​BCSCI Events and Other Activities

Each year, the Boeing Center hosts conferences and seminars that address important topics and emerging trends in supply chain management research and practice.

Annual Industry Conference

Top supply chain executives and academic leaders share thoughtful presentations and participate in panel discussions on timely topics such as big data, globalization trends and operational innovation.

Consider attending BCSCI’s day-long supply chain and operations conference, giving you an opportunity to network with industry and academic peers. Hear what leading companies—like Anheuser-Busch InBev, Belden, Boeing, Emerson, Edward Jones and Monsanto—are thinking about and doing on the most recent trends and emerging issues. Knowledge sharing comes during unsugarcoated exchanges of frontline experience and best practices from the executives in the trenches.

Each annual conference is highly interactive, with speakers taking questions and comments from the audience. Focused on substance, this high-quality conference delivers solutions to timely challenges. Recent conference themes include “Supply Chain Management in the Big Data Era” and “Trends in the Global Economy Affecting the Supply Chain.”

This annual conference is free and open to center member companies, academics and practitioners. The theme this year will be "Supply Chain 4.0 • Technology & the Future of Global Supply Chain."

Project of the Year Symposium

This project competition and awards event features the top corporate mini-consulting projects executed during the academic year. Projects selected for the competition demonstrate a particularly high level of execution, which sets them apart. The students who make up the project teams present the projects and compete on multiple dimensions of performance for three different awards. The teams compete for a share of the award pool and induction into the Boeing Center Projects Hall of Fame.

Each team has 15 minutes in front of a panel of judges made up of BCSCI advisory board members to present their project. The award for overall performance across all relevant dimensions is deemed the "Best Project of the Year." A second award is given to the team that demonstrates the greatest immediate business impact, an important distinction for any corporate project. A third award is given to the team that delivers the best presentation, as excellent communication is a key aspect of all projects.

Annual Research Conference

The aim of the Supply Chain Finance and Risk Management Conference, which is attended by prominent academic researchers from top business schools from around the world, is to stimulate interactions and knowledge sharing at the interface of operations, finance and supply chain risk management. The topic of supply chain finance and risk management has become extremely important to global corporations that deal with working capital management issues and their impact on operational decisions in complex global supply chains, especially in environments of volatile demand and price uncertainties. The researchers view the conference as an opportunity to receive feedback on their work, and to discuss current initiatives they are pursuing at various stages of completion.

The conference features presentations based on current research trends, including financing inventories in supply chains; financing innovations such as crowd funding, trade credit and reverse factoring practices; applications of real options in managing flexibility within global supply chains; supply chain contracting considerations; and hedging of cash flow volatility due to commodity price fluctuations. Each presentation is followed by a discussion and comments from the attendees, as well as a panel discussion on emerging themes and directions of the field.

Operational Excellence Seminars

Listen to supply chain leaders’ personal accounts of their companies' problems, challenges and success stories. Speakers focus on how their organizations achieve operational excellence, outlining management best practices on not just success stories, but how to get there.

The casual format of each evening seminar allows time to network before sharing an honest exchange of insights and engaging in conversations with other participants. Hosted multiple times a year, these seminars are free and open to business executives, supply chain decision-makers and the general public. Recent speakers include John Stroup, President and CEO of Belden Inc., and Phil Hansen, Head of Production Planning, Biologics at MilliporeSigma.

Research Seminars

Leading operations and supply chain researchers share their latest project ideas and “fresh from the press“ insights.

BCSCI’s research seminars and conferences create a unique area of excellence. Olin’s seminar lineup features speakers from institutions like MIT, INSEAD, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Duke and UCLA. St. Louis is becoming a regional hub for thought leadership and research in supply chain management and operations, in part due to the caliber of these events.

Participate in our rich supply chain and operations community by hearing from the best minds on the latest research during these free 90-minute lectures. Both academics and BCSCI member companies are invited to gain a preview of research in process.

Research is a community. Breakthroughs don’t come from a single academic; they come from the collaborative efforts of a network of professionals to address challenges and to solve problems. BCSCI is creating this at Olin.

Meir J. Rosenblatt Memorial Lecture

Leading academic thinkers give a broad audience presentation on concepts, trends and theories for improved operational excellence practices.

The annual Meir J. Rosenblatt Memorial Lecture brings the “rock stars” of supply chain and operations to the Danforth Campus every spring. Each lecture gives prominent thinkers and practitioners alike the opportunity to hear an expert in the field highlight emerging trends.

This lecture series was established in 2003 to honor the memory of Meir J. Rosenblatt, who taught from 1987 to 2001 at Olin Business School as the Myron Northrop Distinguished Professor of Operations and Manufacturing Management. A leader among faculty, Rosenblatt often won the Teacher of the Year award at Olin and authored the book Five Times and Still Kicking: A Life with Cancer, having battled cancer multiple times throughout his life. Recent Rosenblatt lecturers have included experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford, University of Pennsylvania and the University of California—Los Angeles.