Top IT Brands, including HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Asus, Canon, and AMD, convene at Lucknow Conclave to foster collaboration and industry growth
FAIITA and the Uttar Pradesh Computer Dealers Welfare Association (UPCDWA) organized and hosted the inaugural edition of The Retail Conclave 2023 in Lucknow, which brought together top IT brands such as HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Asus, Canon, and AMD for a dialogue with IT retailers. The main objective of the conclave was to address key business challenges and chart a path for growth in the face of evolving customer requirements of hybrid and hyper-connected solutions.
Several major multi-outlet retailers from across India attended the event, which facilitated a dialogue between brand leadership and partners to address challenges faced by IT retailers amidst the growing impact of large format retailers and online stores. The conclave helped to identify solutions for achieving growth in the retail market and improving return on investment.
Devesh Rastogi, President of FAIITA, welcomed all FAIITA All India members and heads of leading IT brands, and stated that the objective of the event was to assess the future of brand retailing in changing times, identify various issues, and discover ways and means to address them.
The senior leadership teams of participating IT brands provided strong support for the conclave, which served as a platform for retailers to voice their concerns directly. This opportunity allowed each retailer to engage with top brand representatives and collaborate on solutions to address the challenges faced by the sector.
Rastogi further stated that the platform was designed for two purposes – to foster brand-store owner interactions to solve problems and to encourage the adoption of the hybrid business model. He praised the OEMs for partnering with FAIITA to enable retail store owners to significantly expand their businesses.
The event saw participation from Subodh Deshpande of Lenovo, Jignesh Bhavsar of Asus, Umesh Chawla of HP, Rohit Zutshi of Acer, Anurag Arora of Dell, Jai Kumar Pillai of Canon, and Vikas Kewalramani of AMD, who all outlined their roadmaps for the upcoming year.
Navin Gupta, General Secretary of FAIITA, stated that the organization serves as an umbrella for the retail IT business and invited OEMs and retail store owners to discuss their problems and opportunities at the Retail Conclave.
“The event successfully showcased the strength of FAIITA to all brands, resulting in positive benefits for the entire community of retail brand store owners. It has had a positive impact on vendors and has boosted confidence in partners across India. With FAIITA’s leadership, we remain committed to creating a bright future for our industry. This event has certainly contributed to that goal,” informed Gurpreet Singh VP – Brand Coordination, FAIITA.
Pankaj Agarwal, President of UPCDWA, expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration with FAIITA and hoped that the event would provide mutual benefits for vendors and partners.
Pawan Valecha, Director of PSPL Infosystem, praised the Retail Conclave as a timely initiative that would greatly benefit the exclusive store fraternity.
Umesh Chawla, National Sales Manager of HP’s South and West regions, commended FAIITA’s progressive initiative and expressed HP’s willingness to collaborate with the organization to take it to the next level.
Alok Gupta, President of the Progressive Channel Association of Information Technology and Managing Director of Unistal Systems extended his congratulations to FAIITA and UPCDWA, while highlighting the positive impact of the interactions that took place during the Retail Conclave. Gupta expressed confidence that OEMs would value partners more as a result of this platform and work towards satisfying mutual demands.
The Retail Conclave was met with an overwhelming response from retail partners and not only addressed their concerns, but also opened up new opportunities in the industry. FAIITA and UPCDWA were recognized for their efforts in bringing this initiative to light and solidifying the trust between vendors and partners, in turn helping them expand their businesses in the retail market.
