I’m still trying to digest all the learnings from the F4SS Fall Connect 2019! What a great event. Now that we’re back from Minneapolis, I wanted to share some highlights from our full three-days of learning and networking.

Andrea Turner, Vice President, Global Planning, Logistics, Sourcing Strategy at General Mills, delivered a thought-provoking Keynote Address. She spoke candidly about the challenges she faces at General Mills, and what they’re doing to stay ahead of these challenges. She generated great follow-up questions from our attendees, which were answered thoughtfully and honestly.

We were happy to welcome back John Pike, Associate Partner at Korn Ferry. He delivered an energetic presentation to help attendees break down the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous.) John identified new ways for attendees to transform leadership to address root causes, not just the symptoms, of the challenges they face. He offered practical skills to help attendees flip the VUCA to lead their teams.

Nil Durak, Chief Operating Officer at Solvoyo and our friends from The Smart Cube gave great presentations on digital disruptions and transformations, two very relevant topics to our attendees.

It was great to see all our members reconnecting and networking during the breaks and designated networking time. This is an important element to our Connect events, and it’s always invigorating to see our members and guests making great use of this valuable time!

All our initiative team leaders did a fabulous job giving attendees overviews of their important team accomplishments and plans for the future. We’ve had a number of members join various teams since the event! A huge thank you to all our initiative team leaders and members for the work you do to provide significant savings and improved efficiency for our member companies.

We were lucky to be able to offer two great tours during the event. Our member, Menasha Packaging, invited our group to visit their Lakeville plant. Many thanks to everyone at Menasha for welcoming us and providing such an educational tour.

We were also able to organize a tour of Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee, which was very well received by attendees. It was amazing to see first-hand how this giant fulfills millions of customer orders each day. See below for a photo collage from the event.

We’re busy planning the F4SS Spring Connect 2020, and I can’t wait to share the details with you in the near future. For now, mark your calendars for March 2-4, 2020!

Best,
Don