This time next week the eDelivery team will be at EDX16 at the Birmingham NEC. If you can make it there too it would be great to see you there. Keep reading for more on that.
The second eDelivery Expo – otherwise known as EDX16 – gets underway next week on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 April, co-hosted with IRX, the expo from our colleagues at InternetRetailing; there’ll also be a Tamebay stand at the show, marking the first attendance at EDX/IRX of our most recent new colleagues from that title.
We’ve got some truly world-class retail names attending and taking part, including: Alibaba, A Suit that Fits, Fruugo, John Lewis, New Look, Ocado, Panasonic, and Sainsbury’s, to name just a few.
I’ll be there on both days, and I’m hoping to get to meet as many eDelivery readers as I can manage.
The theme for Day One of EDX16 will be Multichannel Fulfilment, and poses the question does your delivery service meet your customers’ expectations? The opening keynote on Day One will be from Walter Blackwood, formerly logistics director at Mothercare and currently an independent consultant.
Walter has one of the most distinguished track records in the sector, and it’s a real pleasure to have him as one of our speakers. I caught up with him recently to chat about a range of topics, including the economics of retail operations and logistics. You can read my interview with him here.
Day Two of EDX16 will be themed Operations in Multichannel, and the first session of the day will be a keynote from John Munnelly, head of operations at John Lewis Magna Park. John spoke at last year’s EDX and his was one of the most well-attended sessions we ran.
On the eDelivery site this week, what’s the big issue disturbing the sleep of retail supply chain execs in the UK…? Automation. That’s according to a study carried out on behalf of RELEX, which also found more than one-in-four respondents have a gloomy outlook when it comes to investing in supply chain systems.
And on the subject of all things automated, how about catching a robot demo at EDX16? EiraTech are joining us, from Dublin, and will be showing off the EiraBot at the show. You’ll find an overview of that here.
You can also expect to hear a good deal at EDX16 about how to become a multichannel success, which ties in well with this story about Sainsbury’s and the expansion of its digital and tech team. There’s a lot you need to operate effectively in multichannel retail, from the right systems to the right partners. But underpinning it all is the ability to be flexible and agile, which is something Sainsbury’s appears keenly aware of.
If coming to EDX16 and you’re on Twitter, why not send us a tweet to let us know – use the hashtag #EDX16 and direct your tweet to @eDeliveryNet.
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