When the Late Mr. SM Gandhi, Founder Chairman of ABEC Exhibitions & Conferences, unwittingly forayed into events more than three decades ago, little did he know that this venture would one day reach the pinnacle of the exhibition industry in India. However, it would be little more than a sideshow if we did not underline the determination of his son, Mr. Sumit Gandhi, who relentlessly strived to preserve the legacy of the company his father had left behind.
A polite and soft-spoken man, Sumit Gandhi inherited an austere world of B2B conventions and old values at a young age of 27. Initiated into the exhibition industry by chance rather than a plan, he took to this industry like a fish takes to water. Despite his background as a qualified Chartered Accountant and a stint in the banking sector, he has nevertheless successfully steered the company, embedded in a then underdeveloped industry, into a new indigenous brand of focused expos that had hitherto been uncharted or dominated by unorganized players.
As ABEC slowly metamorphosed from commissioning small events in the Oil & Gas sector to organizing more than 62 exhibitions in a year in niche segments such as Jewelry, Education, Property, Security and the flagship architecture and design expo – ACETECH, Sumit Gandhi, now at the helm of the company and ably supported by his younger brother, Mr. Manish Gandhi, managed the evolution, keeping a firm hand on the tiller from behind his desk.
A resolute, untiring workforce by himself, Sumit Gandhi is the driving force behind the mammoth success of India's largest tradeshow, ACETECH. Fortunes had turned dramatically with the launch of ACETECH. The Gandhi's epiphany in the new sector caught the start of the incipient building and architecture era and the expo regarded at that time as a happy accident, is now spread across more than 50,00,00+ square feet annually, personally spearheaded by Sumit Gandhi.
ACETECH propelled the company's fortunes into the stratosphere but rather than sit on its laurels, Sumit Gandhi continued to innovate with the property, diversifying into various rubrics such as Design Wall, Ace Interface, Ace Luxe, Ace Surfaces and many more. It has been Sumit Gandhi's visionary instinct, grit and determination coupled with an open communication channel that he created within his company that enabled him to establish ACETECH into the third largest expo in the world in the building materials, design and architecture space and indisputably the largest expo in India in terms of size, scale and visitor footfalls.
Having done more than any individual can, to lead a company through its awkward teenage years into adulthood, ABEC Exhibitions & Conferences is today synonymous with leadership and success in the Indian exhibition industry and Sumit Gandhi who has deservedly reached the summit of an ever-changing volatile industry, continues to be the omnipresent face in a changing cycle.
Fondly nicknamed as SG, industry peers perceive him as an unstoppable force and as he chaperones the company into the future with an astute eye for detail, Sumit Gandhi's road map for the coming years is crystal clear – "more innovation", as he sets up ACETECH for one of its most significant editions yet.
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