Horizon 2013 was held Oct 27 – 29, 2013 at The Westin Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. The event offered sessions from 34 speakers that included analysts from Gartner, The Hackett Group, Forrester Research Inc., Spend Matters, CPO Rising, Sourcing Interest Group (SIG) as well as leading procurement practitioners from various Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola Refreshments, Inc., Rockwell Automation, Celgene Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), etc. Horizon 2013 was attended by around 200 attendees that included Senior Procurement Executives from Weatherford International, Saudi Aramco, United Services Automobile Association (USAA), Visa Inc., Carlson Companies etc. The event provided an excellent opportunity to network, share and learn from some of the best minds in the procurement space.

Some of the key highlights at this year’s Horizon were;

• The Thought Leader Symposium – an exclusive event for senior procurement personnel that was hosted by Dawn Evans, CEO-Sourcing Interests Group (SIG), The symposium entitled ‘What Keeps CPOs Awake at Night’ covered topics ranging from talent management, risk management, supplier relationship management  In what was a free-flowing interactive session,  trends, observations, real world experiences & implementable solutions were discussed.” We are always transforming ourselves year by year.  So I personally had a great experience particularly in the CPO breakout session. Some of the tools that were discussed this morning were also very helpful and go hand in hand with some of the directions that I am thinking of having us go next year with our data.” – Stacy Cody, Director of IT & Telecom Services & Data Strategy, The Washington Post Company.
• Zycus Procurement Excellence Awards were presented for the following categories:

1. Bullish Enterprise Impact Award of the Year for the team that achieved improved processes, achieving KPIs and enterprise impact through the implementation of Zycus’ solutions and services. The award went to Celgene Corporation
2. The Ace Organization Adoption Award for the best organization-wide adoption of Zycus’ solutions through improved processes and user KPIs. The award went to Cubist Pharmaceuticals & Cargill Inc.
3. High Performing Procurement Leader for the individual who demonstrated leadership and excellence and contributed to the success of the entire organization by adopting best practices. The winner was Alex Brown, CPO, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
4. Rising Procurement Hero Award for the first year customer who has leveraged Zycus’ technology and expects to generate and sustain value over time by implementing Zycus’ products for procurement. The award went to Coca-Cola Refreshments USA, Inc.
5. The Strategic Partnership Award for Procurement Excellence for an organization that developed a strategic partnership with Zycus and strongly integrated Zycus solutions into achieving their procurement goals. The award went to Rockwell Automation.

• Launch of Zycus One View by founder & CEO Aatish Dedhia which provides truly integrated cross-suite analytics that span all the modular components of the Zycus solution set.

On the relaxation side, attendees had a great time unwinding from their normal routine with some Texas-style entertainment at the popular ‘Enchanted Springs Ranch’ where the key attraction of the evening was the legendary NFL quarterback Archie Manning, who also delivered the Keynote address on the final day of the event.

“Great, the Horizon experience has been really really great because you brought in a lot of speakers who talked a lot about different best practice topics, as well as how to effectively implement your solution to some of those topics..I thought that was great for everyone who attended.” – Bill Michel, Senior Vice-President, Institute for Supply Management and President of ADR North America and ADR China

Stay tuned to receive further update on the event as we delve into the entire Horizon 2013 experience.