The NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 is a single-day event. It runs on Thursday 20 August from 9:00 AM at The Forum Hotel & Convention in Shela, Ahmedabad.
Inside that one day sit 15+ sessions and 70+ speakers. You cannot see all of it, so the useful skill is choosing. This page covers the agenda as published, the practical details, and a method for deciding where your hours go.
Key Takeaways
- One full day on 20 August, opening at 9:00 AM and closing with an after-party.
- 15+ sessions across the day, made up of 5+ panels and 6+ workshops plus keynotes.
- Free on-site parking, and the venue doubles as the hotel.
- Pick two problems before you arrive. That decision does the planning for you.
The Agenda as Published
The outline below comes from the official summit invite, and the session breakdown from the NRAI summit microsite.
| Time on 20 August | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 9:00 AM onwards | Summit opens with keynotes |
| Through the day | Panel discussions and workshops across parallel tracks |
| Alongside the sessions | Exhibition floor open, 70+ stalls |
| Close of day | Summit after-party with live music |
The programme breaks into 5+ panel discussions and 6+ workshops inside a total of 15+ sessions, per NRAI’s own figures. Session titles and slot times are released closer to the date on the official summit site.
Our separate guide covers the venue, tickets and registration steps in more detail.
Why This Summit Is Held
NRAI is the industry body for Indian restaurants, and this is the fifth edition of its food delivery summit. The series exists because delivery changed restaurant economics faster than most operators could adjust to.
The summit’s own campaign states the problem in one line: “Are you getting more orders… or just paying more commissions?” Volume went up for most outlets while margin went down, because commission, discounts and packaging come out of the same plate.
The theme this year is Delivering Growth Through Technology. The premise is that software is now a growth lever rather than a record-keeping cost.
Five editions in, it has built a following on the delivery side of Indian F&B. That is part of why people travel for it. The room is where operators compare notes they would never publish. For background on the association running it, see our explainer on what NRAI is.
How to Plan One Day Around 70+ Speakers
Seventy speakers and fifteen sessions in one day means parallel tracks. Trying to see everything produces shallow notes and no conversations. Four steps make the choice for you.
- Pick two problems, not ten. Commission load, thin delivery margin, a stalled second outlet, low repeat orders. Two is the most anyone acts on afterwards.
- Match speakers to those two problems. Our speaker planner groups the announced line-up by business problem, so you can jump straight to your segment.
- Give the workshop slot to whatever you are closest to buying. Workshops are working sessions with room to ask about your own outlet. Catch the clashing panel through someone else’s notes.
- Block the exhibition floor as scheduled time. An hour with a shortlist beats three hours of browsing 70+ stalls.
Our guide to what the day actually holds explains the difference between the session formats before you choose between them.
How to Decide Between Two Sessions You Want
With parallel tracks, two things you want will clash. Use this order of priority rather than deciding on the spot.
| If You Have to Choose Between | Go To | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A workshop and a panel on the same subject | The workshop | You can ask about your own outlet; a panel answer has to work for the whole room |
| A famous speaker and a relevant one | The relevant one | Fame does not transfer to your problem |
| A session and the exhibition floor | Depends on your two problems | If you are close to buying, the floor is the session |
| Two sessions on your two problems | The one you can act on this month | The other becomes next year’s question |
The one exception is the person running the platform you sell through. Those sessions do not repeat elsewhere, so they are worth a clash.
Who Should Attend
NRAI names five groups on the official listing.
- Restaurant owners
- Cloud kitchen operators
- Food delivery platforms and aggregators
- Food-tech startups and software providers
- Equipment and kitchen solution suppliers
The day is pitched at decision-makers rather than floor staff. It suits you best if delivery already earns you real money, because the sessions assume you have live numbers to compare against rather than plans on paper.
An owner running two outlets in Bopal who is weighing a third will get more from the room than someone still opening their first (an example, not a real business). The first has commission data and repeat-order rates to test ideas against.
Suppliers and software vendors attend for the opposite reason. With 1,500+ brands across 30+ cities, the floor is a buying audience rather than a browsing one.
If you are unsure whether you are ready for a day like this, the test is simple. Can you name your food cost percentage and your repeat-order rate? Our guide to kitchen success metrics covers the measures these sessions assume you track.
What You Will Gain From the Day
Three things, in rough order of how long they last.
Answers to specific questions. Founders quote real figures in passing, and those numbers are the most useful thing said all day. Write them down with the speaker’s name attached.
Supplier shortlists. Seventy-plus stalls across kitchen equipment, packaged food, beverages and software. Walking it with two categories in mind turns browsing into a decision.
Contacts that outlast the sessions. With 1,500+ brands represented, the person beside you at lunch is as likely to be running four outlets as selling to you. That is the part most attendees say mattered most.
Come with your own numbers so the day becomes a comparison rather than a set of anecdotes. Our Swiggy and Zomato commission calculator gives you your net payout in a minute, and the restaurant P&L template puts it in context.
Pulling those figures the night before is the hard part for most outlets, because commission sits with the aggregator and food cost sits in a different book. A restaurant POS that already reports across billing and online orders saves you that evening.
Getting There, Parking and Where to Stay
The venue is The Forum Hotel & Convention, Forum Street, Club O7 Road, Shela, Ahmedabad 380058. It sits next to Club O7, which is the simplest landmark to give a driver.
Parking is free on site. Worth arriving before the 9:00 AM start, since 5,000+ attendees are expected across the day.
On accommodation, the venue is itself a hotel. Staying at The Forum removes the morning commute entirely and puts you in the building before the 9:00 AM start.
If you are travelling from outside Ahmedabad, book early and plan to arrive the evening before rather than on the morning of the summit. A 9:00 AM opening is hard to make on the back of a same-day flight or train.
Ahmedabad has hosted gatherings on this scale before. Our recap of the Petpooja Franchise Conclave 2026 covers a similar format held in the city in June, which gives a sense of the pace.
Conclusion
The agenda is simple on paper: one full day, opening at 9:00 AM. The complexity sits inside it, where 15+ sessions run in parallel and nobody sees all of it.
Decide your two problems before you travel. That single decision turns a crowded programme into a short list, and it is the difference between leaving with five ideas and leaving with one change you actually make.
Petpooja is the presenting partner for this edition, so if the change you pick sits in billing or online orders, that is a conversation you can have on the day rather than three weeks after it. Petpooja POSS runs both from one screen, along with inventory and reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
The summit runs on Thursday, 20 August 2026 from 9:00 AM onwards. It is a single-day event, with keynotes, panels, workshops and the exhibition floor all held on that date, closing with an after-party.
Two pass types were listed: an entry-only pass at ₹499 and an entry-plus-lunch pass at ₹1,499, both limited-time early-bird rates. Prices and offers change, so check the official website for the updated price before booking.
The Forum Hotel & Convention is on Forum Street, Club O7 Road, in the Shela area of Ahmedabad, postcode 380058. It sits next to Club O7, the easiest landmark to give a driver.
Yes. Free on-site parking is available at the venue, which matters on a day with 5,000+ attendees expected. Arrive before the 9:00 AM start if you are driving.
Restaurant owners, cloud kitchen operators, delivery platforms and aggregators, food-tech startups and software providers, and equipment and kitchen solution suppliers. It is pitched at decision-makers rather than floor staff.
The summit lists 70+ exhibition stalls. Confirmed partners span beverages through Coca-Cola, kitchen solutions through Janshakti, packaged and frozen food through HyFun, ITC Master Chef and Prasuma, and platforms through Swiggy and Petpooja. Check the official site for the current roster.
The venue, The Forum Hotel & Convention, is itself a hotel. Staying there removes the morning commute on a day that starts at 9:00 AM. You can register for the summit online in a couple of minutes.
