You’ve probably heard that many industry events – not just in procurement – are being cancelled out of an abundance of caution in the face of the coronavirus threat. I’m tracking some of those updates here, and I will continue to update that post as additional information becomes available. All of the events affected so far are this month, but there are quite a few events on the calendar for April and May, and we’re watching for decisions and news about those.

The whole world is trying to figure out how to respond to the coronavirus threat. As a result, we're starting to hear news of procurement industry event cancellations. We will track news of them in this post, making updates as the news comes in. Many of the events listed below are going 'virtual', so click on the link for each event to read their official announcement. If you are running an event or hear word of a cancellation that is not listed here, please contact me here.

When we start to have spring weather, it can only mean one thing: the spring conference season is not far behind. This year ISM’s annual conference will be in Boston – my hometown – and so I’m looking forward to meeting many connections that have only been virtual until now. If you are going to ISM, you may want to check out the 2020 ExecIn, hosted by Corcentric. ExecIn is a private, invitation-only conference where supply management senior executive leaders gather for networking, panel discussions, strategic educational sessions on current hot topics and networking with fellow thought leaders. If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend “How Best-in-Class Organizations Leverage Intelligent Automation” from Everest Group on March 12th at 10am ET.   BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

This week started out looking kind of bleak, and then at the last minute there were several excellent additions to the events calendar. I’ve recommended what I see as the best below, but you can look at the full calendar to see what else is scheduled this week and into March. If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend “Top 10 Supply Chain Risk Trends in 2020 – The Big Reveal” from Supply Chain Now and Resilience360 on March 5th at 11am ET. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

The following are our webinar recommendations for the coming week – selected based on topics and speakers. If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend “Managing Supply Ecosystems“ from IACCM on March 2 at 11am ET. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

For anyone in the Atlanta, GA area who wants to meet an amazing group of procurement professionals, you’ll want to check out the ProcuremenTalks event this Wednesday from 6-8:30pm: Procurement Nightmares, Trainwrecks & Meltdowns: Tales of Lessons Learned. If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend “Southwest Airlines Gets Jiffy With Automation: An Underdog RPA Tale Driven By Cultural Fit And Ease Of Use” from HfS Research and Jiffy.ai on February 20th at 11am ET. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

In addition to the webinars listed below, this is the first week of the month – meaning all of the economic reports come out. The ISM Manufacturing Report on Business comes out today, followed by the Non-Manufacturing Report on Business on Wednesday. ISM-New York’s Report on Business is in between on Tuesday, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly jobs report will be out on Friday.  If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend Supply Chain Now’s Interactive Global Forum on March 25th at 3pm ET. They are holding an open-door session to discuss the key trends and developments taking place across the global end-to-end supply chain community. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

One commonality that I’ve noticed in webinars, blog posts and discussions recently is that digital transformation is getting REAL this year. No more nonsense. We’re over the hype, past the buzz and bored by the generalized razzle dazzle (jazz hands!). Expect to see more of this in 2020… as procurement gets smarter, service and solution providers will have to overcome our skepticism and critical thinking, focusing on the reality of digital transformation and the hard work required to make it successful. If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend ‘Supporting C-Level Digital Initiatives with Business Spend Management’ from Coupa and Mickey North Rizza, IDC’s Vice President of Enterprise Applications Research. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

In addition to the virtual events listed below, I added a big ‘IRL’ event to the calendar this week. The Atlanta Supply Chain Awards are being hosted in part by our friends at the Supply Chain Now podcast. They are now taking registrations as well as nominations for multiple award categories. Click here to learn more. If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend ‘Trends and Innovations in Print’ from Sarah Scudder and the team at Procurement Foundry on February 5th at 1pm ET. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

Happy new year everyone! We’re officially back after a holiday break that was far busier than I would have expected. Not only are there quite a few events listed for January, I’ve already been adding events to February. If you are planning your webinar schedule further ahead, I recommend ‘Managing Risk in the Next Decade’from riskmethods’ General Manager of North America Bill DeMartino on January 21st. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

Well, believe it or not, this is the final set of weekly webinar recommendations of 2019. We listed 239 webinars on the calendar, which – if there would be 1 per day – would cover 65% of the days of the year, and 92% of the weekdays. As of right now, I believe my first recommendations of 2020 will be released on Monday, January 13th. 

This is an incredibly busy week – 10 webinars in four days. Looks like 2019 is going to go out with a bang! So put on your cozy socks and dig out your mug Snuggie (see how I did that, tying everything into the image above?) and settle in for a webinar by a warm fire. The first 2020 events are starting to go up as well, so don’t hesitate to keep an eye on January. Speaking of which, if you are planning your webinar schedule beyond this week, I recommend “The dos and don’ts of stakeholder engagement & collaboration” from Proactis and Peter Smith on January 21st. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

Procurement isn’t leaving anything on the table as we wind down the year. I added 8 new webinars to the calendar this week and all of them take place between now and the third week of December. If you’re planning your webinar schedule a little further out, I recommend “5 Key Procurement Trends to Embrace in 2020” on December 11th at 5am ET (10am GMT) from riskmethods and Sievo. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

The pace of the year will really pick up from here… I won’t have any recommendations next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, and then there are just three weeks of events left in the year. December is starting to fill in, so take a look ahead – there are some great events up already. In particular, I recommend “The Psychology of Change” being hosted by The Myers-Briggs organization on December 5th. While it isn’t specifically for a procurement audience, it is a great opportunity to think about change management from a group and individual personality perspective. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

In addition to this week’s webinar recommendations, the Supply Chain Next conference is taking place in Chicago, IL on Monday and Tuesday. If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, I suggest Planning for 2020: Executive Outlook from Supply & Demand Chain Executive and BSI on December 10th. BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.