Autumn 2026 Meeting

Test Your Thinking

You've sat through the webinars, the events, the vendor decks. What's missing isn't more input. It's a way to test your own thinking against people working through the same kind of decision, including the people whose business it is to know this space.

Nov 12, 2026 8:30
—
17:00
GMT
·
Central London, UK
Register interestTalk through where you are
For senior practitioners only
Not ready yet? Prefer a brief intro by email?
How this meeting works
  • Practitioner-led working session
  • No pitches
  • Small-group, facilitated discussion
  • Works best when you can engage actively
  • Chatham House Rule
  • Limited places to preserve quality

Why this meeting exists

You've got a view forming on what needs to change, whether that's a full network and operating model redesign or making the most of what you've already got, even if you haven't tested whether it's right.

You've been to the events, sat through the webinars, taken the vendor calls. Most of that comes from people trying to sell you something without knowing your context, the rest from inside your own organisation, tested against people who share your assumptions. Neither tells you if your read is sound.

This meeting is practitioner-led, shaped around what matters to your decision, with solution providers contributing pattern recognition rather than pitching. You bring your current thinking and test it against peers and people who've watched this play out elsewhere.

If you're not working towards a real decision in the next 3 to 12 months, this probably isn't the right room yet.

What you'll leave with

  • A sharper sense of whether you're framing the right problem, not just a plausible one.
  • Other ways supply chain leaders in comparable positions are thinking about the same kind of decision, and where your read differs from theirs.
  • Pattern recognition from people who've watched this play out across many organisations, on what tends to work and what doesn't.
  • A clearer view of what you'd need to test or align internally before this is ready to move forward.
Group of four adults engaged in a discussion around a table at a professional event.

Plenary / panel themes / enablers

These whole-room sessions focus on the shared operating context — including common innovation blockers and enablers — that shape everyone’s decisions. Their purpose is to establish a common frame of reference, so that the roundtable discussions can focus on specific capability and decision areas with less ambiguity.

09.00 – 09.50

Operating model and partner ecosystem: the strategic context for capability investment

11.20 - 12.00

How AI is changing the build versus buy trade-off

14.00 - 14.20

What early implementation actually looks like: practitioner cases from the first twelve months

15.50 - 16.25

Getting the organisation ready: people alignment and the conditions for a credible investment case

16.25 - 17.00

The business case: what an investment will eventually need and why that matters now

Group of professionals seated around a table with cups and bottles, engaged in discussion during a meeting.

Roundtable discussions

Roundtable discussions run in parallel for 60 minutes at set points during the day (09.50, 12.00 and 14.20), following whole-room sessions that establish shared context. Each roundtable focuses on a specific decision area or challenge and is facilitated to support practical, peer-level exchange rather than passive presentations.

The themes below reflect areas currently being explored based on participant interest and ongoing discussions. Final roundtable topics are confirmed as discussion hosts and participant interest become clearer.

*indicates that this theme is currently under consideration

*

Network design for resilience & agility

  • Where are the vulnerabilities in your network that you've identified but haven't yet tested under a real scenario, and what's stopping that test from happening?
  • Is redesigning for resilience actually a network question, or is it being treated as one because that's where the tools and the budget conversation already exist?
  • What would it take to know whether a targeted redesign would fund further agility, rather than assuming it on the strength of the business case alone?
  • How do you tell the difference between a vulnerability worth redesigning around and one you're better off pricing as accepted risk?
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Organisational design of the planning function

  • How the structure of the planning function itself enables or constrains capability investment
  • When to centralise versus decentralise planning roles, and what that means for investment sequencing
  • How to design governance and decision rights so that new capability is actually used rather than worked around
  • What good looks like in terms of planning team composition, reporting lines and cross-functional interfaces
  • How organisational readiness across people, roles and accountability affects what kind of investment is appropriate
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

AI in planning: how to sequence investment against your actual current position

  • How to think about AI investment in planning as a sequence of bets rather than a single capability decision
  • Which AI capabilities in planning tend to deliver early value and what conditions make that possible
  • The difference between an AI investment that creates optionality for the next stage and one that creates a dependency or dead end
  • How to evaluate AI options honestly against current data foundations, process maturity and organisational capacity
  • What good sequencing looks like across different starting points: ERP-heavy, data-light, process-fragmented
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Making the business case for planning technology investment

  • How to frame a planning technology investment case in terms a CFO will find credible, not just a supply chain leader
  • Total cost of ownership: what is routinely underestimated and how to build a defensible number
  • How to structure the build vs buy vs partner vs wait decision so it holds up under scrutiny
  • Vendor selection as a financial and strategic decision, not just a functional one
  • How to avoid the trap of building a business case around a vendor's ROI model rather than your own operating context
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Digital skills & capability building

  • Is the gap you're trying to close actually a skills gap, or a structural one that training won't fix on its own?
  • Who needs to change how they work for a capability investment to land, and have you tested whether they're ready to?
  • What does good enough digital literacy look like for your specific context, rather than a target borrowed from somewhere else?
  • Where have citizen-led or low-code initiatives created real momentum elsewhere, and where have they quietly stalled once the easy wins ran out?
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Cost-to-serve transparency & dynamic scenario modelling

  • Do you know your major cost drivers well enough to act on them, or well enough to describe them in a deck?
  • Where does cost-to-serve visibility currently sit, and is that the right place for it given the decisions it's meant to inform?
  • What would dynamic scenario modelling actually change about a decision you're facing, versus what would it just confirm?
  • How do you avoid building a more sophisticated model that nobody outside finance and supply chain ever looks at?
Hosted by:
Uzair
 
Bawany
,
Chief Executive Officer
Oii.ai
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Data orchestration & integration

  • Is your current integration approach a deliberate choice or an accumulated one, and does that distinction matter for what you do next?
  • What decisions are genuinely blocked by orchestration gaps, versus decisions people assume are blocked because that's an easier conversation than the one underneath it?
  • Where does lightweight integration stop being good enough, and how would you know you've reached that point rather than guessing?
  • What's the real cost of staying with point-to-point connections a while longer, against the cost of moving toward something more composable before you're sure you need to?
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Working capital as a strategic lever, not just a constraint

  • Build confidence in inventory and buffer decisions when demand, supply, and cost signals are unstable
  • Translate working-capital pressure into operating-model choices rather than reactive cost cutting
  • Make explicit the trade-offs between service, cash, and resilience in day-to-day planning decisions
  • Stress-test assumptions embedded in current inventory policies before scaling or investing further
  • Create decision hygiene between supply chain and finance without slowing operational momentum
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Supply chain risk: from operational concern to board priority

  • Why supply chain risk tends to sit below the line for boards and CFOs until something goes wrong — and how practitioners are changing that dynamic
  • How to build a business case for risk investment that survives CFO scrutiny without overstating the threat or understating the exposure
  • What the revenue-per-day or margin-at-risk framing looks like in practice, and how to make it credible across different sectors
  • How to sequence risk investment when budget is constrained and every option involves a trade-off
  • What sustained geopolitical disruption and multi-tier visibility gaps are changing about the conversation — and how practitioners are using that context to unlock investment
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
*

Process & decision intelligence

  • Which processes do you need visibility into right now, and which are you instrumenting because the tooling makes it easy rather than because a decision depends on it?
  • What's the difference between a process insight that changes a decision and one that just confirms what people already suspected?
  • How do you know whether you're ready for AI-guided decision support, or whether that's a later-stage capability being pulled forward by hype?
  • Where has process mining created real change elsewhere, versus producing dashboards checked once and ignored?
Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
CO-Hosted by:
To be confirmed.
People engaged in multiple group conversations and networking in a well-lit conference room with labeled sections B, C, and D.

Focused 1:1 conversations

Alongside group discussions, each in-person meeting includes time for structured 1-to-1 conversations. These are not open networking slots or random introductions.

Ahead of the meeting, participants share a short context profile covering the decisions they are currently working through, their operating environment, and where they are seeking clarity. This allows us to suggest 1-to-1 conversations between participants who are grappling with similar questions, even if their organisations or industries differ.

The aim of these conversations is to go deeper than is possible in group sessions — comparing how decisions are being framed, what trade-offs are being considered, and what has or hasn’t worked in practice.

Best Practice Leaders

Our session leaders are selected for their direct experience of tackling the challenges addressed in this meeting. They participate fully as peers in the room and remain engaged throughout the discussions, sharing practical experience and lessons learned from real decisions.

Keynotes, Panellists & Invited Experts

Confirmed
Chris
 
Bassano
 
Fmr Group Supply Chain Director, Standard Indusries / BMI, Rolls-Royce
Independent / Unaffiliated
Practitioner
Confirmed
Lochy
 
Macpherson
 
VP - Strategic Account Management
GXO
SP / Consultant
Confirmed
Simon
 
Brown
 
Chief Procurement and Supply Chain Officer
Infinite Electronics
Practitioner
Uzair
 
Bawany
 
Chief Executive Officer
Oii.ai
SP / Consultant
Confirmed
Funda
 
Tatlidil
 
Fmr Supply Chain Director
Independent / Unaffiliated
Between Roles
Confirmed
Jon
 
Stanley
 
Founder & Managing Director
One Point Four Degrees
Recruitment
Confirmed
Nick
 
Miles
 
Senior Director, Technology - Supply Chain, R&D and Regional IT
Wella Company
Practitioner
Confirmed
Paul
 
Gething
 
Global Process Owner & Transformation Lead, Plan-to-Fulfil
RS Group plc
Practitioner

Discussion Hosts

Uzair
 
Bawany
 
Chief Executive Officer
Oii.ai
SP / Consultant

Discussion Co-Hosts

To be confirmed.

How the day works

The day is designed to balance shared context with focused peer discussion, with time built in for informal exchange and follow-up conversations.

Arrival & informal coffee

Settle in, meet other participants, and establish the context for the day.

Whole-room context setting

Shared discussion exploring the operating context, including common innovation blockers and enablers shaping current decisions.

Parallel roundtable discussions

Focused peer discussion around specific decision areas, with groups re-forming across the day to explore different perspectives.

Focused 1:1 exchanges

Time built in throughout the day to follow up conversations, explore overlaps, and connect around shared challenges.

Reflection and next steps

A closing discussion to surface insights, identify areas for follow-up, and explore how ideas move forward beyond the room.

Who this meeting is for

This meeting is designed for people working through real operational and innovation decisions, rather than those seeking presentations or general inspiration.

Who for

This meeting is for you if:

  • You are leading or materially influencing a supply chain capability investment decision and are working through whether the timing, framing or sequencing is right.
  • You are uncertain whether you have correctly identified the root cause of current performance constraints.
  • You're starting to shape the case you'll eventually need to make, and want early peer challenge on the framing.
  • You want peer challenge from practitioners who have navigated similar journeys, not presentations or vendor-led agendas.

Who not for

This format may not be a good fit if your primary objective or organisational context looks very different:

  • You are primarily looking to pitch products or services
  • You are seeking a traditional conference with formal presentations
  • You are not in a position to engage openly with peers
  • You are attending mainly to gather leads or contacts

This meeting may also be less useful if:

  • You are looking for a ready-made solution rather than working through a decision
  • Your organisation has extensive internal transformation capability and you are primarily seeking implementation support rather than peer sense-making
  • You are attending mainly to validate an already-decided course of action rather than to test and refine thinking

What happens next

Participation is confirmed through a short, staged process designed to ensure a good fit and a productive discussion for everyone in the room.

Step 1: Register interest

Start by registering your interest. This includes a short set of questions to help us understand the decisions on your radar and help shape the final agenda.

Step 2: Confirming fit

We review each request to confirm that the meeting is a good fit, based on role, context, and the focus of the discussion. If it is, we'll confirm your place by email.

Step 3: Shaping the discussion

In advance of the meeting, we may invite you to indicate which discussion areas are most relevant to you and to share any specific questions or challenges you'd like to explore. This helps us finalise the agenda and prepare the sessions so they reflect what participants are actually working through.

Step 4: Final confirmation and preparation

Once the agenda is confirmed, we'll ask you to reconfirm your participation and provide a little more context. This step helps us balance the groups and ensure the discussions are as useful as possible.

Step 5: Your personalised agenda

Ahead of the day, you'll receive a personalised agenda showing which sessions are most relevant to your situation and suggested one-to-one conversations, along with visibility of who else will be attending.

At each stage, we aim to keep the process lightweight and transparent, while protecting the quality of the discussion for everyone involved.

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