David, you’d be a welcome guest at the SCF Community Forum in Amsterdam on 29th November.
Corporates certainly do attend, and in large numbers. There are certainly banks, fintechs, business schools and governments as well, but I completely agree with you that the debate only gets interesting when real corporates with real working capital or supply chain issues to solve get involved.
There’s a thirst for information in this area and what corporates really want is to hear from other corporates who have been there and done it, not from banks and fintechs who have a product to promote. That’s what we try to give them, so only corporates can speak at these events, and that seems to work.
Tony, we *do* encourage corporates to attend, many of them free of charge through our guest invitation programme, and last year we had companies such as Coca Cola, Ferrari, SABMIller, Lufthansa, Puma, 3, Philips, Shell, Heineken, Astra Zeneca and over 100 others.
When we launched in Singapore for the first time last year we were overwhelmed with the response from corporates such as Toyota and Honeywell – so we’ll be back there in May 2017.
Believe me Mike and Tony I have tried to work with Conference promoters to get them to focus on the credit process and decisioning at a corporate and a bank. There is a way to lay out a one or two day program that would go well beyond the latest supply chain finance technique to push terms out or offer early pay to a vendor base.
The problem is money. Conference promoters need Sponsors, and Sponsors control agenda and speaking slots.
I have laid out programs for Conferences before Sponsors usurped the program and wanted to control the narrative. This kind of thing needs to be planned for a longer sales cycle than one conference, which is hard in todays world.
I very much agree, Dave. As someone who has spoken at and moderated conference panels on supply chain finance, it has been a great shame that corporates using the working capital technique are rarely in the room.
Recently, I moderated a panel on the funding gap for SMEs at a conference organized by TXF, a leading online trade finance publication read by lenders and their corporate clients. Despite my exhortations to invite corporates, we didn’t score any 🙁
What conference organizers don’t appreciate is that if corporates were encouraged to attend (even free of charge), their very presence would boost the number of lenders, lawyers, accountants, logistics providers, consultants and others who show up — motivated by the prospect of new business. More important — and this is your point — the discussion would be multilateral rather than viewed narrowly from the perspective of the SCF lender/platform.
Why doesn’t Spendmatters launch its own conferences?
David, you’d be a welcome guest at the SCF Community Forum in Amsterdam on 29th November.
Corporates certainly do attend, and in large numbers. There are certainly banks, fintechs, business schools and governments as well, but I completely agree with you that the debate only gets interesting when real corporates with real working capital or supply chain issues to solve get involved.
There’s a thirst for information in this area and what corporates really want is to hear from other corporates who have been there and done it, not from banks and fintechs who have a product to promote. That’s what we try to give them, so only corporates can speak at these events, and that seems to work.
Tony, we *do* encourage corporates to attend, many of them free of charge through our guest invitation programme, and last year we had companies such as Coca Cola, Ferrari, SABMIller, Lufthansa, Puma, 3, Philips, Shell, Heineken, Astra Zeneca and over 100 others.
When we launched in Singapore for the first time last year we were overwhelmed with the response from corporates such as Toyota and Honeywell – so we’ll be back there in May 2017.
You can register at http://www.scf-forum.com or just contact me and I’ll send details.
Believe me Mike and Tony I have tried to work with Conference promoters to get them to focus on the credit process and decisioning at a corporate and a bank. There is a way to lay out a one or two day program that would go well beyond the latest supply chain finance technique to push terms out or offer early pay to a vendor base.
The problem is money. Conference promoters need Sponsors, and Sponsors control agenda and speaking slots.
I have laid out programs for Conferences before Sponsors usurped the program and wanted to control the narrative. This kind of thing needs to be planned for a longer sales cycle than one conference, which is hard in todays world.
Tony, Dave,
Where is the.love? I can’t be at them All? thanks for the true words though.
Doug Schoch
I very much agree, Dave. As someone who has spoken at and moderated conference panels on supply chain finance, it has been a great shame that corporates using the working capital technique are rarely in the room.
Recently, I moderated a panel on the funding gap for SMEs at a conference organized by TXF, a leading online trade finance publication read by lenders and their corporate clients. Despite my exhortations to invite corporates, we didn’t score any 🙁
What conference organizers don’t appreciate is that if corporates were encouraged to attend (even free of charge), their very presence would boost the number of lenders, lawyers, accountants, logistics providers, consultants and others who show up — motivated by the prospect of new business. More important — and this is your point — the discussion would be multilateral rather than viewed narrowly from the perspective of the SCF lender/platform.
Why doesn’t Spendmatters launch its own conferences?