Looking into the future
The Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) will take a look into the future at its 2017 annual Meeting and Leadership Conference, March 23-26 in Tucson, Ariz.
With the theme “Are You Ready for Tomorrow’s Marketplace?,” the meeting will contain seminars that explore the strategic choices that organizations will have to make in planning for an uncertain future, according to PLMA.
To ensure store brands executives have access to the skills needed to detect how their business environment is going to change and to help them navigate the inevitable challenges to come, PLMA will offer a senior management workshop for scenario planning to be led by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Ph.D, the senior fellow and research director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the Wharton School of Business and an internationally respected professor of strategic planning and decision-making.
As the founder of Decision Strategies International, Schoemaker has worked with some of the world’s biggest corporations, including many in the Fortune 100, advising CEOs and senior executives across a range of industries. Schoemaker is the author more than 10 books.
Additional topics and speakers on the conference agenda include:
· Tomorrow’s Marketplace — From big data and artificial intelligence to robots and drones, the impact that a new generation of Internet-enabled devices and connected consumers will have on physical stores is the topic to be navigated by Bill Gillispie, retail and CPG leader with IBM Global Business Services and a former retailing executive whose resume includes over 20 years’ experience in grocery operations, merchandising, fresh, center store and pharmacy.
· Packaging for the Future — Revolutionary concepts in packaging science and technology are emerging across product categories: packages that dissolve, edible packaging, nanomaterials, smart packaging, and more are challenging basic notions of what packaging is and opening fresh opportunities for retailers and their brands. Speaker Michael Vincent of The Sustainable Package LLC was group procurement manager and director of supply chain sustainability for Safeway. A former director for packaging development at Dreyer’s and Multifoods, he also holds six U.S. patents for packaging and food processing.
· Meet The Retailer — A presentation by Jac Ross, senior director for product development, innovation and product integrity for Ahold USA, will offer insights into the future of store brands at one of the largest supermarket operators in the eastern United States, continuing a popular series of presentations by store brands executives from key retail companies at PLMA's annual conference. Prior to joining Ahold USA, Ross headed grocery product development and technology for Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom.
PLMA says the conference provides an opportunity for private label executives from manufacturing companies to come together with their industry peers and trading partners for the purpose of examining the latest trends and exploring strategies for achieving store brands success.
The location for this year’s event will be Westin’s La Paloma in Tucson. The conference is open to PLMA member manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, brokers and suppliers. For additional information, click here to download the brochure, or inquire by email to [email protected]. To access the conference registration form directly online, click here.