Sizing the merch brief for a Fabrika startup-week stand
For a two-day Tbilisi Startup Summit stand with four to six booth staff split across founder, sales, growth and demo roles, the apparel tier usually runs 22–30 pieces: 8–12 tees for the floor team, 6–8 polos for the senior hosts, 4–6 light layers in case the venue air conditioning runs cold, plus a small reserve of 4 pieces for last-minute setup or teardown shifts. A standard size split — small 25 percent, medium 35 percent, large 25 percent, extra-large 15 percent — covers most founder-team rosters; teams with heavier Caucasus and visiting delegate profiles sometimes shift two sizes up.
The giveaway tier depends on visitor volume. Tbilisi Startup Summit draws a focused founder-and-investor crowd over two days, so most Turkish teams order 400–700 tote bags, 600–1,000 lanyards, 500–700 notebooks and 500–700 pens per show, with reusable bottles running slightly lower because they take up more pack-out space. Lead-capture gifts sit separately — 50–90 power banks or charging cables reserved for investor meetings, founder introductions and growth-marketing leads, not for every scan. VIP and speaker kits usually run 18–35 pieces, hand-delivered by name to hosted investor meetings, top portfolio founders and panel guests.
Reuse and storage are worth planning in advance: any apparel that comes back in clean condition can be redirected to the next regional startup event — Webrazzi in October or PRTechCamp in September — rather than sitting in a warehouse. Most Turkish exhibitors also keep a small permanent buffer at the İstanbul office (10–15 pieces of polos, 30–50 lanyards) for the kind of last-minute invitation that arrives three days before doors open.
Post-show follow-up matters as much as the on-stand programme. A short written recap — which lead-gift items went to which counterparties, which apparel sizes were over- or under-supplied, which giveaways ran short by day two — turns the next Tbilisi Startup Summit brief into a quantitative exercise rather than a guess. Pair the recap with a sample-return from the venue to keep the QC loop tight for the June 2026 cycle. The same data flows into the planning notes for PRTechCamp and the autumn Webrazzi cycle.
Quality control and on-site rehearsal
QC matters more for startup audiences than the brief usually allows. Before the show, run a production-grade sample through a real wash-and-wear cycle — a polo that survives a Fabrika day without pilling or colour-bleed signals quality to an investor who sees branded apparel from every major portfolio company. On the floor, the booth manager should walk the stand every two hours during show days: check the giveaway count, replenish the lead-capture tier, and pull any item that has dust, marks or a print defect into the back-of-house reserve. A small vacuum cleaner and a roll of low-tack tape belong in the kit.