The pace of the year will really pick up from here… I won’t have any recommendations next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, and then there are just three weeks of events left in the year. December is starting to fill in, so take a look ahead – there are some great events up already.

In particular, I recommend “The Psychology of Change” being hosted by The Myers-Briggs organization on December 5^th. While it isn’t specifically for a procurement audience, it is a great opportunity to think about change management from a group and individual personality perspective.

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In addition to this week’s webinar recommendations, the Supply Chain Next conference is taking place in Chicago, IL on Monday and Tuesday. If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, I suggest Planning for 2020: Executive Outlook from Supply & Demand Chain Executive and BSI on December 10th.

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“Because however brilliant our category strategies or engagement roadmaps, relationships still do matter, and nowhere more so than in how we interact with our critical internal stakeholders.”

I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but it is officially November. Knowing that there are only 8 weeks left in the year – even before serious cutouts for holidays – is much scarier than anything we saw last week for Halloween.

In addition to this week’s webinar recommendations, CFO Summit XXXVIII is taking place the 7^ththrough the 9^thin Irving Texas.

If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, I have two for you. The first is an update: the AOP Live session scheduled for October 29^thhad to be rescheduled because the primary speaker, Joseph Yacura, and his family were evacuated from their home in California due to the massive wildfires out there. The Current State of Digital Readiness: Mastering the Supply Chain Data Challengewill now take place on November 20th. 

And we have a new AOP Live on the calendar, From Isolated Zero to Enterprise Hero: Best Practices for Managing Holistic Procurement Performance with Pierre Lapree and Jason Trieda will take place on November 12^th. Both events are live, broadcast with video and likely to lead to highly engaged discussions.

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The October ISM-New York Report on Business was released on November 4th at 9:45am Eastern and is available for download here. Please see the end of this commentary for additional information about the ISM-New York Report on Business.

In addition to this week’s webinar recommendations, ProcureCon MRO is taking place in Atlanta, GA on the 28th and 29th.

If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, check out “Mission Critical for 2020: Touchless Supplier Management” from Spend Matters and APEX Analytix and featuring a case study on JetBlue, November 12th at 11am ET.

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If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, check out “Using Digital Transformation to Unlock Working Capital in Your Supply Chain” from Tradeshift on November 5th.

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From buyers to suppliers, everyone knows that the Request for Proposal (RFP) process is… less than ideal. At the same time, it is often central to the procurement process, so sales teams everywhere should be prepared to put their best foot forward when responding.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian friends: Stephany Lapierre and the team at Tealbook, Rod Sherkin at the ProPurchaser team, Negotiations Ninja’s Mark Raffan and Procurement Insights' Jon Hansen!

If you are looking for a longer term recommendation, the next AOP Live session has just been scheduled: The Current State of Digital Readiness: Mastering the Supply Chain Data Challenge on October 29th at 11am ET. This 45-Minute Live Q&A with Philip Ideson and Joseph Yacura will interpret and comment on the results of the 3rd annual Data Quality and Governance Study. 

There are also two live events taking place this week, ProcureCon EU in Barcelona, Spain and the 7th Annual Procurement Strategy Summit in Dubai, UAE.

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The New England Supply Chain Conference and Exposition (or NESCON) is taking place on Monday of this week in Marlborough, MA – outside of Boston. I’ll be there in person along with some familiar faces, so please reach out if you plan to be onsite! If you can’t be there on person, watch the BMP Twitter feed for updates throughout the day.

If you are looking for a longer term recommendation, check out “Power your Source-to-Pay with insightful and predictive analytics” from basware on October 24th.

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The September ISM-New York Report on Business was released on October 2nd at 9:45am Eastern and is available for download here. Please see the end of this commentary for additional information about the ISM-New York Report on Business.

Although I added 7 new events to the calendar this week, nearly all of them are in the second week of October. If you are planning your webinar schedule further out than this week, take a look at “The 2020 Digital Procurement Mandate: 8 Ways to Optimize Sourcing While Avoiding Production Risks“ from ScoutBee, a team I’ve gotten to know over the last few months.

Finally, a reminder that The New England Supply Chain Conference and Exposition (or NESCON) is taking place Monday, October 7th in Marlborough, MA – outside of Boston. I’ll be there in person along with some familiar faces, so please reach out if you plan to be onsite!

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As long as the summer seemed, September is now racing to a close. In fact, this week’s long term recommendation looks out to the end of October! On Oct. 24th, Zycus and Jon Hansen (Procurement Insights) are running a webinar titled “Procurement Stalwarts Discuss An AI-Powered Transformation of P2P” with panelists David Loseby, Norman Katz and Richard Pennington.

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If you are planning your event schedule beyond this week – especially if you live or work in the Boston area – I encourage you to check out NESCON 2019: The New England Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition taking place on October 7th. If you have any questions or if you make the decision to attend, please let me know. I’m always happy to connect in person!

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The August ISM-New York Report on Business was released on September 4th at 9:45am Eastern and is available for download here. Please see the end of this commentary for additional information about the ISM-New York Report on Business.

Now that the summer is finally winding to a close, we should be able to get back to business as usual with webinar recommendations. In fact, I wasn’t expecting to be able to do a post this week (with the Labor Day holiday in the US), but voila! Webinars to attend!

If you are planning your webinar schedule beyond this week, I recommend “World-Class Procurement: Redefining Performance in a Digital Era”, hosted by Coupa and featuring The Hackett Group’s Amy Fong on September 25^th.

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“When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!” – President Donald Trump on Twitter, March 9, 2019.

This week we are running a “2 for 1” special with our weekly coverage of procurement industry webinars. The following events take place in the last 2 weeks of August. If you happen to be planning a little further out, I’m going to be onsite at NESCON (the New England Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition) on October 7^th – so look for more about that event in the coming weeks. If you’re planning to attend, let me know so we can connect!

If you are planning your webinar schedule beyond this week, I recommend “Virtual Procurement and the C-Level CPO” from Tradeshift’s Roy Anderson on September 10th.

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This summer has brought a procurement webinar drought. I’m taking it one week at a time… I have some recommendations for this week and for next week and then we’ll see if anything is listed for the last week of August.

If you are planning your webinar schedule beyond this week, I recommend “The Strategic CFO is Thriving with Risk” from Coupa and Levvel Research on September 5th. I appreciate the opportunity to hear about the top Finance officer’s risk priorities and challenges – especially since Coupa is putting up their own CFO as a speaker during the event.

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The July ISM-New York Report on Business was released on August 2nd at 9:45am Eastern and is available for download here. Please see the end of this commentary for additional information about the ISM-New York Report on Business.