Speakers from Sydney to Seattle have been lined up by SAPICS, The Professional Body for Supply Chain Management, for a virtual SAPICS Conference this month.

“June would not be the same for Southern African supply chain professionals without the annual SAPICS Conference, Africa’s leading event for the profession, which was established 42 years ago,” says SAPICS president, Keabetswe Mpane. Recognising this, SAPICS has announced a virtual event on 23 June, with a line-up of powerful presentations by international experts that will be shared leveraging the Zoom platform.

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, SAPICS postponed the 2020 SAPICS Conference, and has secured new dates for the event from 22 to 25 November 2020 at the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town. “But we did not want to let June slip by without recognising that this is usually the time that supply chain professionals from Africa and around the world get together at the annual SAPICS Conference to learn, network and build the profession’s body of knowledge,” Mpane stresses. “Physical distancing should not stop us, and the latest technology enables us to give supply chain professionals a taste of what to expect at the SAPICS Conference in November.”

Internationally acclaimed supply chain guru Dr John Gattorna will discuss the supply chain world beyond Covid-19 at the virtual SAPICS event. “The Covid-19 virus crisis has had the effect of accelerating change, thereby moving desired changes forward by at least 10 years,” he states. “Changes we were grappling with before, but were undecided about, are now mandatory as we design our enterprise supply chains for the post-Covid era. What we have also learned is that if supply chains stop, our entire lifestyle is threatened. That is how pervasive they are.  Now we must set out to embed resilience in our enterprise supply chains. It must be sufficient to withstand business-as-usual type volatility while being prepared for a large, one-off unexpected disruption like Covid-19.”

Based in Sydney, Australia, Gattorna is one of the world’s pre-eminent supply chain thought leaders. He has helped to shape the thinking, understanding and practice of logistics and supply chain management globally for more than 40 years.

Nigeria-based supply chain transformation expert Azuka Okeke, who is overseeing powerful healthcare supply chain interventions and workforce development in Nigeria and around the continent, will also be presenting at the virtual SAPICS conference.

Cobus Rossouw, Group Chief Digital Officer at Imperial, will discuss “Disruptive Digitisation in the Supply Chain”. “There is little doubt that digitalisation will fundamentally change supply chain management; but the challenge is distinguishing between hot air and pragmatic opportunities,” he asserts. Rossouw will look at how many new inventions are merely fancy new terminology invented to inflate the valuations of technology providers and start-ups; and how to identify where to invest. “These will be lessons from the real world of logistics and supply chain management,” he explains.

For further information or to register for the virtual SAPICS Conference on 23 June, call 011 023 6701 or email info@SAPICS.org.za

Register here