Looking back at NextGen 2024

Another year, and another successful NextGen Supply Chain Conference. I’m just back from our annual NextGen conference in Chicago—this was my second conference since joining Peerless Media in 2023—and it was an even better experience than last year.

Our speaker lineup this year was excellent, highlighted by our three keynotes. A huge thank you to DeLynn Louth, senior director, global customer collaboration at Procter & Gamble; Luis Roman, vice president of MedTech Supply Chain at Johnson & Johnson; and Jennifer Springer, senior director of customer fulfillment at Whirlpool, who proved to be superb keynotes for 2024.

Let me take a moment to congratulate our award winners for 2024. Our Visionary Award was presented to Walmart. Squint received the Start-Up Award.

This year’s NextGen Supply Chain Conference End User Award winners are Estée Lauder (AI); Schneider Electric (Digital Transformation) and S&S Activewear (Robotics). Our 2024 Solution Provider Award winners are Agility Robotics (Robotics); Westfalia Technologies (Digital Transformation); AutoScheduler.AI (AI) and Waites Sensor Technologies (Predictive Analytics).

Of course, there are a number of people who invest a lot of time and effort into making any conference happen, and the NextGen conference is no different. I want to start by expressing my gratitude on behalf of all of us at Supply Chain Management Review and Peerless Media to our sponsors for helping make this event happen.

This year, our sponsors included Diamond Sponsor Honeywell Intelligrated; Platinum Sponsors Körber, Addverb, and Zion Solutions Group; Gold Sponsor Hai Robotics; Silver Sponsor Dematic; Bronze Sponsors Aptean, Gather AI, and Intellistore, and Associate Sponsors TGW, Made4Net, Peak Technologies, Paccurate, Squint, Waites Sensor Technologies, Lowry Solutions, Levata, Honeywell and Osa, Arvist, Tag-N-Trac, SC Codeworks, and Plus One Robotics.

Behind the scenes, I want to thank Elena Parsons, our fabulous event director, and her team, and Art Lansdon and his team for handling all the great audio and visual components we had at the event. Our own Peerless Media’s Karen Bligh, who handles the marketing and promotion of the event, and of course our CEO Brian Ceraolo who supports and encourages us. I also want to extend a thank you to our Advisory Board members who have provided guidance and assistance, and even some promotion behind the scenes. You are an invaluable resource to me and the rest of the NextGen team and we thank you for that support.

But I want to especially thank all of you who came out to Chicago to attend this year’s event. We are already hard at work preparing for next year’s conference, so stay tuned for information on the 2025 NextGen Supply Chain Conference in the months to come.

SC
MR