DPW Amsterdam is back. And it’s better than ever.
One of the world’s largest and most influential tech events in the procurement and supply chain space returns on October 9th and 10th, with expectations for its biggest conference yet.
As a first for this year, DPW Amsterdam will offer tech safaris which are guided group tours operating throughout the expo halls. Given the 25,000 ft² of exhibition space at the historic Beurs van Berlage, it can often be challenging to navigate in the buzz of the event. Tech safaris offer an immersive, curated tour through the expo hall for up to 15 people, spotlighting cutting-edge innovations and key industry trends. Tailored to specific themes, these guided experiences provide focused insights into the latest technologies. Attendees gain dual perspectives from solution providers and corporate customers, showing how these innovations solve real-world challenges.
According to CEO Herman Knevel, customers were the key driver in bringing this idea to life. “Right before I joined as CEO, Matthias and I went to San Francisco and the Valley and also visited New York,” he tells us. “Being able to listen to different customers and founders was key and meant we could listen, learn and then implement that innovation.”
10X thinking
Since founder Matthias Gutzmann launched DPW in 2019, the conference has grown from strength to strength. In its October 2023 edition, DPW welcomed 1,250 procurement professionals with more than 2,500 virtual attendees watching along at home. This year, DPW’s topic focus is 10X which emphasises the importance of organisations thinking and acting 10x bigger than their current capacity. It is a moonshot mindset that encourages transformative leaps instead of incremental advances. In procurement and supply chain, 10X thinking essentially means fostering a progressive diverse culture where calculated risks are embraced, reimagining and rewiring traditional processes, moving from legacy tech to disruptive technologies, and leveraging AI and automations that deliver tenfold improvements in efficiency, cost savings, and supplier relationships.
Gutzmann founded DPW based on a gap he saw in the industry. The entire reason he launched the organisation was because he identified a need for events focused on digital transformation in procurement, particularly recognising startups at the forefront of innovation. DPW focuses on getting the best speakers to tackle procurement’s most critical issues and priorities. “A lot of what’s out there for procurement events, it’s the same old, same old,” explains Gutzmann. “It’s the same old speakers, the same old topics. We bring new topics into the community, focusing on technology first. It makes sense to prioritise innovation.”
DPW’s draw
One of the biggest draws of attending DPW is undoubtedly the high profile speakers it attracts. This year, the likes of Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, Jennifer Moceri, Chief Procurement Officer at Google and Sudhir Bhojwani, Co-Founder and CEO at ORO Labs, among a host of other visionaries and pioneers will take to the stage to deliver keynotes. However, DPW doesn’t just limit its speakers to procurement executives, it brings in experts from various fields. Last year, former Formula One team boss at Haas Guenther Steiner was interviewed on stage about how to overcome challenges and the importance of teamwork to reach ambitious goals. Knevel values the importance great speakers have to DPW but stresses that leaders such as Steiner are welcomed with open arms too.
“We want to bring in more CEOs for a different perspective with the right leadership experience,” he explains. “We had Guenther who provided an interesting perspective from a different industry. This year, we’re bringing in the former CEO at Unilever Paul Polman. We’re always seeking fresh speakers, and they don’t need to be CPOs.”
What does the future of DPW hold?
Every year, DPW provides a different theme. Knevel reveals the process of deciding a conference’s premise is relatively straightforward and draws parallels to last year’s offering ‘Make Tech Work’. “If you look at ‘Make Tech Work’, that was a really good theme last year and that resonated well with many who came to DPW, not only in Amsterdam but also online on our live stream,” he explains. “But also, what we learned from the market, and especially from the side of the startups and scale-ups, is that the technology is there and ready to solve the problem. Making tech work was an obvious thing last year, as the adoption rate is still fairly low and a pain point in the industry. The 10X mindset is something we think we should need in the industry to accelerate the base of innovation and to increase the speed of value for many.”
DPW Amsterdam 2024 follows the organisation’s first entry into North America after the success of its one-day event in New York City in June. The meet was on a smaller scale than its sister Amsterdam conferences, however, more than 130 procurement practitioners still attended for a day of learning, discussion groups and networking. “If you do well in Europe, the next big market is North America,” Gutzmann states. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Where do we go?’ As a launch event, you want to get access to the CPOs, the top leaders in procurement. New York has the highest density of CPOs in the US. It’s really low-hanging fruit to launch DPW here.”
DPW Amsterdam 2024
But with New York City’s inaugural event completed, all eyes are now firmly back on Amsterdam. For Gutzmann, Knevel and co, they have no interest in slowing down. And if the past few years are anything to go by, DPW Amsterdam 2024 is set to pack a punch 10X harder than usual.
