Inside Supply Management Magazine

#ISM2019: Texas-Sized Twitter

April 09, 2019

In a city synonymous with space exploration, ISM2019 Annual Conference attendees in Houston had no problem compiling enough succinct and clever tweets to reach the stratosphere. Many Conference-goers arrived late on Sunday night on delayed flights due to storms in the Houston area, but that didn't set back their social-media proficiency or savviness.

The #ISM2019 and #WeAreISM hashtags have gotten liberal use, and while there are enough terrific tweets to fill a week's worth of blog entries, we'll stick to our favorites and continue to encourage attendees to keep posting about their favorite experiences and learnings. We'll compile and present more tweets on Wednesday, as the Conference comes to a close.

Tuesday, the second full day of ISM2019 activity at the George R. Brown Convention Center, featured heavy hitters from the worlds of supply management and economics. The guest of honor was Tom Linton, the 2019 winner of the J. Shipman Gold Medal Award. Linton, chief procurement and supply chain officer at Flex, a San Jose, California-based supply chain solutions provider, is the 88th recipient of the supply management profession's biggest prize.

The day's keynote speaker was Dr. Janet Yellen, chair, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System (2014-18), who told attendees that she sees "a decent year" for the U.S. economy. "I would be very happy with the outlook if I were in my old job," Yellen said.

Yellen's insights for women who aspire to be business leaders aligned with a focus at this year's Conference. Similarly inspiring messages could be heard from Monday's keynote speaker, Carly Fiorina, former chairman and CEO of the Hewlett-Packard Company, and during Tuesday's Women in Procurement breakfast.

While the J. Shipman Gold Medal Award recognizes a lifetime of supply management service, the R. Gene Richter Scholarship Awards and ISM 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars honor the future of the profession. Both groups have been honored in Houston.

The Signature Sessions and breakout sessions are divided into six tracks: Challenges, Corporate Social Responsibility, Digital Transformation, How-To, People and Sourcing for Value. Many of the presentations that received Twitter buzz have been future-focused.

The Exhibit Hall is a centerpiece of an ISM Annual Conference, and we'll check the best tweets from there on Wednesday. However, it evidently doesn't take much for a, uh, rivalry to form between neighboring booths.

And finally, Houston has been a great place to be a sports fan in recent years, and it offered no shortage of extracurricular activities for ISM2019 attendees.