CSCMP Edge 2023 is less than a week away and if you haven’t already, it’s time to begin planning your itinerary. After looking through the schedule of countless presentations, I put together a list of presentations that my colleagues and I are most excited for. Start planning and thinking about what you might see so that you can debate with others day-of; winging it makes it tough to call audibles to optimize your time.
CSCMP has posted all of the sessions and speakers here but to make things even easier, I recommend downloading the CSCSMP Edge 2023 app to bookmark the sessions you are most interested in attending.
Although attendees will be trickling in over the weekend, Monday is when most of the activity begins. Kicking off the morning with “Monday Opening: Building a Guest-Centered Global Supply Chain” at 8:00 a.m. with speakers from Target and FMI seems like a no-brainer. Since this is the opening session, you can expect high levels of attendance and energy as the speakers dive in on how to prioritize customer service and experience
Later that morning Session 1 begins at 11:00 a.m. The 2024 28TH Annual 3PL Study, led by a diverse group of speakers from organizations like NTT Data, Penn State, AGiLE Business Media, and Penske. This will attract attendees from all verticals and is a great opportunity for service providers and shippers to gather intel on current 3PL market conditions and trends as they strategize for 2024.
Session 2 begins at 2:00 p.m. and has plenty of great options to choose from as well. Be prepared to hide out in the back of the room in case you want to hop over to your backup plan. One presentation that piqued our interest is “Accelerating First-to-Last Mile Delivery to Meet Consumer Demands and Sustainability Impact.” Somehow the description of this presentation managed to incorporate sustainability and digital transformation – buzzwords that are sure to catch the eyes of a wide audience. Buzzwords aside, though, I’m looking forward to hearing examples of how these speakers have fostered innovation and increased profits while also prioritizing sustainability.
As a data enthusiast, my backup plan is the “Dealing with Uncertainty in Transportation” presentation. Chris Caplice (DAT) and Steve Raetz (CHR) will lead this presentation that is positioned to be the most data-driven discussion of the week. Chris’ background and access to shipper/carrier data through the legacy services of DAT Rate View and FMIC means we can expect a very informative presentation with insight into the severity of the recent ‘freight recession’ that has been making headlines.
Since I can’t be in three places at once, my colleague Geoff and I will have to split up for us to see “Driving Waste Out of Transportation with Digitization of the LTL Lifecycle.” Speakers from Estes, SMC3, and Uline will head this discussion. One of our current clients is Uline’s LTL Carrier of the Year (two years running), so we’re interested to hear their take on this topic.
To wrap up Monday, I plan to check out “Monday Closing II: The Case for Rewiring Global, US-Bound Supply Chains” at 4:10 p.m. Kearney always provides good perspective on macro-trends while still demonstrating a detailed understanding of international supply chains.
Picking back up on Tuesday, “Town Hall III: Leveraging Supply Chain Technology to Improve Supply Chain Visibility” with GS1 speakers got my attention. The title sounds generic, but it is actually worth bookmarking. After leveraging GS1 standards on a previous client engagement, it was mind-blowing to see how master data conformity could be used in so many industries to support digital transformation and traceability. When most of us hear terms like supply chain, technology, and visibility together, it typically triggers thoughts of the “where’s my stuff?” concept, which lends itself to companies like Project44 and FourKites. This presentation, however, will be about the kind of visibility that underpins safety, compliance, and quality throughout the supply chain.
CSCMP’s 34th Annual state of Logistics Report presented by Penske Logistics picks up at 10:45 a.m. I probably don’t have to tell you to check this one out, as I’m sure it’s at the top of the list for most attendees. Tip: I strongly encourage you to read the report prior to attending. If you want the spark notes, you can check out this article by Kearney.
At 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Vishal Bahl and Matt Hoberg from CHS will lead the “Supply Chain Digital Transformation in the Global Agriculture Commodity Industry” discussion. Based on projects we have worked on in this industry with competitors like Koch, there is tremendous opportunity for digital transformation. When most people think ‘digital transformation’ they think of retail and other downstream consumer-facing applications (due to digital marketing, for example), but we have found this concept to be very interesting upstream in the bulk commodity/agriculture business.
After a long two days of presentations and networking, I’ll be wrapping up with, “Tuesday Closing I: Who is Afraid of AI?” presented by Yossi Sheffi, one of the best supply chain authors and academics (in my opinion) so it is certainly worth checking out.
We hope to see you there!
