5 Reasons to Attend Commodity Edge: A Spend Matters/MetalMiner Event in March 2012 (Part 1)

Someone asked me this week: "Why should I go to Commodity Edge when I'm already committed to a bunch of events this Spring?" I responded that the event, taking place March 19th and 20th at the Intercontinental at Chicago, O'Hare, is probably not for everyone in procurement (especially those entirely focused on areas like P2P systems). But I also noted the content and takeaways would be absolutely invaluable for those in a category/commodity management or sourcing role, not to mention those that they report to.

The discussion sparked my interest in creating a list of reasons why people should attend the event or, at the very least, stay current with the topics we plan to address. These topics include an up-to-date view on the directions of commodities (e.g., metals, energy, indirect, packaging, and many more), forecasting strategies and approaches for procurement, technologies to support negotiation, contracting and hedging and the overall direction of the domestic and global economies and their impact on procurement and supply chain strategies. Incidentally, the complete program will count for 9.75 continuing education credits/hours with ISM.

But the question remains: what is the profile of the type of person or company who should come to the event? If you answer "yes" to any of the questions below, you're probably a good candidate:

1. You know something about hedging approaches to mitigate commodity risk or volatility but question whether your specific categories of spend represent good hedging candidates. You also may not be familiar with the technologies, modules or capability of sourcing technologies that can help structure and manage agreements with suppliers in volatile commodity markets -- and you want to learn more about both areas!
2. Your organization is asking your team to get smart and develop a perspective on where the markets for key commodities and categories are going; and how, based on these forecast directions, your team should respond from a sourcing, commodity and supplier management perspective
3. You're concerned about the impact of the US, European and Chinese economies on supply markets and sourcing strategies -- including but not limited to GDP, currency volatility, and the like
4. You want to learn about real-life examples not of another procurement transformation success story, but rather how real-world leaders in procurement are managing commodity, currency and economic volatility today -- the tools, techniques, technologies, strategies, skills and know-how they are deploying
5. You are looking for specific economic and commodity forecasts -- translated into the language of procurement and supply chain -- that you can begin to use immediately for planning throughout 2012 and beyond

If you'd like to learn more about Commodity Edge: Sourcing Intelligence for the New Normal, we've recently created a background video that you can watch by clicking here. Check out our featured speakers (frequently updated) and if you're ready to register, click here.

- Jason Busch