Pick up your badge and join your peers for a coffee and a chat prior to kick-off!

Chair’s welcome to FORGE: ENGAGE Community Gathering 2023 - let’s get started!

• Chair's welcome and event overview: 
  Jake Wojcik, EVP, Insight Sourcing Group
• Welcome from Mike Cadieux, CEO & Founder, Procurement Foundry 

Join a fun, ‘outside the box’ learning opportunity with this expert Improv company who through unscripted theatre and a bit of comedy will refresh the way you think about communicating and collaborating. This revolutionary learning technique will leave you inspired with new ways of thinking to take back to the office and ensure you are fully charged for the day ahead!

Host: The Hideout Theatre 

Clifford A. Bailey (former Board Member and National Minority Business Enterprise Input Committee Chair, NMSDC - National Minority Supplier Development Council)

Jim Gorzalski, Senior Procurement Executive (Former CPO, Capital One)

Nedra Dickson, MD Global Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability Lead, Accenture

Grab a coffee & visit our awesome solution providers in the Expo.

• Macro & micro trends in supply chains 

• Supply chain shortages & delayed shipping

• Banking crisis / inflation / interest rate environment and its impact from a third-party risk perspective

• Offshore to nearshore – manufacturing outlook

• Lingering global conflicts

• Supply management and supply assurance, how are you pushing back against incumbent price increases from suppliers?

Sopan Shah, CPO, IHG

Rhondia Turano, CPO, SVP, Board Member (former 3M)

Host: Craft

This case study explores how Ed's leadership at Dynatrace transformed procurement and risk management. When Ed initially joined Dynatrace as the first Procurement hire, he found a company operating with minimal procurement processes. He identified a tool, consolidated access, and established a structured approval process. The study emphasizes the leveraging technology and process to lay the foundation for a strong team and discusses Zip's role in building and growing a Procurement organization in an expanding business.

Host: Colin Glazier, VP Procurement Solutions, ZIP 

Edward Petrush, Senior Director, Global Procurement, Dynatrace 

Join your choice of facilitated discussion groups and hear panelists sharing their insights and learnings in an interactive, collaborative setting designed to maximize interaction and take-aways.

Choose from A, B or C below:

The disruption of talent by new technologies and AI is having a significant impact on the workforce of both today and tomorrow. How do we inspire and prepare the next generation of employees and upskill the current workforce to maximize humanity in this new business world?

Host: Ken Hubbell, Pragmatic Futurist

Big Cloud Savings on AWS, Azure & GCP are achievable with the right tools and support. 

Post Contracting, Cloud Services are variable billed and can create an open check book for many firms with dispersed accountability. This session will assess solutions which can yield 30-50% savings with minimal risk\disruption. 

Host: Jamie Martino, SVP, Strategic Sourcing: Trusted Technology Sourcing Consultant, IT Diversity

Host: Eric Cunningham, Founder & CEO, Green Cabbage

Join the community in the Expo for lunch & continued networking. Visit the supplier booths to find out how they can support your goals and objectives.   

With thanks to:

Cash burn is a term and a subject most Procurement professionals overlook. While its top of mind for CFO’s, CEO’s and Investors alike; It’s important to understand how procurement is one of the few mechanisms in an organization to truly Fight Cash burn.

Zai Mohammed, Head of Global Procurement, TalkDesk

• Supplier failure risk management and keeping this top of mind as we return to normal, post pandemic

• Managing vendor cost increases / getting value from your supply chain during an inflation period

• Examples on adding more value to the business through your contracts / vendor roadmaps

Host: Brian Harmon, VP of Procurement, SDI

A’Keela Johnson, Director of Procurement - IT & Indirect, Molson Coors

Many companies overpay for their procurement spend because suppliers do not have the right incentives to lower their prices. Traditional negotiation techniques accompanied by recent inflationary trends have prevented buyers from taking advantage of the leverage in their supply base and prices have remained high, leaving value on the table. The good news is game theory can help. In this session attendees will learn the fundamentals of game theory and how it can help buyers gain the upper hand in their negotiations and drive savings and other commercial value.

Zoe Pangolas, Procurement Negotiations Lead, NERA

Join your choice of facilitated discussion groups and hear panelists sharing their insights and learnings in an interactive, collaborative setting designed to maximize interaction and take-aways.

Choose from A, B, C or D below:

When we think about procurement, we often envision a straightforward process of buying goods and services at the best possible price. In the world of supply chain and procurement, complexity is a given. Multiple suppliers, fluctuating market demands, geopolitical influences, and technological innovations mean that today’s procurement professionals are navigating an ever-changing landscape. Which means the same strategies they used before, may be outdated and out of time. However, to truly excel and create a strategic advantage, procurement needs to think in terms of CHESS, not checkers. In this session we will cover:

• Proactive thinking: multiple moves ahead

• Understanding your pieces and the game

• Sacrifices? Playing the long game

• Every move counts and much more!

Host: Zai Mohammed, Head of Global Procurement, TalkDesk 

Rhondia Turano, CPO, SVP, Board Member (recent 3M)

The recent explosion in best-of-breed tools and digital services means that Procurement has many technologies at their fingertips to help alleviate the burden of an ever-growing list of requirements. However, this also means that suppliers are faced with increasing complexity in terms of the number of systems, portals, digital services, tools, workflows and initiatives that they are expected to interact with. Supplier adoption and supplier engagement is key to ensuring that the value of the technology landscape can be realized and return on investment secured.

This session will assess how the supplier experience can be more effectively orchestrated to accommodate these challenges. We will investigate ways in which friction can be identified and removed to ensure better supplier relationships can be built.

• The context behind the changes and the growing demand for information exchange

• The suppliers’ perspective and how removing friction leads to mutual benefits for both the supplier and the enterprise

• How to ensure supplier adoption and engagement to best secure returns on investment in technologies

Host: HICX

Rich Giuliani, Director of Procurement, Indirect, and IT, Cedar Fair Entertainment

Join our tribe ready to tackle your issues head on and seek the wisdom of peers who can help steer you in the right direction, connect you with the right people and advise you on vendors. Benefit from the shared knowledge of the pack.

Host: Paul Nilsen, Director of Procurement, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Danielle Salyers, 2^nd VP Strategic Sourcing, Allied Solutions

Ruth Hicks, Head of Procurement, Sword Health

Chiharu Romano, Director of Strategic Sourcing, Vendor Management & Supplier Diversity, Endeavor

You've got 5 minutes!

Karen Hodson, Global Procurement & Real Estate Officer, Marigold 

John Eustis, SVP U.S. Group Procurement, Toray Industries 

Kim Master, Manager, Technology Sourcing, Netflix

Megan Mills, VP of Procurement, Genesys

Host: Alan Poulin, Manager, Procurement & Third Party Risk Management, Transamerica   

Trace Lewis, Lead, Procurement & Vendor Management Specialist, Transamerica

Brad Veech, Head of Technology Procurement, Discover Financial

How do I speed everything up, where do I use AI and where not? Which software – do I build or buy, CLM / P2P

Rachel Henney, Head of Procurement 

• Standalone or build into P2P?

David Berger, Director – Americas Procurement Strategic Programs, CBRE

DJ Beckett, Digital Procurement Strategy Leader, Kenvue (a former J&J company)

Join Brad and Andrea as they deliberate and debate on their experiences and actionable insights into team building from a leadership perspective.

Brad Veech, Head of Technology Procurement, Discover Financial

Andrea Veech, Executive Coach, Founder & CEO, Leadership Beach

Join your peers for informal drinks and digest the best content of the day! 

De-risking your contract

This session will help the procurement professional find and fix hidden risks in their contracts at all stages of the contract life cycle. Learn from an expert with 30 years of experience negotiating complex contracts.  By attending this program, you will be better prepared to:

• Identify risks hidden in scopes of work or standard contract terms

• Preserve terms and conditions that mitigate and control risk during negotiations, and

• Use the contract to mitigate losses if a risk event occurs

This session is designed for those who draft, negotiate and manage contracts. Bring a risk scenario to talk through and gain first-hand insight into developing your contract.

Workshop leader: Jeanette Nyden, Contracts Expert & Author, J. Nyden & Co.

Join your peers for a coffee and a chat prior to Day 2 kick-off!

Welcome to FORGE: ENGAGE Day 2!
Recap of Day 1 and what's coming on Day 2.

Jake Wojcik, EVP, Insight Sourcing Group

• Embracing digital and pioneering practices
• Our vision and next steps

Ninian Wilson, CEO, Vodafone Procurement Co.

• How is procurement using AI today and what’s different from 1-2 years ago?
• How should you be using ChatGPT to advance procurement?
• Examples in practice
• Using AI responsibly / safely / productively 

Join us for a snapshot of a practical application of generative AI in the procurement world

• How to improve your existing data strategy – what are front-runners doing in this space?
• What Meta data are you going for? Why is it important? What cools things are you doing with data?
• Contract spend data / searchability
• What changes should you be making now to make your life worthwhile
• Skilling up to maximize visibility and value – getting sophisticated on contracts 

Host: Eric Pritchett, President, COO, Terzo 

Tony Filippone, CPO, AXIS Capital 

Craig Smith, Sr Director of Procurement, DHI Group 

• What is your digitization strategy

• Cutting through the noise of buy-tech – the nice to have and the need to have

• Best of Breed vs Suite vs Hybrid

• What are you using that’s making an impact?

• How is tech changing the people in your team? How are you ensuring they are using it to the best capability?

Shachi Rai Gupta, Global Head of Strategy, Intelligence and Digital Transformation, Bristol Myers Squibb 

David Berger, Director, Americas Procurement Strategic Programs, CBRE 

DJ Beckett, Digital Procurement Strategy Leader, Kenvue (a former J&J company)

Chuck Shehadi, Head of Procurement & Sourcing, Zoom Video Communications 

Hosted by:

• Winning through the current labor market – challenges and opportunities
• Procurement specialists or generalists – what fresh thinking/skills can be learned from bringing in non-procurement professionals
• Hybrid working strategies – what’s working / what technology are you using to move forward? How can you get the most from your team?
• How are you planning for your future team in a tech enabled / AI environment, what skills/efficiencies will you need across the department?

Rachel Henney, Head of Procurement

Sheri Spinks, VP Global Procurement Strategy, Primo Water 

Mathew Schultz, Head of Global Procurement, Forrester 

Thiago Braga, Head of Procurement, Alberta Health Services

Susan Patrick Harris, SVP Procurement & Accounts Payable, Wellpath

• Optimizing spend
• Ways to get more out of an already well negotiated supply base
• Getting more out of your contracts
• Best pricing negotiation tactics in today’s environment
• How to get creative in the face of cost increases from vendors
• Reducing tech debt

Jonathan Townsley, Sr. Business Partner – Global Procurement, Sterling

A’Keela Johnson, Director of Procurement - IT & Indirect, Molson Coors 

Rendi Miller, Head of Global Travel and Procurement, Qualtrics

• Getting to grips with how AI is transforming our industry, exploring how others are using AI successfully and what you need to know to move forward and strategically scale AI, with focus on how Generative AI will transform aspects of procurement and supply chain.

Melissa Drew, Associate Partner, Finance & Supply Chain Transformation, IBM

Tracy Ring, Chief Data Officer and Global Generative AI lead - Life Sciences, Accenture

Break into discussion roundtables based on theme / sector / trade. Based on your areas of responsibility, find crucial nuggets of info from your peers. Choose from:

1. Reshoring – rethinking global supply chains. Host: Ernie Hernandez, Global Supply Chain Leader

2. Logistics and freight

3. Facilities / furniture management

4. Finance

5. Climbing the procurement ladder - Host: Kim Master, Manager, Technology Sourcing, Netflix

6. Visibility on demand intake

7. Is a hybrid workforce helping or hurting?

8. Supply risk management strategies to safeguard against the future

9. Most organizations have separate goals and approaches for the E in ESG and also for S. Are there ways for organizations to do both at the same time? Host: Danielle Richie, Account Manager PCs for People