This week starts multiple weeks of ProcureCon events – in Toronto this week and in Orlando the week after that. Follow @ProcureCon on Twitter if you’re interested in the goings on. From a virtual standpoint, there are two worthwhile events taking place – see why I think so below. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

This week’s webinar notes are from a February 3^rd webinar hosted by SAP Ariba and presented by Ed Cone at Oxford Economics and James J. McDonald and Luisa Gonzalez at COACH. The event is available on demand here.

You’ll have to act fast to catch the best event of the week – taking place at 11am EST on Monday. If you happen to miss that, there are two others taking place, both on Wednesday afternoon. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

Last week I spoke with Donna Wilczek, Coupa’s VP of Strategy and Product Marketing, about the mid-January announcement that Coupa had acquired Contractually, described in the press release as “a cloud innovator based in Vancouver, Canada that helps reduce businesses’ reliance on antiquated processes or inadequate technology tools to version control or redline contracts.”

We kick off the month of February with a strong, diverse week of webinars. The three that I have chosen to recommend have their finger on the pulse of procurement: 3^rd party risk, the future of procurement, and BPO. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

This week’s webinar notes are from a January 27^th event hosted by BravoSolution and presented by Sigi Osagie (author of ‘Procurement Mojo’) and Peter Smith (Managing Director, Spend Matters UK/Europe). Once the event is available on demand, it should be available here.

In the first part of this two-part series, I established the reasoning behind establishing a diverse supply chain in the nontraditional sense. Emphasis on maintaining a supply chain that is diver...

This week we have three ‘what to expect in 2016’ type webinars plus a bonus one that takes a practical look at contract law and managing risk in the supply chain. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

Earlier this week, I joined Jon Hansen on Blog Talk Radio for the next installment in our series of ‘Point Counterpoint’ discussions. You can listen to it on demand here.

This month our topic was social media and how procurement is – or isn’t – incorporating it in our work. Professionally, I look at the potential of social media in two ways:

“The benefits of the global connectivity achieved by both ocean and air transport reach practically every type of modern industry and business and are an essential ingredient of the global supply chai...

This week's events are all either panel or multi-speaker presentations. That means that by investing a single hour, you get to hear from multiple experts on a  topic of your choosing. Not only that, you get to hear them interact and discuss the varying perspectives brought to the table. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

Dr. Tom DePaoli recently released Avoiding a Supply Chain Apocalypse. It is a collection of the best advice he has to give on topics ranging from relationships to negotiation to Kaizens and story...

Happy New Year! This week marks the start of a new year of webinars – and based on the first events out of the gate, 2016 is clearly going to be a year where it pays off to challenge the fundamentals. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

Supplier diversity is a concept with multiple definitions.  Most commonly, a supplier diversity program focuses on the utilization of women owned, minority owned, and else certified diverse busin...

This week’s webinar notes are from a December 1^st event hosted by the Harvard Business Review. The speakers/presenters were Michael Porter (yes, that Michael Porter) and PTC CEO James Heppelmann. The event is available on demand here.

Organizations themselves present a major problem; they are stuck in an outdated approach to value creation that has emerged over the past few decades. They continue to view value creation narrowly, op...

Last week, Jon Hansen and I did the second in what will be an ongoing series of ‘Point – Counterpoint’ Blog Talk Radio sessions. Here is how these sessions work: we agree on a topic in advance and then I do my darndest to disagree with Jon for 30 minutes, after which he declares us in agreement. Trust me – the conversations are as entertaining as they are informative.

Another year done, another 11 book reviews added to the Buyers Meeting Point cache. When I reflect back on this year’s new titles it is the authors rather than the books themselves that really stand o...

Believe it or not, this is likely to be the last week of webinars for 2015. Another year come and gone. Take a look at my recommendations below to sneak in one last opportunity to learn before the year slips away altogether. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

Note: This post originally ran on Design News.

There’s an 800-pound gorilla in the room. It’s called Amazon. Yet not everyone sees it as inevitable that the e-commerce and distribution giant will dominate electronic component distribution.

In a recent interview with Tom Galligani, global vice president of supply chain for distributor Future Electronics, I asked for his views on Amazon’s invasion of the B2B space. Given the size and power of Amazon, you might expect distributors like Future Electronics to be prepared to be put out of business, but that is not the case. In fact, Amazon’s entry into the B2B marketplace creates a unique set of opportunities for buyers as well as suppliers or distributors.

Nevertheless, like others in the electronic components distribution industry and beyond, Galligani and his team are keeping a close eye on Jeff Bezos’ $90 billion e-commerce behemoth. Amazon may have gotten its start with an unbeatable B2C experience, but it has made inroads -- both organically and through acquisition -- into the B2B market.