IBTM Ignite Returns to IBTM World 2026 to Connect Investors with Emerging Event Tech Startups
IBTM Ignite will return to IBTM World 2026 to connect investors with emerging event industry businesses The programme combines investment-readiness support, live pitching and structured introductions aimed at helping young companies turn promising ideas into commercial opportunities
Delivered with growth consultancy and M&A specialist allpoints, the initiative has helped participating businesses secure 3.5 million pounds, equivalent to 4.7 million dollars, in investment to date. Thirty qualified start-ups are taking part this year.
Among the participants are Gianluca Sordano, chief executive and co-founder of Always Friday, and Shelby Crisan, founder of KNO Events. Sordano indicated that corporate events are still planned and delivered at a slower pace than the wider changes in the industry, and that Always Friday was started to address that gap by combining technology, artificial intelligence and event expertise. He said the aim is to make organising a corporate event feel as simple and fast as using other modern services.
Crisan described the events industry as being at an inflection point, noting that while what is created for attendees has become highly sophisticated, back-office teams still run large-budget events with spreadsheets, email chains and disconnected systems. After two decades producing events, she built KNO Events because she believes the operational side of the industry deserves better.
Sordano explained that a company should be able to state its needs and reach a finished event faster than is possible today, either through a self-service platform or with the Always Friday team handling the event end to end. He said artificial intelligence handles a large part of the work in researching options, managing requests, coordinating people and advancing the event. The company also works with venues, helping them identify and act on suitable opportunities and benefit from requests they cannot take on themselves.
Crisan said KNO Events is building infrastructure beneath the event where constantly changing operational data lives, spanning budgets, room blocks, food and beverage, contracted spaces and vendors. The platform gives planners an overview of their entire event portfolio, which she likened to adding a teammate who knows every detail of every event, understands what needs attention next and can help decide what to do.
IBTM World will host the first public demonstration of Always Friday, giving the company a chance to meet potential partners and build industry connections. Sordano noted that building relationships across an established industry from scratch is difficult for a young company, and that programmes such as Ignite shorten the distance by putting founders in the same room as investors and industry leaders who would otherwise take much longer to reach.
Crisan said feedback and relationship-building are equally important. She noted that founders become very close to what they are building, and that while investment potential is exciting, the relationships and perspectives gained from the programme matter just as much. She said a single introduction can lead to a customer, partnership, investor or an entirely new opportunity, and that at this stage such conversations can genuinely change a company’s trajectory.
Crisan also observed that some of the best ideas come from people who have spent years thinking there must be a better way, but that having a great idea and building a scalable company around it are very different things. She said programmes like Ignite help bridge that gap by connecting founders with customers, mentors, visibility and capital, and that more innovation in events requires creating opportunities for early ideas to succeed rather than only celebrating ideas once they are successful.
More than 15 investors are expected to attend IBTM Ignite. Sordano said investment gives a company the ability to move faster, but that the people behind the investment can be just as important. He noted that Always Friday is building in a large and complex market, and that investors who understand technology, marketplaces and service businesses can help the company make better decisions as it scales.
Crisan agreed that access to investment can change the speed at which a company moves, describing how founders constantly weigh trade-offs such as which feature to build, when to hire and when to enter a market. She said investment can turn some of those either-or decisions into both, and that access matters because investors push founders to look beyond the next feature or customer and consider how big the business could become.
Claire Grecian, founder and chief executive of Circle Agency and one of the participating investors, said the industry thrives on fresh thinking and that the best new ideas deserve a real route to capital, mentorship and profile. She said she wanted to be part of IBTM Ignite to meet founders reinventing how people are connected at events and how live experiences are measured. She added that artificial intelligence will be a significant part of that, from planning and operations to making events bolder, more personalised, accessible and innovative, while always serving the purpose of bringing people together in person.
Selected Ignite founders will receive investment-readiness training before presenting their businesses live on the Future Stage at IBTM World, where investors and audiences can respond and provide feedback. Sordano said that building something which changes an established process requires explaining it simply, and that preparing the pitch forces clarity about the problem being solved, why the timing is right and what has been learned from customers. He said the most valuable part is hearing the questions, since differing views from investors, venue operators or event professionals can change how the product and the company’s direction are considered.
Crisan said she knows the event industry and its operational problems from experience and has a clear vision for what KNO Events will become. She said having people challenge how the opportunity and the larger vision are communicated, and then being able to take that story directly to investors, is extremely valuable.
Sordano said IBTM Ignite offers a chance to position Always Friday within the meetings and events industry, noting that IBTM World brings together corporate buyers, venues, agencies, suppliers and technology companies. He said the company already has customers using Always Friday for their events, making the event a chance to show a model already being tested in the real world.
Crisan said Ignite adds an important layer by bringing investors into the conversation, creating an intersection of people who experience the problem, people building new solutions and people who can help those solutions scale. She said that is exactly where she wants KNO Events to be as it seeks to change how event teams work.
IBTM Ignite will run across all three days of IBTM World 2026, which takes place from November 17 to 19 at Fira Gran
