Students participate in APICS conference

11/05/2014 4:44 PM

In October, two Bradley University industrial engineering majors participated in the APICS annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Conner Garrison ’16, of Dunlap, and Chris Spadafora ’16, of Aurora, were two of 49 college students who joined supply chain professionals for the event.

APICS, the Association for Operations Management (formerly known as the American Production and Inventory Control Society), is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations management.

As student scholars at the mid-October event, Garrison and Spadafora were exposed to a range of professional development experiences. They volunteered for an urban farm in downtown New Orleans and attended lectures given by supply chain experts at Fortune 500 companies like Caterpillar, Nike, Coca-Cola and John Deere.

One of the speakers, author Mike Walsh, left attendees with questions like “What will drive the customer in the future?” and “How will companies upgrade their own innovation?”

Students also toured the city and networked with the 2,300 event participants.