Proactis’ flagship event ReThink ’20 will focus on agility in Procurement and Finance

The landscapes of the Procurement and Finance functions have changed quite substantially over the past year, and even more so over the past six months as they have faced the turbulence of supply disruption, employee retention, and of course spend management challenges. The functions are facing a new way of working and have been forced to adapt to new pressures as they have become more and more relied upon to deliver business continuity.

As we approach a new era of expectations from Procurement and Finance, change management and talent management will become key tools in their next-generation survival kit, and the key to unlocking success in those areas will be agility — agility to change, re-imagine and innovate.

ReThink ‘20 — the annual flagship event from spend management specialist Proactis — has been designed specifically to help Procurement, Finance and IT senior professionals rethink their course to reach the maximum value they can for their organizations.

Over the course of three days from Nov. 10 to 12, ReThink ‘20 will bring together spend management professionals in a virtual event to share knowledge, best practice, their achievements, shortfalls and learnings in honest and open discussions to really help the professions align.

Passionate, personal speaker sessions to push the boundaries of what’s possible

Kick-starting what we believe will be a truly informative set of discussions is a personal and passionate keynote from Helen Sharman CMG, OBE — the first British astronaut in space — who will share her stories about pushing one’s boundaries to achieve success.

Her talk is designed to stimulate thoughts on new approaches to achieving change — a concept that marries well with the event’s desired outcomes. The sessions that follow have been specifically planned to complement the experiences and learnings from this keynote.

One of those sessions will be led by our own Jenny Draper, our general manager of Spend Matters UK/Europe, who will discuss why you need to make a business case for procurement technology in your organization. Jenny will explore the opportunity that digital transformation offers procurement, while assessing digital readiness and discussing the importance of finding the right-fit for technology. She will provide guidance for making the case for investment within your business.

We are also very much looking forward to hearing from Claire Smart, Procurement Director of the National Trust — a heritage conservation organization in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. She will share her experiences working with the National Trust’s challenging, but hugely successful, journey of integrating a new ERP system, mastering 24,000 suppliers, meeting the challenges of GDPR and Brexit.

Then looking more into the future, Chris Argent, Managing Director, Generation CFO — a digital finance organization — will be looking at how finance must build closer relationships with procurement and lead the charge to future-proof the organization. Argent will talk about the evolving role of Finance leaders and digital finance functions, while providing insight into the three most common change and talent management challenges, among other key points.

These are just a sample of the many different sessions taking place. All speaking sessions will provide new ways of thinking about procurement and finance to drive value and agility for organizations. By using a different lens on the topic of procurement and finance, attendees will find value in all the discussions taking place.

This is but a snapshot of the many thought-provoking and first-hand experiences that will be shared over the period of the event — find out more from the agenda.

A virtual event with an in-person feel

While the whole event will take place virtually, Proactis will aim to provide a near-physical experience. In essence, the event platform provides flexibility so that attendees can go where they want to ensure they find value in attending this free event.

Unlike other more traditional web platform options, this platform offers attendees the ability to enter “lobbies,” as you normally expect from a real event, containing chat rooms to network, ask questions and share knowledge. You will also encounter an exhibition hall where you can interact with various Proactis partners, whose stands will furnish you with more resources and information about their various offerings and products.

Proactis will also have two stands. One will allow attendees to learn more about what Proactis does as a company, while the other will include information for attendees to learn about Proactis’ training and consulting offerings. During the event, Proactis employees will be manning both stands to answer questions, and visitors will have access to many different resources providing even more knowledge to read or watch.

The ReThink ‘20 event is geared toward stimulating debate, sharing ideas and knowledge, providing best practice, uncovering new ideas, and getting discussions started on how to rethink procurement and finance.

We hope to ‘see’ many of our readers there.

For event registration details and more info, visit the ReThink ’20 webpage.