Merch for ICE Barcelona and iGB Affiliate: when to order and how to get it to your team

ICE Barcelona and iGB Affiliate Barcelona take place every January in the same week. Send your merch brief by mid-November; early December is the last call. Have everything made within the EU so nothing goes through customs, and deliver it to a named person at your hotel, not to the venue.

Two events, one order

ICE Barcelona and iGB Affiliate Barcelona run in the same city in the same week, and many companies send one team to both. Place one order: one brief, one production run, one delivery to the hotel. Then split the stock between the booth and the people who walk the floor at iGB Affiliate.

Why the deadline is in early December

Two things push the deadline earlier. First, mid-October to December is the busiest season for European manufacturers, so lead times get longer and prices rise. Second, Spain has only a few official days off over Christmas, but in practice many businesses slow down from about 20 December to 2 January. Take out those two weeks, count four weeks of production back from mid-January, and you land in late November or early December. That's why we recommend a brief in November and treat early December as the last call. Exact dates for the coming season are in our conference calendar.

Where your merch is made

Everything for Barcelona is made inside the EU, so nothing crosses a customs border. That doesn't always mean production in Spain. The EU is one customs zone, and each item is made where it is made best. We work with manufacturers and warehouses in Czechia, Poland, France, Belgium and other countries. Some products go straight from the factory to Barcelona. Custom items usually go through our warehouse in Czechia first, to be checked.

For StarCrown at iGB in Barcelona, the branded balloons were made and delivered in Spain, other items came from a second EU country, and standard products were collected in Czechia. The team briefed us about six weeks before the event. Production was finished three weeks before, and several shipments arrived at one hotel before the booth opened.

Customs, VAT and luggage

Because production stays inside the EU, there are no import duties and no clearance delays. VAT is handled in the delivery region. This matters most for companies based outside the EU: shipping boxes in from the UK, Turkey or Dubai means customs paperwork, waiting time and fees that are rarely in the budget.

The same applies to what your team packs. Business development teams often carry gifts in their suitcases. For Confluence Agency, we chose items that fit in a backpack, cost little per piece and pass airport security.

Delivery in Barcelona

• Hotel, not venue. Booths are usually built the day before opening. Organisers can accept parcels, but they often charge for storage and don't take responsibility for them.
• A named recipient from your team, who knows the boxes are coming.
• A Spanish phone number on the shipment. Couriers call. If nobody answers, they leave.
• Arrival a few days early. Plan delivery for when your team checks in, not for the last evening before the show.

What to bring to the booth

At ICE, every booth competes for the same visitors. Bright, limited pieces bring people in: StarCrown's neon space concept with holographic bags and bright pillows did exactly that. We've also seen companies order capsule collections from local designers for events in Spain and Portugal. Yet what visitors took from those booths were thermo mugs and everlasting pencils. Plan both: a few pieces worth photographing, and enough useful items for everyone who stops by.

After Barcelona

The next event in Spain is TES Affiliate Conference in Seville in March. It's the same customs zone, so the same approach applies. If you attend several events a year, we can plan the whole season at once.