It’s that time of year again where everyone gets conference fever – and the time of year where I recluse myself in the dark corners of my basement in the hopes that I can again avoid the annual malady that infects so many of us. But alas, although I’ve managed to escape the worst strains yet again, I’ve still been inflicted with a minor strain.
Thus, even though I don’t have the crazy schedule of some of my fellow bloggers (like Jason Busch [who is “Gearing Up for Conference Season”], I will be at a few conferences this spring. So far, I’m committed to two in the space and one not. And in this post, I’m going to plug the two in the space that I am committed to since I think they’ll be worth your while.
The first conference I am confirmed to attend is SCL’s “Creating a Resilient Supply Chain”, which is taking place May 5 and 6 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the Paramount Conference and Event Venue. Now, I’m sure a lot of you, and particularly those of you south of the 49th parallel, are probably saying “who, what, where“, so I’m going to answer your questions. SCL is the” Supply Chain & Logistics Association Canada”, one of our organizations that would be like your CSCMP, just like our PMAC (Purchasing Management Association of Canada) is like your ISM. (Remember, although the doctor spends a lot of time in, and working with, the US, even though he has lived in the US, he does maintain his permanent residence north of the 49th parallel.) The what is SCLs big annual conference, and the where is in one of our conference capitals, quite close to Pearson International Airport.
There are some good professional and corporate names at this event. Matt Gersper of Global Data Mining, who’s contributed to this blog in the past; Sankar Krishnan, a Senior VP of Citibank; Bob Dye, the President of PMAC; Ginnie Vensiovaltis, Transportation Services Manager of Unilever Canada; Ryan Persad, Purolator Global Supply Chain Services; Jim Topkins, CEO of Tompkins Associates; Warren Sarafinchan, Transportation Director of Maple Leaf Foods; and Jayson Myers, the President of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters association.
The second conference I am confirmed to attend is Iasta’s reSource, which is taking place May 12 through May 14 in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the Marriott Downtown. Although this is, primarily, a customer-focused conference, it is still one that you should be strongly considering if you are a customer or considering becoming a customer. Although it’s a relatively new conference (as it’s only in its second year), Iasta did a great job pulling this together last year and managed to create an event that was both useful as a training event (the first day) and a general conference on good e-Sourcing, supply, and spend management best practices, mixing customer presentations with keynotes from thought leaders. (Jason Busch of Spend Matters gave the main keynote last year.) Plus, and you race fans will love this, they host their main networking event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (And it looks like they’ve added a second networking event at Victory Field as well this year.)
And for those of you dying to know what the third event outside of the space that I’m committed to attend is, it’s the IEEE Region 7 Canada Spring Board Meeting that takes place immediately before CCECE 2008. Aren’t you ever so glad that you asked?
I’m sure I’ll be busy in June as well … but that will have to wait for another post.