From vendor to industry visionary — the Simply Payments story

When I joined FSS, one of the most persistent problems wasn't product — it was perception. Despite powering payments infrastructure across 26 countries for 34 years, FSS was seen as a vendor, not a thought leader. Banks came to FSS to buy a solution, not to seek counsel on the future of payments. The gap between what FSS knew and what the market believed FSS knew was enormous.

The task: build a platform that would change how the industry saw FSS — not through advertising, but through convening the right conversations. Simply Payments was that platform. I took over end-to-end ownership and rebuilt it from the ground up.

The first thing I changed was the framing. Simply Payments wasn't marketed as an FSS event — it was positioned as an industry platform for payments professionals. The theme, agenda, and speaker lineup were designed to reflect where the industry was going, not where FSS wanted to sell. This shift made senior buyers want to attend for the thinking — and made media want to cover it for the agenda.

Brought in The Economic Times as media partner for SP Mumbai 2024, and Network18 for SP Mumbai 2025 — securing broadcast coverage on CNBC-TV18 and editorial coverage in Forbes. For Dubai, partnered with Khaleej Times for regional amplification. These weren't sponsorship deals — they were editorial partnerships built on the credibility of the event's content.

• Content & theme design: Started planning 4–6 months out. Every session, panel, and keynote designed to reflect FSS's AI-first positioning while delivering genuine industry insight
• Speaker curation & panel briefing: Curated speakers from senior banking and fintech leadership; wrote briefing documents and managed prep calls for every panelist
• Audience curation with sales: Worked with the sales team to identify and invite target accounts — turning the event into a structured pipeline tool, not just a branding exercise
• Smart meeting booking: Set up Calendly-based meeting booking at the event to enable structured 1-on-1s between FSS leadership and prospects — converted directly into post-event deals
• Experience booths & live product demos: Coordinated with product and platform teams to set up live demos of FSS BLAZE and Recon AI at the event floor
• Print collaterals & event design: Owned all design outputs — stage backdrops, brochures, event kits, social assets
• Social amplification: Planned and executed pre-event, live, and post-event social campaigns — #SimplyPayments2025 trended on X
• Post-event follow-up: Personally coordinated follow-up outreach with sales after both Dubai and Mumbai editions — contributing directly to two deal closures (₹5Cr and ₹15Cr)

SP Mumbai 2023 had 27 attendees when I inherited it. By Mumbai 2025, we had 175 senior attendees — bankers, fintech leaders, and regulators — and the event had become FSS's most visible marketing property. Dubai followed the same trajectory: 28 attendees in 2024 to 66 in 2025 with 38 new MQLs.