Past Conferences
Conferences already held in 2007
3rd Annual CIPS Australia Conference a great success!
An impressive line-up of international and domestically based keynote speakers shared their views and experiences with 560 participants at the 3rd Annual CIPS Australia Conference – held on 16-17 October 2007 at Crown Towers in Melbourne.
Four seminar streams offered 24 different seminar topics each directly or indirectly relevant to the central theme and the four sub themes of the conference.
The central theme of the conference was: “Its’ not just about cost!”
Traditionally, the procurement profession has been seen as cost focused; latterly, focused on full-life time cost or total cost of ownership (TCO) more than up-front price. But senior practitioners have continued to stress there are much broader benefits of better procurement practices, such as: security of supply, reduced risk, improved quality, greater efficiency, better processes, more innovation and real added value. Proving it, however, has been more difficult.
But these simple goals no longer do justice to the fastest growing profession in business. This conference suggested four possible new challenges for the profession. Four ways in which the profession may well be measured in future:
• Influencing better outcomes – for the organisation;
• Procurement led solutions;
• Socially responsible procurement;
• Improving organisational performance.
Each of the 10 keynote speakers and the 24 seminars at the 3rd Annual CIPSA Conference addressed, directly or indirectly, one of these four sub themes.
The Conference has once again increased in popularity and status since last year’s event. The 560-strong attendance was up by over eight per cent on last year. A total of 385 guests sat down to dinner, while the Conference was also better supported by sponsors with 10 Gold Sponsors compared to six in 2006 and exhibitors in Purchasing Exchange were also up to 45 this year.
Stand-out speakers included Dr Nicolas Reinecke, Will Parsons and John McGagh. Early feedback from participants has very positive with 99 per cent of delegates rating the conference either Excellent or Good.
The venue looked grand for both the Conference and the Dinner and many CIPSA members have already expressed their enthusiasm for the 4th Annual Conference to be held in 2008. A full report on the 3rd Annual CIPSA Conference will be published in the December/January edition of Procurement Professional magazine.
View the Photo Slide Show from Day 1 of the Conference here.
View the Photo Slide Show from Day 2 of the Conference here.
And the winners are…
The Procurement Professional Awards were presented at the Gala Dinner held in conjunction with the 3rd Annual CIPSA Conference and the winners were:
• Special Achievement Award (for recognition of the Procurement Change Management effort across a range of award categories): University of Sydney;
• Best Supplier Partnership: Insurance Australia Group (partnering BlueStar Print Group);
• Best Cross-Functional Teamwork Project: British American Tobacco Australia;
• Best People Development Initiative: BAE Systems;
• Best Process Improvement Imitative: Office of Government Procurement (Dept of Treasury & Finance WA);
• Best Improved Procurement Operation (Dual Winners): Parmalat Australia and Office of Government Procurement (Dept of Treasury & Finance WA);
• The CIPS Leadership Award: John Tondut (Executive Director, Office of Government Procurement, Dept of Treasury & Finance WA).
CIPSA congratulates all winners and is sure that the quality of this year’s entries will inspire even more high-quality contenders in 2008. CIPSA would also like to thank the Awards Judges and the Sponsors of the Awards for making it such a successful event.
Michael Page Procurement & Supply
ProcureNet
inLogik
Portland Group
Xchanging
View the Photo Slide Show from the Procurement Professional Awards evening here.
CIPS Strategic Procurement Forum in Perth a real success!
Almost 100 people attended the CIPS Strategic Procurement Forum at the Novotel Hotel in Perth on 22nd August 2007, including practitioners from organisations such as Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, BP, Wesfarmers and the WA Department of Treasury and Finance.
The forum structure to the conference allowed a diverse agenda offering a wide range of topics for delegates.
CIPSA Managing Director, Jonathan Dutton, established the context for the event by introducing the five emerging trends facing the procurement profession:
• Performance optimisation
• Supplier relationship management
• Socially responsible procurement
• Talent scarcity
• Globalisation
The speakers were segmented into pairs covering different aspects of the trends facing the profession – all directly or indirectly related to these five key emerging trends.
Other speakers included: Craig Lardner (GWF); David Henchliffe (Santos); Josh Gluckman (Portland Group); Cliff Stagoll (BHP Billiton); CIPSA Regional Chair, David Lunn (Woodside); Craig Rooney (Coles Group); Michael Kirk (The Faculty), Peter O’Brien (Russell Reynolds) and David Ward (Xchanging).
Feedback for the event was extremely positive with 98 per cent of delegates rating the event as either good or excellent. This follows hot on the heels of the Sydney conference in March 2007 which recorded CIPSA’s first ever 100 per cent approval rating.
Suggestions for topics for next year’s conference in Perth are always welcome by e-mailing info@cipsa.com.au
Inaugural New Zealand Conference proves a big winner!
Auckland 14th June 2007
The Inaugural CIPS New Zealand Conference, held on June 14, was an unqualified success. The Conference had distinguished speakers, including The Hon. Lianne Dalziel, Minister of Commerce for the New Zealand Government, who officially opened the event. Ms Dalziel said that linking New Zealand procurement practitioners into a global community of over 42,000 members in 120 countries has got to be good for
the profession.
The Minister also went on to say that accepting the invitation to open the conference was an opportunity to explain why we need good procurement capability within government now more than ever and secondly to give a quick overview of the Labour-led government’s sustainability agenda and what this means for
government procurement practitioners. She used the analogy of a leaking bucket to help procurement professionals explain to others in their organisation why so often the benefits of negotiating great deals do not reach the bottom line.
Fonterra CPO, Eduardo Teisaire, gave an empowering presentation on the ‘glories and miseries’ of being
a procurement professional. He described how identifying and focusing effort on two or three low hanging fruit can have a big payoff in terms of establishing credibility and gaining respect for your skills inside your organisation.
David Freeman, Strategic Sourcing Manager, TelstraClear and Chair of New Zealand and CIPS Council member, closed the event with a reminder to all attendees that the journey in New Zealand has just begun and that all NZ CIPS members must continue to strive for the betterment of the profession in the country. The full transcript of the speech by The Hon Lianne Dalziel, can be accessed at: www.beehive.govt.nz or on the direct link here.
The 2nd Public Procurement Forum
Canberra 16-17 May 2007
Procurement Professional Article - The Problem with Probity in Public Sector Procurement
White Paper - Seven Issues Facing The Public Sector Community
Conference Wrap-Up (from Procurement Professional 14)
PSPF2 a success!
Over 150 people from Australia & New Zealand attended the 2nd CIPS Public Sector Procurement Forum (PSPF2) conference, which was held in Canberra 16-17 May 2007.
This is the premier event for public sector procurement professionals in Australia. This year’s event was themed on a platform of the five emerging trends in procurement identified following CIPS research during the second half of 2006. These were: performance optimisation; socially responsible procurement; talent scarcity; supplier relationship management; and globalisation.
Each of the presenters at the forum directly or indirectly addressed an aspect of best practice public sector procurement within the context of these five emerging trends. During the event, a series of clear, identifiable and ubiquitous trends, specific to public sector procurement emerged from the 18 different presenters, the panel debate and, the many discussions between the delegates during the networking sessions and two additional seminars after the event.
These were:
- the need to set clear objectives at the outset; agreeing a pre-set procurement strategy for the
- organisation; focus on outcomes not process;
- collaboration speaks volumes: sustainability is a new driver for professional procurement;
- the goal is for the public sector to become a customer of choice; and
- solving the talent scarcity problem.
PSPF2 follows the success of the Sydney conference, held in early March at the Shangri-La Hotel. In fact, over 100 delegates attended the Sydney event and heard from two different speakers on each of the five emerging trends. Contributions from the Coles Group, BOC Group, BAE Systems, Fuji Xerox, DHL, Pacific Brands, Westpac, The Stockland Group, BOMweb, The Faculty, Accenture and Xchanging were appreciated by the delegates.
Both events were rated highly by attendees. The Sydney conference was rated as either Good or Excellent by all 100 per cent of attendees (65% excellent, 35% good), while 88 per cent of PSPF2 attendees rated the events as Good or Excellent (31% excellent, 57% good).
CIPS will develop work on the seven emerging trends that emanated from PSPF2. They are sure to be the topic of discussion at future conferences and seminars.
Emerging Trends in Procurement
Sydney 7-8 March 2007
Procurement Professional articles covered from Conference:
The Five Emerging Trends In Procurement
Westpac's Journey Into Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Coles Group Case Study: Many Brands, One Trolley
Speaker Presentations
The speaker presentations are available for delegates who attended this conference. If you would like to receive the link to the presentations please email cipsa@bttbonline.com who will confirm your attendance and send you the link.
