Which supply chain and logistics conferences should I attend this year?

We get this question every year from clients. Of course, my first recommendation this year was to attend our seminar on “Performance-based Outsourcing: Maximizing the Value of 3PL-Customer Relationships” next week in Orlando, Florida. We’re almost sold out, but a few seats still remain. If you’ve been on the fence the past few weeks, time is running out, so register today!

My usual recommendation, as I wrote in “Explaining the Value of Logistics to the CEO,” is to attend the user conferences organized by the software and technology vendors that power your supply chain and logistics processes. ARC attends and speaks at many of these events. Here is a partial list of vendor conferences in the United States to mark on your calendar (all vendors below are ARC clients):

• Descartes Systems Group: Evolution 2010, October 5-7, 2010 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
• Highjump: Innovation 2010, October 24-27, 2010 in Scottsdale, Arizona
• JDA: Focus 2010, May 16-19 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Manhattan Associates: Momentum 2010, May 2-5, 2010 in Hollywood, Florida
• Oracle: Oracle OpenWorld, September 19-23, 2010 in San Francisco, California
• RedPrairie: RedShift 2010, May 10 – 13, 2010 in Orlando, Florida
• SAP: SAPPHIRE 2010, May 16-19 in Orlando, Florida

(Apparently, one-word conference names are all the rage among vendors, and Orlando is the hub of choice).

For a broader view of the industry, here are some other events we typically attend or participate in:

• Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Annual Global Conference, September 26-29, 2010 in San Diego, California. Simply put, with more than 2,000 attendees, this is one of the best networking events in the industry. I am a member of CSCMP and I’ve participated in the annual conference as a speaker and track chair in past years. I heard through the grapevine that CSCMP will introduce some innovative changes to the program this year. So, if you haven’t attended in a few years, this might be a good year to come back. Also, if you are based in Europe, don’t miss CSCMP’s Europe 2010 Conference, March 24-26 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I’ll be there presenting on “Technologies that Tomorrow’s Industry Leaders are Investing in Today.”
• The Logistics & Supply Chain Forum, June 6-8 in Stone Mountain, Georgia. ARC has been the research partner for this event for almost a decade. Attendees are high-level (usually Director and above) supply chain and logistics executives from a broad range of industries. Historically, this event was held on a cruise liner departing from New York City. Being out at sea for two days, with limited cell phone reception, led to an intense schedule of workshops, think tanks, and networking sessions. Three years ago, Richmond Events, the organizers of the forum, replicated the model for a land-based event in Arizona. Based on its success and the state of the economy, the company decided to keep the liner docked this year and conduct another land-based event instead.

There are also many industry-specific and theme-specific events throughout the year. Here is a short list:

• Green Supply Chain Forum, March 4-5, Miami, Florida. This is the third annual event. I spoke at the inaugural event (I transcribed my speech into a blog posting, “Inconvenient Truths About ‘Green’ Supply Chain Management”) and I served on the steering committee for this year’s program. If you are interested in metrics, legislation, technology, and best practices related to green supply chain management, you should plan to attend this conference.
• 8^th Annual 3PL Summit, June 21-23 in Atlanta Georgia. This event is very focused on logistics outsourcing and the 3PL industry, and many 3PL CEOs attend and present. Together with Kate Vitasek from the University of Tennessee, I’ll be conducting a workshop on Vested Outsourcing (aka performance-based outsourcing) on the first day. So, if you can’t attend our seminar next week in Orlando, here’s another opportunity to learn more about Vested Outsourcing/PBO.
• Shipper Symposium, May 11-13 in Phoenix, Arizona. This event is organized by Transplace (an ARC client). The agenda is primarily transportation-centric, with heavy-hitting executive and academic speakers. But the agenda also includes other topics of interest to shippers. For example, ‘green’ was a focal point a couple of years ago.

Again, this is just a short list of all the events taking place this year. My goal was to highlight some of the events we prioritize and recommend.

My final recommendation: As I wrote about back in September, have your CEO attend a supply chain and logistics conference…or two or three. Spending a few days with supply chain and logistics professionals, from many different companies and industries, presenting case studies and discussing industry trends, is a powerful way for your CEO to better understand the value of supply chain and logistics.