NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 Ahmedabad: Venue & Speakers

The NRAI Food Delivery Summit returns for its fifth edition on Thursday, 20 August 2026, from 9:00 AM, at The Forum Hotel & Convention, Shela, Ahmedabad. It is an initiative of the NRAI Ahmedabad Chapter, with Petpooja as the presenting partner.

The theme is Delivering Growth Through Technology. NRAI expects 5,000+ restaurant owners from 30+ cities, alongside 70+ speakers and 1,500+ brands.

This page covers the venue, the speaker line-up, what a pass costs and how to register.

Key Takeaways

• The summit runs on 20 August 2026 at The Forum Hotel & Convention, Ahmedabad.
• It is a single-day event, opening at 9:00 AM and closing with an after-party.
• It is the 5th edition, run by the NRAI Ahmedabad Chapter and presented by Petpooja.
• More than 70 speakers are expected, including leaders from Swiggy, Rebel Foods, Chaayos and Jubilant FoodWorks.

NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 at a Glance

Here are the confirmed details in one place.

What the Food Delivery Summit Is About

The summit is built around one shift every Indian restaurant owner is living through. Delivery has stopped being a side channel. It now shapes the menu, the kitchen layout, staffing and margin at the same time.

Five subjects run through the delegate pitch: delivery, scaling, funding, walk-ins and trends.

One question the campaign keeps returning to is who owns the customer once an order arrives through an aggregator. That leads into first-party data, loyalty programmes, direct communication and retention. Those are the levers an owner still controls.

First-party data means the customer details you collect yourself, such as phone numbers, order history and feedback. It is the opposite of aggregator-held data, which you rent access to rather than own.

The scale of the industry explains the interest. NRAI represents the interests of 500,000+ restaurants in a sector valued at ₹5.69 lakh crore, per NRAI. For background on the body, see our explainer on what NRAI is.

Venue and Timings for the Ahmedabad Summit

The whole summit sits on one date. Thursday, 20 August 2026 runs from 9:00 AM, with keynote sessions, panel discussions, workshops and networking, closing with an after-party.

The venue is The Forum Hotel & Convention on Forum Street, Club O7 Road, in Shela. It sits next to Club O7, which is the easiest landmark to give a driver, and parking on site is free.

Ahmedabad has hosted a gathering on this scale before. Our recap of the Petpooja Franchise Conclave 2026 covers a similar format held in the city in June.

Who Is Speaking at the NRAI Food Delivery Summit

More than 70 speakers are expected across the day. The line-up spans founders and chief executives from some of India’s largest restaurant, cloud kitchen and delivery businesses.

Below are the speakers announced so far across the official summit site and the campaign creatives, listed alphabetically. Each name links to that speaker’s LinkedIn profile, or to their company site where no profile is listed.

Check the official summit site for the full and latest line-up, since NRAI expects more than 70 speakers on the day.

Speaker Tracks at the Food Delivery Summit

The campaign groups its speakers into tracks, which is a useful way to pick who you want to hear:

• Founders who turned chai and coffee into large businesses: Chaayos, Chai Point, ab.coffee and Tea Post.
• Kitchen-only business models: Rebel Foods, Dil Foods and BOX8.
• Founders who built systems to open many outlets: Belgian Waffle Co., RollsKing, 22nd Parallel and Papa John’s.
• The generation that built Indian F&B early: TGB Group, Ahura Restaurants, Honest and Olive Bar & Kitchen.
• Voices from outside operations: Arjun Vaidya of Verlinvest on funding, Prof. Debjit Roy of IIM Ahmedabad on operations, and food creator Gurpreet Singh Tikku.

Gujarat is well represented, including Ankit Chona of Hocco Ice Cream and Chef Aanal Kotak.

Who Should Attend the Ahmedabad Summit

The audience skews towards owners and decision-makers. The event listing names these groups:

• Restaurant owners
• Cloud kitchen operators
• Food delivery platforms and aggregators
• Food-tech startups and software providers
• Equipment and kitchen solution suppliers

The day suits you best if delivery is already a real share of your revenue. Sessions assume live numbers to compare against, not plans on paper.

Take an owner running two outlets in Bopal who is weighing up a third (an example, not a real business). That owner has commission data and repeat-order rates to test ideas against. A panel on unit economics gives them something to act on the same week.

Suppliers and software vendors attend for a different reason. With 1,500+ brands expected across 30+ cities, the exhibition floor is a buying audience rather than a browsing one.

How to Register for the Food Delivery Summit 2026

Registration is online. Here is the order to do it in.

1. Open the registration page. Use the official event listing or scan the QR code on any summit creative.
2. Pick your pass type from the two options below.
3. Fill in your contact and business details, then pay online.
4. Save the confirmation on your phone before you travel.
5. Book travel early if you are coming from outside Ahmedabad. The summit opens at 9:00 AM, so plan to be in the city the evening before.

Official creatives marked the ₹499 rate as a limited-time offer.

Please note: ticket prices and offers change. Check the official website for the updated price and current offers before you book. Free on-site parking is available at the venue.

How to Get the Most Out of the Summit

A summit pass pays back only if you arrive with a question. These four steps help.

1. Write down your one real problem before you go. It might be commission load, thin delivery margin, low repeat orders or a stalled second outlet. One question, not five, keeps your conversations sharp.
2. Know your own numbers first. Every panel lands better when you know your delivery share of revenue and your net payout after commission. Our Swiggy and Zomato commission calculator gives you that figure in a minute. The restaurant P&L template puts it in context.
3. Pick your speakers by problem, not by fame. Say your issue is scaling from one kitchen to four. The cloud kitchen founders will then be worth more of your day than a celebrity chef session.
4. Plan for the people, not just the sessions. With 1,500+ brands expected from 30+ cities, the person next to you is often running the same problem at a different scale. The lunch break and the closing after-party are the two windows the programme leaves open for that.

What to Fix After the Summit

Once you are back, the follow-through matters more than the notes. Most delivery-side fixes raised at events like this come down to everyday systems. Two common ones are Swiggy and Zomato menu sync and the cloud kitchen cost leaks that quietly eat margin.

Others are bigger calls. One is whether you need your own website next to your aggregator listings. Most owners start with a single online ordering system that pushes every channel into one screen.

On that front, Petpooja POSS handles channel management alongside billing, inventory and reporting for over 1,00,000 restaurants.

Pick one fix and finish it before the next event. Owners who leave with five ideas usually act on none of them, while a single change to menu sync or commission tracking shows up in the next month’s numbers.

Conclusion

The NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 is a one-day gathering in Ahmedabad on 20 August. The draw is the speaker mix, which spans national chains, cloud kitchen platforms, chai and coffee brands, and the founders who built Indian F&B early.

Book early and confirm the live ticket price before you pay.

The summit may leave you with a delivery problem to solve rather than a notebook of ideas. If so, the next step is usually your own system. You can see how Petpooja POSS brings billing, online orders, multi-outlet management and reporting into one place.

Frequently Asked Questions