Section 1: The Event

Where Innovation Meets Island Hospitality

The Global Innovation Summit & Retreat brought together 75+ global enterprise leaders CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, and CxOs with 30+ high-growth startups in Colombo, Sri Lanka from September 2-5, 2025.

With 150+ attendees exploring AI initiatives, build-versus-buy strategies, and enterprise sales success, this wasn't just another tech conference. Organized by current and former CIOs and CISOs, it was an intimate gathering where real conversations happened against the backdrop of Sri Lanka's stunning landscapes and world-class hospitality.

Section 2: AI Caricatures, But Make It Marvel

The Marketing Experiment That Actually Worked

Events are noisy. A hundred vendors trying to pull the same crowd with the same swag bags and branded pens. We decided to try something different.

We showed up with 100+ personalized AI-generated caricature frames—each one custom-made in Marvel style for key attendees. No booth. No pitch deck. Just us, finding each person and handing them their frame directly.

What happened next surprised even us:

People smiled. They took photos. They immediately sent it to their friends and family. We watched them carefully wrap the frames back in cellophane so they could carry them home safely and place them on their desks.

The moment we'll never forget: Sir Aravinda de Silva, the legendary cricketer who won Sri Lanka their first World Cup, took his frame and placed it right next to his World Cup-winning bat in his gallery.

[IMAGE GALLERY: Caricature examples, people receiving their frames, Sir Aravinda de Silva moment]

The lesson? Great marketing isn't always about budget or slogans. Sometimes it's just about doing something thoughtful that makes people stop for a second.

Section 3: Rapid Fire with the CIOs

"What's the Weirdest IT Request You've Ever Gotten?"

We asked some of the brightest minds from the Global CIO circle fun rapid-fire questions—and got responses you wouldn't expect to hear from enterprise leaders!

Featured in our rapid-fire series:

• Deepika Rayala

• Karl Mosgofian

• Logan Nathan

• Abhishek

• Raj

• Gary J Ahwah

• Rajita Bhatnagar

Thank you all for being game and bringing out your festival-goer personas! Special thanks to Lenin Gali for bringing everyone together.

Section 4: The Hard Truth About PLG vs SLG

Lessons from the Panel

Our co-founder Pritish Gupta shared some hard-learned lessons during a panel discussion at the summit.

The reality check? Most AI startups (including us at one point) accidentally pit their Product-Led Growth (PLG) and Sales-Led Growth (SLG) teams against each other.

Nothing worse than your enterprise prospects saying: "Why should we pay more when we can get it cheaper on your website?"

It took us trial and error to crack this, but the solution turned out to be simpler than we thought.

Panel Discussion: "Scaling AI Startups: Aligning PLG and SLG Strategies"

Panelists:

• Pritish Gupta, Co-founder, Trupeer

• Aparna Chugh

• Vishal Gupta

• Lenin Gali

• Philip Madgwick

  
  

Section 5: What We Learned

Beyond the Booth

This summit reminded us why we build what we build. Enterprise leaders don't just want tools—they want partners who understand their challenges. They want authentic conversations, not sales pitches.

The caricatures opened doors. The rapid-fires created moments. The panel discussions sparked real dialogue about the challenges we all face in this AI-first world.

Key Takeaways:

• Thoughtful marketing creates lasting impressions

• Authentic storytelling > generic swag

• The best sales conversations start without a sales pitch

• Enterprise leaders are people first, titles second