Mainstage Sessions

Synopsis
Is it conceivable that a young boy from Dharavi can actually outnumber the monthly  likes and comments of superstars like Ranveer, Salman and Virat Kohli? Have we moved to a world order where such a ‘new age phenomenon’ has actually grown larger than all of them COMBINED?! Say hello to Mr Faisu!
There’s a digital revolution we are witnessing in India which is redefining stardom. New-age Internet superstars on Instagram and TikTok are engaging the youth in a way we’ve never seen before.
 
On the Stage
 
Samir Bangara
Samir is the moderator of the panel. He has built a business around new age superstars for the last 5 years across Youtube, Facebook in the ‘BC era’ to Tiktok and Instagram in the ‘AD era’. Catch his fireside chat with two of Instagram and TikTok’s biggest influencers Mr.Faisu and Sameeksha Sud as he talks to them about their journey, how social platforms have changed, how brands can harness their influence better, what metrics you should track and perhaps even watch a viral video created right in front of your eyes and bewilder at the wild engagement that follows.
 
Prashant Sharma
Prashant is the Industry Head – CPG and Media Entertainment at Facebook. Sales and marketing professional with experience across FMCG, E-Commerce, Media and Consumer Internet. Experienced in B2C and B2B sectors. Uniquely skilled at delivering industry leading results for business growth and brand building across large MNCs, mid-size organizations and tech start-ups.

Mr. Faisu
Faisal Shaikh a.k.a Mr Faisu is arguably India’s most loved digital icon. Discovered originally on Tiktok which scaled to 24 m fans, Mr. Faisu expanded his follower base across other social media platforms notably Instagram and Facebook. The most commonly asked question ‘what does he do?!” spawned a Facebook Original show called ‘Tu Karta Kya Hai’ in which he interviews various internet sensations and talks about their journey to stardom and what’s next. Faisu’s engagement metrics are quite literally unreal. Through 2019 his 720 instagram posts received 7.7 m comments[a] - that’s 1 million MORE than Salman, Ranveer and Virat COMBINED despite being 1/5th the follower base of Virat’s.   
 
Sameeksha Sud
Born on 25 April and hailing from Delhi, India, Sameeksha Sud is a TV actor, Tiktok artist, and a social media influencer with over 17 million followers on TikTok, over 650K subscribers on YouTube and 1.2 million on instagram, making her one of the top 10 tiktok influencers in our country, today. She is popularly known as a member of the TeenTigada trio along with Vishal Pandey and Bhavin Bhanushali. Sameeksha started her career with Doli Armano Ki on zee TV prior to which she was studying journalism and is now making a dent in the digital space.
 
 
Under growing pressure from consumers, activists and investors, many major brands have made bold commitments to change the way they do business. Few have outlined what that will cost or how they plan to invest to drive change. And to really see the industry shift, sustainable practices will have to show they can generate sustainable profit.
 
We are going up against a tradition of doing business that is extremely profitable. Can the good money match the bad? Moreover, everyone sees sustainability through their own lens. A food company, talking about sustainable supply chains, a farmer talking about a sustainable enterprise, a politician talking about sustainable economic growth, a social scientist talking about a sustainable rural community or an ecologist talking about sustainable land use - all use a different conceptualization of what "sustainable" means, but each often thinks their concept maps neatly across to others.
 
In the meantime, individuals and departments tasked with driving better practices often find themselves rubbing up against entrenched ways of doing business and measuring success.  
 
This panel will discuss sustainability from the perspectives of big business ,from the world of fashion, arts and culture along with how technology can bridge the gap between the two in terms of scaling sustainable practices.
 
On the Stage
 
Manisha Lath Gupta
Manisha is the Moderator of the Panel- By day the Marketing Director for Uber, South Asia and by heart a permaculture farmer. She owns and manages a beautiful farm near Chandigarh, which was also a highlight of her TEDx talk. A seasoned marketer, entrepreneur and leader, she comes with over 20 years of experience across consumer goods, banking, e-commerce and fin-tech.
 
Arzan Khambatta
Arzan calls himself an architect by profession and a sculptor by choice. Encouraged by his parents, he started sculpting at a very young age. He would scout for scrap metal and weld them into pieces of art he fondly called ‘scraptures’, a word now synonymous with Arzan.
 
Narendra Kumar
‘Nari’ as he is popularly addressed, is the first and the only Indian designer to enter Britain’s prestigious Esquire’s Big Black Book of Style.  He was also the fashion founding editor of ELLE India when the magazine was launched in 1996.
 
Dr. Osvald Bjelland
Dr. Osvald, the founder of Xynteo, is also Chairman of The Performance Theatre Foundation, which stages an annual forum to inspire world leaders, from across disciplines and geographies, to identify and chart out a path through the key challenges to global business likely to emerge over the next three to six years. He was an expert commentator for the Harvard Business Review Green Initiative.