IBTM Ignite Gives Event Tech Start-ups a Route to Scale

As event technology evolves, a new generation of start-ups is targeting the operational inefficiencies that persist behind increasingly sophisticated live experiences. Returning to IBTM World in November, IBTM Ignite will connect emerging businesses with investors, industry leaders and potential partners, helping turn promising ideas into scalable solutions.

Closing the Gap Between Innovation and Operations

The meetings and events industry has become adept at creating sophisticated experiences for attendees. Yet many of the processes supporting those experiences remain fragmented, with teams relying on spreadsheets, email chains and disconnected systems to manage complex events. For a growing number of entrepreneurs, this gap represents an opportunity to rethink how the industry works.

“The events industry is changing quickly, but the way corporate events are planned and delivered has not changed at the same pace,” says Gianluca Sordano, CEO and Co-Founder of Always Friday. “We started Always Friday to change that. We combine technology, AI and event expertise to make the whole process much faster. The goal is to make organising a corporate event feel as simple and fast as using any other modern service.”

Always Friday is developing a platform designed to accelerate corporate event planning, whether clients prefer to organise events themselves or have the company manage the process from beginning to end. Artificial intelligence supports tasks including researching options, handling requests and coordinating people. The platform also works with venues, helping them identify suitable opportunities and benefit from requests they may not be able to fulfil directly.

Shelby Crisan (right side), Founder of KNO Events, approaches the same challenge from the perspective of operational management. Drawing on twenty years of event production experience, she founded the company to address the complexity behind the scenes.

“I think the events industry is at an inflection point. We’ve become incredibly sophisticated in what we create for attendees, but behind the scenes, teams are still running multimillion-dollar events with spreadsheets, email chains and systems that don’t talk to each other. After 20 years producing events, I built KNO Events because I believe the operational side of our industry deserves better.”

KNO Events is developing infrastructure that brings together the constantly changing data underpinning an event portfolio, from budgets and room blocks to food and beverage, contracted spaces and vendors. Its aim is to give planners a clearer overview of their operations and help them identify what requires attention.

Shelby describes the concept as “adding a teammate who knows every detail of every event, understands what needs your attention next, and can help you figure out what to do about it.”

From Promising Idea to Commercial Opportunity

For early-stage companies, developing a solution is only one part of the challenge. Building relationships, finding customers and securing the resources needed to grow can be equally demanding, particularly in an established industry with complex networks and long-standing ways of working.

This is the gap IBTM Ignite seeks to address. Delivered in partnership with growth consultancy and M&A specialist allpoints, the programme combines investment-readiness support, live pitching and structured introductions to investors and industry leaders. It has helped participating businesses secure £3.5 million in investment to date.

For Always Friday, IBTM World 2026 will also mark the first public demonstration of its platform. Sordano (on the right) sees the event as an opportunity to establish connections across the meetings industry and reach potential partners.

“It is difficult for a young company to build relationships across an established industry from scratch,” he says. “Programmes like Ignite shorten that distance. They put founders in the room with investors and industry leaders who would otherwise take much longer to reach.”

Crisan is equally interested in the perspectives and relationships the programme can unlock. While investment is an important consideration, she believes the right introduction can lead to a customer, a partnership or an entirely new opportunity.

“Some of the best ideas come from people who have spent years thinking, ‘There has to be a better way to do this.’ But having a great idea and building a scalable company around it are very different things,” she says. “Programmes like Ignite help bridge that gap by connecting founders with customers, mentors, visibility and capital. If we want more innovation in events, we can’t just celebrate new ideas once they’re successful, we have to create opportunities for early ideas to become successful.”

Investment Beyond the Capital

More than fifteen investors are expected to attend IBTM Ignite, bringing financial resources alongside experience, industry knowledge and professional networks. For founders navigating decisions about product development, recruitment and market expansion, that combination can influence how quickly a business progresses.

“Investment gives a company the ability to move faster,” says Sordano. “But the people behind that investment can be just as important. For Always Friday, we are building in a large market with a lot of complexity. Investors who understand technology, marketplaces and service businesses can help us make better decisions as we scale.”

Crisan sees investment as a way to expand the choices available to founders. “Access to investment can completely change the speed at which a company moves. Founders are constantly making trade-offs. Do we build this feature or that one? Hire this person or wait? Enter this market now or next year? Investment can turn some of those ‘or’ decisions into ‘and’.”

She also values the perspective investors can bring to strategic planning, encouraging founders to look beyond immediate product and customer priorities and consider the scale of the opportunity they are pursuing.

Claire Grecian (right side), Founder and CEO of Circle Agency and one of the investors taking part, sees the programme as a way to connect fresh thinking with the support needed to develop it.

“Our industry thrives on fresh thinking, and the best new ideas deserve a real route to capital, mentorship and profile. That's why I wanted to be part of IBTM Ignite. I'm keen to meet founders reinventing how we connect people at events and how we measure what live experiences really deliver. AI will be a big part of that, from smarter planning and operations to making events bolder, more personalised, accessible and generally more innovative, but always in service of why we're there in the first place: being together, in person.”

Making the Case to Investors

Selected founders will receive investment-readiness training before pitching live on IBTM World's Future Stage. The process is intended to help entrepreneurs articulate the problem they are solving, explain why their solution is timely and demonstrate what they have learnt from customers.

For Sordano, the questions raised by investors and industry professionals are as valuable as the pitch itself. Different perspectives can challenge assumptions and influence how a product develops.

Crisan likewise welcomes the opportunity to refine how she communicates KNO Events’ potential. Having direct experience of the operational problems the company addresses gives her a clear understanding of its purpose, but presenting that vision compellingly to investors requires a different set of skills.

The wider IBTM World environment adds another dimension. Bringing together corporate buyers, venues, agencies, suppliers and technology companies, it offers start-ups access to the people who shape the events ecosystem. Always Friday already has customers using its platform, and Sordano sees the show as an opportunity to demonstrate a model being tested in practice.

For Crisan, Ignite’s value lies in bringing together the people who understand the problem, those developing solutions and those capable of helping them grow. That intersection, she argues, is where new ideas can begin to become viable businesses.

IBTM Ignite will run across all three days of IBTM World 2026, taking place at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona from 17 to 19 November 2026.
 

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