procureconwest.wbresearch.com/

Current topics, great discussions!

I would have like to see less of the "roundtable" and more "panel." I want to network, but I didn't get as much out of the roundtables as I did out of the experts that speak on panels or do keynotes/formal presentations.

This was a very good conference and well worth the time. The agenda had very relevant topics and good execution. As always, some sessions were better than others. Really enjoyed the smaller breakouts and debriefs. Opportunities - too much packed into a day. Don't really want to start at 8:00 and go to 6:00 everyday. Also the breakfast food has got to be better.

I enjoyed the breakout sessions and time that we given for networking.

ProcureCon Indirect East was a very good conference and well worth attending. There was a good mixture of topics in the workshops and the attendees a very diverse mixture of individuals and companies. Since most things in life can be made even better, here are some suggestions for consideration. Having the Small Practitioner Boardroom Group Therapy was a great start, but time was very limited. Please consider a Small Practitioner or Small Team Track one day. And no, someone from a procurement organization with 8-15 employees is not a small team. Understandably most of the sessions are lead or include folks who are part of very large procurement organizations. They have great experience and insight but their world is not the same as at least a good number of attendees and so their solutions/suggestions are frequently out of the reach of a group of attendees. One that comes to kind is working with your Procurement consultant to find solutions that can interconnect to other systems already in place in your company. Many of us to not have the funding for either. Timing – it is inevitable that sessions will start late and or run long. The Roundtables are one of the reasons ProcureCon is a great event because it creates an environment when practitioners are more comfortable asking questions and sharing in a small group session. It appears if the schedule is running late, these sessions are collapsed to get back on schedule. On Tuesday the Roundtables were just before a Networking Break which is great because it allows folks to continue the conversation. Unfortunately, on Monday the Roundtable time was shortened and the next session started before the conversation could conclude. For some sessions, the panels felt like a meeting of peers, but since those peers are all from very large organizations, it would be appreciated if where appropriate, smaller organizations have representation to offer their world view. A couple of the sessions had very interesting titles but the content did not live up to the expectation of title. I realize there can be a disconnect between the idea and the path the presenter chooses but it leads to reaction of “boy, did I choose the wrong session”. At times, folks need to be reminded this is about Indirect Procurement as some individuals apparently missed the point. It would be appreciated on the final day to have a breakfast with a protein (such as the earlier two mornings) since many will be hitting the road and may not be getting lunch. Warm Regards, Kevin Betts