Food delivery has quietly become the backbone of restaurant revenue in India. Aggregator commissions keep climbing. Customers keep expecting faster, cheaper, more personalised experiences. And every restaurant owner is asking the same question: how do we grow delivery revenue without giving away our margins to platforms we don’t control?
That’s exactly the conversation the NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 is built around.
Organised by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), the summit returns for its 5th edition on 20th August 2026 at The FORUM – Hotel & Convention, Ahmedabad. The theme this year is “Delivering Growth Through Technology,” and if the scale of past editions is anything to go by, this one is set to be the largest yet.
Here’s a complete breakdown of what the summit covers, who’s speaking, and why it deserves a spot on your calendar.
NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026: Key Details
- Edition: 5th
- Date: Thursday, 20th August 2026
- Venue: The FORUM – Hotel & Convention, Ahmedabad
- Attendees: 5,000+
- Speakers: 70+
- Brands represented: 1,500+
- Cities represented: 30+
- Exhibition stalls: 70+
- Sessions: 15+, including 5+ panel discussions and 6+ workshops
- Reelo booth: 20 & 21 (Register now!)
This isn’t a conference where you sit through theory. It’s built as a working day for restaurant owners, delivery platforms, technology providers, and investors to sit in the same room and solve the same set of problems.
Why This Year’s Summit Matters
The food delivery landscape has shifted more in the last two years than in the five before it. A few things are driving that change:
Commission pressure is forcing a rethink.
Restaurants are re-evaluating how much of their delivery business should sit on aggregator platforms versus channels they own directly, like WhatsApp ordering, their own apps, or direct-to-customer loyalty programs.
Quick commerce has entered the food space.
New delivery formats are reshaping what “fast” means to customers, and restaurants are being forced to compete on speed in ways they weren’t five years ago.
Customer data has become the real battleground.
The restaurants growing fastest right now aren’t necessarily the ones with the best food. They’re the ones who know their customers well enough to bring them back without discounting every single time.
Technology adoption is no longer optional.
From kitchen automation to CRM systems to AI-driven demand forecasting, tech that once felt experimental is now table stakes.
The NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 is built to address each of these shifts directly, through sessions led by people who are already navigating them at scale.
Who’s Speaking
The speaker lineup features founders and CEOs from some of India’s most recognisable restaurant and F&B brands, including Riyaaz Amlani (Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality), Sagar Daryani (Wow! Momo Foods), Nitin Saluja (Chaayos), Anjan Chatterjee (Speciality Restaurants Ltd), Ankush Grover (Rebel Foods), Sameer Khetarpal (Jubilant Foodworks), Zorawar Kalra (Massive Restaurants), and Kabir Suri (Azure Hospitality), among 70+ others.
The mix is deliberate. You’ll hear from large multi-brand operators, regional chains scaling into new cities, D2C-first food brands, and investors who evaluate restaurant businesses for a living. That range is what makes the sessions useful regardless of whether you run one outlet or fifty.
What the Sessions Cover
With 15+ sessions across the day, the summit is structured around the real, day-to-day questions restaurant owners are dealing with right now:
- Building delivery revenue that doesn’t rely entirely on aggregators
- Using technology to cut operational costs without cutting corners
- What’s actually working in customer retention and loyalty
- Navigating the funding landscape as a growing F&B brand
- Franchise and multi-city expansion, including where the mistakes usually happen
- How top brands are using data to personalise marketing instead of guessing
The panel discussions are where a lot of the real insight tends to surface. Expect founders to be candid about what failed before something worked, not just highlight reels of their wins.
Networking and Exhibition
Beyond the stage, the summit brings together 5,000+ attendees, 70+ exhibition stalls, and representation from 1,500+ brands across 30+ cities. That’s a significant concentration of restaurant owners, technology partners, suppliers, and investors in one venue for a single day.
If you’re a restaurant owner, this is where you’ll find the tools, partners, and peer conversations that are hard to get any other way. If you’re evaluating new tech for your restaurant, whether it’s a POS upgrade, a delivery management system, or a CRM, this is one of the few places you can compare multiple options in person, in a single afternoon.
Reelo at NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026
Reelo is proud to be the CRM & Loyalty Partner for the NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026.
If you’ve been discounting your way into repeat orders, or if your delivery customers order once and disappear, this is exactly the conversation Reelo exists to have with restaurant owners.
Visit the Reelo booth (Booth 20-21) at the summit to see how restaurants across India are using customer data and loyalty programs to build repeat business without relying on discounts or aggregator visibility alone. The team will be running live product walkthroughs, sharing real results from restaurants already using Reelo, and helping you map out what a direct customer engagement strategy could look like for your own business.
Book your one-on-one meeting with the Reelo team at the NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026!
Reelo is also hosting a dedicated workshop titled “Owning Your Customers.” The session is built around a problem most restaurant owners feel but rarely have the time to solve: aggregator platforms own the relationship with your customer, not you. Every order that comes through a delivery app hands that customer’s data, and their loyalty, to someone else’s ecosystem.
The workshop will walk through:
- Why customer ownership matters more now than it did two years ago
- How to move customers from one-time aggregator orders to direct, repeat relationships
- Practical ways to build a loyalty program that doesn’t rely on constant discounting
- What restaurants that have successfully “taken back” their customer base did differently
If there’s one session at the summit worth blocking time for, especially if delivery makes up a meaningful chunk of your revenue, this is it.
Who Should Attend
The summit is designed for a wide range of people across the food and delivery ecosystem:
Restaurant owners and operators looking to adapt to the evolving delivery landscape and drive growth through new channels and technologies.
Food delivery platforms and aggregators looking to optimise operations and improve the customer experience.
Technology providers and startups building solutions for the food delivery ecosystem.
Investors and venture capitalists scouting the next wave of F&B and foodtech opportunities.
Suppliers and service providers looking to build partnerships with restaurant brands at scale.
How to Make the Most of It
A few things worth doing before you show up:
Set a goal before you go
Are you there to solve a specific operational problem, evaluate new technology, find funding, or simply build your network? Walking in with a clear goal changes how you spend the day.
Check the session list in advance
Prioritise the ones most relevant to where your restaurant is right now, whether that’s early-stage growth, multi-city expansion, or fixing retention.
Bring your restaurant’s story ready in 30 seconds
With 5,000+ attendees in the room, first conversations are short. Make yours count.
Don’t skip the exhibition floor
Some of the most useful conversations happen at booths, not on stage. Stop by Reelo’s booth if customer retention and delivery revenue are on your mind.
Follow up fast
The relationships and ideas from a single day at NRAI tend to lose momentum quickly if you don’t act on them within the first 48 hours.
Final Thoughts
The NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 is shaping up to be the largest edition yet, and the theme, “Delivering Growth Through Technology,” couldn’t be more relevant to where the restaurant industry stands today. Whether you’re trying to reduce your dependence on aggregators, adopt the right technology, or simply understand where the industry is headed next, this is the one day worth clearing your calendar for.
If customer retention and owning your delivery relationships are on your priority list this year, come find the Reelo team at the summit, either at the booth or in the “Owning Your Customers” workshop. We’d love to walk you through what’s working for restaurants just like yours.
