A Quarter Century of Excellent Procurement Events by Peter Smith, former editor of Spend Matters

The full reflection from Peter Smith is included here as provided, offering a personal perspective on the evolution, value and culture of PSI over the past 25 years. 

I’m not sure when I first attended eWorld Procurement and Supply, as it was then. It must have been one of the first events, probably in the early noughties when I had just moved into consultancy and was working out which events had interesting subject matter and were good for networking.  I was also then heavily involved with CIPS, so I think I probably got a speaking invitation around then too. Over the years since then, I have attended the vast majority of the events (now Procurement Strategies & Innovation), speaking at quite a few of them too.  

As a procurement professional, maybe the first positive to mention is value for money, in that the events have always been free for delegates. That is very unusual, and makes the events much more vibrant, inclusive and democratic than pretty much any other procurement event around.  

Many other procurement conferences are full of self-important CPOs and similar elevated beings, many of them looking bored most of the time or just burnishing their own cvs. But eWorld always has a real mix, from excited junior buyers (public and private sector) attending their first ever event, to experienced procurement technology experts and curious functional leaders who know they will learn something and meet many of the major suppliers in ProcTech and related markets at the event. Indeed, I advised many suppliers over the years that it was a good event to support. 

But the ‘free’ aspect never meant that quality was compromised. There have been excellent keynote speakers over the years, and a huge range of other talks, workshops, case studies and demos – a good mix of practitioners, other experts and service providers. There are always interesting and useful ideas to stimulate delegates, usually practical and grounded too, rather than highly theoretical.  

However, choosing the right option when multiple sessions run in parallel can be a bit of a lottery – FOMO does kick in at times! There was also the famous incident when free bacon sandwiches were temporarily withdrawn, a mistake rapidly rectified after major delegate protest…   

Finally, I’ve always found the team running the event a friendly and highly capable bunch too. Congratulations on reaching 25 years. You have provided an excellent resource to our profession for a quarter of a century now; long may it and you continue to prosper.