NEW YORK, July 25, 2016…The Conference Board will be hosting two major events, each on a bleeding-edge aspect of innovation, at its New York headquarters in October. Supported by marketing partner SupplyChainBrain, the 2016 Innovations Seminars will feature insights from senior-level practitioners and expert researchers currently re-shaping the state of the art in two critical areas of strategic partnership: supply-chain management and digital transformation. 

Both seminars are now open for registration, with a $100 savings available until September 17:

October 27: Supplier Innovation Seminar
Capturing Untapped Opportunities at Every State of the Relationship 

This seminar will reveal how leading organizations are reinventing  the supplier/customer relationship to drives transformative, and mutually beneficial, innovation. Participants will discover the critical components today’s most innovative supplier relationships. They will also learn how to avoid common pitfalls—including a lack of clear definitions and deficits in structure, trust, and transparency—which prevent partners from capitalizing on mutual opportunities for growth and value creation.  

Scheduled speakers include:

• Dr. Graham Cross, Director of Commercial Alliances and Supplier Innovation, Unilever
• Kevin Giblin, Head of Global Sourcing, Chief Procurement Officer, Dun & Bradstreet
• Michael Meaden, Vice President, Worldwide Production Procurement Sourcing, IBM Global Procurement
• Karen H. Milley, Vice President, Research and Development, Certified Food Scientist, Consumer Foods Business, The J.M. Smucker Company
• Karla Schulte, Global Procurement Manager, Corporate Contracts & Retail, Hallmark Cards, Inc.
• Dr. Gene Slowinski, Director of Strategic Alliance Research, Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University
• Stuart Stein, Director Open Innovation, Mondelez International 

October 28: Building Your Innovation Ecosystem for Digital Disruption Seminar
A practical playbook for building a network partners in support of digital transformation

For established companies pursuing transformative innovation and new sources of growth, success increasingly depends on engaging an external network of digital innovators, startups, and entrepreneurs scattered around the globe. This seminar offers corporate leaders proven frameworks for building, nurturing, and leveraging such an ecosystem of disruptive partners. Through new mapping tools, attendees will learn how to make sense of rapidly changing tech landscapes and build strategies incorporating a range of approaches—from tapping existing seed accelerators and startup incubators, to establishing new corporate venturing teams and innovation outposts in hotspots like Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv.

Scheduled speakers include:

• Michael Docherty, Author of Collective Disruption and CEO of Venture2 Inc.
• Kim Garretson, Director, Realizing Innovation
• Digital Disruption Expert Panel: This panel will feature a corporate executive, a venture capitalist, and a startup entrepreneur—a window on direct experiences with digital disruption from three unique perspectives.

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world’s leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org