Production briefing before the order hits the workshop
- Dates
- 12–13 June 2026 (two programme days with demo night and VC matching)
- Venue
- Fabrika Tbilisi, a converted Soviet sewing factory turned creative campus in the Vera district
- Audience
- Early-stage founders from Georgia and the South Caucasus, regional accelerators (Genesis AI, SmartHub, Granatus Ventures portfolio), CEE and MENA venture funds, corporate innovation teams, GITA / Innovation & Technology Agency delegation, university entrepreneurship centres, CEE / MENA press
- Operational calendar
- Stand build 11 June, demo night 12 June 20:00, VC matching 13 June, close 18:00, breakdown from 18:00 to 21:00
Tbilisi Startup Summit is the flagship event of the Startup Georgia initiative and the regional gathering that brings together founders from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the wider South Caucasus with CEE and MENA venture funds. The June 2026 edition lands in early summer when Tbilisi's creative campus of Fabrika is at full capacity, with founders pitching from the courtyard terraces and VCs holding office hours in the refurbished sewing-floor rooms. For brand teams the issue is not just printing the artwork: it is coordinating quantities by shift (the audience is heaviest during demo night and lighter during VC matching), pre-labelling by recipient tier (founders, investors, press), avoiding bottlenecks at the Fabrika entrance where badge control is tight, and keeping margin for emergency restock at the stand when tote bags run out before the demo-night pitch rounds.
A typical brief that lands on our desk combines 220 GSM organic-cotton polos and T-shirts with embroidery or screen print of the startup or fund logo, softshell-style light layers for partners walking between the courtyard and the indoor pitches (Tbilisi in June is warm outdoors and cooler inside), caps for outdoor pitches at the Fabrika terraces, and aprons for hospitality staff at the demo-night bar. For high-volume giveaways we usually recommend recycled-cotton tote bags with two-colour screen print, 500 ml stainless-steel bottles with single-colour engraving, A6 notebooks with recycled-paper cover, blue-ink pens with cardboard barrel, thick-ribbon lanyards with metal clip and transparent credential holders for Summit badges. For lead-capture gifts we reserve 5,000–10,000 mAh power banks with integrated cable, wireless chargers, USB-C hubs, cork and bamboo desk sets, and in-ear headphones with charging case — reserved for qualified conversations with founders, investors and corporate innovation leads identified in the exhibitor CRM.
For a Mexican startup attending the Summit as part of a ProMéxico trade mission or a regional accelerator, the stand footprint usually runs smaller than a CEE fund's, and quantities are sized to the booth and the team headcount —typically three to six people plus a morning of matching and a demo night—. The merch distribution follows the same four-allocation pattern: booth apparel sized to the team, high-volume giveaways for the floor, qualified gifts for the conversations that produce a real next step, and a VIP kit for the two or three investors the startup already has a match with before reaching Tbilisi. The usual call for Mexican teams attending Fabrika for the first time is to lift the apparel allocation and trim the VIP kit: the first impression in a room full of founders and funds weighs more than the closing gift.
The Summit calendar leaves little margin: the average founder or fund locks the product list and quantities six weeks before doors open and needs a physical prototype approved four weeks before the June dates to avoid marking errors that get paid in reprints. We usually hold reserved stock in the CDMX hub for recurring pieces (white polos, tote bags, lanyards, bottles) that we can produce and deliver in 7–10 working days; for pieces with bespoke embroidery (startup logo, fund name, portfolio cohort) the window stretches to 10–14 working days. For VIP sets and gift boxes we recommend closing the order 4–5 weeks before so we can present a physical prototype to the client and validate packaging, engraving and personalised card against the live appearance of the brand identity.
The Tbilisi leg is reserved for last-mile and emergency restock: when stock runs out before the demo-night pitch rounds we can ship a top-up from our partner warehouse in the Vera district with guaranteed delivery to Fabrika in under 24 hours. The customs flow for lots arriving from outside Georgia is coordinated with the client's freight forwarder and stays out of our invoice: we deliver the goods with the import customs declaration already processed by the client, ready to enter Fabrika through the courtyard loading dock and be signed for by the named consignee at the stand. The B2B invoice is issued in MXN with 16% IVA added at the day's exchange rate and complemento de pagos filed through SAT, which the Mexican client books against its corporate IVA; the Georgian counterpart of the customer's registration files locally in GEL or USD against its own operation.