India AI Impact Summit and Expo commenced at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on Monday, drawing criticism on social media over poor planning.
In light of this, a post shared on X by a Bengaluru based entrepreneur recording his experience from the summit has now gained attention.
Dhananjay Yadav, the co-founder and CEO of NeoSapien, claimed that his company's products were "stolen" when all the attendees were asked to vacate booths to sanitise the area ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit.
A five day AI Impact Summit was inaugurated by PM Modi on February 16, one of the highest profile events hosted by India this year and attendees include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and others.
Yadav is co-founder and CEO at NeoSapien, a company that is building AI wearable devices that can track conversations.
The post starts with, "Day 1 of the AI Impact Summit turned to be a pain for us." Yadav said that he was excited to attend the summit as it was first of its kind in India. "I wanted to show up personally to support the ecosystem and the government's push," he added.
Yadav and his team were at the summit to exhibit "India's first patented AI wearable at NeoSapien and requested a chance to showcase it."
According to the post, at 12 noon security "arrived to sanitise and cordon off the area ahead of the visit by PM Modi visit."
Yadav states that trusting the security, his team left the laptops and wearables behind at the booth.
Yadav said that he had specifically asked the security regarding the laptops and was told that "others are leaving even laptops behind security will take care."
He added that the gates were closed till 6pm and finally when they returned he found that NeoSapien wearables were stolen.
He also shared the visuals of the booth and wrote, "Think about this: We paid for flights, accommodation, logistics and even the booth. Only to see our wearables disappear inside a high-security zone." He questioned, "If only security and official entourage had access, how did this happen? This is extremely disappointing."
Others who also attended the summit took it to X explaining the chaos. Bengaluru-based conversational voice-AI startup Bolna, Maitreya Wagh founder and CEO also said that he was unable to access his own booth after the venue gates were shut. In a X post, he wrote, "Gates are closed, so could not access my own booth at the AI Summit. If you're also stuck outside and wanted to visit the Bolna team, DM me. We may set up a mini-booth at some Connaught Place cafe."
Multiple other posts on social media also complained of long queues, no UPI, food stalls closed, and exhibitors locked out of the stalls.
Some also said that while the media celebrated the summit the reality showed "exhibitors, delegates, startup founders left outside. No water. No clarity."