Today at #ISMWorld2025: Volunteers Are Most Worthy of Cheers

Institute for Supply Management^® (ISM^®) CEO Thomas W. Derry expresses appreciation for the volunteers at ISM World 2025 Annual Conference. (Yannick Apers Photography)

Every year, one of the last events at Institute for Supply Management^®’s Annual Conference is the Volunteer Toast, where CEO Thomas W. Derry and staff raise glasses to honor people no ISM^® event can happen without.

In 2025, such kudos are especially well-earned. Economic uncertainties and diminished travel budgets at many companies and impacted attendance — and volunteer availability — at many business conventions and events, and ISM World 2025 was not immune. Still, the roster of 35 volunteers helped the proceedings at Rosen Shingle Creek resort in Orlando, Florida, go off without a hitch.

“We had a couple of (regulars) who couldn’t show this year, unfortunately,” says volunteer Traci Nichols, an Orlando-based procurement transformation lead at Dropbox, the cloud storage and software company. “But for me personally, I thought the shift schedules worked out great. I feel like I had more free time this year than at last year’s Conference.”

While ISM member volunteers — many of them supply management practitioners themselves — must often forgo opportunities to attend sessions and other Conference events to serve, their learning and networking opportunities during the event are hardly hamstrung. In fact, it’s the opposite, says Nichols, President of the ISM—Central Florida chapter.

Helping Conference attendees, session presenters and others has provided tailor-made networking for Nichols, who has made ample use of the Klik smartbadge technology available for the first time at an ISM Annual Conference. “I’ve probably been the first click connection for a lot of people here,” she says, chuckling.

Her advice for those interested in volunteering: “Sign up,” Nichols says. “It’s a great opportunity not only for networking, but also for learning. And the connections you make stay that way from year to year.”

For more information, visit ismworld.org/for-individuals/volunteer.

Longtime Face of Manufacturing PMI^® Honored

Timothy R. Fiore, CPSM, C.P.M., the recently retired Chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, was honored at the Conference in a four-minute video during the ISM Awards Gala on Monday night.

For nearly eight years, Fiore was the face of the Manufacturing ISM^® Report On Business^®, helping raise its profile through monthly interviews with such news outlets as CNBC, Bloomberg TV and The Wall Street Journal.

“It’s been a great run,” Fiore said on a recent LinkedIn Live broadcast. “This PMI^® is a great tool and a great document. … It’s been a pleasure to try to provide the best analysis we can and provide clarity on what’s happening. Sometimes, we were more accurate than others, but trying to predict the future is not easy, especially when it’s multidimensional.”

However, Fiore’s services to ISM and the supply management profession extended well beyond the PMI^®. His body of work was exemplified by his winning the J. Shipman Gold Medal Award, presented by ISM for career achievement, in 2016.

Fiore’s tenure as Committee Chair was “a crowning achievement for a Shipman medalist to have done this work,” ISM CEO Thomas W. Derry said in the video. “We’re really appreciative of everything he’s done.”

Social Media Standouts

On the last day of an ISM Annual Conference, Inside Supply Management^® traditionally turns over part of its coverage to the attendees, session presenters and exhibitors by highlighting some of the best social media posts.

Accounts were active in Orlando, and posts detailed the #ISMWorld2025 experiences and insights. Also, the smiles and genuine sense of community among attendees are always among the best things about an ISM event.

☀️Day two of #ISMWorld2025 in Orlando, and booth 61P has been buzzing! 🐝The Resilinc team has been thrilled by the overwhelming interest in our AI agents. Come see what the excitement is all about: https://t.co/0W2tTWoH6R pic.twitter.com/LZc6t7jnFV

— Resilinc (@Resilinc) June 2, 2025

The above social media efforts, and others, were appreciated:

Extra Points

• Wayne State University in Detroit won the ISM International Student Case Competition. Rutgers University, last year’s winner, placed second, Maastricht University in the Netherlands was third and the University of Michigan fourth. “It really was a final four,” Derry said, “from a multi-round, highly competitive field of 20 teams from around the globe. … All of you represent the future of this profession, and it was energizing to see.”
• The ISM World 2026 Conference will be held in Denver, April 26-28 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Derry announced during the Closing General Session. The 2021 Conference was originally scheduled for Denver but went all-virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic.