Supply chain executives from Nestlé North America, Sprüngli North America, Sysco Corp., and Molson Coors Beverage discuss challenges and opportunities.

Shippers and their supply chain partners found significant relevance in this theme of the 68th Annual Food Shippers Conference, which took place March 3-5 at the beautiful Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando.

Co-Chairs of the 2024 Food Shippers Conference were Lori Lammers, Director of Logistics, Dawn Foods; Darica Schneider, Sr. Director Transportation, Univar Solutions; and Darlene Wolf, SVP, Strategic Partners, Arrive Logistics. For months, these three Conference Co-chairs were the architects of the content and conference experience as they planned to subject matter and confirmed industry thought leaders as speakers.

Co-Chairs of the 2024 Food Shippers Conference: Lori Lammers, Director of Logistics, Dawn Foods; Darica Schneider, Sr. Director Transportation, Univar Solutions; and Darlene Wolf, SVP, Strategic Partners, Arrive Logistics

Let’s take a closer look at what made this conference theme so relevant to shippers and their supply chain partners:

Adapt to Deliver. Supply chain professionals understand the need for their operations, processes and procedures to be flexible and nimble to adapt to changes in buyer behavior, market conditions and challenges. Only then can you deliver the results you need for your customers and key stakeholders.

Driving Resilience. Supply chain disruptions due to market shifts, changing customer demands, inflationary pressures, a shortage of qualified talent, geopolitical issues and cyber threats show little sign of abatement. Food companies can address these challenges head-on by reconsidering outdated, short-term strategies and doing the hard work of building structural resilience of their supply chains.

Talent and Technology. “Manage your talent pipeline like a supply chain,” is the advice from many who are successfully managing their workforce in a post-pandemic, Boomer-retiring era. While the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) reported 64% of supply chain professionals saying they were experiencing a talent shortage in their organization in 2020 – and the situation has only worsened since COVID. To combat the talent challenges, food companies are placing more focus on retention of existing employees and incorporating more automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

Get it on your calendars now: The 69^th Food Shippers Annual Conference will take place March 2-4, 2025, at the J.W. Marriott Desert Spring Hotel in Palm Desert, CA.

Related Articles:

• Supply Chains Have Adapted to Drive Resilience After Two Years of Global Volatility
• 2024 FSA Conference in Review: Driving Resiliency through Talent, Technology
• 2023 FSA Conference Recap: 67^th Food Shipper Conference
• Creating Resilience to Extreme Weather in Your Supply Chain

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