Roundtable Report

No matter where you're at in the world, chances are you'll be able to attend a CSCMP roundtable event nearby. This is your opportunity to learn about supply chain issues and trends in that part of the world. During your travels, remember to visit www.cscmp.org for information on local roundtable events.

If you are traveling on business to New Zealand, you might visit the Kiwi Roundtable and see CSCMP at work at the local level.

Kiwi Roundtable programs receive warm response

Although only recently established, New Zealand's CSCMP Kiwi Roundtable is already receiving an enthusiastic response to its programs and educational events.

Like CSCMP's other 87 global roundtables, the Kiwi Roundtable offers unique professional development opportunities to local supply chain management professionals, including those who may not be CSCMP members, by:

• providing a forum for the advancement of the supply chain profession at large;
• facilitating networking and learning opportunities for New Zealand supply chain professionals, through seminars and other learning events; and
• introducing educational supply chain-specific programs and resources.

Our main objective is to organize events to learn more about the supply chain and to network with our fellow supply chain professionals. Earlier this year, for example, we hosted Tom Wallace, internationally acclaimed thought leader, author, and educator, who specializes in sales and operations planning (S&OP), sales forecasting, and demand management. While Tom's books on S&OP and demand forecasting are well known among New Zealand supply chain professionals, this was his first visit to New Zealand. As a result, the breakfast seminar sold out, attracting more than 100 people to hear him speak on executive sales & operations planning, a process that is becoming quite topical again.

We are also working with the other supply chain institutes in New Zealand—the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), NZPICS (the New Zealand licensee of APICS, the Association of Operations Management), and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transportation (CILT)—to coordinate relevant events for the country's supply chain professionals. Together we are planning quality and topical events for the remainder of 2007 and for 2008.

The Kiwi Roundtable is promoting collaboration with other nonprofit supply chain organizations to invest back into the wider supply chain community as well as to avoid unnecessary schedule conflicts between events. By doing so, we hope to leverage a wider knowledge and membership base and to increase our networking opportunities. After all, we believe we are all interested in increasing our knowledge and understanding in the same area of expertise—supply chain management.

Our Kiwi Roundtable events are open to all New Zealand-based supply chain professionals, not only CSCMP members. For further information, please e-mail the president of the Kiwi Roundtable, Danie Vermeulen, at Daniev@kaizen.com.