The next Pregnancy & Baby Fair is the Autumn Show at the RDS in Dublin on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October 2026, with a Spring Show following in 2027. If you run an Irish business selling to parents, this is the guide to work through before you commit: who attends, how to book a stand, what size and position to ask for, which display materials actually earn their space, how venue logistics work and how to promote your attendance. It is the planning guide. For quantities, packing and the final walk-through, use our paired Pregnancy and Baby Fair Dublin exhibition stand checklist.

When and where is the next Pregnancy and Baby Fair?

The next pregnancy and baby fair in Ireland is the Autumn Show at the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, running on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October 2026. The organisers hold two editions a year at the same venue, an Autumn Show and a Spring Show, and the official Pregnancy & Baby Fair site lists the Spring Show for 2027 with exact dates still to be confirmed.

If you have searched for the RDS baby fair, this is the event you mean. It is the same show, named for the venue rather than the organiser. What has not yet been published for the October 2026 edition is the specific hall and the visitor opening hours, so do not print a hall number or a door time on anything until the organisers confirm it in writing.

Visitor hours and exhibitor access hours are two different things, so confirm both. Exhibitors normally get the hall before doors open and a window after closing for breakdown, but those times, along with restocking access between the two days, come from the exhibitor manual rather than the public site. Ask the organiser directly rather than assuming you can load in at nine on the Saturday morning.

Detail	What we can confirm
Next fair	Autumn Show, Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October 2026
Venue	RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
Hall	Not yet published: confirm with the organisers
Visitor opening hours	Not yet published: check the official tickets page nearer the date
Exhibitor access, set-up and breakdown	Issued in the exhibitor manual, not published publicly
Following edition	Spring Show, spring 2027, dates to be announced
Exhibitor contact	Enquiry form on the Exhibit with us page

Before you book travel, staff or print, verify the dates, hall and hours on the official Pregnancy and Baby Fair website. Show details move, and a banner with the wrong hall on it is a banner you reprint.

How do I book an exhibition stand?

There is one official route in: the enquiry form on the Pregnancy & Baby Fair exhibit with us page. You submit your details, the sales team comes back with availability and costs, and the commercial conversation happens from there. Stand sizes, package contents and prices are not published on the site, so the form is genuinely the starting point rather than a formality.

That first reply will be faster and more useful if you arrive with your requirements already worked out. Have this ready before you enquire:

A short description of the business and what you sell to parents
The products or services you intend to show, including anything bulky such as prams, cots or nursery furniture
Your preferred stand size and whether you need a corner or open sides
A realistic budget covering stand hire plus everything around it
Electrical requirements: how many sockets, what load, what you are plugging in
Whether you plan live demonstrations, sampling, food or drink, or any activity that draws a crowd in front of your space
How many staff will be on the stand across both days

Ask for the paperwork before any money moves. Request the current exhibitor pack, the latest floor plan, the rate card, the contract terms and a written list of exactly what your package includes. The gap between "shell scheme" and "floor space only" is the difference between walls, a fascia name board and carpet arriving, or a bare rectangle on a concrete floor with nothing in it. Get that in writing, because it decides what you need to order from a printer.

The rules and dates that matter are set by the organiser, and they vary by edition, so check rather than assume. The ones worth asking about are the booking and payment schedule, public liability insurance and the cover level required, risk assessments, approval for any contractor building your stand, stand-height restrictions, electrical testing and certification, what promotional activity is permitted in the aisle in front of you, and the cancellation and refund terms. None of these are published in advance, which is exactly why you ask for them in the same email as the rate card.

One practical note on timing. If the Autumn Show is only days away when you read this, a late booking is still worth an enquiry, because availability is confirmed through the enquiry form, and a compact stand with a roller banner, a covered table and a stack of print can be produced quickly. Full planning, including a custom-built display, is a conversation for the Spring 2027 show.

Who will I meet at the fair, and why do brands exhibit?

The audience is narrow in the best possible way. You are meeting expectant parents, parents of newborns and young children, grandparents and gift buyers, and people researching pregnancy, birth and early-years services with a decision already on the calendar. Very few shows put a business in front of a group with such a fixed and immediate need.

The organisers publish their own audience figures on the exhibitor page, and they are the numbers to work from when you build a case internally.

Organiser figure	What it tells an exhibitor
Average attendance of 25,000 annually	Scale of footfall across the year's editions, useful for staffing and stock planning
Over 58% of visitors pregnant with their first child	A majority are buying a category for the first time and have no established brand loyalty
99% make a purchase at the show	Visitors arrive expecting to spend, so on-stand selling is normal rather than pushy
100+ businesses exhibit	A busy floor, so visibility and a clear message matter more than square metres

Treat those as the organiser's own figures rather than a forecast for your stand. What they do tell you is the shape of the opportunity. First-time parents want to touch the product, push the buggy round a corner, test how the fold works and ask the questions a product page never answers. That is the case for exhibiting in a sensitive category: trust is built face to face, and a two-minute demonstration does work that months of advertising cannot.

The commercial returns come in more than one form. Direct sales across the weekend are the obvious one. Beyond that, brands use the fair for lead generation ahead of a due date that may be months away, for customer research in front of the people who actually use the product, for retail and stockist conversations with other exhibitors, and for sheer brand recognition in a category where parents ask each other for recommendations constantly.

To judge whether you fit, ask the organiser which types of business usually exhibit. The mix moves between editions and typically spans retailers, product brands, healthcare and wellbeing providers, and family service businesses.

What stand size and location should I choose?

Size follows what you are doing on the stand, not what you can afford at a push. A compact shell-scheme space works for a focused range, two staff and a single message. Larger or open-corner space starts to make sense once you have bulky products, a demonstration that draws a small crowd, or stock you need to hold behind the display.

Factor	Compact shell scheme	Larger or corner space
Product range	A handful of hero products	Full range, bulky items, nursery furniture
Staffing	Two people, one conversation at a time	Three or more, parallel conversations
Storage	Under a covered table only	Dedicated back-of-stand storage
Demonstrations	Brief, one visitor at a time	Scheduled demos with people watching
Pushchair access	One way in, easily blocked	Two open sides, visitors can flow through
Budget	Lower hire and lower graphics cost	Higher on both, plus more staff hours

Position is the part people overthink. Space near entrances, seminar areas, cafés, baby-changing and feeding facilities, and the established anchor brands does see more feet past it. That is not automatically good. A small stand beside a large brand with a queue can spend the weekend invisible, and a spot by a café gets plenty of people who have sat down precisely because they have stopped shopping. A quieter aisle where visitors are browsing properly often converts better.

Ask the organiser for the latest floor plan and then ask the questions the plan does not answer:

Which businesses are booked either side of you, and are any of them direct competitors
Where the pillars, fire points, shutters and structural obstructions sit
Whether the stand has any height restriction that affects a tall display or a hanging graphic
Where the power points are on the stand, and how many you get
Which way the main visitor flow runs past your space

Whatever you take, leave room for people to stop. This audience arrives with pushchairs, car seats and toddlers, and a stand that forces a three-point turn gets skipped. Keep a clear approach at the front, keep the aisle itself unobstructed, and make sure a pregnant visitor can reach everything you want them to handle without stretching or bending awkwardly. Accessibility here is not a compliance box, it is the thing that decides whether the pram comes in or rolls on.

What display materials do I need for an effective exhibition stand?

The stands that work at a baby fair are not the busiest ones. Pick one headline that says what you sell, one line that says why it helps a parent, branding that is legible from across the aisle, and one obvious next action: buy, book, scan a QR code or join the list. Everything else is clutter competing with your own message.

Match each item to the job it does rather than filling every surface:

Material	Job on the stand	Where it goes
Roller banners	Height and brand recognition from the aisle	Stand corners, either side of the entrance
Fabric pop-up display walls	A clean full-width backdrop that photographs well	Back wall of the stand
Rigid printed boards	Key messages, pricing, product specifics at eye level	Side walls, demo area, above the counter
PVC banners	Large-format messaging where the organiser permits it	Fascia or rear wall, subject to stand rules
Branded table covers	Hides stock and cases, finishes the stand properly	Every table and demo counter

Take-away print deserves more thought than it usually gets. Parents collect material all weekend and go through it at home that evening, so a leaflet with a clear price list, a voucher with an expiry date, or an appointment card with a booking link will do quiet work long after the hall empties. Order enough for both days and a few hundred more than you think, because running out on Saturday afternoon is the expensive version of saving money.

On the artwork itself, a few rules are worth following:

Type large enough to read from three metres, with strong contrast between text and background
No more than about eight words on any headline panel
The same colours, logo and tone across banners, boards and print, so the stand reads as one brand
Print-ready files with correct bleed and safe areas, and nothing important near a trim edge
Durable materials on anything that gets handled, leaned on or repacked between shows
Time in the schedule to see a proof, make a change and still hit the delivery date

Order early. Graphics are the one part of an exhibition stand that cannot be fixed on the morning, and the week before a fair is when every other exhibitor is asking for the same turnaround. For quantities, packing lists, equipment, staffing rotas and the final pre-travel checks, the paired stand checklist covers what this guide deliberately does not.

How should I plan set-up, breakdown and promotion?

Nearly everything about venue access comes from the exhibitor manual, and it is worth reading it properly the day it arrives rather than in the car park. Confirm each of these in advance:

Loading bay access and whether you are given a vehicle time slot
Parking for the stand team across both days
Whether trolleys are available or you bring your own
Contractor passes and approval for anyone building your stand
Storage for stock and empty cases during the show
Waste disposal and what you are expected to remove yourself
Power supply, socket numbers and any electrical testing requirement
Wi-Fi availability, which matters if you are taking card payments
Overnight security arrangements for stock left on the stand
The deadline for clearing the stand after doors close on the Sunday

Write the set-up and breakdown plan down and put a name against every line. Who collects the graphics, who counts stock in and out, who assembles the display, who checks the electrics, who takes the cash float and laptops home each night. Set graphics up in order: backdrop first, then side boards, then banners, then the counter and table covers, then stock. Pack down in reverse, and put graphics back in their cases rather than in the boot loose, because a creased fabric wall is not something you can iron out on the Saturday of the next show.

Promotion should start well before the hall opens. A simple timeline:

When	What to do
Four to six weeks out	Announce you are exhibiting, link the official event page, tag the organiser
Two to three weeks out	Share your stand number and a preview of the offer or demonstration
One week out	Email existing customers with a reason to visit the stand specifically
Day before	Post the practical details: dates, venue, where to find you
Both show days	Live posts from the stand, demo times, stories from the floor
Within 48 hours after	Follow up every lead while the weekend is still fresh

During the fair, keep it measurable. Use a unique QR code so you can separate show traffic from everything else, count leads at the end of each day, check stock levels at lunchtime rather than when a bestseller runs out, and publish clear terms for any competition you run. If you collect names, email addresses or anything that touches health information, you need a lawful basis and explicit consent under GDPR: say plainly what you will send, keep the record of consent, and do not add show visitors to a general marketing list they never agreed to. Health-related data carries stricter obligations than a name and an email, so collect only what you genuinely need.

Frequently asked questions

When is the RDS baby fair in 2026, and is there another one?

The Autumn Show runs at the RDS in Dublin on 3 and 4 October 2026. A Spring Show follows at the same venue in 2027, with dates yet to be published. Both editions are listed on the official Pregnancy & Baby Fair website.

How much does an exhibitor stand at the RDS Baby Fair cost, and what is included?

Stand costs are not published, and they vary by edition, stand size, position and package, so the current rate card comes from the organiser's enquiry form. Whatever the hire figure is, budget beyond it for display graphics and print, insurance, electrics, staff hours and travel, stock for two days, card payment facilities and any giveaway or sampling. Ask for a written list of what the package includes before you pay a deposit.

Which businesses are suitable for exhibiting at the Pregnancy and Baby Fair?

Irish retailers and product brands selling nursery, feeding, travel and clothing items, healthcare and wellbeing providers, photographers, childcare specialists, antenatal educators and family service businesses all fit the audience. Check with the organiser that your business and products suit the show, and regulated businesses also need to keep to their own professional and advertising rules on what they can claim on a stand.

Is exhibiting at a baby fair worth the cost for a small Irish business?

Work it out before you book. Add up total costs including stand, print, staff and travel, then divide by your average gross profit per sale to get the number of sales that covers the weekend. Do the same for leads, using your usual conversion rate and the lifetime value of a customer rather than a single order, because a first-time parent may buy from you repeatedly over three years. Set the objective in advance, whether that is sales, leads or stockist conversations, and judge the weekend against it rather than against the till alone.

Can I still exhibit if the show is only a couple of weeks away?

Often, yes. Availability is confirmed through the enquiry form, so send it rather than assuming the floor is full. A compact stand can be produced quickly: a roller banner, a branded table cover and a printed board with your offer will present well without a custom build. Confirm your stand specification first, because what you order depends on whether walls and a fascia come with the space.

What should I do next to get ready for the fair?

Two steps, in this order. First, submit an exhibition enquiry through the official Pregnancy & Baby Fair enquiry form and get costs, availability and the exhibitor pack back in writing. Second, pin down your stand specification and the artwork deadline before you order a single graphic, because the difference between a shell scheme and bare floor space changes what you need.

Then talk to us. We have spent more than twenty years producing exhibition graphics for Irish shows, and we can advise on what suits your stand size and quote for roller banners, fabric displays, printed boards, banners and table covers in one go. Get in touch for a quotation with your stand dimensions and dates, and we will tell you what is achievable in the time you have.

Before you travel, check the organiser's site once more for confirmed hall and opening hours, and work through the paired stand checklist so nothing important is sitting in the office on the Saturday morning.

Pregnancy & Baby Fair Dublin: Complete Exhibitor Guide for Maximum Impact