Surat hosted its first large-scale fashion week earlier this month, paired with a two-day business summit, as the year-old networking platform Global Business Social (GBS) closed its first anniversary at Sarsana Platinum Hall on June 20 and 21. Founder Pinkesh Patel used the milestone to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and ten designers from four cities, with Femina Miss India winner Sadhvi Sail walking the runway.
From a Surat Launch to 160 Members in Twelve Months
GBS launched on June 27, 2025, and grew to 160+ members across four operating groups in Surat and Bardoli within twelve months. Founder Pinkesh Patel framed the platform as a homegrown answer for micro, small, and emerging entrepreneurs who often sit outside the metro networks of better-known industry bodies. He told the summit the group plans to expand its network across India in the coming years, with the GBS platform’s founder page outlining how the network runs today.
The platform runs as a referral-driven members’ network where Surat-based business owners, traders, and service providers meet in chapters to trade leads and showcase ventures. Patel said the platform’s made-in-India philosophy targets Tier-2 and Tier-3 city founders who don’t have the access of metropolitan peers. Each chapter runs on its own cadence. The expansion ambition is national, but the operational footprint so far remains entirely in Gujarat.
- Founded: June 27, 2025
- Members: 160+ across four groups
- Geography: Surat and Bardoli
- Plans: National network expansion
What Happened at Sarsana on June 20 and 21
At Sarsana Platinum Hall in Surat, the two-day anniversary programme opened with an inauguration by Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi. The first-anniversary summit and fashion week announcement sets out the full two-day schedule. Patel framed the two-day run as a capstone on a year of compounding membership growth.
Day one leaned into business sessions where entrepreneurs from diverse industries sat on the Fire Talk stage to share operating lessons. The summit also launched a Women wing chapter, formalising a vertical GBS had previously run informally. On day two, the spotlight shifted to fashion, with the first large-scale Surat fashion showcase designed to mirror national events. The night ended with awards.
The structure was unusual for a city where business summits and runway events rarely sit on the same programme. By placing both under one anniversary banner, GBS pitched itself as a networking platform that bridges commerce and creative industries. For Surat, the format doubled as a soft launch of the city as a multi-vertical destination.
- June 20: Summit opens at Sarsana Platinum Hall, inaugurated by Deputy CM Harsh Sanghavi
- June 20: Fire Talk sessions with entrepreneurs from diverse industries
- June 20: Women wing chapter formally launched
- June 21: GBS Fashion Week opens, Surat’s first large-scale fashion showcase
- June 21: Gala dinner, awards ceremony, and music band close the programme
Three Coaches Carried the Business Programme
Three keynote voices anchored the business programme. Business coach and investor Basesh Gala spoke on scaling ventures and the capital path for tier-2 founders. Communication coach Divas Gupta led a session on how founders pitch themselves and their companies in crowded markets. Personal branding coach Mansie Y Tthakkar, known for her talks on Chanakya Niti, drew the philosophical thread through the day’s leadership track. Together, the speakers shared insights on entrepreneurship, leadership, communication, and business growth with AI, the platform said in its summit summary.
Patel’s stated audience has historically been locked out of paid AI advisory. Bringing an AI track to a Surat anniversary stage changes that calculus, putting micro and emerging entrepreneurs in the room with the coaches who usually speak in Mumbai or Delhi. The choice of an AI thread inside a tier-2 networking event signals how seriously small-city founders now treat automation and tooling.
- Basesh Gala, business coach and investor
- Divas Gupta, communication coach
- Mansie Y Tthakkar, personal branding coach known for Chanakya Niti talks
GBS Fashion Week Walks the Runway
GBS Fashion Week was billed as Surat’s first large-scale fashion showcase, modelled on leading national fashion events. The runway featured ten designer sequences presented by six women and four male designers drawn from Surat, Mumbai, Delhi, and Jaipur, alongside other cities. The format aimed to give emerging and established designers a Surat stage without the travel costs of Mumbai Fashion Week or India Couture Week.
On the runway, Sadhvi Sail, the Femina Miss India winner, walked as celebrity showstopper, raising the profile of an event that had been running for less than two days. Her presence tied the local platform’s first year to a national beauty pageant circuit that few Surat-hosted events had intersected with before. Designers used the runway to present diverse collections and creative concepts. The fashion week framed itself as a launchpad for Surat-based labels testing national visibility.
Few tier-2 platforms attempt this. The choice to anchor a networking platform’s milestone with a fashion week is a cross-format bet that puts creative industries on a peer footing with commerce on the same stage.
Surat’s Quiet Bid Beyond Diamonds and Textiles
Beyond diamonds and textiles, the GBS anniversary programme put Surat on the map as a meeting point for business, entrepreneurship, and creative industries. Patel’s expansion plan extends that pitch to the rest of India. The plan rests on the assumption that Surat can host national-format events at home.
In Mumbai or Delhi, this kind of cross-format programming is a matter of course. The Pune Franchise Investor Summit 2026 highlights showed the same tier-2 play in another city. The platform’s four operational groups in Surat and Bardoli give the experiment a local base, even as the speaker list pulled coaches from outside Gujarat. For designers from Mumbai, Delhi, and Jaipur, the appeal was a Surat runway that the local platform was willing to fund.
Cutting and polishing have defined Surat for decades, but a city that supplies finished products also needs a stage to show them. Patel’s framing of the fashion week as a launchpad for Surat-based labels leans into that gap. The platform said the event highlights Surat’s emergence as a hub for business, entrepreneurship, and creative industries, a deliberate reframing away from the supply-side identity.
The primary objective of GBS is to provide micro, small and emerging entrepreneurs with an Indian business networking platform where they can connect easily, generate opportunities and expand their businesses nationally.
Pinkesh Patel, Founder of GBS, said this at the Surat anniversary summit on June 20, framing the platform as Tier-2-first. Patel has said the platform plans to expand across India in the coming years.
Open Questions After Year One
GBS has not disclosed how many of its members attended the Surat summit, leaving the conversion rate from registration to in-person turnout unmeasured. On the fashion week side, the platform billed ten designer sequences as Surat’s first large-scale fashion showcase, though no comparable benchmark was offered to define what counts as large-scale for the city. Beyond the existing four groups in Surat and Bardoli, no expansion timeline, city list, or chapter count has been published. The press release names every speaker, designer, and political guest, but says nothing about who actually showed up.
On the ground, the anniversary still lands. Bringing a Deputy CM, three national coaches, and a Femina Miss India winner to one venue is a measurable step for a year-old Surat platform. Patel has said the platform plans to scale across India in the coming years.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Global Business Social (GBS)?
Global Business Social is a made-in-India business networking platform founded by Pinkesh Patel and launched on June 27, 2025. It runs as a referral-driven members’ network for micro, small, and emerging entrepreneurs, particularly those based in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
How many members does GBS have and where does it operate?
GBS reported 160+ members within its first year. Four operational groups are currently active in Surat and Bardoli, and the platform has stated plans to expand its network across India.
What was GBS Fashion Week 2026?
GBS Fashion Week was the runway showcase that closed GBS’s first-anniversary programme on June 21, 2026. Designers from Surat, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, and other cities shared the lineup, with Sadhvi Sail, the Femina Miss India winner, walking as celebrity showstopper. The fashion week ran on the same programme as a Women wing chapter launch earlier in the summit, linking the platform’s women-focused verticals with its designer showcase.
Who spoke at the GBS business summit?
The keynote lineup included business coach and investor Basesh Gala, communication coach Divas Gupta, and personal branding coach Mansie Y Tthakkar, known for her Chanakya Niti talks. Sessions covered entrepreneurship, leadership, communication, and business growth with AI.
What comes next for GBS after the first anniversary?
Patel has stated plans to expand the platform’s network across India in the coming years, beyond its current Surat and Bardoli base. No second-anniversary date has been named.
