Follow The Leader: Mohammed Saleem, Founding Chairman, Trescon Saleem discusses how he came to launch Trescon in 2016, and why his enterprise is solely focused on future-tech events.

This article is a part of the 2023 edition of Entrepreneur Middle East's annual Follow The Leader series, in which enterprise head honchos from the region talk strategy, industry-specific tactics, and professional challenges as they lead their respective businesses to success.

The need for collaborative efforts between businesses has perhaps never been more imperative than now. And with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and fintech constantly creating new opportunities for innovation, stakeholders across the globe are increasingly incentivized to chase synergetic business opportunities. As the Founding Chairman of global business events and consulting firm Trescon, Mohammed Saleem is all too familiar with this notion.

Launched in 2016, Trescon has been organizing business-to-business (B2B) events that include conferences, road shows, and expos, as well as consulting services. "The formation of Trescon was not necessarily triggered by a single moment of inspiration, but rather a culmination of experiences and observations within the events industry," Saleem says. "We recognized the immense potential of events as a platform for networking, knowledge sharing, and business growth. By combining our passion for events, a deep understanding of the industry's pain points, and a commitment to innovation, Trescon was born. The vision was to create a company that would not only revolutionize the events business, but also become a trusted partner for organizations looking to host impactful and successful events."

Saleem's leadership over the past seven years has yielded results that Trescon can rightfully be pleased about today. "For starters, we at Trescon take immense pride in being the only events organizer in the world to successfully host two of the world's longest and continuously running events in their respective technology domains: The World Blockchain Summit, with 24 completed editions, and the World AI Show, with over 40 editions," Saleem adds. "These events have served as catalysts for knowledge sharing, collaboration, fundraising, and business partnerships, attracting renowned speakers, thought leaders, and participants from around the world."

But that isn't all there is to Trescon's roster of events, of course. There is also the World Cyber Security Summit, with 17 com - pleted editions across MENA, India and Southeast Asia; the World Cloud Show, with four upcoming editions in Dubai, Manila, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur; the World Metaverse Show, which will be hosted in Dubai and Riyadh in the latter half of 2023; and the World Fintech Show, which is set to take place in Saudi Arabia in December 2023. Among Trescon's India-based events is one that caters specifically to chief information officers (CIOs), known as the Big CIO Show, and another that focuses on trends within the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector, known as the Big BFSI Future Tech Show. "With our successful track record in hosting long-standing events, Trescon has positioned itself as a global leader, fostering knowledge exchange, driving business growth, and shaping the trajectory of technologydriven industries," Saleem says.

Now, if you're assuming that most of these aforementioned events are singular conferences that are leisurely spread over many months, then think again. With six head offices -two in India, and one each in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Mauritius- Trescon has built a reputation of successfully hosting more than one event at the same time. Take, for example, the World AI Show: from June 7-8, 2023, one edition of the event was held in Dubai, with a second concurrent edition hosted by Trescon in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on the same days. A similar packed schedule is expected to happen in November this year, when Trescon hosts the World Blockchain Summit in Dubai, Jakarta, as well as Delhi within a very close time frame.

Mohammed Saleem, Founding Chairman, Trescon. Source: Trescon

"By focusing on future-tech events, and establishing ourselves as leaders in key technology areas, Trescon has created unparalleled platforms that bring together industry stakeholders, startups, investors, and government representatives," Saleem notes. "Through these events, Trescon enables crucial discussions, facilitates networking opportunities, and fosters meaningful interactions that shape the future of technology adoption and innovation."

But to reach a position where Trescon, as a company, can host multiple events across geographies (sometimes simultaneously!), Saleem admits that it has had plenty of inefficiencies to initially sift through and solve. For starters, the B2B events space that Saleem and his team entered in 2016 is a far cry from what it has transformed into today. The two areas that particularly caused concern ar the time, Saleem says, were business operations and strategic planning. "It was necessary to get to the root cause of some of the common challenges that resulted in failed events, and, eventually, failed businesses," he adds. "There were no industry standards that determine what works, and what doesn't, while conceptualizing a B2B event, whether it's the topics to cover, the industries to target, size and scale of the event, selection of an ideal venue, and so on. There was a lack of clarity in fully understanding the market, and the specific needs of different types of attendees. This included determining the right benefits and value propositions to convince individuals and organizations to invest their time and resources in attending events."

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Another stark shortcoming Saleem noticed back then was the poor management of the staff behind B2B events. "This involved tackling issues such as understaffing for certain events, while others were overstaffed, as well as the need to find and retain talent that possessed the specific skills required for the events industry," Saleem says. "Moreover, we understood the importance of training staff to remain consistent in producing high-quality events, while maintaining operational costs. We also recognized the need to enhance business planning and product development within the events industry. We thus saw the opportunity to improve the industry by addressing these challenges head-on, and creating a company that could deliver exceptional event experiences, while meeting the diverse needs of attendees and exhibitors."

Saleem and his team's efforts in this regard reaped rewards very quickly. In 2016, in the South Indian city of Bengaluru, Trescon was able to host the World Startup Expo 2016- which, at the time, was reported to be Asia's largest startup expo. "That particular achievement provided the leadership team with the confidence to make bolder decisions, leading to the launch of newer events in emerging tech spaces such as AI, blockchain, and cybersecurity in the following years," Saleem notes. "The launch editions of these events were resounding successes, both in terms of revenue generation and brand positioning. They enabled Trescon to make significant inroads in markets across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Asia. It eventually led to the company's expansion into several emerging markets and strategic collaborations with governments, including the opportunity to host the Prime Minister of Mauritius and their delegation at one of Trescon's events in Mauritius."

With a repertoire of such diverse conferences and shows that focus specifically on emerging technologies, Trescon has thus carved a niche for itself in the events domain. But along the way, Saleem was already experimenting with other avenues that Trescon could work in. "The company also embarked on a journey of what the industry refers to as 'managed events,'" Saleem explains. "These are end-to-end event management services provided by Trescon, from conceptualization to execution and beyond. While initial forays into managed events occurred in 2017 and 2018, working with government entities and private sector organizations, a major breakthrough came in 2022 when Trescon signed a partnership with Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) to host its first fintech summit."

Here, Saleem is talking about when, in November 2022, Trescon became the sole events company behind the inaugural Dubai Fintech Summit (DFS), which was staged from May 8-9, 2023. Launched under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, and President of DIFC, the two-day event brought together over 5,000 regional and international fintech industry experts, startups, and investors. A few days following the success of DFS 2023, Trescon was roped in to host the event's next edition in May 2024. "This collaboration with DIFC stands as a major milestone for Trescon, and a testament to its capabilities in organizing impactful events," Saleem says. "We're very grateful to DIFC for their trust and confidence in us."

Mohammed Saleem, Founding Chairman, Trescon. Source: Trescon

Achievements like this could not have been possible for Trescon without some underlying principles to guide it, of course. In the case of Trescon, the secret sauce lies within its name itself. "The core values of our company can be represented by the acronym T.R.E.S.C.O.N.," Saleem explains. "T stands for technology-driven and transformational; R stands for resilient and results-oriented; E stands for entrepreneurial and ethical; S stands for strategic and sustainable; C stands for collaborative and customer-centric; O stands for organized and open-minded; and N stands for nimble and nurturing."

But don't let Trescon's successes so far mislead you into thinking its journey has been a linear graph. Far from it, in fact, the company faced a period of back-to-back challenges when the impact of 2018's global economic downturn was soon followed by the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020. In the case of the latter, as we now know all too well, the events industry was one of the most badly affected sectors worldwide. "However, even in the face of adversity, we made timely decisions and found a way to overcome these challenges," Saleem says. "We developed our own in-house virtual events platform, which proved to be vital for Trescon. While I focused on the platform's development, the company was in the capable hands of my co-founders and a dependable team that supported us during those tough times. This allowed Trescon not only to survive the pandemic, but actually thrive. Launching new events during normal circumstances is already challenging, requiring commercial viability and limited financial risk. However, with virtual events, we saw an opportunity amidst the crisis. We successfully launched several new event series, covering impactful emerging technologies, leveraging our own virtual event platform. The pandemic leveled the playing field, enabling us to compete and excel alongside big players in the market."

The lessons learnt through the pandemic allowed Saleem and his team to streamline certain processes- a move that eventually led to the consolidation of all their flagship events into one major event called Digital Acceleration Transformation Expo (DATE). "DATE will be launched in Delhi this November, followed by several global editions in 2024," Saleem reveals. "It will bring together industry leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to drive global change, and foster collaboration on a grand scale. This strategic move allows us to host fewer events, but on a larger scale, ensuring a more immersive and impactful experience for our attendees. These challenges have further solidified our commitment to adaptability, innovation, and creating transformative event experiences."

It is with such an adaptive mindset that Saleem hopes to lead his enterprise towards all of its future goals as well. "Looking ahead, we are excited about hosting larger and more impactful events like DATE, while expanding our global reach," Saleem declares. "We remain dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what is possible, fostering innovation, and driving positive change across industries. The challenges we have overcome have strengthened us as a more resilient organization, and we aim to approach the future with optimism and determination."

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