2–5 Feb 2027: for four days Barcelona is once again the world capital of professional audiovisual. ISE — Integrated Systems Europe — is the planet’s largest show for AV technology and systems integration, and since it chose Fira Gran Via as its home it has broken record after record: tens of thousands of professionals from more than 150 countries, over one and a half thousand exhibitors and a level of city occupancy only the Mobile World Congress matches. Integrators, display and audio manufacturers, consultants, architects, technology managers of companies, universities, hospitals, stadiums and public bodies, event and broadcast technicians, distributors and sales channels from all over the world meet in the first week of February to see, touch and buy the technology that will run the rooms, buildings and shows of the coming years. And ISE has a characteristic that makes it the most intense show on the calendar for networking: it is made up, mostly, of companies that live on the relationship with their channel, their distributors and their clients, and that spend the week looking after those relationships outside the hall. For an exhibiting brand, an integrator gathering its team or a manufacturer treating its distributors, a corporate event or a team building day sailing in front of the Barcelona skyline is, in the city’s most saturated week, the one invitation nobody else offers. This guide gives you ISE in full — what it is, figures, zones, venue and the week’s logistics — and the way to turn it into your most profitable event of the year.

Plan your boat event during ISE 2027

No-obligation proposal within 48 hours. ISE week is the busiest of the whole winter in Barcelona: the large catamarans for distributor receptions are booked further ahead than at any other show.

Contents:

• What ISE – Integrated Systems Europe is
• Zones and themes: what you see at the show
• Professional AV at its moment
• The venue: Gran Via in the fullest week of winter
• Looking after the channel: distributor, client and team events on a boat
• How to set up your event: slots, capacities and steps
• Practical attendee guide
• Frequently asked questions

What is ISE – Integrated Systems Europe?

Integrated Systems Europe is the world’s leading show for the professional audiovisual and systems-integration industry, organised by Integrated Systems Events, the joint venture of the sector’s two great associations — AVIXA and CEDIA. It was born in Geneva in 2004, grew for more than a decade in Amsterdam and since 2021 has had its home at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue, where it has reached the biggest figures in its history: in its latest editions it has exceeded 85,000 attendees from more than 160 countries and 1,600 exhibitors, filling practically every hall of the venue. The 2027 edition runs from 2 to 5 February, Tuesday to Friday, and confirms Barcelona as the sector’s world capital in the first week of February every year.

The show has three layers. The first is the exhibition, organised by technology zones — displays and visualisation, audio, control and unified communications, digital signage, smart buildings, residential integration, broadcast, live events, lighting and staging — with the great global manufacturers presenting their novelties alongside hundreds of mid-sized companies and start-ups. The second is the conference and training programme, with vertical summits devoted to education, healthcare, retail, hospitality, workspaces, stadiums and entertainment, plus the associations’ certified training. The third is the meetings agenda: manufacturers meeting their distributors and integrators, presentations to end clients, association gatherings and a night-time social life that spreads across the whole city. Programme, exhibitors and registration on the official ISE website.

The attendee profile is the whole AV value chain: systems integrators, who design and install; manufacturers and their sales teams; wholesale distributors; consultants and architects who specify; technology, facilities and communication managers of companies, universities, hospitals, museums, stadiums, hotels and public bodies who buy; event, broadcast and entertainment technicians; and a strong contingent of trade press and creators. An international audience, highly technical and at the same time highly commercial: at ISE it is decided who you will work with during the year.

Zones and themes: what you see at the show

The ISE floor plan — check the official version for each edition — is organised by technology zones that fill entire halls. The visualisation zone, with the large-format LED walls, digital signage and projection solutions that take the show’s photos every year. The audio zone, with manufacturers of sound systems for installation, live and studio, and demos in acoustic rooms. The unified communications and collaboration zone, with hybrid meeting rooms and the platforms connecting offices worldwide. Control and automation, smart buildings, residential integration — the high-end connected home —, broadcast and content production, and live events, with lighting, staging and show technology. Add the innovation and start-up areas, and a programme that every year focuses on artificial intelligence applied to AV, the sustainability of equipment and the end-user experience.

Advice for the attendee: ISE is too big to improvise. Four days are not enough to see it all, so choose your priority zones, close appointments with the manufacturers and distributors that matter to you before you arrive and leave time for the demos that can only be seen live. And plan the social diary too: ISE week has more evening events than any other in Barcelona, and the invitations worth having are sent weeks ahead.

And a note this article develops below: in a sector built on channel relationships — manufacturer, distributor, integrator, client —, the most profitable part of ISE does not happen at the stand but at the event where a brand gathers its distributors, a distributor its integrators or an integrator its clients. Choosing well where that event happens, in the week when the whole city competes for the attention of the same people, is the difference between one more reception and the one that is remembered.

Professional AV at its moment

Professional audiovisual has stopped being a niche sector to become infrastructure: no office, classroom, hospital, shop, stadium, museum or control room works today without displays, sound, videoconferencing and integrated control systems. The shift to hybrid work has multiplied equipped meeting rooms; retail and hospitality have made digital signage and immersive experience a standard; stadiums and entertainment venues compete with LED screens of unprecedented dimensions; and artificial intelligence is starting to manage the image, sound and energy of buildings. All of that is on show at ISE, and all of that is decided in the first week of February.

Barcelona has been, for the sector, a success: the show grew when it moved to the city, and the city has become its annual meeting point. Airport connectivity, the hotel and restaurant offer, February’s climate — mild, sunny most days — and a venue up to the task explain the record attendance edition after edition. But there is a less obvious reason ISE week works so well in Barcelona, and it is the same reason this article exists: it is a business city with the sea inside it. A sector that spends the week looking after its distributors and clients finds here a stage that exists in no other possible host city. Those of us who run exclusive sailing trips in Barcelona have welcomed for years, in the first week of February, the teams of manufacturers and integrators who discovered that the reception on board is the one appointment of the week their distributors do not turn down.

The venue: Gran Via in the fullest week of winter

Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, is one of the largest exhibition complexes in Europe, and ISE fills it almost completely: eight halls linked by a great covered avenue, conference rooms, demo areas and logistics prepared for tens of thousands of daily visitors. Connections are simple — fifteen minutes by taxi from the airport, metro line L9 Sud with no change and stations inside the venue, twenty-five to thirty-five minutes from the centre — but the first week of February demands planning like no other: ISE fills the hotels of Barcelona and its metropolitan area months ahead, prices soar, taxis are scarce at closing time and the restaurants near the venue are booked by the exhibiting companies themselves weeks in advance.

The irony is that of every great show, taken to the maximum: tens of thousands of professionals of visual and sonic experience spend four days in halls where the sky cannot be seen. And twenty minutes away Barcelona’s waterfront begins — Port Vell, Port Olímpic, the line of beaches — from whose sheet of water the whole city is on view in the clean winter light: Torre Glòries, the Sagrada Família, the W, Montjuïc at sunset. For a sector that lives on the image, the best screen of the week is that one. And for an executive who needs a place to gather the thirty people who matter most to their business, it is the hardest room to imitate that exists.

Looking after the channel: distributor, client and team events on a boat

For the show of channel relationships we propose the setting where those relationships are best looked after: a private boat sailing in front of the Barcelona skyline, with your people and nobody else. These are the formats that work best during ISE, and who each one suits:

• The channel meeting or the presentation to key clients. Corporate events on a boat in Barcelona turn the presentation of a range to your distributors, the meeting with your reference integrators or the session with a strategic client into a private event with catering, sound, a screen and the city as backdrop. No shared rooms, no hall noise and the guarantee that your guests have no other appointment like it that week.
• The big distributor reception or the brand’s night. The catamaran for 115 people in Barcelona is the format of ISE’s great receptions: the manufacturer gathering its distributors from all over Europe, the distributor treating its hundred best integrators, the brand celebrating its launch with the press and the channel. Cocktail or dinner, speeches, on-board branding and a staging no hotel room matches. It is the format booked furthest ahead, and therefore the first to sell out.
• The team building of the sales team or the delegation. A day of team building in Barcelona with regattas and nautical activities is the perfect outing for the team that has spent four days at the stand or for an integrator’s delegation travelling to the show together: a friendly regatta between several skippered sailing boats, real coordination, the city in the background and a prize-giving remembered longer than any figure of the week.
• The sunset that closes the show day. A sunset cruise in Barcelona — in early February around six in the evening, with the golden winter light and the city lighting up afterwards — is the way to close the day with the image your guests will take home. We remember the peaks and the endings: if the ending is the skyline from the sea, the whole week stays associated with whoever organised it.

There are two reasons this format works especially well with the ISE crowd. The first is the competition for attention: in show week, every relevant guest receives dozens of invitations to hotel dinners, stand cocktails and brand parties; the invitation to a private boat in front of the city is the one accepted first and the one not forgotten. The second is channel logic: in a sector where the distributor chooses between comparable brands and the integrator between equivalent distributors, the personal relationship decides, and an afternoon on board with your people does more for that relationship than a year of emails. Many of the brands that repeat with us every February do not organise the trip as an extra to the show: it is the central channel action of their week, and the stand is organised around it.

And an idea for exhibiting companies who want to make the event pay to the maximum: use the sector’s own talent. On board there is sound and a screen for a short presentation, and an AV brand that does a product demo on the deck of a catamaran in front of the Sagrada Família is guaranteed the photos and videos its channel will share for months. Content, relationship and memory in the same afternoon.

How to set up your event during ISE: slots, capacities and steps

February in Barcelona is kinder than many visitors expect: highs of 13 to 15 degrees, many sunny days, frequently calm seas and a low, clean winter light that makes any group photograph come out golden. Three slots fit the show agenda best. Midday, the best light and temperature of the day, for a working lunch or a two-hour presentation between blocks of meetings. The mid-afternoon departure, which catches the sunset — around six — and the return to port with the city lit up, the favourite for inviting distributors and clients. And the night departure, with the skyline switched on, for brand receptions and dinners once the venue has closed, with warm clothes and blankets on board for the deck and a comfortable interior for dinner.

As for capacities, the CatVents fleet covers the whole range ISE requires: from the skippered sailing boat for groups of up to eleven — perfect for a management committee or a client meeting — to the 125-guest events catamaran for the big channel reception, via catamarans for 26, 80, 100 and 115 people. All departing from Port Vell or Port Olímpic, with on-board catering adapted to the event’s protocol (from an aperitif to a full dinner), sound and screen for presentations and demos, on-board branding, a photographer if desired and a corporate contract and invoice.

The process is deliberately simple. First, tell us the objective, headcount and preferred slot. Second, within 48 hours you receive a closed proposal of boat, route, catering and price. Third, on confirmation the boat and date are locked, and from then on all you have to do is send the invitations. An honest warning on lead times: ISE week is the busiest of the whole winter in Barcelona and the large catamarans — 100, 115 and 125 seats — are the first to go; for a channel reception, book two months ahead; for small groups, three or four weeks usually suffice. And a figure to put it in perspective: an on-board reception for a hundred distributors usually costs less than the equivalent dinner in a city hotel in the most expensive week of the year, with the difference that on board you have the whole city as backdrop and no competitor in the next room.

Practical attendee guide

Getting there and getting around

From El Prat airport, metro line L9 Sud reaches Fira Gran Via (Fira and Europa | Fira stations) with no change in about twenty minutes; by taxi it is around fifteen, although in ISE week taxis are scarce at peak hours. From the centre, line L1 or the FGC to Plaça d’Espanya and then L9 Sud. If you have a mid-afternoon boat departure, leave the venue with a margin or coordinate the transfer with us: from Gran Via to Port Vell is about twenty minutes.

Where to stay

Plaça d’Espanya and Sants for proximity to the venue; the Eixample for city life; the waterfront — Barceloneta, Vila Olímpica, Poblenou — to have the sea a stroll away and the boarding point ten minutes’ walk from your hotel. ISE sells out Barcelona’s hotels months ahead and the week’s prices are the highest of the winter: book as soon as you have your registration, and if you travel as a team, do it as soon as the dates are announced.

Weather and what to pack

First week of February in Barcelona: highs of 13 to 15 degrees, cold nights around 7, many sunny days and little rain. For the venue, business wear with an outer layer. For the boat, a good coat or windbreaker and, for the sunset, a hat and gloves do not go amiss: there are blankets on board and the interior is comfortable, and the views make up for any missing degree. Comfortable shoes: ISE is measured in kilometres of hall.

How to make the most of the week

Choose your priority zones, close appointments in advance, attend the vertical summits of your field and keep time for the live demos. Plan the social diary weeks ahead: the best invitations of the week are sent early. And save a moment to leave the venue: the real Barcelona is twenty minutes away, and it is the one your guests come to see.

The mistakes worth avoiding

Booking the hotel late and ending up an hour from the venue. Trying to see everything and closing no meeting. Inviting your distributors to the same hotel dinner as every other brand. And the one this article exists to prevent: having your entire channel in Barcelona for four days… and not having booked the boat in time.

Frequently asked questions about ISE 2027 and boat events

When and where is ISE 2027 held?

From 2 to 5 February 2027, Tuesday to Friday, at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue. Programme, exhibitors and registration on the official website iseurope.org.

Which boat-event formats suit ISE best?

Channel receptions — distributors, integrators, press — on catamarans of 100 to 125 seats, meetings and presentations to key clients on board, regatta team building for sales teams and delegations and the sunset cruise as the day’s closing. From 11 to 125 people.

Can we do a product presentation or demo on board?

Yes. The boats have sound and a screen for short presentations and demos, with on-board branding. For specific technical needs, tell us in your request and we will prepare it with the crew.

How far in advance should we book?

For receptions on the large catamarans, two months: it is the busiest week of the winter and they are the first to sell out. For small groups, three or four weeks usually suffice. On confirmation, boat and date are locked.

What if the weather does not cooperate?

We check the forecast with the crew in the days beforehand. If conditions do not guarantee comfortable sailing, the departure moves to another slot or day, or the conditions agreed at booking apply. Without the right conditions we do not sail: your group’s safety comes before any calendar.

Can the boat event double as content for our channel?

That is one of the reasons AV brands like it: a demo or a launch on deck, with the skyline behind, produces photographs and video no stand can. If you tell us the shots you want, we plan the route around them — the Sagrada Família alignment, the W at golden hour, the lit-up port on the way back — and can arrange a photographer or leave the deck free for your own crew.

The best screen of the week is the city from the sea

ISE 2027 will gather for four days the industry that designs how we see and hear the world. Your best decision that week can be simple: gathering the people who matter most to your business — your distributors, your clients, your team — in front of Barcelona’s best screen, the city seen from the water. Tell us what you want to organise during ISE and we will prepare a tailored proposal of boat, slot and catering within 48 hours. AV meets at Gran Via; the event your channel will remember is waiting for you at the harbour.