Chris Humphries, our Commercial Manager, documents his jet-setting start to 2026 as the face of FTD Digital.
It’s only the middle of February 2026 and I feel like we have done so much already this year.
In January, I headed off to Barcelona for the IGB Conference, where it was a full on two days of meetings. I was quite looking forward to getting a few days of “winter sun” out in Barcelona, but the weather out there was just as bad as it has been here – constant rain!
The metro system in Barcelona is usually very good and simple. It’s so simple, even I don’t mind using it and will happily ditch my trusty Ubers to use the trains. However, this week of the conference was the same week that Barcelona had a derailment, two days after Southern Spain rail had its derailment. This meant trains weren’t as frequent and in some instances, stopped altogether.
This meant that Uber were “cashing in” and hiking their prices up more than usual during conference week. This all meant that evening networking events were slightly thin on the ground, with most groups of people opting to go out and have nice restful meals with a few colleagues/partners/clients. On the Wednesday night, I was taken out by two partners to an amazing traditional fish restaurant in the centre of town. The food was amazing, as was the red wine that flowed well all evening.
For the most part, the conference itself was the usual well-oiled machine that you’d expect from IGB. Unfortunately this year, the affiliate halls within the conference were set right at the back of the exhibition, where you had to walk past empty halls to get to the affiliate section. By the time we all made it to the entrance, we’d all got our steps in for the day!
The affiliate section was also held over two floors, which made it interesting trying to keep to meeting schedules, especially if you had to exit the conference hall, find the escalators, then go up/down accordingly.
It certainly kept us all on our toes.
It was also quite interesting that the top floor that housed the affiliate bar was probably 5x busier than the ground floor. One can assume thats just the “pull” of the bar and party atmosphere!
Two days after arriving back home from IGB Barcelona, I was packing again. This time I was heading to the Isle of Man, where our CEO Luke Creigh is now based.
As a business, we have lots of different projects going on, all at different stages. As great as working remotely is, there are times where you just can’t beat a “face to face” brain-storming and organising session.
This was my first time visiting the Isle Of Man; it’s only a 30 minute flight from Manchester and thankfully the weather was being kind. However, by the time I landed and then got to the hotel, Storm Chandra showed her ugly head!
My hotel, also a casino (where else would I stay?), was on the sea front, about 50 metres from the shoreline. But when I arrived, the sea had flooded the carpark!
For the 3 nights I was there, the storm was in full force, so my plans for island sight seeing were abolished.
Work wise, we managed to organise all our projects, come up with a strategy and feed this out to our team. It was really productive and we couldn’t have got all of this completed in the same amount of time if using MS Teams/Google Meets. As much as I love working remotely and I will never work in an office again, there is something to be said for certain meetings to be held face-to-face.
Reflecting on the 3 crazy weeks above now, I’ve just realised that I am yet to get the “conference cold.” This is a common side effect that most of us get a few days after a conference. The stress of planning the conference, the long days, the longer nights, the sheer speed we’re all working at, plus being so close to thousands of people, is just perfect for us all to get a cold when we have returned home and decompressed.
But, I didn’t have time to decompress, I was straight off to Isle Of Man. I wonder if that quick turnaround is what has helped keep the cold away?
My busy January/February doesn’t end there. One week after Isle Of Man trip, I was booking my hotel for a weekend in London, where myself and our CEO Luke were being taken out by one of our partners to watch the Arsenal v Sunderland match, with the full hospitality experience at Arsenal. I am not that big on football, but our CEO is an avid Arsenal fan, so he was very pleased and extremely excited about this day out that I had organised with our partners.
Living up North means that getting to London isn’t just a quick train down. It’s a mammoth journey down in a car to get to civilisation, then a train or two to get into the City (or in this case Arsenal stadium). I find it works really well if I drive down the M1 all the way to Edgware, then stay at the Premier Inn there. It’s only a stone’s throw from the Northern line, where I can then easily get to most places in London.
Back to the match itself, I was praying that Arsenal would win as I knew that would help the vibe for the rest of the day, being surrounded by Arsenal fans. Thankfully, they won 3-0, and two of the goals happened in the second half where we were seated so close to the action with great views!
Having such great seats to watch the match and also being 5ft from the free champagne bar made it a very good day, even for someone like me that isn’t really into football. The food being served all day in the hospitality suite was amazing, some of the best food I’ve had in a long time. Very small portions, but all cooked and presented perfectly and you could go up to the counter(s) as many times as you like. The whole experience was amazing and I look forward to doing it again very soon.
