Interorganisational – Supply Chain Management

Back to conferences and hot topics in supply chain management. As Árni discussed, conferences usually follow a catchy theme promising wealth and fortune, following a hot topic. But somehow they don’t seem to employ the ideas of hot topics they discuss…

One of these ideas relates to virtual supply chains. It is funny how attached we are to actually travel to a conference instead of applying the concept of virtual organisations (and “napsterised” supply chains) also here. What is a conference anyway if not a bunch of people meeting, discussing ideas, presenting papers etc.? Why aren’t we meeting in the virtual world? We could as well all join in on a virtual platform, or even meet in “second life“, i.e. not just build a virtual supply chain, but also a virtual SCM conference.

It would also be more sustainable – touching on another hot topic in SCM. But even if we insist on travelling to a conference (and we do, it’s fun, we meet our friends from all over the world, get to know like-minded people being puzzled by the same problems we face…), shouldn’t we start living up to what we preach and discuss our modal choices and set off our transportation emissions? Major TPL providers already have solutions that calculate the emissions of each transportation leg. And carbon exchanges offer the possibility to pay for projects that set off the emissions we generate by flying somewhere in order to make our travels carbon-neutral in terms of the Kyoto protocol.

Starting to feel guilty? What about including carbon offset in our conference fees? So… which SCM conference wants to be the trendsetter here?

Gyöngyi