2019 Conference Objective
Entering its second year in Las Vegas, LogTech19 is the go-to forum for cargo owners, transportation and logistics services providers, and other supply chain stakeholders to understand how existing and emergent technology is impacting their international and domestic freight transportation and logistics strategy. Sessions will be solutions-oriented around key logistics and trade processes, including transportation management, inventory management, procurement, visibility, and trade compliance, with a focus on what the next evolution of supply chain management technology looks like from an investment, change management, and strategic perspective. The goal is to provide shippers with actionable insight into what is coming next, where to invest, and what to implement. Leveraging its editorial team of veteran journalists, LogTech19 is built out of the industry-leading news and analysis appearing on JOC.com and in The Journal of Commerce to deliver the latest data, information, and potential industry solutions to the supply chain challenges and chokepoints that freight interests wrestle with daily.
Theme: Carving Out Time to Innovate
Technology no longer runs on a separate, parallel track with logistics sales and operations. Rather, it’s now embedded in the very fabric of the way freight moves across oceans and land. One undeniable dynamic driving technology in logistics is the rise of e-commerce, heightened customer (both consumer and industrial) expectations, and the associated demands those place on logistics teams. Another is the flood of venture capital money underpinning hundreds of logistics technology startups, which is serving to accelerate the pace of innovation.
Although these developments are headline-grabbing and occasionally head-spinning, they don’t offer anything close to a clear path forward for logistics practitioners. If anything, the dizzying pace of new startups, new buzzwords, press releases, and overall information overkill makes it extremely difficult to chart an intelligent, risk-averse path. It can be confusing to shippers to understand what areas of their business to invest in, what specific solutions track it, and how good their current systems and processes are. Simply put, it can be difficult to create time as an organization to innovate.
With that in mind, LogTech19 is designed to help shippers, and the service providers who serve them, focus more clearly on practical transformation, to get away from buzzwords and fads, and hone in on realistic implementations of technology across a range of critical logistics processes.
High on the list of trends worth following this year will be interoperability of systems (allowing ecosystems of smaller technology providers to more completely address the needs of shippers); predictive visibility; and the benefits and drawbacks of Software as a Service vs. freight brokerage models. The LogTech19 program also will delve into how ocean carriers are approaching new tech entrants; how technology could change the length of procurement cycles; and how better visibility data can enable new trade finance and cargo insurance approaches.
Bearing in mind the twin dynamics of e-commerce growth and VC investment in logistics, the event also will examine the race for software engineering talent within logistics, and the extent to which the current wave of logistics technology entrepreneurship has spread worldwide.
Topics to be Explored:
• SaaS or brokerage: What’s the best option for shippers?
• The future of procurement.
• The cyber threat to containerized supply chains.
• Trade finance in the technology age.
• The race for technology talent.
• Proliferation of digital forwarding globally.