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Spurring success in Calgary
PMAC conference offers a stellar lineup
PMAC’s annual conference in Calgary May 24 to 26 will offer a stellar lineup of speakers and education sessions to more than 500 supply chain professionals expected to attend this year’s assembly. It’s the 81st annual gathering for PMAC members and other leaders in the profession. The conference has become the largest annual event for supply chain management professionals in Canada.
“The PMAC annual conference is the profession’s flagship event,” says PMAC president Robert Dye. “It enables delegates to stay on the cutting edge of the latest developments in strategic supply chain management. It also provides them with the opportunity to network with others who are focused on professional leadership.”
The theme of this year’s conference is “Spurring Success” and PMAC will be encouraging delegates to achieve more in their professional roles, with the insights of top experts in the field.
Lessons in leadership
One of Canada’s best-known leaders will headline an exceptional lineup of keynote speakers for the conference. Major-General (ret’d) Lewis MacKenzie, Canada’s most experienced and celebrated peacekeeper, will provide the conference with hard-won lessons in leadership earned over 35 years in many of the world’s most dangerous places.
With an inspiring story of corporate determination, Nancy Knowlton, president and co-chief executive officer of SMART Technologies, will reveal how focus and team vision helped SMART survive insolvency, market indifference and lack of funding to emerge as a powerhouse.
Achieving personal success will be on the keynote speaker agenda as well. Mike Lipkin, president of Environics Research, will examine the voyage from “excellent game” moments to a sustained state of “game excellence.”
Steven Melnyk, professor of operations and supply chain management at the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University, will talk about how leadership in the new world of strategic supply chain management must come from the “new” purchasing professional.
In her presentation, Patricia Pistel, will cover the essentials of developing professional trust-based relationships.
The education program scheduled for the conference in Calgary covers the whole gamut of challenges facing the supply chain profession.
In a presentation entitled Strategic Sourcing–The Myths and Realities, Simon Steele, PMMS Consulting Group, North America, examines the progress made in the decade of corporate efforts to embed strategic sourcing. Robert Engel, national director of client service for Global Resources Professionals, will dissect the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its impact on supply chain management.
The potential for overturned bidding for non-compliance will be discussed by legal specialist Robert Worthington.
Veteran federal civil servant Allan Cutler (the original whistle-blower in the federal sponsorship scandal and winner of the 2006 To The Top Award for those who helped make Canada a better place) will examine the pressing issue of professional ethics.
The City of Vancouver’s manager of materials management, Larry Berglund, will discuss the corporate impact of formal social responsibility programs.
Enabling information technology will be discussed at length in the program, in particular by Paul Larson, professor of supply chain management at the Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba.
Ashif Mawji, president and CEO of Upside Software Inc., will present a session entitled Successfully Automating Your Contract Management Lifecycle. The emerging risk in corporate use of e-mail will be a hot topic covered by Al Morgan, of the Vancouver Branch Manager of Revay and Associates Ltd. Sandy Chalkoun, founder of Altura Legal Strategies Inc., will demonstrate a new tool for drafting robust RFPs.
Social Highlights
As always, the conference will include a full calendar of social events including the Early Bird Event, being held at Calgary’s historic Heritage Park; the Delegate Hospitality event offering a look ahead to the 2007 conference in Ontario’s Niagara district and the board chair gala ending the conference.
Trade show/sponsorship
This year’s conference includes a trade show—a chance for delegates to source new products, services and technologies, and to talk with key suppliers. There are still spaces available in the trade exhibit as well as conference sponsorship opportunities for organizations wishing to build their profile among Canada’s supply chain leaders.
The conference is also an opportunity for those already carrying PMAC’s Certified Professional Purchaser (C.P.P.) designation to earn maintenance points.
Meanwhile, those interested in pursuing the designation can learn more about it at the conference.
For more information and registration, visit www.pmac.ca.
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