Powered Now at PestTech 2026: The view from our stand
A day well spent in Milton Keynes
We’ve exhibited at PestTech before, so we had a good idea of what to expect when we arrived on Wednesday 4 November. Even so, this year still managed to impress.
The Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes was busy from the moment the doors opened, and it stayed that way. What struck me most wasn’t the size of the crowd, though, it was the kind of people in it. These weren’t visitors wandering the aisles collecting free pens. They were technicians and business owners who had come to learn something, pick up their CPD points and talk shop with people who understand their work.
It’s also one of the friendliest shows we do. There’s a real community feel to PestTech, where competitors chat over a coffee, old colleagues catch up and newcomers are welcomed straight in. Visitors stop by for a proper conversation rather than a quick look, and the NPTA team make everyone, exhibitors included, feel part of it.
For us, that’s the best kind of audience. We spend a lot of time thinking about the admin side of running a trade business, and pest controllers had plenty to say about it.
What pest controllers told us
The best part of any show is the conversations, and PestTech gave us plenty. Some were familiar faces from previous years, or customers who already use Powered Now and wanted to say hello. Others were meeting us for the first time and were curious why a job management company was at a pest control event.
What really made the day for us was catching up with so many of our loyal customers. It’s always good to hear how they’re getting on, and how we can add even more new features for them.
A couple of conversations stuck with me. One customer told us he now sends invoices from the van before he drives off, which has cut down the time he spends chasing payments. Another said she now does her quotes before leaving the property, instead of at the kitchen table that evening.
Then there was David, who has been using Powered Now Receptionist to answer his calls while he’s out on jobs. He reckons it has picked up over £1,000 of work he would otherwise have missed. Hearing that kind of thing first hand is a big part of why we keep coming back.
It was a good reminder of how much of this trade still runs on the phone. Pest control calls are almost always urgent, and a caller who can’t get through will usually just try someone else.
Work that doesn’t stay in signal
If there’s one thing I took away from the day, it’s how varied pest control work is. Nobody rings a pest controller to book something for next month. They ring because there are wasps by the back door, rats in a restaurant kitchen or bed bugs in a hotel room, and they want someone now.
And those jobs rarely happen anywhere convenient. Pest controllers spend their days on remote farms, in barns and outbuildings, in basements, plant rooms and lofts, and on industrial sites where a mobile signal is a luxury. Several visitors told us their biggest frustration with software is that it simply stops working the moment the bars disappear.
So it was no surprise that working offline came up a lot on our stand. Being able to finish a job’s notes and photos with no signal, and have everything sync later, matters far more in pest control than in most trades.
Beyond that, most questions were the everyday ones: quoting, invoicing and keeping on top of jobs and staff.
Thank you, and see you next year
A show like PestTech doesn’t happen by accident, so a big thank you to the NPTA team for putting on such a well run, friendly event. It’s clear how much effort goes into making the day useful for everyone, whether you’re there to learn, to buy or, like us, to listen.
And thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand, whether for a demo or just a chat. Those conversations will shape what we build next, because the best ideas we have usually come from tradespeople telling us what’s getting in their way.
We left Milton Keynes with a notebook full of feedback, plenty of new contacts alongside the old ones, and every intention of coming back. See you at PestTech 2027.
Benjamin Dyer is CEO and co founder of Powered Now, the job management app for UK trade businesses.
