NABCEP 2026: I Lost My Luggage but Found Some Great Leads

Cancelled Flights, Freezing Spray and Why Team SMA Showed Up Anyway

Let me set the scene; cancelled flights, snow, and a weather warning called “freezing spray,” which was apparently as aggressive as it sounds, luggage that decided Milwaukee was not its final destination, and booth materials that ended up in shipping limbo. Pretty solid way to start the week.

Team SMA made it. All of us, by one route or another.

And it was worth it. Session rooms were packed, the show floor stayed busy, and there was steady traffic through the SMA booth all week.  NABCEP 2026 worked out, even if the travel and shipping situation did not exactly cooperate.

I should mention: NABCEP 2026 was my first conference as a member of Team SMA. I have known the brand from the outside for years and respected the reputation it built by making equipment people trust. Seeing that from the inside gave this show a different feel for me. Here is what I noticed.

Two Kinds of Conversations

Traffic at the booth was split pretty cleanly into two categories.

On the lighter end: swag pickups, conference bingo card stamps, quick hellos and the occasional “I remember using SMA on that project back in…” Those conversations were easy and genuinely fun. Also, the SMA swag was the best, confirmed by me and several attendees with excellent taste.

On the heavier end, conversations became very technical.  It was often something like, “Can I have a hat?  Okay, so I have this one project where…” Fortunately, one of the advantages of bringing a deep bench of experts to a show like NABCEP is that we had real answers on the floor, engineers and service specialists who could dig into complex project questions on the spot. That is exactly the kind of support we want to be known for, and those are often the most valuable conversations we have at any show.

What It All Added Up To

• A Quiet Validation of the SMA Brand

What I kept coming back to was this: a lot of the questions added up to a quiet validation of the SMA brand. People were not just stopping by because they recognized the name. In a lot of cases, they were working back through the things they had already associated with SMA and checking whether those things still held up.  The questions were technical, but the process behind them felt familiar each time.  What is new, what does it do, where does it fit, how easy is it to design with and does it still make sense for the kinds of projects I care about?  Standing there answering questions, it felt like you could see those mental boxes getting checked in real time.

Hearing how many people had real history with the brand reinforced that feeling for me. Installers talked about older SMA systems still running strong, systems that have outlived pets, vehicles and probably a few roofs along the way. The trust is still there, even if some folks have explored other options. Notably, there were very few horror stories in the mix, which says something.

• Two Timelines, One Decision

A lot of those conversations also pointed to something bigger. Installers are making product decisions on two timelines at once.

Some of the questions were about the projects right in front of them. FEOC, the dreaded acronym, came up a lot. Domestic content, AHJ challenges, safe harbor, and delivery lead times rounded out the top categories for the immediate concerns.

At the same time, there was a longer-term filter running in the background. People were also trying to evaluate if SMA will still be relevant, reliable, and worth building around years from now. Even when the conversation started with one project, it often pointed to much bigger questions about partnership and direction.

• Battery Storage Drew Real Interest

Storage was clearly part of that longer-term picture. Battery capabilities came up often, and interest felt genuine. People were paying attention to where SMA is headed in storage and whether that lines up with what they are seeing out in the market. That was especially true with SMA launching a new product in that space. It gave people something concrete to react to, and it was one of the clearest signals that storage is not a side topic anymore. It is part of how people are evaluating manufacturers going forward.

Bottom Line

The logistics of the storm was a mess. The weather tried to do its worst.  Yet ultimately, none of that mattered once we were on the floor.

What I walked away with was pretty simple. People still know SMA, still trust what they associate with the brand, and still want to understand where it fits today. That came through over and over again.  SMA continues to carry a name that draws people in, simply by being in the room, and based on how installers talked about their future plans, there is still a clear picture of SMA in the post-ITC landscape.

That last part is me reading between the lines. But after a week in Milwaukee, cancelled flights and all, I am feeling pretty confident about it.