

Supply Chain leaders are facing a number of challenges. Of all industrial sectors, the supply chain network has the most to gain from harnessing industry 4.0 but what are the best ways to chart a course, form a strategy, and a roadmap towards industry 4.0 success?
Sense check your approach with like-minded industry experts, sharing insight on business-critical challenges and disruptive technology, and drive your industry forward collaboratively.
Connect with 70+ senior Supply Chain leaders for a curated agenda focused on tackling your current business critical challenges and driving industry forward.
Our summits are designed to help you:
Build new connections with likeminded senior leaders
Stay current with emerging business trends
Understand the impact new technology can make
De-risk new projects by gaining a broad range of insights
Accelerate key projects through meaningful new partnerships
Downloadable and actionable takeaways
09:00 - 09:15
Intro & Diamond Commentary
09:15 - 09:45
Managing Sustainability and Maintaining Performance in Times of Crisis
''The North Star metric concept originally emerged from Silicon Valley and is best utilized by companies that invest in long-term sustainable growth. It focuses on the product and the core value it delivers to customers. The value your customers receive from your product is measured by key steps in the consumer lifecycle.'' (Forbes 2017). Now in these times of crisis with Ukraine and Russia, supply chain leaders are in firefighting or reactive mode, and are tasked with short term, complex challenges. How do you keep track of your sustainability journey, while facing new challenges in your end to end supply chain. David Boulanger, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Arla Foods will share how he manages Aral's long term goals, whilst facing the short term volatility.
09:45 - 10:25
The Future of Supply Chain Transparency
Ongoing global disruptions and uncertainty are forcing companies to adapt their supply chains, rethink logistics and accelerate innovation. Risk management right now is in times of crisis. The crucial need for supply chain digitization to enhance real-time visibility and agility was accelerated, and the opportunity to reorganize and restructure global supply chains using emerging technologies presented itself. The focus now is being prepared for whatever the next disruption is and sustaining innovation, as well as striving to be more sustainable.
10:25 - 10:30
10:30 - 11:23
Track 1: Collaboration, Agility and Visibility - Smart supply chains
Agility and resilience have become foundational cornerstones of demand-driven end-to-end supply chains. Across many industries, supply chains have traditionally been informed by historical data and relationships. As sudden shocks to supply chains have become more frequent, gaps in real-time data processes and systems have been exposed and such disruptions give renewed importance to an organisation’s need to adapt and keep pace with improving technology and evolving consumer demands. Can a supply chain digital twin make you twice as agile?
Sponsor:
Track 2: From Transition to Transformation – What’s Next for Your Supply Chain Innovation Strategy?
In a digital age where most have started the transition to basic visibility upstream and downstream, the next step for dealing with embedded risk management is integral to protecting the delivery of final products and your reputation. As a supply chain leader, how can you balance identifying and embracing the right technologies to guarantee a reduction in risk with the rapid speed of innovation that your company needs to stay competitive?
Sponsor:
11:25 - 12:05
Teaming up with tech to transform supply chains
Supply chains will continue to optimise efficiency in the coming years is through the use of robotics, automated processes and technologies. In this session we’ll look at:•Increasing customer expectations and service needs - How companies are using software robots, data analytics and autonomous vehicles to streamline logistics processes and increase efficiencies.•Labour market challenges - Collaborative robots are increasingly prevalent in warehouses as they reduce reliance on labour-only solutions and increase the safety of repetitive task.•Accelerating pace of technological change - Capitalise on the latest new tech and digital tools to get ahead of the game (and competition) on your journey to a successful and digitally-synchronised supply chain.
12:05 - 12:35
Leading Team Through Disruption
Supply Chains are constantly adapting and responding through multi country disruptions with 94% of the Fortune 1000 experiencing damaging impact to their supply chains . For companies to empower today’s agility and tomorrow’s resilience, they must orchestrate the capabilities required to plan, adjust and fill the gaps in an ever-changing environment.
09:00 - 09:10
09:10 - 09:40
Driving Productivity by moving from Reactivity to Proactivity
In the last years and based on a strong process maturity in the European SC, Henkel Beauty Care SC invested heavily in Digital. The capability developed improved notably on the performance (more accurate / real time data and analysis). The next part of the journey is switching some of the activities of the SC and Manufacturing team from reactive attitude to an increasing proactivity and anticipation. Although the team is still in this journey they have already unlocked various improvements, specifically driving People and Manufacturing efficiency, that extend beyond the traditional realm of SC job description. Patrick Delsol, Head of Supply Chain & Manufacturing Operations Beauty Care Europe, will share with us some examples and the journey his team has embarked on.
09:45 - 10:25
Supply Chain Efficiency and Effectiveness
10:25 - 10:35
10:35 - 11:25
Track 1: Collaboration, Agility and Visibility - Smart supply chains
Agility and resilience have become foundational cornerstones of demand-driven end-to-end supply chains. Across many industries, supply chains have traditionally been informed by historical data and relationships. As sudden shocks to supply chains have become more frequent, gaps in real-time data processes and systems have been exposed and such disruptions give renewed importance to an organisation’s need to adapt and keep pace with improving technology and evolving consumer demands. Can a supply chain digital twin make you twice as agile?
Sponsor:
Track 2: From Transition to Transformation – What’s Next for Your Supply Chain Innovation Strategy?
In a digital age where most have started the transition to basic visibility upstream and downstream, the next step for dealing with embedded risk management is integral to protecting the delivery of final products and your reputation. As a supply chain leader, how can you balance identifying and embracing the right technologies to guarantee a reduction in risk with the rapid speed of innovation that your company needs to stay competitive?
Sponsor:
11:30 - 12:00
Supply Chain Forecasting and Demand Prediction
Demand forecasting is a staple of supply chain management. Everyone’s doing it in one way or another to create realistic production plans and inventory turnover projections. Most supply chain leaders rely on a mixture of historical transactional data, direct customer insight and market behaviors. What are the best tools and techniques that play a vital role in forecasting and predicting market behaviors? Stephan Gotthardt, SVP Europe Supply Chain at Teva Pharmaceuticals will be sharing his insights into how he is doing this at Teva and the challenges that have come with this.
09:00 - 09:10
09:10 - 09:40
09:45 - 10:25
Customer Centricity and the Future of Smart Supply Chains
Customer centric and intelligent supply chains have never been as important. With an historic shift in consumer demand and digital acceleration, price is no longer the main competitive differentiator when it comes to customer fulfilment. Creating and delivering a supply chain which is innovative, hyper personalized and forward thinking is key to gaining competitive advantage. During this panel discussion you will hear from supply chain leaders as they discuss how they are responding with the shift to customer centricity, the new challenges this brings and their predictions for the future.
10:25 - 10:35
10:35 - 11:25
Sponsors:  
11:30 - 12:00
Building the Agile, Resilient and Purpose-Driven Supply Chains of the Future
Over the last few years, we’ve experienced numerous sudden shocks and disruptions that can threaten industrial operations. Combine high consumer demand with rapidly evolving geopolitics in a world yet to fully emerge from a global pandemic, and some supply chain constraints are to be expected. That said, agile, resilient and purpose-driven supply chains of the future have the capacity for resistance and recovery.In this closing discussion Luigi La Morgia, Vice-President of Integrated Supply Chain for Whirlpool EMEA, will reflect on what underpins the next generation supply chain, and how ‘business-as-usual’ at Whirlpool looks very different now to when he was appointed to this role in 2019.
Engage with a virtual live audience just as you would at a physical event and create meaningful conversations.
The ultimate live polling and gamification tools, keeping your audience engaged.
Enabling our team to help you control your session experience.
Interactive quizzes to gamify your session.
Content and insight from industry experts when it matters most.
There is no cost associated with attending a GDS Summit. In return, we ask that all senior executives in participation attend for the full duration to ensure that all attendees get maximum value and insight from the interactive roundtables, live Q&As and breakout networking sessions.
Our digital summit portfolio is designed to bring together senior decision makers from large global businesses and innovative disruptor brands to drive industry forward through addressing business critical challenges collaboratively.
If you’re keen to build new connections with likeminded leaders, de-risk your projects through new insight and establish new partnerships that can accelerate your projects then apply to attend today.
Complete our ‘apply to attend’ form on the event page if you’re interested in attending the summit and you meet our application criteria. A member of the GDS team will then reach out to run you through the programme and event format and discuss your participation.
On stage: co-host a panel discussion with a group of likeminded senior executives or host a solo keynote presentation. Both slots include elements of interactive audience Q&A
Off stage: become a roundtable moderator, leading the discussion with the same cohort of executives for the duration of the summit around a specific topic you’ve agreed to focus on during the roundtable session.
We can tailor a partnership package to help meet your business objectives. This might include brand awareness, driving traffic to your site or quality editorial content via exclusive interviews and Q&As with our executive audience. Enquire today for more information.
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You will leave the summit with best practices to immediately apply back to your organisation and new connections from meaningful conversations.
If you haven’t been to a GDS Digital Summit, you will be incredibly impressed. It’s far more engaging than most digital event experiences. It’s a very interactive environment.
I connected with peers that I know I’ll stay in touch with, including suppliers which have presented a fantastic opportunity for 7-Eleven Global in the future. It may well be the most valuable summit I’ve attended in many years
Thank you so much! Great Summit - an outstanding 3 days that culminated in this Award ... I am humbled and honored. Congratulations to you all for pulling off a Hybrid Summit with Augmented Reality features that are truly unparalleled in the Industry! Collaborative, Interactive & showcasing leading edge technology ... GDS Summits really set the bar so high that a return to physical conferences might be re-evaluated in the Industry. You are an amazing Team of Professionals & I am truly honoured to have been a part of this Summit.