5 Takeaways from the BLUEPRINT19 Supply Chain Conference

Blogs and Articles

It’s a great problem to have. You return from your user conference and start searching for a back-up plan for next year’s event because you may have outgrown the venue.

We were thrilled to return to the office from hosting the BLUEPRINT19 supply chain conference to find dozens of thank-you emails from our customers. What an event to remember, with record attendance and a whole lot of other reasons to come back next year!

BLUEPRINT19 combined supply chain education tracks and keynotes, live 1-on-1 training sessions, radio interviews with forecasting and demand planning professionals, Braves baseball, networking, Blue Ridge product updates – and of course… Impromptu rounds of tequila, which led to the creation of a new Blue Ridge dance! You know who you are! [wink-wink ?]

Didn’t make BLUEPRINT19? Never fear. I’ve put together my 5 takeaways from the supply chain conference:

  1. Record attendance. BLUEPRINT19 at The Omni Battery Atlanta had 3x the attendees as last year. We’re still gathering feedback, but so far more than 94% of attendees said they’ll return to BLUEPRINT in 2020. In addition, over 97% said the content discussed provided actionable insights to help improve their business.
  1. Supply Chain Now Radio. Scott Luton interviewed customers, supply chain industry experts, and Blue Ridge visionaries on a variety of topics, including how to lead a successful supply chain planning transformation. Check out these interviews on the Supply Chain Now Radio podcast:
    • Episode 76 – A national wine and spirits distributor with next-day fulfillment needs, and a grocery wholesaler with 23,000 SKUs, discuss how to improve forecasting accuracy with supply chain technology
    • Episode 77 – Story from a large alcoholic beverage company, plus industry experts on pricing analytics and applied pricing and inventory optimization
    • Episode 78 – Supply chain implementation journeys from the automotive aftermarket and furniture industries
    • Episode 79 – Story from the largest beverage alcohol wholesaler in GA and AL, plus a conversation with Blue Ridge CEO Jim Byrnes
  1. Supply chain industry trends. And speaking of Jim and Scott Luton, Day 2 featured a live mainstage interview with Jim, Scott and Dan Craddock, supply chain industry consultant and evangelist for creating inventory team heroes. Jim and Dan ran through our 2019 State of the Wholesale Industry study, which showed four key findings:
    The net-net is that the challenge of managing slow- or low-selling items remains one of the biggest pain points for wholesale suppliers. Many don’t have systems in place that are able to handle analyzing the data needed to make improvements. Download the full supply chain report.
  1. Entertainment. In the spirit of our 2019 theme, “Planning for a More Flexible Future,” we opened the mainstage with a contortionist. We all winced as she got in/out of a tiny box, twisting and turning like silly putty for 25 minutes.That evening, it was off to beautiful SunTrust Park to watch the Atlanta Braves win. Between morning/afternoon sessions on Day 2, guests were re-energized out of their lunch coma by a brass band, Wasted Potential.
    Check out all the fun we had at BLUEPRINT19! Follow the link to see event photos.
  1. Blue Ridge product vision. And of course, throughout the conference, guests got an exclusive peek into customer requests that have now become part of the Blue Ridge roadmap. Current and future features address today’s most common business problems in demand forecasting and supply planning, including:
    1. How to handle SKUs with advanced seasonality patterns
    2. How to forecast intermittent, slow and lumpy SKUs
    3. How to improve collaboration across the enterprise and with suppliers
    4. What to do with continuous selling SKUs that have multiple demand attributes and behaviors

Check out all the fun we had at BLUEPRINT2019! Follow the link to see event photos.

If you would like to chat about our current or future demand forecasting tools, reach out now with your name, company and title.

 

The dates for BLUEPRINT 2020 in Atlanta are April 26-28, 2020. You save the date; we’ll save your seat!