Launch. Scale. Exit – Middle East. “What it takes to build an event brand that lasts” with Naveen Bharadwaj, Group CEO, Trescon
Naveen Bharadwaj, Group CEO, Trescon, on turning a regional events business into a multi-market platform – and what founders in the Middle East get wrong about scale.
How did your journey with Trescon start and what opportunity did you see at the time?
I joined Trescon in 2023, but the company had already built a strong foundation under my friend and former colleague Mohammed Saleem and the founding team.
Trescon had established itself around emerging technology events such as the World AI Show, World Blockchain Summit and Big CIO Show, and had built relationships across governments, enterprises and technology companies.
I saw an opportunity to take that foundation and build something bigger. I have always believed that an event should be more than a conference happening on a particular day. The real value is what happens before, during and after people come into the room.
My thinking was around how we move from being an events organiser, to becoming a business platform that helps governments, enterprises, investors and technology companies create meaningful opportunities. That meant building stronger brands, entering new markets, diversifying our business models and, importantly, creating platforms around real market opportunities rather than simply following popular topics.
What were some of the key moments that helped Trescon grow into the business it is today?
Rather than one defining moment, it has been a series of decisions, experiments, successes and a few painful lessons.
One major shift was geographical. Trescon had already developed an international footprint, but we became much more deliberate about building interconnected markets across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe.
Another was the evolution of our portfolio. We continued building signature brands such as World AI Show and World Blockchain Summit, while platforms such as Dubai FinTech Summit, World Police Summit, Bengaluru Skill Summit, DATE and CARE opened opportunities to work much more closely with governments, enterprises and entire industry ecosystems.
We also started looking beyond traditional events into managed events, bespoke platforms and demand-generation solutions. That changed the nature of conversations we could have with clients.
And then there was the internal evolution. Scaling from a founder-driven organisation to a multi-market organisation requires a completely different operating model. People, processes, technology, data and leadership all become critical.
I think our biggest shift has been from changing the question from “how do we organise a great event?” to “what can this platform set in motion?” That is a much bigger question.
What two or three decisions made the biggest difference to the growth of the business?
The first was deciding to build brands, not just events. An event gives you a date but a brand gives you an asset that can travel across markets, build communities and compound in value over time.
The second was investing heavily in relationships. Our business is built on trust — with governments, enterprises, technology companies, investors, speakers, partners and, most importantly, our own people. Some of these relationships have taken years to build, and many have opened doors that no marketing campaign could have opened.
The third was building an organisation that could scale beyond a few key individuals. You have to move from “who can solve this?” to “what system and what leader can solve this repeatedly?”
I have also learned that diversification is important, but diversification without discipline can become distraction. We have therefore tried to build adjacent businesses around capabilities we genuinely understand – events, content, communities, demand generation, technology and market access.
The objective is not to become bigger for the sake of being bigger. It is to become more valuable.
How do you decide whether an event has the potential to grow into a strong, long-term brand?
I start with a very simple question: “Is there a real problem, opportunity or transition happening in the market?” If the answer is no, then it is probably just another conference.
We look at the ecosystem around the subject, the urgency of the conversation, government and industry participation, commercial potential and whether the market will continue evolving.
But there is another factor that is often underestimated: the quality of the room. I would rather have 200 people who genuinely need to meet each other than 20,000 people who are there simply because registration was easy.
Then we look at whether the platform can evolve. AI is a good example. Five years ago, an AI event could be largely about the technology. Today, the conversation is about enterprise adoption, agents, governance, investment, infrastructure, regulation, workforce transformation and business models.
Trescon has worked with several government institutions in the UAE. How important have those relationships been to your growth in the UAE?
Extremely important. The UAE is unusual because government is not simply a regulator here. Government is often an active catalyst for building entire sectors and ecosystems. That creates a very interesting role for a company like Trescon.
Our relationship with government institutions is not about getting an endorsement and putting a logo on a backdrop. The strongest partnerships are about creating shared outcomes.
Governments are looking for investment, innovation, international visibility, entrepreneurship and ecosystem development. Businesses want market access, customers, capital, partnerships and credibility. Our job is to bring those interests together in a way that creates value for everyone.
Our experience with platforms such as Dubai FinTech Summit is a good example of how powerful that model can become when government ambition and private-sector execution come together.
And I think that is one of the things the UAE has taught us: the best events don’t simply reflect an ecosystem; they can help build one.
What has made the UAE a strong market for Trescon to grow in?
The UAE has a combination that is very difficult to replicate. You have ambitious government leadership, significant capital, global connectivity, a highly international business community and a genuine willingness to experiment with new technologies and business models.
What I find particularly interesting is the UAE’s ability to act as a bridge. A company can come to Dubai from India, Singapore, Europe or Africa and potentially meet a government stakeholder, an investor, a global enterprise and a technology partner within the same ecosystem. That fits very naturally with what Trescon does.
Dubai, in particular, has become one of the places where global conversations around fintech, AI, blockchain, sustainability and the future of business can actually translate into commercial opportunities.
For us, that makes the UAE not just a market. It is a launchpad.
What have been the biggest challenges as the business has scaled?
Complexity grows faster than headcount. When you operate across countries, every market has different regulations, cultures, commercial expectations, customers and ways of doing business. You cannot simply take what worked in Dubai and photocopy it into another market.
Maintaining quality while scaling is another major challenge. In our industry, one weak event can damage a relationship that took years to build. So there is always a tension between growth and quality.
And then there is the people challenge. You can build processes, technology and dashboards, but ultimately this is still a people business. You need people who can think commercially, understand the client, execute under pressure and take ownership.
At every stage, you have to be willing to redesign the business — which includes accepting new people, new ideas and changes, all while balancing what has worked and who has delivered historically. We have had to become much more disciplined about data, systems, accountability and leadership.
At what stage did you realise the business needed more structure, stronger systems or a bigger leadership team to support growth?
The realisation came when we were simultaneously operating across multiple geographies, brands and business models. At a smaller scale, very strong individuals can compensate for gaps in systems. At a larger scale, that becomes dangerous. You cannot have every decision flowing through the founders or CEO.
That was one of the reasons we evolved our structure around clearer business divisions and leadership ownership across Signature Events, Managed Events, Bespoke Events and Demand Solutions.
Credit also goes to the wider leadership team. Mohammed Saleem’s entrepreneurial vision created the foundation, while leaders such as Mithun Shetty, Swarnavo Roy, Madhukar Dudda and the wider management team have played important roles in building the organisation and taking different parts of the business forward.
My role as Group CEO is not to personally run every part of Trescon. It is to create the environment, strategy, leadership structure and accountability that allow great people to run those parts exceptionally well.
That is a very different and difficult job and probably one of the most important lessons I have learned as a first-time CEO.
What advice would you give to someone launching an event business today in the UAE with ambitions to scale it significantly?
Don’t start by asking “What event can I organise?” Start with “What problem am I solving, and why does this market need me to solve it?”
The UAE is already a sophisticated events market. There are thousands of conferences, exhibitions and networking events. If your proposition is simply another generic conference with a few speakers and sponsors, it will be very difficult to build something enduring.
Start with a very specific audience and a very clear reason for them to care. Then build relationships before you try to build scale. And don’t confuse growth with adding more events.
If I were starting today, I would rather build one excellent platform, understand exactly why it works, build a repeatable commercial and delivery engine around it, and then replicate that model carefully.
Finally, remember that this is a relationship business. Technology can help you scale. Data can help you make better decisions. AI can make you dramatically more efficient. But trust is still built between people.
How could a platform like Manta Middle East support organisers entering or scaling in the market?
I think what makes a platform like Manta interesting is that it understands the event business from the inside. Traditional investors can provide capital, and consultants can provide advice, but event businesses have their own realities. Revenue can be seasonal, sponsorship can be unpredictable, audience acquisition takes time, and the value of an event often sits in relationships, intellectual property, brand equity and repeatability — not just in a balance sheet.
That is where I see Manta’s model being different. It combines capital with actual event-industry experience and operational support, while thinking about growth and eventual exit from the beginning.
For a founder, that can be particularly valuable at four stages: launching a new concept, scaling an existing platform, taking a successful event into new markets or exiting at the right time.
The international expansion piece is especially interesting for the Middle East. The region has tremendous demand for high-quality B2B and B2C platforms, but entering successfully requires more than simply choosing a venue and announcing a new event. You need the right government relationships, commercial model, local partnerships, audience strategy and operating discipline.
At the same time, I think there is an opportunity for Manta to look at successful regional platforms and help them expand internationally, rather than only bringing international brands into the region.
Ultimately, the most interesting proposition is the combination of capital, operating expertise, networks and an understanding of what makes an event business valuable to a future strategic buyer.
For an entrepreneur, that changes the conversation from simply “how do I fund my next event?” to “how do I build an event business that can scale, create real enterprise value and potentially become an acquisition opportunity?” That is a much more interesting conversation.
What is next, and where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth?
I think the next chapter for Trescon is about moving even further from being an events company to becoming an outcome-driven business platform.
We will continue to build in areas where technology, capital, policy and transformation intersect — AI, fintech, sustainability, emerging technologies and the broader digital economy. We will continue expanding geographically across the Gulf, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe.
But I don’t think geography is the biggest opportunity anymore. The bigger opportunity is increasing the value created by every platform. Can an event help a company enter a market? Can it connect a founder with capital? Can it help a government attract investment? Can it create a new partnership? Can it influence a policy conversation? Can it create an entirely new business opportunity?
Those are the metrics I increasingly care about.
When I look at Trescon’s journey the evolution is quite clear. We started by bringing people together. Now we want to help them do something more together.
And ultimately, I would like Trescon to be measured less by how many people attend our events and much more by what happens because they did. That, for me, is the real definition of scale.