Those of you that attended the Extended Supply Chain conference in London at the end of March will have heard that the event has been acquired by Centaur Media plc, the publishers of Supply Chain Standard.
The conference which attracted over 450 strategic level delegates and over 100 leading speakers from around the world has, over the past five years, established itself as the foremost conference in supply chain management in Europe.
The strategic focus of the Extended Supply Chain event, pulling on leading thinking from top practitioners, academics, analysts and consultants, is a perfect fit with Supply Chain Standard. This will hold great benefits for both reader and delegate alike.
At the two day evet held at the Riverside Plaza Hotel in London on the 26th and 27th March, four keynote sessions on the first day were followed by 53 seminars on the following day.
Several themes were notable throughout, but ‘risk’ was clearly highlighted. Kevin O’Marah, senior vp at AMR Research referred to the increased risks in extended supply chains and suggested that ‘Risk should be broken down to individual components in order to understand when these new risks are going to hit the business’. Supplier failure is one of the biggest perceived risks. Interestingly, companies in the hi-tech sector view strategic risk – missing the ‘time to volume’ – as one of the biggest risk factors they face. But measuring the likelihood and impact of the perceived risk appears to be a key factor in understanding and mitigating against danger points in the supply chain.
Also picking up on this theme were the Banks, which were keenly interested in delivering the ‘risk’ message to delegates.
Nick Allen, Editor
