Smbhav 2020 Live: When the spotlight's on small business

Thank You India

After a session packed day of sessions, the SMB summit came to an end. The energy that we witnessed among entrepreneurs was unparalleled. It was this energy that made Smbhav 2020 such a big success. Thank you India!

Kishore Biyani speaks on his journey

As Day 2 of Smbhav begins, Kishore Biyani of Big Bazaar tells the audience on he began his journey. On how he did something different than his family business, his reply left everyone laughing, He said, "We were born to socialist parents, we were not allowed to do wat we want so we had to rebel. This generation belongs to democratic parents so they are allowed to do whatever they want.

Special moments end Day 1
We had a very special moment at Smbhav, today as Ankit Chauhan, an attendee of the event beautifuly sketched our leaders and shared their portraits with us. We truly appreciate his art and gesture! Thank you all for attending Amazon Smbhav Day 1.

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Xchange - Panel discussion : Deliver to Delight

In this eXchange session, expert panelists deep dived into the conflicts between speed, cost and the innovations that help balance them better. They probed into how SMBs can look at the ever growing entitlement as an area to build more disruptive solutions with the use of technology.

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Session on Catalog Creation

The session aimed at enabling the audience to understand how Amazon helps on improving the entire customer journey from product discovery to making a purchase decision.

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A blend of old and new

At the Smbhav - while many different stalls got a lot of eyeballs, one Story Bioscope wall was unique. It was nice to see people look into the "bioscope" and watch seller stories play. Reminded one of the times when cinema was mobile and the bioscope was key to taking cinema everywhere!

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Targetting the customer

Kishore Thota, Director - Customer Experience and Marketing at Amazon and Pranav Bhasin, Director – MSME Empowerment & Seller Experience at Amazon, and Dale Vaz, Head - Engineering & AI at Swiggy, along with other eminent speakers spoke about how SMBs can tap into millions of users who are coming online, to grow their business.

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Attendees flock stalls

While inside the audi, sessions were going, there was action on the outside too. The stalls set up for visitors had a lot of attendees checking out what was on display.

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SMBs are globally competitive through digitization

Mr. Prakash Mallya, Vice President & Managing Director – Sales and Marketing Group, Intel India, believes that through digitization, the playing field for SMBs to be globally competitive has been levelled. By developing digital skills, SMBs can disrupt and differentiate themselves in the market. Awareness, availability, applicability, accessibility and advocacy are key places where SMBs can employ tech advancements and grow at a faster pace.

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Insights on turning a hobby into a successful business

Ms. Sunehra Koshy, the CEO and Founder, Crack of Dawn Crafts broke down key advice that one would need if they want to turn their hobby into a successful business. She, like the rest of the industry experts we heard from today, believe that listening to your customers is monumental when it comes to growing your business. Contrary to popular belief, she advices sellers to follow the rules, the rules that will lay down the foundation for years to come. Say yes to all opportunities in the early days, solely because one thing always leads to another. She ended her talk with a very uplifting message - “Compete passionately. A competitor can only copy your product, never your mind.”

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Educate session is a packed house

The session by SPN (Service Provider Network) team led by Ashish Bachani, Partner Development Manager SPN, saw a packed house where he gave the lowdown on doing business in an online world.

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Breaking the myths, empowering women in the logistics industry

Dr. Sabiha Mulla, Director, Apt Logistics Pvt Ltd. has given the Andaman Islands the opportunity to have orders delivered to their doorstep. Those who make these deliveries are loved by the islanders and a concept that seemed almost foreign a few years is now a reality and more because people now even receive products delivered to them by scuba divers!

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Audience erupted in applause

There were a lot of times, when the audience clapped heartily when Jeff spoke. But just as he was to leave the stage he was asked for final words and he said, "I'm gonna make two predictions. The first, that Tte 21st century is going to be an Indian century. And the second, that the India-US alliance will be the most important in 21st century!" And this elicited a lot of cheers and big applause from the audience.

SMBs can cheer!

"Amazon to invest US$ 1 billion to help digitize SMBs", said Jeff Bezos to a huge round of applause from the audience. He said, "Our hope is that this investment will bring millions more people into the future prosperity of India and at the same time expose the world to the ‘Make in India’ products that represent India’s rich, diverse culture.”

Read more here

Tips from Narayana Murthy

Special guest Narayana Murthy addressing the gathering. He says, "Hard work, commitment to work, pride in nation and demonstration of discipline will help us become a stronger nation."

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The Fire Side Chat

"We are grateful to your support"

Gopal Pillai, Vice President, Seller Services Amazon India now adddresses the audience. "Its incredible to see more than 3000 SMBs in the stadium. From Salem to Kottayam to Haridwar to Nepal to Bangaldesh to the US - we have representation from so many parts! We are grateful to your support."

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And it's a full house!

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Stories of transformation

The audience at the venue being treated to videos of all those entreperneurs who have benefited by coming online and partnering with Amazon. Some videos are getting a applause. All we say is #ThankYouIndia

All set for Smbhav 2020 to begin

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The team behind Smbhav

Watch the behind the scenes action

No passes? Join live

Join the exclusive sessions delivered by Narayana Murty, Kishore Biyani and Sudhir Sitapati live on Youtube and Facebook. Watch this space for more.

Who are coming?

100 + global leaders and industry experts
3000 + SMBs, start-ups and entrepreneurs
70+ business and tech partners

What is Smbhav

Amazon Smbhav is designed as a two-days thought-leadership SMB Summit to provide small and medium businesses as well as micro-entrepreneurs in India an opportunity to engage in a constructive, open dialogue with the industry, subject matter experts as well as peers about issues hindering their growth, share learnings, understand new opportunities that ecommerce offers and have some insights into future trends.

What to expect

As the venue is being prepped for the big day, here's what you can expect on the two days. While the event kick starts with a welcome note by Gopal Pillai VP and GM Seller Service, Amazon India this will be followed by a fireside chat with Amit Agarwal, SVP Country Manager.

Each day of the event will offer participants a mix of knowledge, training and masterclass sessions divided as-
1) eXpert: Inspirational journeys of high achievers from the SMB ecosystem in India, as narrated by them
2) eXcel: Learn from Amazon leaders about the opportunities that open up with adoption of technology
3) eXchange: Discussion between policy makers, industry SMEs & Amazon leadership on key topics/debates related to Indian SMBs
4) eDucate: In depth master-classes/educational sessions provided by subject matter experts on areas that help SMBs grow/scale
5) eXhibit: Engage with exhibitors to discover products and solutions to drive ease of business for SMBs.

For more details on the sessions, click here