The Countdown Started

Flying half across the globe to attend one of the biggest logistics conferences in the world, Quinten (our CTO) and myself are stoked to attend Manifest Las Vegas. Checked in and ready, we are two hours away from the plenary kick-off.

What's on the agenda?

Going through the sessions, I noticed there was a focus on three main topics:

1. Data
2. Artificial intelligence
3. Sustainability

The first two are obviously our sweet spot, as we've gained substantial domain expertise working for various 3PL (third party logistics) companies the past few years.

We're kicking off with a panel discussion on how logistics companies can make their data work for them. They speak about "interconnected data webs" that are likely to hide "invaluable analytics and actionable insights."

We couldn't agree more and are wondering whether this could mean that some more attention would be going to the "databases par excellence" that allow to visualize these connections (I'm talking about graph databases here).

Who's attending

We're seeing a lot of tech / SaaS companies on the list alongside the more traditional 3PL players. We're also noticing substantial interest from investors that might be looking for opportunities in the tech space. Another category are the large corporations like AB Inbev and Beiersdorf.

Digital experience surrounding the conference

The guys who built the Manifest app did a really great job providing a seamless digital experience. Just a few learnings that could be of use to event organizers back at home:

1. Invest in a decent app (not merely a mobile friendly website)
2. Make sure people can read and book sessions in advance
3. Make networking easy (scanning technology integrated in your attendee badge) - directly visible in the app.
4. No mentioning of your name when getting your badge : a fastpass QR code was immediately hooked up to a badge printer.

We're planning to bring the best of the Manifest conference to our European audience. Stay tuned for the webinar that we'll probably host in the last week of February.