Praveen Venu is Tradepass’ co-founder and sales director. He has over a decade of sponsorship sales experience in a variety of industries, including but not limited to CXO product lines, Investor Connect, Infrastructure, and others.
Praveen’s events career has taken him around Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, and he has been a torchbearer for Tradepass since the company’s debut of Tradepass Digital, which includes work-webinars, virtual events, virtual boardrooms, and pre-qualified one-on-one meetings.
Being an ardent football fan, Praveen’s global spirit has led him into launching new products across geographies.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between TBF and Praveen Venu:
Being a successful business leader, what difficulties and challenges do you face? What keeps you motivated?
As a strong believer in perseverance, I try to look at things in a very gradual way. When it comes to challenges, that’s just the name of the game. So, to keep things simple for myself and everyone else around, I just look at one day at a time. Every day is a challenge for me, and I try to focus on what I need to accomplish in that one day. Over the years, I have come to realise that setting a larger-than-life organisational goal for a given period can become too overwhelming at times, and it’s not a wise idea to burden the team with the same weight. Instead, it’s better to set goals for each day because if each day is won, it will gradually lead us to our long-term goals in a very organic way.
I would like to mention that the pandemic did give us its share of uncertainty with remote working. As a team, we had never really experimented with the idea of work from home in the past, so making a transition during the pandemic was quite a challenge. But with the dedicated support of the entire team, we managed to push our boundaries. Not to forget, it was also the time when every government entity throughout the world was against any kind of physical gathering or event. It made us realise our potential with remote working where we steered successful mega scale virtual events for different markets, which was also the sheer need of the hour to ensure business continuity across industries.
My time in the industry, which spans more than a decade, gave me the realisation that there are too many players in the market and a majority of them don’t have a clear vision. There is a lot of large-scale work happening that mostly gets compromised on quality, and on the contrary, there are also some small projects out there with no real value in them. So, identifying this gap came very naturally to me, where I wanted to provide the industry with the right solutions. This always keeps me motivated and that’s one of the main reasons why every Tradepass event witnesses the convergence of high qualified leads and the most powerful buyers under one platform, along with the latest intelligence from the respective industry.
What are the different services offered by the company?
As a company, we are completely committed to all-things-event. From tailor-made virtual summits to the most regal physical conferences, Tradepass has got it all. Below is a brief description of our different services:
CONFERENCES
Tradepass conferences are designed for global senior IT and business leaders, as well as government officials, looking to adapt and evolve their organisations with the changing times, identify shortcomings, and prioritise strategic investments.
MEETINGS
Tradepass facilitates 1:1 meeting access for global solution providers to connect with thousands of in-market buyers who are pre-qualified with customer data including budget, role of authority, and timeline.
Technology providers leverage our Meetings Platform to find the right prospects, enter emerging markets, and build a network of buyers across the globe.
EXHIBITIONS
Tradepass exhibitions run in parallel with the conference sessions at the summits where global solution providers leverage our international platforms to meet, engage and network with pre-qualified delegates efficiently.
WEBINARS
Tradepass webinars are specifically customised to suit the needs of the hour and cater to a world where establishing remote connections through a virtual platform is the only go-to way for sharing market intelligence, conducting deep-dive knowledge sessions, and networking with industry experts.
Tell us about the notable milestones in the company’s journey.
In Tradepass, every event is a milestone in itself. Everyone at Tradepass, is fully committed to the success of every event. In that light, I believe our numbers speak for themselves, as we have seen over 40 events in the last four years with 25,000+ Delegates, 1,000+ Meetings, 400+ Exhibitors, 550+ Speakers, and 50+ Countries.
Not only do we have the most renowned industry experts and thought leaders at our events, but also the senior-most government officials from the respective industries based on the region we are targeting.
Tradepass has facilitated deals worth more than $1 million through its most exclusive 1:1 meeting platform, where the global solution providers get connected with the most qualified prospects who are screened beforehand with customer data including budget, role of authority, and timeline.
What is your opinion regarding the current landscape of the market your company caters to?
As an organization, we predominantly focus on the sectors that fall under the gravity of the tech industry. The likes of which include Cybersecurity, Big Data & Analytics, Fintech, Datacentre & Cloud, etc. There is no denying the fact that with the new-age technological disruptions, these millennial driven sectors will only witness exponential growth in the market. Consequently, events that can address the prevailing industry-oriented issues, talk about the latest trends and innovations, and provide a common ground for lucrative networking will become a necessary protocol.
Another noteworthy point related to the colossal transformations is the emergence of A-to-Z risks that have made the entire tech industry quite vulnerable. Since day one, Tradepass has been at the forefront of addressing the most-pressing vulnerabilities across the tech-industry through the leading minds, thought leaders and the best-in-class solution providers. Tradepass events are always graced by the top C-level executives and decision makers that comprise the key stakeholders from the respective industries.
How do you motivate your team to be innovative and productive at work?
Tradepass abides by an Open-Door policy where any employee of the organisation is free to reach out to the management any time they wish to and give their suggestions/opinions or raise any concern that they have regarding any organisational activity.
When it comes to our core ethos, transparency and openness form an integral part. To add to that, the management at Tradepass is always encouraging the employees to take part in every decision-making process and share their ideas so that the organisation can grow with them as a single integrated whole.
This makes for a very congenial and friendly environment at Tradepass, where the employees feel at ease, and, as a result, it drives them towards trying out new things and being more productive. It’s common human psychology that to receive the best output one needs to free the mind and remove boundaries or other work-related anxieties.
Also, Tradepass completely believes in gender diversity, and the majority of our employees are female.
What are your future plans for the company? Where do you see the company in the years to come?
Setting a benchmark with each of our events, whether in-person or virtual, we are planning to have more on-ground presence once the pandemic situation subsides. This also involves setting an office space in Dubai in the near future as that will give us better connectivity with the markets in the Middle East and Africa.
Of late, we have had a good share of success in all our markets and APAC in particular with its fast-growing tech industry. As an organization, Tradepass houses a very multifaceted team where the members hail from diverse backgrounds, putting together a super agile talent pool. With our relentless pursuit of identifying the existential issues in the various markets and accordingly curating the right solutions, we are planning to scale up in every way. It not only involves entering new markets with a greater number of physical events, but also expanding our entire team.
In the years to come, Tradepass will be recognised as the go-to name in the corporate sector for any kind of B2B event.
Can you tell us about your journey of how you became an entrepreneur? Also, what is your advice to budding entrepreneurs?
Coming from a very humble middle-class background, I had normal human aspirations, like doing really well at work and fast-tracking my way up the corporate ladder. I had never given entrepreneurship a real thought as I was quite content with what I was doing, which was also being applauded for its fair share of success.
But my life suddenly took an abrupt turn when my father got diagnosed with cancer (4th stage) and I had to return to India to take care of him. There was not much that I was able to do apart from providing him with basic support and care, as the cancer had reached an advanced stage.
After his death, my outlook towards the world changed completely. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining, I had definitely found mine. I recognised the seed of entrepreneurship in me that wanted to find an expression through the solutions I had for the event industry. I wanted to bridge the gap where the existential issues in the B2B sector were not being addressed with the right solutions or it was happening at such a low scale that it would have hardly made any difference.
With the support of my long-standing colleague who is now a partner and also the co-founder of Tradepass, Sudhir Ranjan Jena, we started the company with the common aim of fixing the loopholes in the B2B event industry and powering the same with tailored platforms to meet the business needs of the hour. We had also envisioned our organization as a place where people feel excited about coming to work, become more skilled, earn good money and in a way be able to fulfil their purpose. And, it’s quite motivating for us to witness that Tradepass has actually turned out that way.
As advice to all the budding entrepreneurs, I would like to share a quote by Bill Cosby which goes like this: “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure”.
