Event Agenda

Direct Procurement Summit - Day 1

Day 1

  • 8:00 AM

Arrival, Check-in & Networking

  • The Newberry Library

Day 1

  • 9:15 AM

Welcome and Kick-Off

Day 1

  • 9:30 AM

From Cost Center to Resilience Engine: The New Mandate for Direct Procurement

  • Main stage
  • How tariffs, geopolitical disruption, reshoring, supplier risk, quality expectations, material volatility, automation and AI are changing the direct procurement mandate
  • how teams are moving beyond price reduction to protect supply, improve margin, strengthen supplier networks and support business growth. How procurement leaders can quantify the cost of disruption and connect supplier risk to revenue, margin and production continuity

Lisa Reisman, CEO, MetalMiner

Day 1

  • 10:10 AM

The Digital Transformation Blueprint: Infrastructure, Intelligence and Influence

  • Main stage
  • This session will examine the sequence required to build a modern direct procurement function: data quality, supplier and material visibility, system integration, process discipline, analytics, AI-enabled decision support, and stronger influence across supply chain, finance, operations, product and commercial planning

Shashi Mandapaty, Former CPO, J&J

Day 1

  • 10:15 AM

Coffee Break + Demo Hubs

  • The Lobby & Demo zone

Demo Hubs enable you to gather in packs and evaluate our vendors’ products and services – with live group demos, offering a unique opportunity to benchmark, critique and compare how peers might leverage the tech within their organizations.

Day 1

  • 11:50 AM

Tariffs, Trade and Nearshoring: Rebuilding the Landed-Cost Strategy

  • Main stage
  • Tariffs and trade volatility are changing the economics of global sourcing. This panel will examine how manufacturers and product-led companies are reassessing Asia, Mexico, Canada and U.S.-based supply options
  • Risk, Resilience & Continuity in a Volatile World – how companies are reassessing qualification cycles, nearshoring, tariff exposure, geopolitical risk, supplier financial health and capacity constraints. It will also explore where AI can improve early warning signals, scenario planning and response speed

Day 1

  • 12:20 PM

Supplier Innovation as a Growth Lever

  • Main stage
  • How procurement can unlock expertise hidden in the supply base by moving beyond transactional RFPs and creating supplier-led innovation conversations that improve cost, quality, sustainability, manufacturability and speed to market

Tim Riordan, Director of Procurement, Americas, WIKA Group

Day 1

  • 12:45 PM

Lunch

Day 1

  • 1:30 PM

Breakout Tracks Commence

Day 1

  • 1:30 - 3:00 PM

Track 1 - Supply Intellgence Track

Day 1

  • 1:30 - 3:00 PM

Track 2 – Cost & Demand Track

Day 1

  • 2:30 PM

Regroup Over Coffee

  • + Challenge Board. Take 2 on the Challenge Board and use this time to network with peers.

Day 1

  • 3:30 PM

Roundtables

  1. What should we automate first in direct procurement?
  2. Managing contract manufacturers with ai-enabled supplier intelligence
  3. AI-powered commodity and market intelligence
  4. AI in Negotiation, RFQs and commercial strategy
  5. Tariff, nearshoring and landed-cost scenario modelling
  6. BOM visibility and hidden supplier risk
  7. Supplier consolidation without creating resilience risk
  8. Connecting procurement decisions to margin, revenue and production continuity
  9. Supplier risk, traceability and regulatory pressure
  10. Sustainability that pays: linking carbon, cost and supply design

Day 1

  • 4:30 PM

Procurement’s Role in Production Continuity: Connecting Supplier Decisions to Plant Performance

  • Main Stage
  • How supplier delays translate into line stoppages
  • How procurement, planning and manufacturing should share risk signals
  • Supplier quality and production yield
  • Capacity constraints and allocation decisions
  • Avoiding “procurement savings” that create operational cost elsewhere

Day 1

  • 5:00 PM

The AI-Enabled Procurement Operating Model

  • Main stage
  • Defining how the organizational structure, governance model and talent profile looks in an AI-enabled procurement function
  • The Human-AI partnership (not replacement)
  • Playbook for AI adoption: How leaders are structuring teams, data, governance, and supplier engagement

Day 1

  • 5:30 PM

Close of Day One + Drinks

Direct Procurement Summit - Day 2

Day 2

  • 8:00 AM

Arrival, Breakfast & Networking

Day 2

  • 9:10 AM

What Good Looks Like: The AI Performance Advantage in Direct Procurement

  • Main stage interviews
  • Practitioner-led case studies showing where technology is already improving sourcing, supplier performance, quote management, risk visibility, inventory decisions, supplier collaboration and everyday productivity

Day 2

  • 9:55 AM

Talent & Organization - The 2030 Direct Procurement Leader

  • Main stage
  • Skills, structures, COE gap
  • From “CPO” to “Chief Value Officer”

Omer Abdullah, Founder, Proquria 

Day 2

  • 10:35 AM

Coffee Break + Demo Hubs

  • The Lobby & Demo zone

Demo Hubs enable you to gather in packs and evaluate our vendors’ products and services – with live group demos, offering a unique opportunity to benchmark, critique and compare how peers might leverage the tech within their organizations.

Day 2

  • 11:35 PM

Breakout Tracks Commence

Day 2

  • 11:35 - 1:15 PM

Track 1 - Supply Intellgence Track

Day 2

  • 11:35 - 1:15 PM

Track 2 – Cost & Demand Track

Day 2

  • 1:15 PM

Networking Lunch

Day 2

  • 2:00 - 3:00 PM

Choice of Workshops

Day 2

  • 3:10 PM

Driving Adoption: How to Get Teams, Engineers and Suppliers to Actually Use AI

  • Main stage
  • Where pilots fail
  • Stakeholder resistance
  • Training category managers
  • Supplier participation
  • It/security approval
  • Moving from experimentation to embedded workflows
  • Measuring adoption, not just ROI

Day 2

  • 3:45 PM

Wrap-Up and Close of Summit

  • Main stage

Thank you for joining us!

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Testimonials

WHAT DO PAST ATTENDEES THINK OF THE EVENT?

    "It was an awesome gathering. Never been around so many IT Procurement Professionals from the buy side that shared best practices."

      "What a great opportunity to meet, engage, and learn both from and with Procurement colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds!"

        "An exceptionally valuable event; speakers and breakout sessions were exceptional and the hallway conversations alone were worth multiples of the cost."

          "It was an amazing conference and I’ve already been able to successfully put some of the negotiation tips and tricks into use. Thank you!"

            "The concentration of specialized expertise and experience was overwhelming, so much to learn from those in the room. I can’t wait to dive in again next year!"