DAY 1
8 July 2026
- Arrive settle in and prepare for an experience filled with networking and opportunities.
- Pick up your badge and start engaging with fellow attendees
Kick off the event with a relaxed lunch, setting the tone for meaningful connections with your peers at
VIVO Restaurant (Alila Diwa)
Kick off the event with a relaxed lunch, setting the tone for meaningful connections with your peers at
Alila Ballroom, Pre Function Area
Hector
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Moderated Networking Session - A dynamic high-energy session where quick introductions lead to business opportunities.
This is where the business conversation starts at iMedia. Both Brands and Service Providers can use this time to identify their best business opportunities to pursue over the next two days.
New for iMedia Brand Summit 2026: Meet Introbot, our AI-enabled networking assistant that helps you identify the right people, explore common interests, and maximize every interaction. The iMedia App will continue to power your agenda, meetings, and overall event experience.
Recharge and connect during our Networking & Coffee Break session.
As platforms reshape discovery, commerce and consumer influence, legacy brands are being forced to reinvent how they grow, compete and stay relevant.
At the iMedia Brand Summit India 2026, Anupam Bansal, Executive Director of Liberty Shoes, shares how Liberty has evolved amidst rising competition from global brands, marketplaces and digitally native challengers.
This keynote explores:
- Competing in a platform-led consumer economy
- Balancing retail, marketplaces and D2C growth
- Protecting margins while accelerating innovation
- The evolving role of marketing in driving measurable business growth
- Building resilient brands that can adapt across generations
A compelling conversation on reinvention, resilience and the new rules of growth.
Moderated By: Varun Oberoi, VP and Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Nissin Foods
Liberty Shoes
Nissin Foods
Wholsum Foods
Discovery is shifting from search bars to AI conversations – and the brands that get recommended will be the ones that win. This session looks at what it takes to reach premium global audiences and stay visible as AI becomes the new gatekeeper between consumers and brands, with a practical look at how marketers can prepare, monitor, and optimise for an AI-first world.
InMobi Advertising
An evening of connections awaits at our Networking Soiree, where you can mingle and forge professional relationships over delectable gastronomic delights. Join us for a memorable night of networking and great food.
Venue: Alila Ballroom
DAY 2
9 July 2026
A refreshing wake-up breakfast enjoyed with friends (new and old).
You can also use this time to catch up on meetings that might have been missed in the previous days.
Dress Code for the Day - Power Whites
Insights from investing in 180 startups across sectors and technology cycles.
100X.VC
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
Question: If AI can build everyone the same brilliant plan, what makes your brand's edge?
AI agents can now build a media plan that's detailed, on-brand, and defensible in minutes, not weeks. Planning, once the slowest and most senior-dependent part of the job, is effectively solved. But here's the catch. Every brand's agent draws from the same models and the same public web. When the input is identical, the output converges, and AI quietly risks making entire categories average. As agents accelerate output, brands risk becoming efficient but interchangeable.
The edge no longer lives in the plan. It lives in what you feed the agent: your first-party data, your distribution intelligence, your real-time read on what your consumer is actually paying attention to. The same gap that produces a generic plan also produces a hallucination. Both are an agent reasoning without grounded, proprietary signal. Winning brands are moving from better execution to better signal, because in an AI-native world, you don't own your strategy anymore. You own your signal.
SilverPush
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Nestlé
Godrej
ITC Limited
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
Search is evolving beyond traditional rankings. As Google AI Overviews and LLMs become key discovery channels, brands need new strategies to earn visibility, trust, and mentions. This session explores how to build and measure your share of voice across both search engines and AI-powered platforms.
AdLift
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
Question: If your growth strategy is integrated, why isn’t your organisation?
Commerce media demands integration—but most organisations are still built in silos. Brand, media, ecommerce, and sales operate with different goals, data, and timelines—while growth now depends on how well they work as one system.
Everyone agrees on integration—but few organisations are actually structured for it. As retail media grows and platform complexity increases, misalignment across teams leads to slower decisions, duplicated spend, and missed opportunities.
What’s Up for Debate:
- Ownership vs Alignment: Who really owns commerce media—brand, ecommerce, or media teams?
- Speed vs Structure: Can large organisations move fast enough without breaking governance?
- Data vs Action: Is your data actually driving decisions—or just being reported?
- Integration vs Reality: Are “connected systems” achievable—or just organisational ambition?
Moderated By: Dr. Ashish Bajaj, Co-Founder & CEO, 10on10Foods
Sleepwell
KRBL (India Gate Rice)
10on10Foods
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DS Group
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
A perfect opportunity to recharge, exchange ideas, and build new relationships
Question: What happens when your most effective salesperson isn’t human—and you don’t fully control how it sells?
Customer service is no longer a cost centre—it’s becoming a point of conversion. As agentic AI moves beyond scripted responses to handling decisions, transactions, and recommendations, the traditional funnel is collapsing into a single interaction.
But this shift comes with trade-offs—raising questions around control, trust, and brand experience.
What’s Up for Debate:
- Speed vs Control: How much decision-making can you hand over to AI without losing oversight?
- Efficiency vs Empathy: Can automated interactions build trust—or erode it?
- Integration vs Reality: Are current systems ready to support end-to-end AI-led transactions?
- AI-to-AI Commerce: What happens when buying and selling decisions are made by machines on both sides?
Moderated By: Shitiz Dogra, Associate Director - Digital Marketing, IndiGo Airlines,
Zepto
Kotak Life
Sinch
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
You can optimise a headline, test a thumbnail, and reverse-engineer a search ranking. You cannot keyword your way to a story people remember. As discovery turns algorithmic and AI-mediated, brands are getting very good at being found — and increasingly easy to forget once they are.
Because being found and being remembered were never the same job. AI only automated the first one.
At the iMedia Brand Summit India 2026, Origin8 argues that in a market where everyone has the same tools and the same data, the story is the only thing left that can't be automated.
This session explores:
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Why AI can optimise every part of marketing except the one that moves people
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What gets lost when discovery is engineered for machines instead of audiences
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The widening gap between content that gets produced and content that gets remembered
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Why the world's most durable brands are built on narrative consistency
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How documentaries, not deliverables, earn the kind of attention algorithms can't manufacture
A sharp, contrarian case for story as the last unfair advantage in an AI-flattened market.
Origin8
Origin8
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
Question: If search no longer starts with a keyword, what does it take for a brand to be discovered—and chosen?
Search is no longer just typed—it’s seen, spoken, and experienced. Consumers now discover through images, voice, and conversation—forcing brands to operate in a world where visibility depends on how well machines interpret meaning across formats.
Multimodal search promises richer discovery—but it also fragments control. Brands are no longer just optimising for keywords—they’re being interpreted across signals they don’t fully manage.
What’s Up for Debate:
- Control vs Interpretation: If machines decide what your brand means, how do you shape that narrative?
- Scale vs Nuance: Can brands stay consistent across languages, formats, and cultural contexts—especially in markets like India?
- Visibility vs Attribution: If discovery happens without clicks, what does “performance” actually mean?
- Content vs Signals: Are brands building content—or training systems to recognise them?
Traya
Question: Consumers skip ads, scroll past branded content, and spend less time with traditional media. As Attention becomes the Brand’s biggest challenge, millions are willingly binge-watching micro dramas. Is this simply a new content format—or a new way for brands to earn attention, build affinity, and drive commerce?
Discussion Points
• Why are micro dramas resonating so strongly with audiences today? Are they where Reels were in 2023?
• What kind consumer and media consumption shifts are fueling the rise of serialized short-form storytelling?
• Are micro dramas a fleeting trend, or could they become a mainstream advertising and entertainment channel?
• How are brands best using this microdrama space?
• What separates effective brand integration from forced product placement?
• Which categories are best positioned to leverage micro dramas—and why?
• How should brands evaluate success: reach, engagement, brand lift, consideration, or sales?
• What can Indian marketers learn from mature micro drama ecosystems in China and other markets?
• Could micro dramas become the next evolution of branded entertainment, replacing traditional content partnerships?
• How will AI-powered content creation reshape the economics and scale of micro drama production?
• If attention is shifting from ads to entertainment, what capabilities will brands need to compete in the future?
Moderated By: Kavea R Chavali, Head - Shobitam Kalaneca, Shobitam
Marico
Shobitam
Groupe SEB
Info Edge
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
Venue - Lawn Area outside PFA
As subscription fatigue rises and streaming platforms increasingly embrace ad-supported models, India’s connected TV ecosystem is entering a new commercial phase. Global and Indian OTT players are expanding advertising inventory, introducing programmatic buying capabilities, and experimenting with new ad formats designed for streaming-first audiences. This session explores how advertisers, publishers, and technology platforms can build sustainable growth models in an ad-supported streaming economy without compromising viewer experience.
Key Talking Points
- Will ad-supported streaming become the dominant growth model for OTT platforms in India?
- How can advertisers balance targeting sophistication with consumer experience on CTV?
- Are current ad formats designed effectively for streaming audiences?
- What role will programmatic buying play in the future of CTV advertising?
- How should publishers manage frequency, ad load, and viewer fatigue?
- Can India develop a premium ad-supported streaming ecosystem at scale without replicating traditional television clutter?
Moderated By: Ribhu Mishra, Vice President - Revenue, MIQ
MIQ
As consumer attention shifts to streaming, CTV, gaming, and digital video, television is evolving from a traditional brand-awareness channel into a commerce-enabled platform. Driven by changing audience behaviors, brands must look beyond static impressions to design intuitive, interactive screen experiences that offer instant participation. This discussion explores how to navigate multi-screen behavior and capture moments of interest in real time. Key themes include sustaining viewer momentum across devices, closing the gap between discovery and consumer action, and transforming passive viewing into seamless, highly engaged brand experiences.
Moderated By: Mayura Nayak, Co-Founder, Huella
Huella
With its deep connect across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and other key regional markets, Way2News has been at the forefront of this transformation, witnessing how vernacular audiences are shaping the future of content, commerce, and advertising.
Key Talking Points
* Why regional audiences are becoming the biggest growth opportunity for brands.
* Moving beyond translation to true cultural relevance.
* Understanding the power of hyperlocal content and consumer trust.
* How brands can drive measurable impact through regional ecosystems.
* The evolving role of regional platforms in influencing consumer decisions.
* Why a regional-first strategy is becoming essential for national success.
* The Way2News Perspective
At Way2News, we see regional audiences not as a segment, but as the new mainstream. The future belongs to brands that connect with consumers in their language, culture, and community—where trust is built and influence truly matters.
Moderated By: Abhishek Jaggi, Chief Revenue Officer, Way2News
Way2News
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Deep-dive discussions with key stakeholders your chance to secure valuable partnerships.
The First Indian Woman to Independently Build an Alcobev Distillery
Founder & CEO, Revelry Distillery & VANAHA Gin
Breaking taboos and beginning to build her life from the age of 13, Vaniitha Jaiin shares her journey of resilience, courage and conviction. From overcoming personal and societal barriers to building an independent distillery, she reflects on the mindset, perseverance and bold decisions that shaped her path. She also shares the story behind VANAHA, an award-winning gin inspired by the forest, crafted with rare botanicals, and gaining global recognition for its craftsmanship, innovation and pioneering distillation processes.
Moderated By: Dr. Kushal Sanghvi, Independent Consultant,
Vanaha
Vanaha
Discover Vanaha Gin through signature pours, then roll up your sleeves and craft your own forest-inspired cocktail, because the best drinks are the ones you make yourself.
Prepare for an evening of culinary magic with a magnificient Sundowner by the Beach.
Venue: Southern Deck. Coaches will be leaving from Alila's Reception Area
Dress Code : 🌊 Ocean Blues
Inspired by Goa's coastline, join us in Ocean Blues for a relaxed evening of conversations, music, and celebrations by the sea.
DAY 3
10 July 2026
Central Question:
The investment may have closed the funding round—but that's where the real work begins. What does it take for investors and founders to build a brand that's not just fundable, but enduring?
In this candid conversation, Anisha Singh, Founder, She Capital, sits down with Suhail Chandhok, Sports Broadcaster, Co-Founder - Elev8 India Sportz and CEO of U Mumba to unpack the journey beyond the pitch deck. Together, they'll revisit the moments that mattered—from what sparked the initial investment to the strategic decisions, pivots, and calculated risks that shaped the company's growth. Along the way, they'll explore how the investor–founder partnership evolved, the toughest calls they made together, the lessons learned from setbacks, and what it truly takes to build a business that lasts in an increasingly competitive market.
Discussion Points
- What made this business impossible to ignore at the pitch stage?
- How did the founder and investor relationship evolve after the cheque was signed?
- The defining milestones that changed the trajectory of the company.
- The boldest decisions and biggest pivots that unlocked growth.
- Where did they disagree—and what did those debates teach them?
- The mistakes that became the most valuable lessons.
- Building a brand that customers love, investors believe in, and markets reward.
- Looking ahead: What's the next big bet for the business?
Moderated By: Kavea R Chavali, Head - Shobitam Kalaneca, Shobitam
She Capital
Elev8 India Sportz
Shobitam
Question: Can you turn your first-party data into a true growth lever—despite organisational, regulatory, and platform constraints?
Brands are collecting more data than ever—yet extracting less value from it. As platforms tighten control and third-party signals fade, first-party data is positioned as the new advantage—but few organisations are set up to actually monetise it.
Owning data doesn’t equal owning value. Between fragmented systems, unclear ownership, and rising compliance risks, most brands are rich in data—but poor in action.
What’s Up for Debate:
- Ownership vs Access: Do brands truly own their data—or just rent it within platform ecosystems?
- Potential vs Reality: Why does so much first-party data remain underutilised?
- Monetisation vs Trust: How far can brands go before data usage erodes consumer trust?
- Capability vs Complexity: Is the barrier technology, talent, or organisational structure?
Info Edge
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
Question: If every screen is “TV,” what does it take to make your investment actually count?
The definition of “TV” has fragmented across streaming platforms, short-form video, and emerging formats like microdrama—each competing for the same attention, but behaving very differently. For marketers, the challenge is no longer access, but allocation: where to invest, how much to invest, and what kind of content drives real impact on each screen.
What’s Up for Debate:
- One Audience, Many Behaviours: How do you plan for the same consumer across lean-back, scroll, and snackable modes?
- Scale vs Depth: Is it better to be everywhere—or dominate a few platforms?
- Format Fit vs Efficiency: Should content be tailored to each environment, or standardised for scale?
- Measurement vs Reality: If every platform reports success, what actually drives growth?
Moderated By: Mayank Prabhakar, General Manager, Head of Digital Marketing, VIVO
ITC Limited
DS Group
VIVO
Sleepwell
Search is changing faster than most brands can adapt. Consumers are no longer just typing queries into a search box—they're asking AI assistants, using voice, searching with images, and discovering products through conversations.
As AI increasingly becomes the gatekeeper between consumers and brands, the rules of visibility are being rewritten. What happens when algorithms—not consumers—decide which brands get recommended? How do marketers maintain influence when discovery happens without a click, a website visit, or even a traditional search result?
This closed-door peer discussion will explore how leading brands are navigating a world where search is becoming conversational, multimodal, and increasingly AI-mediated.
Discussion Starters
- What signals are AI systems using to understand and recommend brands?
- Are we moving from SEO to "AI Optimization"?
- How should marketers rethink content, discoverability, and brand presence in a zero-click environment?
- Can brands maintain a consistent identity across voice, visual, and conversational interfaces?
- If consumers get answers instead of links, how do we measure success and attribution?
- What experiments are brands already running to stay visible in an AI-first discovery landscape?
A candid conversation among marketing leaders on what's working, what's changing, and what brands need to do next.
Moderated By: Gurpaaras Singh, AVP - Performance Marketing & Growth, NIYO
NIYO
As AI evolves from a tool to an autonomous decision-maker, marketing is entering the Agentic Age—where intelligent agents can analyze data, plan campaigns, optimize budgets, and drive business outcomes with minimal human intervention.
This session will explore:
- What is Agentic AI and why it is reshaping marketing
- The shift from manual campaign management to AI-driven autonomous optimization
- How marketers can leverage first-party data, unified customer intelligence, and AI agents for growth
- The changing role of marketers in an AI-first world
- Real-world examples of how AI agents are improving efficiency, ROI, and customer engagement
- A practical roadmap for organizations to become AI-ready and thrive in the Agentic Age
Key Takeaway:
Understand the capabilities of AI agents, the transformations required across people, processes, and technology, and how businesses can gain a competitive advantage by embracing agentic marketing.
Moderated By: Rajiv Dhingra, Founder & CEO, ReBid
ReBid
Question: If every piece of content can sell, what makes consumers choose—and what makes them come back?
Content is now infinite, commerce is embedded, and every scroll can convert. But as feeds turn into storefronts, brands face a new reality: when everything can sell, what makes people buy—and remember? Performance systems optimise for scale, but growth depends on distinctiveness, trust, and memory. As AI accelerates output, brands risk becoming efficient—but interchangeable.
Winning brands are moving beyond content factories to integrated systems—where storytelling, creators, and commerce work together to drive both conversion and memory.
What’s Up for Debate:
- Scale vs Story vs Sale: Can brands balance volume, narrative, and conversion without compromising one for the other?
- Influence vs Conversion: Does engagement actually drive sales—or just visibility?
- Platform Power vs Brand Control: Who owns the customer when transactions happen inside platforms?
- Content vs Commerce: Are brands building meaningful experiences—or just attaching “buy now” to everything?
- Measurement vs Reality: Can closed-loop attribution prove real impact—or does it overstate performance?
- Memory vs Performance: If content converts but isn’t remembered, is it building a brand—or just driving transactions?
Moderated By: Mukesh Ghuraiya, Chief Marketing Officer, Antara Senior Living Care
Nestlé
Uniqlo
Antara Senior Living Care
Unilever
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁
Workshop: Build a Video Story with AI — From Brief to Final Cut
Get hands-on experience creating a complete video story using AI, from ideation and scripting to production, editing, and optimization.
STAGE - OTT for Bharat
Deep-dive discussions with key stakeholders your chance to secure valuable partnerships.
Recharge and connect during our Networking & Coffee Break session.
A thank you for your incredible energy! Stay back as we celebrate the previous session with an exclusive, curated gift giveaway. 🎁