by Vijaylakshmi
The Bengaluru chapter of NRAI is holding the NRAI Cloud Kitchen & Food Delivery Summit at The LaLit Ashok, Bengaluru. Sourcecaught up with two of the organisers—The chapter head of NRAI Bengaluru, Chethan Hegde, managing director, Whitehorse and 1522; and co-chapter head Meghna Vakada, managing partner, Barley & Grapes Concepts.
The event itself is expected to see deputy chief minister of Karnataka DK Shivkumar’s appearance and around 700 delegates, according to the organisers.
“The main drive for these kind of events is to make an effort for the restaurant fraternity to come together; not working in a silo and feel alienated. Instead, exchange ideas, debate right or wrongs and whenever need be work with govt bodies for a smooth operation of business for everyone,” said Vakada adding, “NRAI conducts regular industry events to facilitate knowledge sharing and create an ecosystem with strong camaraderie among all stakeholders. As part of our annual events, we are organising the NRAI Cloud Kitchen & Food Delivery Summit in Bengaluru on 26th June 2024. This is the third edition in the series after the resounding success of its first two editions held at Mumbai in 2022 & Pune in 2023.Speaking of the aim of the summit, Hedge said, “A lot of new cloud kitchens they go online without being aware of, multiple aspects about the business itself, events like this one help them and update whatever is new for the rest of the industry. The major topic we are discussing at this event is the advent of artificial intelligence in delivery and cloud kitchens.”
While the city of Bengaluru itself only has 250 odd NRAI members, delegates both members as well as non members are arriving in the city and Hedge expected a very good turnout at the event which will go on from 10 am till 6.30 pm followed by a meet and greet.
The event took two months of solid work and at least for Hedge and Vakada sleepless nights, but they were expecting a successful event which has been entirely funded by the NRAI organisation.
“This is a great forum to speak to the top restaurateurs of the country. There is no other place where they are so approachable,” Hedge said on the subject of future entrepreneurs who may want to join the industry.
