This is my first posting, live from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Annual Global Conference 2009. I arrived in Chicago mid-morning, without the usual O’Hare frustration and delays. That’s a good start in itself.
Attendance this year is down from previous years when the economy was good, and the annual conference could draw in a range of 5000-8000 attendees. I’ve heard from CSCMP staff that attendance should be near 3500 at this year’s conference. Glancing at the listing of attendees, it would appear to me that companies have cut-back, electing to send just a few attendees per company, whereas in the past, they sponsored far more.
I conducted my afternoon Ask the Expert roundtable exchange session, which focused on the topic of supply chain risk management. I was pleased that the room was filled, and that risk is indeed a topic of conversation in multiple industry settings. We touched upon a number of different aspects of supply chain risk, and in particular, how to quantify risk within the organization.
My final activity this afternoon was a presentation by Welch’s on supply chain analytics, metrics and reporting. These seems to be an increasingly popular topic for attendees, since by my estimate, this session drew over 150 attendees.
I’ll have more commentary and observations in subsequent postings.
Bob Ferrari
