CSCMP's Annual Global Conference—a great educational value

The vibrant city of San Antonio, Texas, USA, will host the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' (CSCMP) 2014 Annual Global Conference, September 21-24. It's the premier event for supply chain professionals and the largest of its kind in the world, attracting more than 3,000 attendees from around the globe.

As an attendee, you'll learn about the latest supply chain and logistics management trends and issues and will discover new techniques, strategies, and best practices. The event will offer a unique forum in which to share your experiences and perspectives with peers, meet up with former colleagues, make new acquaintances, and win more customers.

To enhance and maximize the conference experience, we've organized our tracks and education sessions into six specialties we call "Cornerstones," which represent the foundations of supply chain and logistics management: Talent and Career; Economic Forecasts, Benchmarks, and Surveys; Thought Leadership and Innovation; Manufacturing, Planning, and Sourcing; Transportation, Distribution, and Warehousing; and The Customer.

These six Cornerstones are designed to quickly direct you to the conference tracks and sessions that are most pertinent to your area of responsibility, and they are uniquely tailored to your and your team's professional development. To encourage more participation and interaction among attendees, each Cornerstone track will feature at least one session without a PowerPoint presentation.

We have also simplified the conference navigation, providing you with more time for networking and connecting between sessions, which is critical to expanding your business and advancing your career. Learning not just from speakers but also from one another is an important part of your overall educational experience.

This year's keynote and major session speakers will help you start each day with energy and excitement. On Monday, Guy Kawasaki, special advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and former chief evangelist of Apple, will present "The Art of Innovation." He'll explain how companies like yours can create impressive new products and services, and will demonstrate how to take advantage of social media sites and tools to increase sales and marketing reach, set new standards of excellence, and reinvent your business.

On Tuesday morning, Daymond John, head of the clothing firm FUBU and star of the reality business show "Shark Tank," will speak during the major session. He'll describe how he went from driving cabs and waiting tables to building a US $4 billion global fashion empire, with no formal business training whatsoever. He'll also share his proven tips for supply chain success, branding, negotiation, boosting sales, increasing productivity, and optimizing talent.

So, to connect with the brightest minds in the business and discover the latest thinking in supply chain and logistics management, be sure to join us in San Antonio for our profession's premier event: CSCMP's 2014 Annual Global Conference. Register today at cscmpconference.org. I look forward to seeing you there!