"Early birds” have until 31 March 2023 to quality for discounted fees for the 2023 SAPICS Conference and Exhibition, Africa’s leading event for supply chain professionals.

The "Early Bird" registration option provides delegates with a substantial discount on their fees for the 2023 conference – if they book their place and pay the registration fee before this offer closes at the end of March, SAPICS, The Professional Body for Supply Chain Management, has announced.

Now in its 45th successful year, the annual SAPICS Conference is Africa’s foremost knowledge sharing and networking event for supply chain professionals. It takes place in Cape Town from 11 to 14 June 2023.

“In these tough times, we are pleased to be able to offer delegates a significantly discounted price for June 2023 if they take up the Early Bird offer. By enabling companies and individuals to budget now, we hope to ensure that they don’t miss out on Africa’s premier supply chain conference,” says SAPICS president MJ Schoemaker.

Reflecting the unprecedented challenges facing supply chain professionals in today’s increasingly volatile, uncertain and complex business arena, SAPICS has announced that the theme of the 2023 SAPICS Conference is “Forward Thinking Supply Chains”. 

“The past two and a half years of disruption have shown that traditional and historic supply chain processes are insufficient,” Schoemaker states. “Companies have increasingly discovered that what they were doing could not contend with the constantly changing environment and new challenges. In addition to COVID-19, supply chains have been impacted by numerous other chaotic disruptions in recent years, including the blockage of the Suez Canal, riots and unrest in parts of South Africa and issues at the Port of Durban, the COVID-induced container shipping crisis, and the power crisis across Asia and Europe.”

She notes that 2022 was yet another interesting and challenging year for supply chain professionals, as they continued to manage the disruption and volatility of the world. “Just as we thought that our supply chains could not be stretched any further, we all watched in horror as disasters of floods and droughts affected South Africa.  Business continuity has been difficult and cracks in the armour of resilience are showing. It is clear that companies must do things differently to mitigate the risks and succeed in today’s challenging and constantly changing environment. What we need are forward thinking supply chains, so that businesses, communities and economies can withstand future disruptions and volatility. In 2023, the focus must be on future proofing supply chains, so that they are equipped to anticipate disruptions and have processes to manage them,” Schoemaker stresses.

“These are turbulent times. The SAPICS Conference aims to equip delegates with all the knowledge, strategies, tools and techniques needed to optimise supply chains in an environment where constant change is standard and disruptive events need to be managed,” she says.