Instead of our Conference which was planned for the 5th November, we are running a series of Webinars during November.

The Webinars, each up to 90 minutes,will start at 13:00 (UK time).    The dates are:-

 - Thursday 5th November 13:00

 - Wednesday 11th November 13:00

 - Wednesday 18th November 13:00

 - Wednesday 25th November 13:00 (to be confirmed)

We are putting together an agenda which will both address some of the challenges members are facing with COVID-19 as well as presentations focussed on Revenue Management and Pricing, which we hope will remind members that we do expect finally reach a point of 'new normality' in 2021.

Thursday 5th November 1 pm (UK Time) 

Klaus Kohlmayr - Chief Evangelist - IDeaS
“It’s a brave new world – commercial leadership in times of crisis”

Since we last met in November 2019 the world has gone through unprecedented and unexpected upheaval. With some scientists predicting the darkest hours yet to come over the next 3 months, the socio-economic implications are still unfolding. While what the future will look like is unknown, true leaders are preparing their companies now for what will undoubtedly be a torrent of consumer spending once humankind feels that safety and security is in sight. What value can the commercial leadership bring in these times and how do best in class leaders prepare their organizations for success?

John Harvey - Director, Revenue Science - Holland America Line - Carnival Corporation
Carnival Optimizes Revenue and Inventory Across Heterogeneous Cruise Line Brands
This is a reprise of their presentation as a finalist in the Franz Edelman Awards.
Starting in 2015, Carnival Corporation & plc business leaders, operations researchers, and software engineers came together from around the world to build YODA (Yield Optimization and Demand Analytics), partnering with Revenue Analytics. Prior to YODA, each of the Carnival brands was managing revenue and making decisions using its own tools and processes. Over four years, they built a system founded on advanced analytics to forecast demand, measure price sensitivity, and ultimately recommend pricing and inventory controls. These models generate millions of price recommendations a day to price 65 ships.

Wednesday 11th November 1 pm (UK Time) 

Saurabh Sharma - Global Product Lead - Competitive Intelligence and Pricing Analytics - eClerx
Chris Pople - Pricing Director - SIG UK
Maximizing utilization of competitive intelligence and pricing actions as part of response strategy for new normal.
Saurabh and Chris will be covering the key data, pricing, product & technology strategies which companies need to follow to optimize their response plan and will be overlaying these with examples from SIG & other B2B/MRO companies who have tackled the same issues in last 6 months.

Chris Pople – Pricing Director at SIG PLC

SIG PLC is the UK’s largest construction materials distributor. We are a FTSE 250 member with turnover of £800m with over 200 branches across the country. Chris have been in Pricing since 2010 with career starting as a Senior Pricing Analyst at RS Components, a global distributor of electronics, where he spent 6 years as the business transitioned from a catalogue distributor of product to one where 70% of sales are online. He followed this up working at Cromwell Tools as Head of Pricing, taking them on the pricing journey of a multi-channel distributor. He have been at SIG since Sep 2019. He live in Kibworth, south Leicestershire and have a passion for sport – he is a road cyclist, season-ticket holder at Leicester City and also play cricket!

Saurabh Sharma – Global Competitive Intelligence & Pricing Analytics Lead at eClerx Digital

eClerx Digital is the trusted partner of choice to the world’s largest global brands for creative production, eCommerce / web operations, and analytics & insights services. Saurabh has over 15 years of experience in leading operations delivery, product strategy and practice delivery to Fortune 500 organizations across Retail, Consumer Brands, Travel, Technology, Manufacturing, Distribution companies. He has designed and managed execution of solutions ranging from price position analysis, product assortment optimization, channel visibility monitoring, defining/implementing pricing strategies, price/ discount optimization, promotion effectiveness and forecasting.

Roland Seddon - MRK Associates
The Organisational Impact of COVID-19 on Revenue Management

• Revenue Managers have often been one of the first to go, with Sales and Marketing more likely to keep their jobs raising the question of whether there is sufficient understanding and value placed by General Managers on Revenue Management.
• What people’s expectations are now from employers and what benefits are they seeking? (e.g.flexi-working, remote working etc.)
• How is the market looking now, in terms of recruitment?
• Employers recruiting directly themselves – they face challenges receiving 400 applications coupled with the risk of potential damage to their employer brand if they don’t get it right
• There is a need to look after current staff
• More “private & confidential” recruitment in the market

The challenges this may bring for the future – people leaving the industry now, attracting people to the industry in the future, people unhappy in the current climate