PBX Europe 2026: Dates, Venue, Hotel, Schedule & What the Co-Founders Told Us

Recap from our September 9, 2026 Show & Tell with Peter Holding and Steve Honeyball, co-founders of Photo Booth Expo London & Europe

PBX Europe 2026 at a glance

• When: Sunday 27 and Monday 28 September 2026. Seminars 9 AM to 1 PM both days. Trade floor 12 to 6 Sunday, 12 to 5 Monday. Networking mixer Sunday 6 to 7:30 PM.
• Venue: SugarFactory, Kristalpromenade 7, 1165 PD Halfweg, Netherlands (map). One-minute walk from Halfweg-Zwanenburg station, 10 minutes by train from Amsterdam Centraal, 15 minutes from Schiphol by car.
• Hotel: Park Inn by Radisson Amsterdam City West, La Guardiaweg 59, Amsterdam. One train stop from the venue, one from the centre. Room block closed; book direct.
• Tickets: tickets.photoboothexpo.eu. Full keypass needed for the seminar floor.
• Schedule and speakers: full timetable further down this page, or photoboothexpo.eu/schedule.
• Pictor: on the floor both days. Nicholas Rhodes opens the seminars Sunday 9:00 and builds a virtual booth live on the Launch Pad Monday 14:00.

Eighteen days before Photo Booth Expo Europe opens in Amsterdam, we sat down with the two people who built it. Most of our Show & Tell audience is American and knows Photo Booth Expo Las Vegas well. Fewer have been to PBX Europe. So we asked the obvious questions: why does it exist, how is it different from PBX Las Vegas, why Amsterdam, and what should someone do before they land.

The short version: same brand family, very different show. PBX Europe was started by two UK operators who got tired of waiting for someone else to do it, then called Rob Savickis at PBX Las Vegas and asked to run it under his name. It moved from London to Amsterdam partly because of Brexit paperwork. It runs seminars in the morning and the trade floor from noon, with a technical “Launch Pad” stage on the floor. And the venue this year is a 150-year-old sugar refinery thirty seconds from a train stop.

Here is what Peter and Steve said, what you can do with it, and where to eat when you get there.

PBX Europe Started Because Nobody Else Was Going to Do It

Peter runs an entertainment company on the south coast of England. Steve has run a DJ company in Surrey for 21 years and added photo booths later. They met properly in a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2018, attending what was then Mobile Beat, and had both been flying to Photo Booth Expo Las Vegas for years.

Before Covid, the UK had a small photo booth show in the middle of the country. “It was nothing in comparison to the scale of Photo Booth Expo Europe,” Peter said. Then two years of Covid, and by 2022 there was no photo booth show anywhere except Las Vegas. “Every now and then we would complain about that. And then one day it dawned on us that maybe we were the ones that needed to do it.”

They wanted a major city, because part of what makes PBX Las Vegas work is Las Vegas. And they wanted the PBX name. “By the time we were talking about this, we knew Rob really well. We got him on a call just like this and floated the idea. Straight away Rob said, yeah, love it, let’s do it.”

So: PBX Europe in London, then PBX London, then a move to the continent. “Where are you going to go in Europe that’s comparable to Las Vegas? There’s only one city really, and that’s Amsterdam.”

Do this: If you have only ever been to PBX Las Vegas, understand that PBX Europe is run by working operators, not an events company. Peter and Steve still book gigs. That shapes what gets on stage.

Brexit Paperwork Is Why the Show Left London

We asked whether Brexit changed who exhibits at PBX London versus PBX Europe. Peter’s answer was blunter than expected.

“It’s all about paperwork. Software companies come from all over and they don’t really mind, they’ll happily go everywhere. But the hardware providers struggled with the whole Brexit thing in the amount of paperwork they had to do.” Moving to mainland Europe meant one set of paperwork for the organisers and none for dozens of exhibitors. “It increases ours, but it decreases theirs.”

That is why the floor in Amsterdam skews more European than London did, and why you see hardware there you will not see in Vegas: DNP and Benel, Fidak, Everybooth, Photo Media Booth, PicBox, Holzwerk, FotoSelfic, Bebooth, alongside the software companies who go everywhere.

Do this: If you want to see European booth hardware in person, Amsterdam is the show. The exhibitor list is public. Pick five stands before you fly.

Why SugarFactory, and Why Not the Strip

Last year’s Amsterdam venue was, in Peter’s words, “essentially an enormous greenhouse.” Great space, too far out. This year the show moves to SugarFactory in Halfweg, a former sugar refinery that has been running since 1863.

Peter’s reasoning was as much about South Point as about Amsterdam. He likes South Point. “You’ve got everything in one place and everybody in one place. If I could take South Point and stick it in Amsterdam, I would.” The Strip would be more glamorous and worse for networking. “When you want to be with somebody, you’re $30 down before you turn around. Whereas in South Point it’ll be five or six dollars.”

SugarFactory gets close to that. “We found a very unusual, very arty building that is going to appeal to creative people. People within the photo booth industry are very business-minded, but very creative. It’s going to be great for socials, TikTok, Instagram, incredible background, and very close to the heart of the city.”

Steve on the logistics: “The train stop is right outside the SugarFactory. You’re not going to walk more than 30 seconds. One stop, you’re at the hotel. Change, one stop, you’re in Amsterdam Centraal, ready for dinner and networking.”

Do this: Stay at the show hotel or one stop away. The whole point of a two-day show is the people you bump into at 11 PM.

Seminars Start at 9 Now Because Everyone Was Out the Night Before

Both days run seminars from 9 AM to 1 PM and the trade floor from noon (Sunday until 6, Monday until 5). We asked why they overlap for an hour instead of running in parallel.

Steve: “That came from last year’s feedback where we started the seminars at 8 and everyone was too early. We were out drinking last night. So we moved to nine and we’ve just got that one hour crossover for the last seminar. But the show starts buzzing straight away.”

Networking is Sunday evening as the floor closes, sponsored by Touchpix. And the night before: “The build day is on the Saturday. Once the venue is closed down for the night, we’ll all be going back to the main hotel and having a networking meetup at the bar.”

Do this: Arrive Saturday. The hotel bar on Saturday night is where the show actually starts.

“You’re Investing in the Bank of You”

We asked what someone should walk away with. Peter’s answer was the best part of the hour.

“It’s what you make it. For me, when I go to a show, I’m there to see new equipment, to talk to the people that make it, the people who do the coding, to have in-depth conversations about how I can use those products in my own business. The other side, and this is the big one for me, is learning new stuff. The seminars, the tech talks, and more importantly the people that you meet, the partnerships, the networking.”

Then a concrete example. Peter’s company ran a Halloween AI activation last year that came entirely out of conversations at a US show. “It was the biggest single event we’d ever been involved in in the photo booth industry. If anybody ever asks me what did you do at Halloween, I’m going to say this is what I did and you should go and do the same thing, because you’re not going to be competition, you’re going to raise the profile of what we’re doing.”

And the line to remember: “Stop thinking of it as this expense. Start thinking of it as investing in yourself, investing in the bank of you. Attend both days, don’t attend one, attend days around it, and then write it off against your tax bill.”

Do this: Before you go, write down one problem in your business you want solved. Ask five people on the floor how they solved it. That is the whole trip.

What to Do Before You Land

Peter’s pre-flight list:

• Read the seminar and Launch Pad schedule on photoboothexpo.eu and decide what you want to see.
• Read the exhibitor list and think about what you need to invest in this year.
• Research the city. “However long you’re there, you’re going to have spare time. Think about what you’d like to do so you end up using that time well.”
• Go with an open mind. “I might have no interest in something somebody is exhibiting at that time. But it is really useful to know it’s there and what it does. I was asked today about a service we don’t do, and straight away it’s, well, we don’t have that, but I know where I can get it.”

Nicholas added one: if there is a speaker or exhibitor you want time with, email them before you fly and put a coffee on the calendar. Everyone is busy on the floor. Nobody is busy at 8 AM in the hotel lobby.

Do this: Message two people this week. Not “see you there.” A time and a place.

One Day or Two? Both.

“No choice,” Peter said. His background is corporate, where you are expected to plan your own development each year. “I’ve always seen these shows as absolutely vital, part of the business. If I look back at each show that I’ve been to, I’ve then gone on to earn significantly more money as a result.”

Nicholas’s math: a day of one-hour coffees is eight people. Two days plus the Saturday and Sunday nights is the only way to meet the people who flew in from somewhere you have never been. Last year that included an operator from Trinidad who came to research and buy his entire first business, and a hotel group from the Maldives. “The Maldives is an area that might not think about going to Vegas,” Peter said. “That’s that extra step.”

Every Keynote, and Who It’s For

Peter walked through the seminar programme. Our summary, his framing.

Sunday 27 September

• 9:00, Nicholas Rhodes, Pictor. AI tools for running your photo booth business. Not the booth itself, the business behind it: quoting, pricing (start with the hourly rate calculator), follow-up, the admin that eats your week. Nicholas opened the show last year and is doing it again.
• 10:00, Ursula McKinley, Photo Booth Marketing. “A hugely dynamic marketeer. She will stand on the stage and add value whether you’re a member of her business or not.”
• 11:00, Mark Hennings, Simple Booth. “More within the equipment field. Equipment in our industry changes rapidly. I’m seeing booths in bars now that are just a disc. Mark will help us get a handle on that.”
• 12:00, Anthony Stears, The Telephone Assassin. “Once you get somebody on the phone, that’s where you make or break that booking. Steering the conversation the way you want, that’s what Anthony is about.”

Monday 28 September

• 9:00, Reijo Loik, PortrAI. AI in action, what’s actually working at live events. “It’s going to be great to hear from somebody else what’s going on in the event world live, what works and what doesn’t.”
• 10:00, Becca Pountney. Marketing your photo booth business in a theme-park world. “She takes marketing, which we all think of as this big ugly difficult thing, and makes it really simple. You come away thinking, I know what I’m going to do now.”
• 11:00, Ismail Humet, Digiperia. How to grow a business that doesn’t depend on you. “We’d rather have a business you can walk away from. That is the difference between a business and a job.”
• 12:00, Damir Ismailovski, Digiperia. The visibility crisis: why great photo booth companies stay invisible. “How you make sure you’re seen by the right people, by the right companies, in order to flourish.”

Main Stage vs Launch Pad

The Launch Pad is the second stage, on the trade floor, afternoons only. Peter on the difference: “Seminars are very much, here’s some information, here’s some things you can take away and go do. The Launch Pad is more of a technical, in-depth conversation. Smaller, more intimate, you can gather around people who are specialists in their field, and it’s a two-way conversation. You can ask questions as it’s going along.”

Launch Pad line-up: Juan Carbonell of Touchpix on AI photos for events; Becca Pountney on turning conference time into bookings; Al and Joe Charpentier of Picture Mosaics and SketchBot; Tim Carr of Booth.Events on dynamic AI experiences; Ursula McKinley on wedding pricing; and Nicholas building a virtual photo booth live, start to finish.

Nicholas on why he likes the format: when Pictor launched AI photo booths Coming soon in 2023, nobody knew what they were, and a lot of the vocabulary that made sense to the people who built it made no sense to operators. “When someone raises their hand and says, what do you mean by that, I think to myself, I’m the dummy. Of course, that’s a better way of explaining it.”

Do this: Pick one Launch Pad session and sit in the front. Ask the question you would be embarrassed to ask on a sales call.

PBX Europe 2026: Dates, Venue, Hotel, Tickets, Schedule

Everything an attendee googles, in one place. Verified against photoboothexpo.eu on September 9, 2026; the organisers’ site is the final word.

Dates: Sunday 27 and Monday 28 September 2026.

Venue: SugarFactory, Kristalpromenade 7, 1165 PD Halfweg, Netherlands. A former sugar refinery, in operation 1863 to 1992, between Amsterdam and Haarlem.

Getting there: Train to Halfweg-Zwanenburg station, then a one-minute walk. From Amsterdam Centraal it is a direct 10-minute ride, four trains an hour. From Schiphol, train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk and change to the local train towards Haarlem, about 20 minutes total. By car, 15 minutes from Schiphol via the A4, A5 and A200, with on-site parking. Buses 80 and 161 stop at Halfweg-Zwanenburg.

Hotel: Park Inn by Radisson Amsterdam City West, La Guardiaweg 59, one train stop from the venue and one from the city centre. The show’s room-rate block has closed, so book direct.

Tickets: A full keypass is required for the seminar floor. Buy at tickets.photoboothexpo.eu. If you were in our live session, five pairs are being given away; see the end of this post.

Schedule, Sunday 27 September

Schedule, Monday 28 September

Two 16:00 Launch Pad slots and the Monday 12:00 keynote were still listed as “coming soon” when we checked. The official schedule has the latest.

Exhibitors (35 listed): Pictor, Touchpix, Simple Booth, Booth.Events, Breeze, Curator, StoryFace, Snap360, BoothBook, EMP Booth, DNP and Benel, sharingbox, Fidak, Everybooth, PicBox, Photo Media Booth, Holzwerk, OrcaVue, Selfiebot, FotoSelfic, AI SketchBot, Activation King, SpotMyPhotos, Selfie Wizard, Phoneogram, Bebooth, Photo Booth SEO, BoothWebsite, Photo Booth Marketing, BoothActive, Panda Props, The Boothers, and more on the exhibitor page.

Where to Find Pictor at PBX Europe

Pictor is on the show floor both days. If you have only seen the software on a Show & Tell, this is the weekend to put your hands on it.

• Sunday 9:00, main stage. Nicholas opens the seminar programme with AI tools for running your photo booth business.
• Monday 14:00, Launch Pad. Nicholas builds a complete virtual photo booth live, from blank event to a QR code guests can scan, and shows how OutSnapped sells them to trade-show clients.
• The stand, both days. Pictor V2, which most people will see for the first time in Amsterdam. Bring a real client brief and we will build it with you on the stand. Iva from our team is there too.

Not going? You can build the same thing from your desk. Start a free Pictor account, no card required, and bring your questions to next Wednesday’s Show & Tell. If you run a specific kind of business, the Pictor for operators pages show what the software does for weddings, corporate, agencies and 360 booths.

The Amsterdam List

Nicholas promised this on air. Everyone’s picks, no affiliations.

• Nicholas: Stacks Diner for breakfast. La Condesa, a tiny taqueria where Nicholas, who is a lot taller on camera than in real life, felt tall. Huis Marseille, Amsterdam’s museum for photography, in two canal houses.
• Peter: The Anne Frank House. “I’m not a massive museum person. But it was one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
• Steve: A restaurant with a car parked in the middle of it. Name to follow when Steve remembers it.
• The canal cruise: Last year’s group cruise was, per Peter, “so popular we were all jammed onto this thing, we couldn’t walk around and talk to each other, and it was quite dark.” Steve: “By the time we got to the end, I don’t think anyone really cared.” Do one anyway. Nicholas’s recommendation is a small boat with Those Dam Boat Guys, less touristy, twelve people, not two hundred.

What Each of Us Is Looking Forward To

Iva from our team asked what a first-timer should not miss, so we each picked one thing.

Nicholas: Ursula’s talk, because it means his is over. And showing people Pictor V2 for the first time. “Most people are going to see it for the first time at PBX Europe.”

Peter: “I’m a networking person. It’s that networking straight after the big session on the Sunday evening. By that point we’re 50% of the way through the show, and if I’m standing and chatting to people and I’m still alive, I’m halfway there.”

Steve: “I always like to go and do something local. I’ll do the seminars, I’ll do the networking, but I always like to go and explore the local town.”

PBX Europe FAQ

What is the difference between PBX Europe and PBX Las Vegas?

Same brand, different organisers and a different show. Photo Booth Expo Las Vegas is run by Rob Savickis’s team at South Point, with a trade floor of around 80,000 square feet. PBX Europe is run by Peter Holding and Steve Honeyball, two working UK operators, under licence from PBX, with the Vegas team closely involved. It is smaller, runs seminars in the morning and the floor from noon, and the exhibitor mix is more European, especially in hardware.

When and where is PBX Europe 2026?

Sunday 27 and Monday 28 September 2026 at SugarFactory, Kristalpromenade 7, Halfweg, Netherlands. It is a direct train from Amsterdam Centraal to Halfweg-Zwanenburg, about ten minutes, and the venue is a thirty-second walk from the station. Tickets are at tickets.photoboothexpo.eu.

Why did Photo Booth Expo Europe move from London to Amsterdam?

Two reasons, per the co-founders. Amsterdam is the only European city comparable to Las Vegas as a destination. And after Brexit, hardware exhibitors faced heavy paperwork to ship into the UK. Moving the show to mainland Europe put that paperwork on the organisers instead of on dozens of exhibitors.

Is PBX Europe worth it for a US photo booth operator?

Peter’s answer is yes, and both days. You see hardware and software that does not exhibit in Vegas, meet operators from markets you will not meet at South Point, and the content (AI, marketing, pricing, delegation) is universal. Amsterdam is a direct flight from the US East Coast. Peter’s framing: “You’re investing in the bank of you.”

What is the Launch Pad at PBX Europe?

A second stage on the trade floor, afternoons only, for smaller, technical, two-way sessions where you can ask questions while the presenter builds or demonstrates. The main stage seminars run 9 AM to 1 PM; the Launch Pad runs from 1 PM. Tim Carr, Ursula McKinley, Juan Carbonell, Becca Pountney, Al and Joe Charpentier and Nicholas Rhodes are on it this year.

When is Photo Booth Expo Las Vegas 2027?

Photo Booth Expo Las Vegas runs February 8 to 10, 2027 at South Point Hotel, Las Vegas, with a trade floor of around 80,000 square feet and attendees from more than 60 countries. Key passes are sold at tickets.photoboothexpo.com. Pictor exhibits there as well; our recap of Photo Booth Expo 2026 covers what the Las Vegas show looks like from the floor.

Where is the PBX Europe 2026 venue and how do I get there from Schiphol?

SugarFactory, Kristalpromenade 7, Halfweg, Netherlands. From Schiphol Airport, take a train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk, change to the local train towards Haarlem, and get off at Halfweg-Zwanenburg, about 20 minutes total. The venue is a one-minute walk from the station. By car it is 15 minutes with on-site parking.

Which hotel is closest to PBX Europe 2026?

The show hotel is Park Inn by Radisson Amsterdam City West, La Guardiaweg 59. It is one train stop from SugarFactory and one stop from Amsterdam Centraal. The discounted room block has closed; book directly.

What is the PBX Europe 2026 schedule?

Seminars run 9 AM to 1 PM on both days and need a full keypass. The trade floor is open 12 to 6 on Sunday and 12 to 5 on Monday. Launch Pad sessions run on the floor from 1 PM. The networking mixer is Sunday 6 to 7:30 PM. Full timetable above and on photoboothexpo.eu/schedule.

Who is speaking at PBX Europe 2026?

Main stage: Nicholas Rhodes (Pictor), Ursula McKinley (Photo Booth Marketing), Mark Hennings (Simple Booth), Anthony Stears, Reijo Loik (PortrAI), Becca Pountney, Ismail Humet and Damir Ismailovski (Digiperia). Launch Pad: Juan Carbonell (Touchpix), Becca Pountney, Al and Joe Charpentier (Picture Mosaics), Tim Carr (Booth.Events), Ursula McKinley and Nicholas Rhodes.

What should I do before I go to a photo booth expo?

Read the schedule and pick your sessions. Read the exhibitor list and pick five stands. Research the city so your free time is not wasted. Email two people you want to meet and put a time on the calendar. Arrive the night before the floor opens; the hotel bar is where the show starts.

Watch the Replay

The full session, about 54 minutes, is at the top of this page. It is also on YouTube with chapters if you want to jump straight to the keynote walkthrough or the Amsterdam list.

If you were in the room live, the giveaway form for five pairs of PBX Europe keypasses and your 50 free AI tokens is here: forms.gle/yqQkzPV5ym2u8HKw5. Winners are drawn Friday 11 September. Tokens land within 24 hours.

Find the show at photoboothexpo.eu and on Instagram at @pbxeurope. Find Nicholas and the Pictor team on the floor both days, Sunday 9 AM on the main stage, Monday 2 PM on the Launch Pad. Bring him a coffee at 8:45.

Join Us Next Week

(Almost) every Wednesday at 1 PM ET we host a live Show & Tell: real operators, real projects, chat open the whole time. RSVP free for the next Show & Tell →

If you are heading to Amsterdam, or Las Vegas in February, the pricing conversation from last month is the one to read on the plane: $681 Is Below the Floor: How to Price Your Photo Booth Services.