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#CountDown: 3 Days to #TNYSCM04 – Supply Chain & Artificial Intelligence

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A cross-section of the audience at #TNYSCM #02, January 2018.

We’re now less than a week from The New York Supply Chain Meetup’s fourth gathering. The purpose of this post is to outline our plans for that event, and preview what we expect to do between now and June 2018 . . . We’re still in the early days of building this community, so much of this is subject to change, especially as we go through the process of recruiting sponsors.

Our Mission

To nurture and grow the world’s foremost open, global, multidisciplinary community of people devoted to building the supply chain networks of the future – starting in NYC.

Become a coporate sponsor. Email me at: brian@tnyscm.com for more details about our vision, and the team that’s working behind the scenes to build this community.

The New York Supply Chain Meetup is powered by Particle Ventures, a seed-stage fund based in NYC that invests in Supply Chain & Industrial Intelligence. Particle is built by the same team that launched KEC Ventures.

Logistical Details: #TNYSCM #04

  • Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018.
  • Time: 17:30–20:30
  • Location: SAP America, 10 Hudson Yards - 48th Floor, New York, NY. An organizer will be downstairs, at the security counter.

#TNYSCM #04 combines a Lightning Talk, a "Fire-Side" Chat, and a Showcase. It is sponsored by SAP.iO and co-hosted by The New York Supply Chain Meetup and the New York City Bots and Artificial Intelligence Meetup.

SAP.iO helps innovators inside and outside of SAP build products, find customers, and change industries.

REGISTER HERE!

Agenda

5:30 PM - 5:55 PM: Pre-event Networking
5:55 PM - 6:00 PM: Welcome Remarks (#TNYSCM, NYCBAI, SAP.iO)
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM: Lightning Talk (15 Minutes), Q&A (15 Minutes)
6:30 PM - 6:50 PM: "Fire-Side" Chat (15 Minutes), Q&A (15 Minutes)
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Showcase (10 Minutes, with 5 Minutes of Q&A, each)
8:00 PM - 8:30 PM: Closing Remarks, Post-event Networking

Lightning Talk: Evolution & Use Cases of Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain, From An Industry And SAP Point of View

David Judge (@DHJudge) is Vice President of Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning products at SAP. He guides product strategy and drives increased market awareness for SAP Leonardo.

Geoff Maxwell (@geofflm) is Global Head of Business Strategy and Execution Analytics and SAP Leonardo. He is responsible for go to market strategy for SAP’s portfolio of Leonardo solutions.

Fireside Chat: The Future of AI-Driven Transformation in Retail Supply Chains, and in Government Agencies.

José P. Chan is VP Business Development for Celect, a predictive analytics firm founded out of MIT, which helps retailers optimize their inventory portfolios in stores and across the supply chain. Previously, he worked internationally in retail for over two decades with LVMH, Richemont and Roberto Cavalli. José has held senior management positions and has extensive experience in buying, marketing, merchandising, planning, and has run retail store networks. He holds an SM from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MBA from University of Rochester, a BS from Cornell University and an AAS from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Sameer Anand is a Partner with A.T. Kearney’s operations practice with over 16 years of experience in management consulting. He advises clients on large scale transformations to drive step changes in productivity with an underpinning of analytics and digital across CPG, retail, industrial products, and high tech industries. His areas of expertise include consumer products, manufacturing, supply chain planning, sourcing, bracket pricing, logistics, and advanced analytics. Prior to joining A.T. Kearney, Sameer worked at Deloitte and American Airlines.

REGISTER HERE!

Showcase Presentations

At #TNYSCM #04 we'll have 3 startups talk about the artificial intelligence-driven products they are building for the supply chain logistics industry. They will appear in the following order;

ClearMetal (@ClearMetalInc): Founded in 2014, and based in San Francisco, CA, ClearMetal provides predictive data and analytics for the supply chain logistics industry, enabling its customers to unlock increased efficiencies in global trade as ClearMetal enables them to solve complex problems using a data-driven approach. According to CrunchBase and CBInsights ClearMetal has raised $12M over two rounds of financing, most recently raising $9.0M in its Series A financing which was led by Innovation Endeavors. SAP.iO is an investor in ClearMetal.

Wise Systems (@goWiseSystems): Founded in 2014, and based in Cambridge, MA,  Wise Systems develops route-optimization software that schedules last-mile delivery truck drivers while considering multiple constraints like customer time windows, traffic, and service time. Wise automatically dispatches schedules to drivers and the software recalculates and updates schedules in real-time as things change in real-time. According to CrunchBase and CBInsights, Wise Systems has raised $1.1M in seed capital. Dynamo Accelerator is an investor in Wise Systems. Santosh Sankar, a co-organizer of The New York Supply Chain Meetup, is also a co-founder & director of Dynamo.

Optimal Dynamics: Based in Princeton, NJ, Optimal Dynamics brings AI to the trucking industry based on over 30 years of academic research and development centered on the use of Computational Stochastic Optimization and Learning in solving problems related to dynamic assignment problems in transportation and logistics. Optimal Dynamics recently raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding.

REGISTER HERE!

Preview — #TNYSCM  in April, May, June

Here is what our team of organizers is working on, between now and June.

  • April 26: A panel discussion and keynote presentation, focused on the issues that have kept blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies in the lab and out of the real world. The keynote presentation is by Silvio Micali, he will talk about his work creating Algorand. THIS IS GOING TO BE BIG!
  • May 24: A showcase of startups in Fashion, Apparel, and Retail supply chain. THIS IS GOING TO BE BIG!
  • June 21: A Sourcing 101 workshop for startups building physical products.

Other "Upcoming" Supply Chain Events

  • TPM2018: Is now behind us. It was awesome. Read my blog post about it here: #TPM2018: The Woodstock Of International Container Shipping & Logistics
  • Maritime Global Technologies: Reverse Pitch on March 15, 2018 from 09:30–12:30. MGTIC is an initiative of SUNY Maritime College to build a global maritime technology innovation hub by bringing together all that the New York City metro-region has to offer entrepreneurs building software for the global shipping and maritime logistics market. I’m a member of the advisory board and have previously blogged about it here and here. I will be there. Say hello, if we've never met before
  • Transparency18: This is the flagship event series started by the founders of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance. It follows BiTA’s Spring Symposium, a members only event that occurs on May 21, 2018. I will attend both days of Transparency 18 May 22 and May 23.

Update #01 | Towards A MaritimeTech Innovation Hub in New York City

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Maritime Global Technologies Innovation Center (MGTIC) to be hosted at SUNY Maritime College. Image Credit: SUNY Maritime College.

Note: This post updates #UnderConstruction | Towards A MarineTech Innovation Hub in New York City.

The group that met on Friday, October 6, 2017 met again for a follow up on Friday, November 10, 2017. This blog is a summary of the discussion at took place at that meeting, and the resulting outcome.

The Bottomline: Dr. Christopher Clott, ABS Chair of Marine Transportation and Logistics at SUNY Maritime College and Dr. Richard Burke, ABS Professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering have announced the formation of the Maritime Global Technologies Innovation Center (MGTIC) to be hosted at SUNY Maritime College.

The people for whom this post will be most relevant are founders building software for the ocean freight shipping industry, for whom relevant resources are often sorely lacking. It will also be relevant for early-stage investors like me, who want to engage more fully with the shipping industry as we assess startups serving the maritime market.

Please note that the following descriptions are based on my interpretation of the conversations we’ve had over the course of the meetings in which I was a participant. I could be wrong. Ultimately, SUNY Maritime College and Drs. Clott and Burke will determine what will work best and I am happy to support them in bringing their vision to life.

What is the Maritime Global Technologies Innovation Center? Think of MGTIC as a hybrid between a startup incubator, a startup accelerator, and an early-stage venture fund. Obviously, these elements do not yet all exist today. The goal is to have each of these elements in place in the near future.

  • Startup ideas that originate from faculty, staff, and students of the SUNY system will be incubated at the center.
  • Startups whose founders have no ties to the SUNY system will benefit from the center’s ability to help them accelerate customer development as they search for a repeatable, profitable and scalable business model. I expect that such startups might also find employees from the SUNY Maritime College community.
  • As the center matures, we expect that it will establish a venture fund to complement its activities. Ideally, this fund will invest alongside other early stage investors in startups that have been incubated at MGTIC as well as in startups that have been accelerated at the center. Details on this will be hammered out later. For now, we think the center should replicate one of the following existing models; MIT’s The Engine, or the Iowa Global Insurance Accelerator, or Texas Capital Factory. Perhaps, MGTIC will take the best elements of each of those models and combine them into something wholly unique.

What will The Maritime Global Technologies Innovation Center do? SUNY Maritime College is an educational institution, so that characteristic forms the foundation on which MGTIC exists. That said, the global maritime industry confronts numerous headwinds such as; artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, increasing issues around regulatory compliance, offshore sources of renewable energy, safety, connected devices, cloud-computing, cybersecurity, and blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies present challenges the shipping industry must grapple with sooner or later. Maritime Global Innovation Center’s goal is to lead the effort towards turning these perceived challenges into profitable opportunities for incumbent players in the industry AND for technology startups developing innovations that the industry can adopt. As an early-stage investor who has been studying startups building software for the maritime market, I can’t express how excited I am to be able to collaborate with an entity like MGTIC.

Nice! What’s Next? At our meeting on November 10, we agreed to plan a kick-off event on Thursday, March 15, 2018 at SUNY Maritime College. If maritime technology holds any interest for you, please save that date. We hope to convene a group that represents each of the stakeholder communities that MGTIC is being established to serve. It will coincide with the Connecticut Maritime Association’s Annual Conference and Exhibition. We’ll have more specific details about the kick-off later.

For more info:

  • You can email the crew at SUNY Maritime College that’s working directly on this via the MGTIC’s website – see link above.
  • If you’re an early stage VC interested in staying abreast of how things are progressing, you can reach me via email/Twitter/LinkedIn, and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about this – to the best of my ability. I’m also looking for angel investors and VCs with whom we can co-invest.
  • If you’re a startup founder who wants to hear what other founders think about this “thing” – Brian Wilson from Duro UAS, Fauad Shariff and Petere Miner from CoLoadX have attended both meetings so far and can give you their take about where they feel things are heading.

Other initiatives focused on maritime technology, or supply chain technology more broadly – Leonardo Zangrando of Startup Wharf has a more complete listing here;

Last, I’m gonna plug related work I have been doing with a team of 7 other supply chain enthusiasts in New York City; We launched The New York Supply Chain Meetup with a minimum viable launch on Thursday, November 16, 2017 at Work-Bench. We hope to do much more in 2018, and we hope you will decide to join us, after all “The world is a supply chain.” and as a result, there are things to discuss.

 

Progress Report | #TNYSCM Minimum Viable Launch – Building A Supply Chain Community

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Design by: Lisa Morales-Hellebo

The New York Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch November 16, 2017

On November 16, The New York Supply Chain Meetup reached an important milestone – we held our first event.

This blog post will trace how we got here, and share some pictures from our minimum viable launch. We hope you’ll join us in our bid to bring the global supply chain community together, starting with this small step in New York City.

This is the story of how we got here.

On August 23, I arrived at my desk at KEC Ventures and while drinking my cup of coffee, I thought to myself; “I really should go to the supply chain meetup in New York.” I have been thinking about value chains and supply chains since 2014. Evidence of that is documented below;

  1. Why Tech Startups Can Gain Competitive Advantage from Operations – August 2014
  2. Industry Study: Freight Trucking (#Startups) – November 2016
  3. Updates – Industry Study: Freight Trucking (#Startups) – December 2016
  4. Industry Study: Ocean Freight Shipping (#Startups) – February 2017
  5. Cargo Drones and Data Swarms: Experts Weigh In on Digital Transformation in Shipping & Maritime – March 2017
  6. Updates – Industry Study: Ocean Freight Shipping (#Startups) – June 2017
  7. White Paper | Towards A Supply Chain Operating System – August 2017
  8. #UnderConstruction | Why A Supply Chain Meetup in New York? – September 2017
  9. #UnderConstruction | Towards A MarineTech Innovation Hub in New York City – October 2017
  10. Update #01: White Paper | Towards A Supply Chain Operating System – October 2017

So, on August 23, I ran a query on Meetup.com for a supply chain meetup in NYC. I was surprised to see that there wasn’t one. Without thinking, I took out my credit card and registered The New York Supply Chain Meetup. After realizing what had just happened, I thought “Fuck! Now what?”

I figured I’d take my time and figure out what to do. I wrote a post on my Facebook page, about what I’d done. Thinking, there’s no rush . . . I can let this sit for a while.

Don’t Wait, Just Do it

The following morning I got a message from someone on LinkedIn . . . I am connected to more than 14,000 people on LinkedIn, so one of them sent me a message; Hi Brian! I saw your post in Mattermark Daily, looking forward to it. Great idea!

I panicked; “What? I did not send a submission to Mattermark yesterday. What is he talking about? I should go check.”

As I had started to fear, somehow my Facebook post had been flagged by Mattermark and they’d included it in the roundup of notable posts from venture capitalists.

So, what’s the problem? Well, Mattermark Daily goes out to 100,000 – 150,000 people daily – possibly more, I have not checked the numbers in a while. Basically . . . Tens of thousands of people had now been told that I was going to do this. I couldn’t turn around and say . . . “Ha ha ha . . . Nevermind, I was just kidding.”

So, I called Lisa Morales-Hellebo when I got home on August 24, and asked if she’d help me. I did that because she and I have been talking about supply chains in fashion and retail since May 2016. She knows more about the intersection of supply chain, technology, fashion, and retail than anyone else I know personally, and she’s been working on those issues since 1996. She agreed to become a co-organizer.

Also, on August 24, Brian Lindquist sent me a message through Meetup.com because my friend, Ed Sim, at BoldStart Ventures had told him to come chat with me. Brian has 10+ years of experience in operations / supply chain and spent the past 4 with A.T. Kearney in their Strategic Operations Practice leading COO-level engagements with various F1000 CPG companies. We chatted in person in early September and he too agreed to join me and to become a co-organizer.

Also, on August 24, Allie Felix from Work-Bench reached out to me. They’d seen the Facebook and she wanted to speak with me about how Work-Bench might help me get the meetup off the ground. Given what Work-Bench has accomplished in building The New York Enterprise Technology Meetup . . . I felt that was a good sign. I felt bad about my conversation with Allie a few days later, because I did not yet have any answers . . . I had no clue what was going to happen. But she was very patient and supportive, and told me that Work-bench would be happy to host us once we got going.

Not long after my meeting with Allie, Tina Kang, Daniel James, Paula Cadman-Mendoza, Santosh Sankar, and Joy Fan also agreed to join the team of organizers to try to bring The New York Supply Chain Meetup to life. We met later in September to create a plan and decided we’d have a kick-off on November 16. We then set to work.

Our goals;

  • To create a multidisciplinary community of practice around building 21st Century supply chains and value chains,
  •  To create a forum that brings together big corporations, small and midsize companies, and startup to enable them do business and partner with one-another,
  • To explore the latest research in the area of supply chain, and industrial transformation through digital technologies.

Building on the unique characteristics of New York City, #TNYSCM will become the world’s foremost multi-disciplinary community of practice for individuals and organisations committed to investigating and developing solutions for problems in global supply chain networks at startups, large corporations, academic institutions, and everything in between. A particular area of interest is the use of distributed ledger technologies, and other cutting edge technologies, as a foundation for innovation in supply chain networks.

#TNYSCM | The past ran on supply chains. The present runs on supply chains. The future will run on supply chains. The world is a supply chain.

Below, some stats on our progress so far, and pictures from our minimum viable launch on November 16, 2017 at Work-Bench.

Members: 350

RSVPs for November 16: 214

Attendance (Approx): 150, about 100 stayed till the very end.

Presentations: 7, one presenter could not make it at the last moment, due to an unexpected illness.

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Work-Bench was empty at first, though a few people showed up 30 minutes early, around 5:00 PM.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Before things got hectic – showing off a little bit with John, and Tina.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Esma’s enthusiasm for her new favorite shirt is a good sign. She’s a supply chain engineer.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | It’s time to show our work, and we are happy to do so – Daniel James and I show off for the camera. Daniel works at IHS Markit, and is one of the 8 people who worked to make this possible.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | John Azubuike mans the sign-in desk as Marc Held from Armada arrives. March came from Boston, MA. He was one of the presenters for the evening.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Lisa Morales-Hellebo is the first person I called after I realized there could be no turning back. That was on August 24, 2017.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Hyder is visiting from Dynamo in Chattanooga, TN. Dynamo invests in Logistics, Supply Chain, and Transportation. He seems suitably impressed so far.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Lisa Morales-Hellebo, Daniel James, and Tina Kang . . . all members of #TNYSCM leadership team, and all meeting for the first time.
In the background, Ryan Smith, founder of FTSY.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | NIcole Gibbons met Michelle and Kimberly at the sign-in desk and they got to talking about supply chain logistics . . . Michelle and Kimberly work at UPS.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | I manned the sign-in desk all evening, with intermittent help from the other organizers. I wanted to be able to say “Thank you for coming.” to every single person who came to the event.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | #TNYSCM “The world is a supply chain.”
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | This would not have been possible without the leadership team. From R – L; Lisa Morales-Hellebo, Tina Kang, Daniel James, Santosh Sankar, Paula Cadman-Mendoza, Brian Lindquist, Brian Laung Aoaeh, and John Azubuike – my teammate from KEC Ventures who gave us a hand for the launch. Joy Fan could not make it.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Lisa Morales-Hellebo, our MC for the night.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Allie Felix and the rest of the crew at Work-Bench believed in the idea of #TNYSCM even before I had a clear idea what it should be. I can’t thank them enough.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Veronika Harbick from Thursday Finest got the ball rolling for this showcase. Thursday Finest does custom and on-demand 3D knitting.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Fauad Shariff from CoLoadX talks about building the digital platform for ocean logistics – a massive undertaking in a massive market.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Marleen Vogelaar from Ziel talks about digital fabrication, and on-demand, environmentally responsible clothing manufacturing.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Rodney Manzo from Anvyl explains what Anvyl is doing to remove friction in supply chain so that anyone can make products.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Marc Held from Armada talks about bringing true global transparency to supply chain with intelligent visibility and predictive analytics.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Benita Singh from Le Souk talks about building a platform that enables designers to search, sample, and source quality materials direct from original suppliers.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Suuchi Ramesh from Suuchi, Inc. talks about building and scaling the apparel manufacturing supply chain of the future.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

 

The New York #SupplyChain Meetup #01 – The Minimum Viable Launch | Lisa, our MC for the night, wraps things up.
Photo Credit: Andrew Williams (@aswilliams73)

Some of the comments since the event;

Fauad Shariff, co-founder & ceo of CoLoadX says;

Once again, great job pulling together the meetup last night Brian & Lisa.  The turnout exceeded expectations, and I’m sure at least a few customer and biz dev relationships came out of it for us and some of the other companies. I also wound up connecting with some folks from the industry whom I hadn’t seen in a while, or only knew of from social media. Looking forward to more chances to get together with the community.

Esma Hamandi, a supply chain engineer who recently moved to NYC says;
I moved here to NYC recently and I didn’t know where or how to connect with people in the same professional field as me until you let it happen.

This would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors;

  • Work-Bench – believed in what this could become even before it was clear that there is a need for a community like this. They offered us use of their space for free.
  • CustomInk – Gave us a steep discount on t-shirts and hoodies. Use the discount code: TNYSCMCI for your own orders from their website. You’ll get 10% off for orders of 6 or more items.
  • UPS – is helping us cover the cost of food and refreshments.

We’re in the process of gathering data to help us plan for 2018. We should have a tentative plan before the end of 2017. We hope you’ll join us.

Update #1: Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 18:54 EST.

  • Minor edit – punctuation mark.
  • Add #TNYSCM Header image.

#CountDown: 8 Days to a Minimum Viable Launch

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Showing it off! Brian sporting a #TNYSCM t-shirt.

After a few years of thinking about startups building software for trucking and shipping, and more recently, distributed ledgers and supply chains, on August 23, I thought to myself “I really should attend the supply chain meetup in NY.”

I was surprised to discover that no such thing existed. So, without thinking, I took out my credit card and registered The New York Supply Chain Meetup on Meetup.com.

We’re now barely 8 days away from our minimum viable launch. I hope you decide to join us.

Blurb about #TNYSCM

The New York Supply Chain Meetup is a community of practice for people developing solutions to supply chain problems at startups, large corporations, academic institutions, and everything in between. The focus is primarily on the application of cutting-edge technologies to global supply chain innovation. Join us for our first event at Workbench on November 16, 2017. Our estimates suggest we’ll have at least 60 people present.

Retweet: https://twitter.com/brianlaungaoaeh/status/917212173893603328

#TNYSCM

“The past ran on supply chains. The present runs on supply chains. The future will run on supply chains. The world is a supply chain.”

Follow The New York Supply Chain on Twitter @tnyscm.

A version of this article was first published on LinkedIn, on November 8, 2017.

#UnderConstruction | Towards A MarineTech Innovation Hub in New York City

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SUNY Maritime’s 55-acre campus is near the Throgs Neck Bridge, where the East River meets the Long Island Sound.

On Friday, October 6, 2017, a small group of about 20 people got together at the American Bureau of Shipping in Manhattan, New York. The group was convened by Christopher Clott, Ph.D. He is the ABS Chair of Marine Transportation and Logistics in the Global Business & Transportation Department at SUNY – Maritime College. The group represented a healthy mix of perspectives – investors, community organizers, startup founders, academics, service providers, students, shipping industry professionals, regulators, etc. etc.

Chris convened the meeting to discuss a joint-initiative by SUNY Maritime and EEX Maritime to create a maritime technology center in New York City. This center will benefit from the central position that SUNY Maritime occupies in the global shipping industry, the network and knowhow that EEX Maritime is building as a connector between technology startups and the shipping industry, and the prominent role that New York City occupies in the global supply chain market.

About SUNY Maritime: SUNY Maritime College is one of six state maritime academies in the United States. Located 30 minutes from mid-town Manhattan, Maritime College educates dynamic leaders for the global maritime industry. 1Source: http://www.sunymaritime.edu/

About EEX Maritime: EEX Maritime is a joint-venture between MarineCycles and EEX. EEX Maritime helps startups gain access to the global shipping market through its hubs of activity in Helsinki, New York, and Singapore.

As one would expect with a meeting of this nature . . . We left with many more unanswered questions than we had at the outset.

Basically, the aim of this center will be 3 fold;

  1. To aggregate the knowledge that exists in New York City in the areas of supply chain and technology. The initial emphasis is on shipping given the coordinating role that SUNY Maritime, EEX Maritime, and the ABS are playing in getting things started.
  2. To foster the growth of technology startups building products for the global supply chain market, focusing especially at the outset on those building products for the shipping market, by enabling them to connect with potential early customers, and helping them obtain hard-to-access input from the industry.
  3. To foster investments in the startups described above through accelerator and incubator programs that utilize the resources that are uniquely available to participants in such programs because of SUNY Maritime’s history.

The immediate challenge is to get things going by doing small, easy to accomplish things that start an ascending spiral of positive feedback loops to help this initiative gain momentum. While we are doing that, we’ll work on trying to figure out answers to the bigger questions which will require more time to answer.

Here are a few of the questions we are currently thinking about;

  1. What is the best model to accomplish this?
  2. What funding sources are available for an initiative like this beyond the sources available through SUNY Maritime?
  3. Which startups, and which entrepreneurs might be interested in an initiative like this? What would such startups want to get out of an initiative like this? What can this group do for such startups right now, while these plans are being developed further?
  4. Where should such a center be physically located in order to give it the best chance of succeeding? How does its location affect how easily it can become an established part of the tech community in New York City?
  5. What priorities should an advisory council focus on over the next 3, 6, 9, and 12 months?

In keeping with my habit of biting off far more than I can chew, I have volunteered to join the advisory council, and to act as a liaison between the early-stage venture capital community and the team that will be doing the day-to-day work that is required to get this center off-the-ground. Ultimately, we believe the maritime center should focus on 3Cs; Connections, Customers, and Capital.

If you would like to help make this happen, or if you just want to stay in the know about progress on this initiative, you can email me at brian@kecventures.com. I am also very easy to find on Twitter and/or LinkedIn.

If it makes sense to do so, I will introduce you to Chris and his colleagues at SUNY Maritime who can discuss their plans and the things they need some help with more comprehensively. Otherwise, I will pass your contact information along so that you can be added to any mailing lists we set up for this purpose.

Lastly; I would be irresponsible if I did not include these plugs;

  1. The New York Supply Chain Meetup is a community of practice for people developing solutions to supply chain problems at startups, large corporations, academic institutions, and everything in between. The focus is primarily on the application of cutting-edge technologies to global supply chain innovation. Join us for our first event at Workbench on November 16, 2017. I am working with a few other volunteers to get it off the ground.
  2. My “unnecessarily long” blog posts on startups building software for the shipping industry;

Update #1: Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 00:48

  • Added “About SUNY Maritime” and “About EEX Maritime.

References   [ + ]

#UnderConstruction | Why A Supply Chain Meetup in New York?

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Image Credit: Tasha S. K. Aoaeh

The goal of this blog post is to explain why I believe strongly that New York Needs A Supply Chain Meetup. You can join The New York Supply Chain Meetup here.

By many estimates, supply chain inefficiencies impose significant overhead costs on corporations, and on the world as a whole. When one reads about the global systemic problems that people at the United Nations, The World Bank, The World Economic Forum, The G20, and other multinational bodies are thinking about and trying to solve, the theme of supply chain inefficiency cuts across all the problems. This is a big problem – I will try to outline the size of the problem in a separate post.

According to Martin Christopher a Supply Chain is;

A network of connected and interdependent organisations mutually and co-operatively working together to control, manage and improve the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end users.

– Martin Christopher, Logistics & Supply Chain Management: Creating Value-Adding Networks, 4th ed, Pearson Education Limited 2011, page 4.

As the definition above indicates, for supply chain networks to function effectively there must be an ongoing flow of goods, information, and funds in the form of money.

Human civilization has been built over time through this movement of goods, information, and funds. As I put it;

The past ran on supply chains. The present runs on supply chains. The future will run on supply chains. The world is a supply chain.

To move all the stuff people need everyday around the world, people in many different areas of expertise must work harmoniously together. Furthermore, technology platforms associated with these different professional disciplines must work to enable the flow of goods, information, and money. Here’s a small sample;

  • Purchasing and procurement,
  • Supply chain management,
  • Supply chain finance,
  • Trade finance,
  • Risk management,
  • Regulations and compliance,
  • Corporate banking,
  • Transactional banking,
  • Corporate treasury,
  • Insurance,
  • Customs and excise,
  • Payments,
  • Contract law,
  • Trade law,
  • Etc.

The technology developments of the 21st Century present us with an opportunity to make a significant dent in this problem. New York has a unique capacity to lead global efforts to solve this problem. Why?

  • In 2016 New York had total exports of $74,406,138,530, and
  • In 2016 New York had total imports of $130,179,226,114.
  • There are nearly 40,000 businesses in New York that sell products overseas, of which 94% are small and medium-size companies which accounted for 53% of the export volume.
  • New York’s top-ten export partners are Canada, Hong Kong, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Israel, Belgium, India, Mexico, China, and France.
  • New York’s top-ten import partners are China, Canada, India, Switzerland, Israel, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium. 1Data from: https://globaledge.msu.edu/states/new-york/tradestats. Accessed on Sep. 10, 2017.

To be able to support this volume of trade with the rest of the world, there must be a lot people in New York who directly or indirectly know a lot about the things that keep supply chains humming.

So, the goal of the meetup is to bring these people – experts and novices alike – together, on a regular basis to;

  • Promote entrepreneurs working on solving supply chain problems,
  • Hear how mature companies in different industries are solving their current supply chain problems and planning for the future,
  • Nurture collaboration between mature companies and startups to enable the implementation of promising supply chain platforms in the real world,
  • Explore what new technologies can do to hasten dramatic efficiency gains in global supply chain networks,
  • Promote academic research on topics related to increasing supply chain efficiency,
  • Engage public policy experts and regulators on issues related to supply chain . . . and other things I have not thought of yet.

It’s early days – the meetup is not yet even a month old, and has fewer than 70 members as of a few minutes ago. We have not yet had our first meetup. Fortunately, Lisa Morales-Hellebo, Brian Lidquist, and Paula Cadman-Mendoza have volunteered to assist with getting the meetup organized. Still, it will take a lot of effort. Fortunately, supply chains are not going anywhere and fixing the problems that make them inefficient will require a concerted team effort.

 

 

 

References   [ + ]

1. ↩ Data from: https://globaledge.msu.edu/states/new-york/tradestats. Accessed on Sep. 10, 2017.