to look for orders, this is the point to raise with the organiser before signing. No OJS certification or third-party audit is published: these figures are the organiser's own.

Activities & community

Conference programme

The 2027 programme is being drawn up. The presentation brochure announces more than 20 workshops, round tables and conferences, on regulation, shippers' expectations for 2030, integrating wind transport into a logistics strategy, large-scale deployment, responsible purchasing, and the skills needed for industrialisation.

The 2025 edition's theme was "Transport maritime à la voile : le défi du déploiement à grande échelle" (sailing maritime transport: the challenge of large-scale deployment). It brought together 69 speakers over the two days, around 10 round tables and keynotes, all translated into English, and 14 workshops and tutorials under the dome, often sponsored by an exhibitor: Vaisala on lidar, Stirling Design International on sail and solar hybridisation, CIC on putting together a credit application. The debates covered cooperation with ports, measuring energy gains and training. The official 2025 summary gives the content.

Demonstrations and visits

The trade show stands out for its access to the water. In 2025, four vessels were in demonstration in the dock, and the press kit announced sea trials on ACC Wing, Beyond the Sea, Wisamo and Solid Sail. For 2027, the organiser's press release again plans sea trials, boat demonstrations and an exhibition of prototypes and sails.

Industrial visits were offered in 2025 at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique and the Grand Port maritime de Nantes Saint-Nazaire. Those for 2027 have not yet been announced, but the press release mentions visits to flagship sites in Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, as well as business meetings via a dedicated platform.

Community & networks

The trade show is organised in collaboration with Wind Ship, the French industry network, and the International Windship Association, which carries its international momentum. The Pays de la Loire Region has supported it since its beginnings. The website also indicates the support of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, the Sea and Fisheries, and the "La Mer en Commun" label, obtained as part of the 2025 Year of the Sea.

On the press side, the 2025 edition lists 40 media mentions, including Le Marin, Mer et Marine, La Tribune, Ouest-France, La Croix and Seatrade Maritime. The organiser also reports 4,200 followers on the event's LinkedIn page and a newsletter sent to nearly 8,000 B2B contacts.

The 2027 edition was presented at the SMM trade show in Hamburg, in September 2026. The organiser quantified the industry there: more than 100 vessels equipped worldwide, 230 systems installed and 120 vessels on order; in France, 18 vessels in operation, 14 on order and 3 industrial sites.

On site: what you need to know

The trade show takes place at the Base sous-marine de Saint-Nazaire, a site the organiser describes as emblematic, beside the dock, which makes it possible to combine indoor stands and vessels at the quayside. In 2025, reception was through alvéole 11, and the spaces included a conference hall, a workshop dome and a terrace.

According to the organiser, Saint-Nazaire is 3 hours by train from Paris and 40 minutes by train from Nantes; Nantes airport is 50 minutes by car. A shuttle bus is mentioned, to be requested from the organisers. The organiser recommends soft mobility.

The 2027 opening hours have not been published. As a guide, the 2025 edition opened from 8:45am to 6pm on the first day and from 8:45am to 4pm on the second, with a bus and cycle-bus service from the station. The site's practical information still relates to 2025. Visitor entry goes through a dedicated ticketing site, where 2027 conditions should be checked.

How much it costs to exhibit

The registration pack and the sales brochure are online. Booking requires a 50% deposit when ordering and the balance no later than 19 May 2027. Any order placed after 20 April 2027 is paid in full at booking. In the event of cancellation before 20 March 2027, the deposit is retained by the organiser; after that date, all sums are retained too. Contact: commercial@windforgoods.fr.

Preparing your visit

For exhibitors

• Settle the question of the boat early: quayside display depends on the berths available and technical feasibility, and its price may change according to handling needs.
• For an exhibitor presenting a vessel or onboard equipment, check the calendar of Navexpo, held in Lorient from 25 to 27 May 2027, which also makes room for wind propulsion: less than three weeks separate the two trade shows.
• Prepare a visual for the printed panel: it is the only point-of-sale advertising medium allowed on site, and only one round of validation is provided.
• Forget giveaways and limit brochures: exhibitors commit to this as part of the event's approach.
• Aim for a tutorial if you have a case study to present: 25 minutes in a dedicated space, subject to availability and validation by the editorial committee.
• Have the delivery, set-up and removal schedule confirmed in the exhibitor guide supplied by the organiser, before booking a carrier.

For decision-making visitors

• Use the B2B meeting platform beforehand: over two days and with fewer than a hundred stands, the agenda is built before you arrive.
• Consult the list of exhibitors, still that of 2025 at present, then target the demonstrations and sea trials, where the number of places is by nature limited.
• Wait for the programme before booking industrial visits if they are repeated: in 2025, they went through a separate ticketing system.
• Plan lunch ahead: in 2025, meals on site were available only by advance booking.

CSR policy & initiatives

Nantes Saint-Nazaire Développement details its approach on a dedicated eco-event page. The first two editions received REEVE's "événement éco-engagé" label, at level 1 and then level 2.

The 2027 brochure sets out concrete commitments: no carpet, decor reused from one edition to the next, furniture available on site or hired from local providers, no printed programme, no giveaways from the organiser, mostly local and seasonal catering. In 2025, lunches were pre-ordered to limit waste, and a cycle-bus linked the station to the site.

The organising agency also became in 2024 the first mission-driven agency in France, according to its own presentation. The website does not display ISO 20121 certification or a carbon footprint for the event, and does not document an approach specific to the venue. These organisational commitments should be distinguished from the very theme of the trade show, the decarbonisation of maritime transport, which relates to content.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The trade show has changed scale in three editions: one day in 2021, two days from 2023, and a number of exhibitors rising from 30 to 74 in four years. The international share of exhibitors, announced at 26% in 2025 against 15% in 2023, has risen markedly. The site, for its part, has not moved: the Base sous-marine and its dock are part of the format.

Attendance has grown more slowly than the offer. From 2023 to 2025, exhibitors rose by nearly two thirds, while attendance went from over 900 participants to over 1,000 visitors. The attendance-per-exhibitor ratio falls from about 20 to about 14, as an order of magnitude since the organiser publishes floors. The 2027 targets, nearly 80 exhibitors and over 1,200 visitors, aim at a slight recovery to about 15, with an offer that grows little.

For an exhibitor, the conclusion is twofold. The trade show remains small, and is not justified by the volume of contacts, but by the concentration of a narrow industry in a single place, in an area where several of its players are based. Its next step is to bring in demand: informing and engaging funders, shippers, elected officials and manufacturers is one of the three stated ambitions for 2027. The results of the edition will show whether these profiles, still a minority in 2025, have grown.

All data without an explicit source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (windforgoods.fr).