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Register Now for the Spring 2026 Supply Chain Expert Exchange Conference
Join us in Chicago May 14 - 15, 2026 for the Supply Chain Expert Exchange Spring Conference.
AGENDA
Thursday, May 14, 2026
11:00 a.m. Registration Desk Open
11:00 a.m. Headshots Available
1:30 p.m. Conference Welcome & Kick Off
1:45 p.m. Breakthrough Leadership
Kelli Valade, CEO, Women’s Foodservice Forum
2:35 p.m. Curated Roundtables — Networking & Problem Solving
Some of the best thinking in this room happens in small groups. This curated networking and problem-solving session gives you the chance to engage directly with peers facing the same challenges, dig into the topics that matter most to your work, and walk away with ideas you can actually put to use.
MODERATORS: Rachel DeMers, Senior Director of Supply Chain, City Barbeque, LLC
Megan Posenato, Senior Director, Procurement, Shake Shack Enterprises
4:35 p.m. Day One Wrap-Up
4:40 p.m. Headshots Available
6:00 p.m. Reception & Dinner - Offshore Rooftop
Friday, May 15, 2026
7:30 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Opening Remarks
8:35 a.m. Keynote: Built for Turbulence - Leading Organizations That Strengthen Under Stress
The anxiety is understandable. Artificial Intelligence, Private Equity consolidation, tariff volatility, commodity swings — the disruptions hitting foodservice supply chain aren't arriving one at a time, and no single forecast covers all of it. But anxiety narrows focus, and narrow focus is the enemy of strategic thinking. Pascal Finette reframes the moment: staying the course is no longer a strategy. Drawing on nearly three decades at the forefront of technology and organizational change — including roles at eBay, Mozilla, and Google.org — he introduces a practical framework for spotting weak signals before they become disruptions, maps the state changes already reshaping the industry, and makes a data-backed case that building organizational muscle is what separates leaders who gain from disruption from those who are simply managed by it. You'll leave with a wider lens and a new way of reading what's coming.
Pascal Finette, Co-Founder & Chief Heretic, radical Author, Built for Turbulence (2026)
9:25 a.m. Hot Topics
9:55 a.m. Networking Break
10:15 a.m. Pork Outlook
Jeff Pigott, Vice President of Industry Relations for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC)
10:45 a.m. Beef & Poultry Outlook
Michael Irgang, President and Owner, Global Risk Management Corp.
11:15 a.m. A Conversation with Tim McEnery, Founder & CEO, Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurants - Growth, Culture and the Supply Chain Behind It
Tim McEnery, Founder & CEO, Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurants
MODERATOR: Dan Gould, Director of Procurement and Supply Chain, Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurants
12:05 p.m. Lunch
12:35 p.m. Where Food Starts: How John Deere Is Using AI to Transform What Happens Before the Harvest
Tim Marquis, Senior Product Manager for Data Science and Analytics at John Deere.
1:05 p.m. New Owners, New Rules: Private Equity, Consolidation, and the Supply Chain Reality - Panel Discussion
1:45 p.m. Regulatory Issues
2:15 p.m. Networking Break
2:35 p.m. TBA
3:05 p.m. AI at Work: What Amazon Is Doing in Foodservice That You Can Actually Use
The concept of Artificial Intelligence in supply chain is easy to talk about. Putting it to work is another matter. This session skips the theory and goes straight to application — real problems, real deployments, real results. Deborah Matteliano, Global Head of Restaurants at AWS, brings a practitioner's perspective shaped by deep experience in both technology and foodservice operations. She'll walk through how Artificial Intelligence is being used right now across the foodservice supply chain — from demand forecasting and inventory management to supplier visibility and logistics — and what it takes to move from curiosity to implementation inside your own organization. Whether your team is just starting to evaluate Artificial Intelligence or already running pilots, this session is designed to give you a clearer, more grounded picture of where the technology actually delivers.
Deborah M. Matteliano, MBA, Global Head of Restaurants, AWS
4:05 p.m. Closing Remarks