The 2023 IRI Annual Conference was held in Philadelphia on May 22-25 and was attended by 188 individuals from 99 organizations. All keynote sessions were recorded. The keynote recordings, session slide decks, supplemental materials provided by speakers, and the Conference Executive Summary will be available on the IRI Learning Center by Friday, June 2 and a link will be added to the Annual Conference landing page. These will be available to all IRI members.
IRI Awards Dinner
IRI was honored to present the IRI Excellence Awards and IRI Innovation Leadership Award to five member organizations at the May 24 Awards Dinner:
Dr. Alexa Dembek was presented with the IRI Innovation Leadership Award
The five IRI Excellence Awards were presented to the following organizations:
DuPont, for Member Engagement
Lam Research, for Culture of Diversity Equity, and Inclusion
The Lubrizol Corporation, for Digital and Technological Innovation
Michelman, for Corporate Citizenship
PPG Industries, for Scientific Advancement
Congratulations to our 2023 Award Winners! For more information about these awards and their recipients, please visit the IRI Awards page.
Session Highlights
The Annual Conference had a wonderful program of speakers and panelists. Session summaries will be available in the Conference Executive Summary. Here’s a sneak peek:
From the keynote Forging the Hybrid Workplace: Rethinking What “Flexible” Means in the AI Era:
Companies need to rethink what “flexible” means in order to see a successful hybrid team, and to recognize that in-office days and WFH serve different purposes.
Working with your team to determine a set day or time when everyone will be together is important but understanding that “desk time” does not equal “productive time” is absolutely crucial.
Match your employees’ strengths to the right role in the company. Everyone has different needs inside and outside of work, and sometimes asking a person to remold their needs to fit a job is the wrong move. Productivity suffers, job satisfaction suffers, and retention suffers.
From the panel AI-Driven Supply Chain Optimization: Strategies for Resilience and Growth:
Overcoming challenges in implementing digital supply chain solutions: While digital supply chain solutions offer numerous benefits, they also present certain challenges during implementation.
Very important to address overcoming data quality issues, integrating legacy systems with new technologies, and bridging the skill gap within organizations. Adopting a phased approach, investing in employee training, and partnering with technology experts are some effective ways to overcome these challenges.
From the roundtable How to Use R&D to Strength Energy Transition, Reduce Market Risk, and Increase Company Value:
Corporate manufacturing R&D needs to coordinate and lead the move towards clean energy sources and infrastructure in order to build success across all industries rather than focusing only on their own.
Strong federal leadership is key to create bandwidth for innovation within this space.
Success will require highly centralized mass electrification infrastructure alongside decentralized power sources. Diversity and redundancy needed for smooth transition.
From Reducing Uncertainty in Breakthrough and Transformational Opportunities Through Ecosystem Immersion:
Differentiating and being able to toggle between ideas and opportunities is the rule of thumb
To assess truly different opportunity areas, it is important for companies to take a system approach against changing conditions, both relevant and adjacent to their industries, and address the pace of change by seeing interactions that impact business system.
To prevent jumping straight from broader opportunity areas to ideas, companies need effective organizing framework to map out opportunities at different levels.
For areas that are different than companies’ current businesses, capabilities and knowledge base, it is critical to drive clarity at different level through engaging with ecosystems that participate, observe and influence the respective areas.
Save the Date – IRI 2023 Fall Conference (October 2-4, Atlanta)
