SDSC-UK 2026

SDSC-UK is where Cyber and Specialist Operations Command shares future requirements directly with industry, where US delegations meet British suppliers one to one, and where the smallest defence SME can sit across a table from a senior DE&S project lead. In 2026 it moved to a four-year home at the NEC in Birmingham: a step up in scale, but one that risked unsettling the relationship-led community that makes the event work.

Canny was appointed Media and Communications Partner with a compressed window from November 2025 to February 2026. The targets were set early on: more than 1,000 exhibition registrations, more than 200 Industry Day registrations, 25% growth in the SDSC-UK LinkedIn following, and 15 or more partner organisations amplifying the campaign.

Our analysis showed that formal announcements carry little weight in a sector built on peer networks. Authority comes from people, not brands. So we made the ambassadors the media.

Two credible voices fronted the campaign: Maj Gen Robin Anderton-Brown, the founding MOD advocate for SDSC-UK, recently out of uniform and able to speak freely about procurement, and Simon Kimble, a respected figure across the defence supply chain. Their networks gave direct access to the decision-makers who needed to hear the message.

We also spotted a tactical opening. The Defence Investment Plan had missed its autumn deadline, leaving industry and MOD without a procurement framework. We positioned SDSC-UK as the place to have the conversations that gap had created.

Delivery included a single day of filming that produced a 10-part thought leadership video series and short-form clips tailored to each audience, near-daily LinkedIn content celebrating exhibitors, the first ever SDSC-UK pre-event webinar (100 registrations, extended on the day due to demand), and same-day video, live social and stakeholder interviews at the event. We also developed and activated a crisis communications plan in response to a credible security threat, coordinating with the NEC and West Midlands Police. The event proceeded without incident.

Every objective was met or exceeded.

• 1,300 exhibition registrations, 30% above target.
• 400 Industry Day registrations, double the target and more than double any previous year.
• Networking attendance of 500, up 25% on 2024.
• Nearly 100 exhibitors, up from 78 in 2024.
• 618 net new organic LinkedIn followers, a 31% increase against a 25% target, with no paid promotion. That beat the whole of 2024 in 14 weeks.
• 41,925 impressions across 58 posts, at a 16.8% engagement rate, six times the specialist B2B benchmark.
• More than 15 partner organisations amplified the campaign, several asking to be featured.

Attendees included senior MOD procurement leads, Cyber and Specialist Operations Command representatives, a US delegation and international participants from Europe, North America and the Indo-Pacific.

SDSC-UK re-engaged Canny for its next project before the event had closed.