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CALL FOR PRESENTATION PROPOSALS

About FMI
 As the food industry association, FMI works with and on behalf of the entire industry to advance a safer, healthier and more efficient consumer food supply chain. For food retailers, wholesalers and suppliers of all types and sizes, FMI leverages expertise to advocate, collaborate, educate and support the food retail industry efforts to feed families and enrich lives. 

Target Audience
 The Supply Chain Forum draws attendees, including grocery retail and wholesale executives, product suppliers and industry service providers with responsibility for:

  • Supply Chain 
  • Logistics
  • Transportation 
  • Warehousing 
  • Technology
  • Merchandising 
  • Sales
  • Procurement
  • Business Analytics 

Retailers, wholesalers and suppliers are the primary target audience for education program content and insights, Companies are encouraged to bring their supply chain teams members across multiple functions.

Education Program
 The FMI Supply Chain Forum will offer a variety of general sessions, breakout sessions, problem solving workshops, and panel discussions. Sessions will vary in length from 30 minutes to one hour. 

The focus of the education program will be to inform, educate and inspire participants to address challenges and opportunities that are impacting supply chain performance near term as well as long range strategic supply chain issues. The Forum will place an emphasis on collaboration, innovation, problem solving. change management and business process improvements that improve efficiency, resiliency and reduce costs.

 General sessions will cover:

  • Macro-economic, issues impacting supply chain
  • What’s coming next?: Inflation and recessionary pressures.
  • Strategic supply chain management
  • Labor, workforce, and talent
  • Collaborative transportation
  • Supply chain scorecarding
  • Transportation and warehouse performance
  • Product allocation strategy
  • Accelerating technology transformation
  • Leadership and change management
  • Women in supply chain

Breakout and workshop sessions will cover:

  • Next generation warehouse automation
  • Procurement best practices
  • Collaborative data sharing best practices
  • Backhaul and capacity balancing
  • Sustainable supply chain
  • Select general sessions will also include problem solving workshops

Presentation Format & Presenters
 Education sessions may be presented in several formats. Research has shown that adults learn best in settings where they are able to participate actively, relate the new information or techniques to their experiences, and practice new skills. Preference will be given to proposals that incorporate these components, including:

  • Case Study - presenter discusses a real-life problem and invites audience participation
  • Structured Discussion - presentation(s) with discussion throughout the session
  • Interactive lecture with polling and Q&A
  • Panel Discussion - moderated discussion by panel members
  • Town Hall - short 10-15 minute presentation at the beginning followed by group discussion
  • Idea Exchange - moderator leads a discussion among participants; different tables can discuss different topics
  • Buzz Groups - participants are divided into small groups and given a specific task to complete

Education sessions may be delivered by one presenter, co-presenters or a panel. While FMI welcomes presentation proposals from the service provider community, preference will be given to those that provide a balanced view and include retailer/wholesaler and manufacturer practitioners. Please note that any speakers listed/proposed must have already agreed to speak in the session.

Deadline: 

Proposals must be submitted by May 26, 2023 using this online Abstract Management System. 

Proposals must include:

  • Full contact details including phone number and email address
  • Presenter bio(s)
  • Contact information for all confirmed presenters
  • 3-4 learning objectives
  • Selected topic and presentation method
  • Summary and full description of content

Please note, in the case of submitted proposals speaker(s) will be responsible for their own travel and registration costs. Please reach out if additional support is requested.

Review Criteria:

  • Proposals will be reviewed by the members of the FMI Supply Chain Council and FMI staff according to the following criteria:
  • Timeliness and relevance of subject matter
  • Practical application and take-aways
  • Real-life case studies in the food retail setting
  • Content that meets the advanced educational needs of attendees
  • Originality (cutting-edge content not previously presented)
  • Qualifications and expertise of presenter(s)
  • Comprehensiveness and value of presentation objectives
  • Content that is free of commercialism and/or product bias

A combination of sessions identified through the presentation proposal system and sessions developed by the SMEs supporting the event will be used to build the conference education program. The most successful proposals will feature practitioner speakers. While FMI welcomes presentation proposals from the service provider community, preference will be given to those that provide a balanced view and include retailer/wholesaler and manufacturer practitioners

Selection Notification: 
Submitters will be notified ONLY if they are accepted to speak on the program.

Content Questions: 
Aileen Munster amunster@fmi.org

Log in to the Abstract ScoreCard

Questions? Organizer: Rebecca Janelle Daniels -