And, that’s a wrap on ICON 2021! What a great three days of engaging, dynamic speakers and content. Here are the things that stood out during the keynote sessions at this year’s annual customer conference:

  • Direct to Consumer Mindset: Our CEO, Girish Rishi, highlighted this point during his keynote. With fulfillment happening at every level – from the store to the warehouse to the supplier – companies need to be adapting their supply chain to what he refers to as a “Copernican Revolution.” And Matthew Glaspey, Director, Digital Experience, at Petco shared how a year out from the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers have higher expectations – they expect orders to be accurate and on time.
  • Robots Are In! We heard from David Guggina, SVP Supply Chain, Product & Engineering, at Walmart how they recently implemented autonomous mobile robots in their warehouses. David touted that the future is about delivering the best outcome for their customers and associates. During a breakout session, executives from Sam’s Club, part of the Walmart family, shared their agile approach that accelerated positive impact deploying Blue Yonder’s WMS. We also heard from Markus Voss, CIO and COO, at DHL Supply Chain about the Robotics Hub solution that was developed by Blue Yonder to meet their warehouse picking needs. In fact, Markus shared that the robots are acting as great colleagues to their employees.
  • Lean Into Disruptive Technology: Karen Jones, EVP, CMO, and Head of New Product Innovation, Ryder System, Inc., shared how people play an important role in integrating disruptive technology. Companies can also stay ahead of the technology curve by creating an eco-system of collaborative partners all working toward operational excellence. Along those same lines, Aniruddh Srivastava, Head of Demand and Supply Planning for Mahindra & Mahindra, encouraged attendees to use the solutions they have invested to its full capability, especially if it offers machine learning. Maryann Byrdak, CIO of Feeding America, shared how they had to lean into technology during the COVID-19 pandemic to get food from farmers to the right location without spoiling. And, David Prendergast and Owen Griffiths with DIAGEO highlighted how their implementation of Luminate Control Tower helped them quantify the number of shipping containers impacted by the recent Suez Canal blockage within hours – something that would have taken them days to do previously.   
  • DEVCON Highlights: Our DEVCON sessions highlighted the broad range of our Luminate Platform capabilities, including how developers and others can start developing top of our APIs today to build seamless user experiences across the supply chain. Hands-on sessions, labs and workshops helped attendees get a head start on the common UI that more and more of our Blue Yonder applications are adopting. The highlight was developers working together to builda Vaccine Distribution and Tracking application using our platform’s services and frameworks. DEVCON keynote speaker Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT, shared: “Computers aren’t just doing things better and faster than we would, they are doing things differently than we would.”

We also heard from McCormick & Company and Guess? about their approaches to diversity & inclusion and from Kimberly Bryant, Founder and CEO, of Black Girls CODE about the importance of creating a safe space for women to learn and grow in the tech field, as well as nurturing that talent pool and venturing outside of the norm to recruit.

Other highlights included singing along to comedian/singer Kelly James (how does he do that?), host extraordinaire Mark Jeffries keeping the agenda moving while making us laugh, morning yoga, and a Peloton bike ride.

All the keynote and breakout sessions are now available on demand in the ICON portal.

If you missed Kelly James or the Peloton ride, you will get another chance:

  • Thursday, May 13: Join us for a private concert with Kelley James that includes food and drink
  • Thursday, June 10: Take part in a private ride and chat with Ally Love on Peloton. 

Details about both events can be found on: byfulfilling.com/#events.

We hope to see you in person in 2022!