CSCMP 2010 conference opening ceremony

The second day has been a great day at the CSCMP conference.
I started with the Opening Ceremony moderated by Rick Blasgen, he and Bob Silverman and Donald Biggs (Learn, Network, Have fun) introduced this years theme (Learn, Lead, Succeed) and the keynote speakers.
Roger Woody did a nice introduction of the Distinguished Service Award Winner: Charles Taylor, Founder of Awake! Consulting, Speaking about the risks of rising oil prices and the possibilities of supply chain professionals in increasing efficiency to combat the effects. In the afternoon he was (for an American from Texas(!)) underlining his points stating that Supply Chain Professionals worldwide have to look into their planning for the after-peak-oil phase.

Then the key speaker, Carlos M. Gutierrez, former US secretary of trade, was talking about the importance of free trade for supply chain management and vis-versa. He issued a call for the revival of the concept of globalization and stressed current free trade obstacles.
He especially stressed the risks associated with having the wrong models for including currency fluctuations and tariffs into the decision making process (eg. international location decision).