Art of Storytelling Festival 2026 - Product Leaders Forum

Bangalore · August 2026

Art of Storytelling
Festival, 2026

Some stories deserve a stage.

Presented by Product Leaders Forum

date

August 2026

Location

Bangalore, India

Eligibility

3+ Years Experience

Total Prize Pool

₹3,00,000

About the Festival

Not a panel.
Not a pitch.
A story.

The Art of Storytelling Festival 2026 is a one-day professional festival held in Bangalore, bringing together product leaders, founders, engineers, designers, and business professionals with a single shared purpose: to present and witness stories from the world of work that are genuinely worth hearing.

The festival is not built around curated keynotes or polished panel discussions. It is built around real professional experiences: the product launch that almost did not ship, the leadership decision that changed the direction of a team, the customer conversation that made an entire strategy suddenly clear.

At the centre of the festival is The Art of Storytelling Championship where twelve selected finalists take the stage before a live audience and a distinguished jury, competing for a total prize pool of Rs. 3,00,000.

500+

Stories expected to be submitted

Stories from the World of Work

"The product decision that defined the company. The pivot that nobody outside the room ever knew about. The moment a founder realised the business they had built was not the business they had intended to build."

These are the stories that belong on a stage. The Art of Storytelling Festival 2026 exists to put them there.

Stories from the World of Work

Your story could
earn a place
on the main stage.

The championship is open to professionals with a minimum of three years of experience across product management, technology, leadership, design, and business. Applicants are invited to submit a story drawn from their professional life, one that reflects a defining experience, a significant decision, or a moment that materially changed how they think about their work.

Applications Open

Professionals from across industries submit a story summary, a category, and optional supporting material for consideration by the selection panel.

Shortlisted

The festival selection panel reviews every submission and shortlists the one hundred stories that demonstrate the greatest clarity, authenticity, and resonance.

Finalists Invited

Twelve storytellers are selected and invited to present their story live before the full festival audience and the jury in Bangalore.

Championship Finals

The five strongest performances advance to the championship round, where finalists present once more before the jury in the final session of the day.

Winners Announced

Three winners are recognised by the jury at the awards ceremony. The champion is awarded the title of Storyteller of the Year.

Who Can Apply

Applications are open to working professionals with a minimum of three years of experience. The festival does not require applicants to be published authors, public speakers, or subject matter experts. What it requires is a story that is specific, honest, and worth the time of an audience of professional peers.

Eligible applicants include product managers, founders, engineers, designers, business leaders, consultants, and professionals from any sector or function who have a story drawn from their working life.

Story Categories

Applications require a story summary, a category, and optional supporting material.

Who Can Apply

The best story
wins.

Three winners are recognised by an independent jury at the awards ceremony held at the close of the festival. Evaluation is based on the depth and authenticity of the story, the quality of its telling, and the degree to which it resonates with an audience of professional peers.

Champion

Storyteller of the Year

Rs. 1,50,000

First Runner-Up

Rs. 1,00,000

Second Runner-Up

Rs. 50,000

The Programme

One day. Twelve storytellers.
Hundreds of ideas.

The Art of Storytelling Festival 2026 is structured as a full-day programme. Every session is designed to give attendees substantive, authentic experiences drawn from professional practice. The day moves between championship presentations, masterclass sessions, conversations, and an exhibition, closing with the awards ceremony and a networking reception.

The Programme

Opening Keynote

Senior industry voices open the day with a considered conversation about the role of storytelling in professional life and why the most consequential experiences inside organisations are so rarely shared in any formal setting.

Twelve stories. One stage.

The Championship Presentations

Twelve finalists each present a single story from their professional life. Presentations may draw on any combination of slides, video, product demonstrations, photographs, data, or spoken narrative, provided they serve the story being told.

The craft of the professional story.

Storytelling Masterclass

A structured, practical session covering how to identify the story within an experience, how to build a narrative structure that holds an audience's attention, and how to present it in a way that leaves professionals with something they can carry back into their work.

Unscripted. In depth.

Fireside Conversations

Founders, senior leaders, and practitioners in extended, unscripted conversation. These sessions are not panel discussions or presentations. They are moderated exchanges designed to surface the experiences and perspectives that are rarely made available in public formats.

Stories in visual form.

Story Gallery

A curated exhibition of professional stories told through visual and data-driven formats, including career timelines, product journeys, organisational decisions, and founding narratives rendered in a format that can be read, studied, and discussed.

The five best. Then the three best.

Championship Finals and Awards

The five highest-scoring finalists from the main championship round present once more before the jury. Following deliberation, the jury announces three winners at the awards ceremony. The champion receives the title of Storyteller of the Year.

Where the day continues.

Networking Reception

The festival closes with a reception open to all attendees, speakers, finalists, and jury members. It is an opportunity for the conversations that begin on stage and in the gallery to continue without structure or agenda.

Why Attend

Learn something you cannot
find anywhere else.

Frameworks and methodologies are extensively documented and widely accessible. What is genuinely difficult to find is a professional who has been through a formative experience and is willing to share an honest account of it, including the parts that did not go as intended. The Art of Storytelling Festival 2026 is designed around exactly that kind of encounter.

Hear the accounts that are rarely made public

The decisions, course corrections, and hard-won insights that do not appear in case studies or conference presentations, shared live by the professionals who lived through them.

Engage with a genuinely cross-functional room

Founders, product leaders, engineers, designers, and business leaders from across sectors and functions. A professional community that does not assemble in any other single setting.

Gain perspective on your own work

An honest account from someone who has navigated a situation similar to your own can reframe a problem that has resisted resolution. That is the particular value of a story told well.

Witness a live professional championship

Twelve selected professionals presenting before a jury and a full audience, evaluated not on credentials or position but on the quality and authenticity of the story they bring to the stage.

Develop your own ability to tell your story

The masterclass session is designed to give attendees practical tools for structuring and delivering a professional story, in any setting where it matters.

Be part of a founding moment

The Art of Storytelling Festival 2026 is the inaugural edition of what is designed to become an annual institution. Attendees of the first edition will be part of its founding community.

Attend

Be in the room
where it happens.

Festival passes are open to all professionals. Attendance does not require an application to the championship. All pass holders receive full access to the day’s programme, including the championship presentations, masterclass, fireside conversations, story gallery, awards ceremony, and networking reception.

Early Bird Pass

₹ 1,499

Full day festival access
All 12 Championship presentations
Opening keynote
Storytelling masterclass
Fireside conversations
Story gallery
Championship finals and awards
Networking reception

Regular Pass

₹ 3,499

Full day festival access
All 12 Championship presentations
Opening keynote
Storytelling masterclass
Fireside conversations
Story gallery
Championship finals and awards
Networking reception

Applications Are Open

You have lived through something worth
sharing.

The championship is looking for professionals who have a specific, honest story to tell from their working life. A career decision that changed direction. A product experience that taught something no methodology could. A leadership moment that demanded more than expertise. If you have that story, we invite you to apply.

Frequently Asked

Questions about the festival

No. Festival passes are open to all professionals and do not require an application to the championship. Pass holders receive full access to the entire day’s programme, including the championship presentations, masterclass, fireside conversations, story gallery, awards ceremony, and reception.

A strong application is built around a single, specific story. Selection panels consistently favour applications that present a clearly defined experience with a discernible arc, over general reflections on a career or professional domain. The more concrete and honest the story, the more seriously it will be considered.

Yes. Finalists are encouraged to use any presentation format that serves the story they are telling. Slides, video, product demonstrations, photographs, data visualisations, and spoken narrative may be used individually or in combination.

Twelve finalists present during the main championship session. Of those, five advance to the championship finals held later in the day. Three winners are announced by the jury at the awards ceremony.

Yes. The championship is open to professionals with a minimum of three years of professional experience. The festival is designed for working professionals who have had sufficient time in their field to have accumulated the kind of experience from which a substantive story can be drawn.

Presented by

Product Leaders Forum

Product Leaders Forum is a professional community for product leaders, founders, technologists, and innovators. It was founded on the conviction that the most consequential learning in professional life comes through shared experience, and that the people best placed to teach are those who have been through it.

In Partnership with

Institute of Product Leadership

The Institute of Product Leadership is a business school focused on Product Management, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Leadership. It works with working professionals and organisations across India to develop the next generation of product and technology leaders through rigorous, practice-oriented programmes.

The Art of Storytelling Festival 2026

Stories from the World of Work · Bangalore, August 2026