CSCMP Edge Supply Chain Conference and Exhibition 2025

J adore la chaine d'approvisionnement et mon seul desire n est pas de manqué

CSCMP Edge 2019 was an incredible opportunity to see what’s going on in supply chain innovation right now. There was no shortage of inspiration from thought leaders, and I’ve already made up my mind t...o attend in 2020. I knew I was in the right place when I saw several other members of Supply Chain 50, a specialist subgroup of the World 50 organization for enterprise executives. The theme of the conference was change, technology and transformation – how to look at supply chain, it’s role in operations and the organization as a whole, and making the move from analog to digital. Over 3,200 people were there, a great mix of academics and working professionals at all levels. Many of the thought leaders were from academia – which is telling – and not something you see in Silicon Valley, where I got my start. But as the change tsunami inevitably rolls over supply chain, we’re going to see more practitioners joining the thought leadership circle. Greatest Moments I saw a number of fantastic speakers in the breakout sessions I attended, and if I listed everything here this blog would turn into a book. But these are some of the moments I found most inspiring. 1. Jeremy Gutsch’s opening keynote speech NYT bestselling author and Trend Hunter CEO Jeremy Gutsch delivered a fantastic speech to open the conference. As someone who’s come to supply chain from tech, it was great to hear someone address the wrongheadedness about tech skepticism. Gutsch’s talk featured a number of examples of great innovators who were told their ideas wouldn’t work. Bill Gates was told that Microsoft wouldn’t work. Jeff Bezos was told that Amazon wouldn’t work (Blockbuster even had multiple opportunities to buy Amazon, and we all know how that turned out). Gutsch’s point: tech is here, and change is inevitable. If you don’t start putting it to work for you, competitors are going to leave you behind. For the trail blazers, however, there will be rewards, including more doors opening for your career. 2. Meeting up with Dan Stanton and Donnie Williams As with any good conference, part of the value lies in meeting interesting people and talking about great ideas. Dan Stanton’s academic and practical background have made him the preeminent teacher of the future leaders of supply chain. He’s an incredible force for positive change, and he’s kindly agreed to appear on a future episode of our podcast, Supply Chain Next. Donnie Williams is the executive director of the Supply Chain Management Research Centre at the University of Arkansas. He is also the supply chain advisor to one of the largest retailers in North America. Getting a chance to sit down with them to share ideas was a wonderful experience for me. That fact that I met Dan Stanton on LinkedIn before the conference shows the power of tech to bring people together. It’s also taught me that you shouldn’t be afraid to share your ideas on LinkedIn and other forums – and that you don’t have to wait for a conference to reach out. 3. The Tuesday keynote session on “The gig economy and the millennial’s journey to change the world” While I’m a little tired of hearing about “how to work with millennials” (they’re people, after all), I know we want to make sure we attract new people to supply chain. This panel was totally refreshing for me, especially when panelist Eric Termuende said “Stop talking to us like we’re weird leprechauns or something, we’re tired of it.” What I’d Love to See Next Year At the end of the conference, CSCMP President Rick Blasgen and Conference Chair Susie Bodnar asked the room if they had a few suggestions for next year. These are my recommendations: I’d love to hear from more supply chain professionals who have been putting tech to work for them, and learning about the difference it made for their companies. We’re a practical group of people and are under immense pressure to avoid failure, which can make us risk averse. I’d love to hear from people who’ve been down the road and seen a successful outcome. The members of the audience should be challenged to take real steps forward to digitization. Not only challenged, but held accountable through a scorecard of KPIs to show how well we’re on the way to making meaningful change. A dive into what these KPIs could or should be would make for a great session. The exhibition area could have had a little more engagement between the vendors and the practitioners. It wasn’t bad, but it could have used a little more CES-style excitement. Seeing these would have put the conference over the top for me, turning a great experience into a life-changing one. Save the date for 2020 I can’t stress enough how thrilled I was to attend CSCMP Edge. The 2020 conference is slated for September 20th – 23rd in Kissimmee, Florida, so mark your calendars. CSCMP Edge is well worth the price of admission (it’s priced at a similar level to other conferences of this calibre) but provided a great experience. It offered dozens of sessions, with lots to engage the advanced supply chain practitioner and the neophyte alike. I liked that the emphasis was on thought leadership, not the vendors. Definitely time well spent. Read more