9:00am – 4:30pm

Pre-conference Full Day Workshop

9:00am - 12:15pm

Morning Workshops

Location: Amazon P

Meeting the Challenges of

Smaller Operations

This is the most important workshop to attend if your company has sales of less than $15 million. Whether you’re in the startup phase or ready for the next big push, planning for growth while controlling costs is no easy task. You strive to exceed customer expectations and maintain a healthy profit, but issues relating to employees, technology, reporting, vendors, and a host of other challenges make it sometimes seem unattainable.

Join your peers for candid discussions in a lively moderated roundtable … a highly interactive opportunity to network with other smaller operations colleagues who are grappling with many of your same challenges. Share and compare ideas, information, successes and missteps to avoid. Prior to attending the workshop, you will be asked to complete a short survey so that we can be sure to cover issues that are the most pressing to you and your peers. This workshop is recommended for anyone involved in the operations of a smaller mail-order business, from the CEO to front line team members.

Here is a sampling of the issues that will be addressed:

• Applying “user friendly” design to your entire business.

• Negotiating with vendors as you grow

• Low-cost IT solutions with big service and efficiency payoffs

• Overcoming the limitations of your order processing system

• Creative ways to document your Standard Operating Procedures

• Managing extreme seasonality

• Ways to reduce labor costs by streamlining processes

• Capturing useful customer feedback to improve operations

• Specific examples of ways to use your IT resources to solve a variety of operational challenges.

Speaker

David Kravetz, Co-Founder, Fairytale Brownies

Location: Amazon N

Boost Productivity, Enhance Accuracy & Increase Customer Satisfaction

How do you get your facility running in maximum capacity? This session will review some of the best processes, technology and material handling equipment used by the industry leaders who have best in class facilities.

Many people believe that operational excellence requires an investment, automation, material handling equipment, consultant, etc. Absolutely not, with these 10 tips you can improve your operation and become a better leader. In this fast paced, energetic presentation you will hear stories of other companies who have improved their operations and mistakes companies have made.

Get ready for a lot of great information and fun interaction while you get some practical information to take back to your company and apply. Don’t miss the opportunity to review in detail every functional area and get the best in class ideas and processes to make your facility a more efficient and effective one.

Don't miss:

• Ideas and tips on how to build a productive, passionate team.

• Key Performance Indicator list of areas to track in your facility.

• Focus on order fulfillment, how to increase accuracy and productivity without cost.

Speaker

Susan Rider, President, Rider & Associates

Location: Amazon L

Blueprint to Reduce Parcel

Shipping Costs 10-30%

This 3-hour workshop will provide the blueprint to reduce parcel shipping costs 10-30%. Based on best practices and case studies from leading corporations and presented by one of the industry’s top advisors, attendees will learn how to use metrics and benchmarking to identify savings opportunities, develop Request-for-Proposals (RFPs) and other procurement strategies, negotiate rates, terms and conditions, and develop freight audit and other cost savings tools.

Part One – Data Analysis

Specific instruction to collect and analyze distribution data to identify opportunities for modal optimization and contract improvement. Emphasis will be placed on how and what to analyze including accessorial charges, discounts actually received, minimum shipment charges, billing type, weight/dimensions and packaging. Understanding shipment level detail will lead to lower shipping costs, greater productivity and enhanced communication with your carriers.

Part Two – Procurement Strategies

This session provides valuable information to help you write RFPs and other procurement strategies to reduce overall shipping costs. Instructors will help you better understand UPS and FedEx pricing agreements and “cost to serve” rating model. Advanced negotiation strategies and specific savings vehicles will be revealed.

Speaker

Rob Martinez, President & CEO, Shipware Systems Corp

12:00pm - 1:15pm

Lunch

1:30pm- 4:30pm

Afternoon Workshops

Power up your workplace through Hiring &

Relationship Building

In this half day workshop, walk always with an amazing education on how to motivate and retain employees whom are most valuable to your business. From interview education, measuring employee performance, compensation methods, to all the other puzzle and pieces that will lead you to a successful business with low turnover and a high job satisfaction rate.

Whether you are involved in warehousing, operations or fulfillment part of your business, all participants in this session will walk away with higher expectations regarding coaching sessions and a realistic way to achieve better results. Walk away with a blueprint of the steps to hiring, interviewing, offering, training and empowering employees to achieve a world class workplace.

Don’t miss:

• New ways to look at employee performance and compensation

• Understand the importance of aligning objectives and addressing potential conflicts with your employees

• Learn how to consistently train and empower your employees to they can do their best job for you

Speakers

Cathy Hayward-Hughes, Owner, General Manager, CrystalCreek Logistics

Tim Holody, COO/General Manager, Seta/Palm Beach Jewelry

Jay Minnucci,President, Service Agility

Fundamentals of Inventory Management for Marketers

This session will review numerous components of Merchandise Analysis and Inventory Management and the critical roles that it plays in controlling profitability. We will discuss factors that can contribute or actually hinder efficient merchandising and inventory management performance. How these principles can apply to small, large, apparel, hard goods, start-up, and multi-channel businesses.

Don't miss:

Merchandise Statistics and Profitability
• What are the key performance metrics and their impact on inventory management decisions

• Understanding the benefits of capturing all demand and its critical impact on marketing/ inventory decisions (planning and forecasting), initial and final fill rates (order level and item) and what do they mean, returns, initial margin, cost of backorders, square inch analysis, inventory turn, etc. etc.

Planning and Forecasting
• How basic assortment planning is the key to accurate forecasting and can dramatically improve profitability
• Why planning is a company effort and how merchandising/inventory can dictate page counts, circulation and demand plans.

• Techniques and measures that will guarantee to improve product selection and item profitability

• How and when to buy and why an inventory spending budget is critical to your plans

• Why you should never forecast based on product lead times and why it will adversely impact your performance

Building relationships – Internal and External
• Vendor relationships – Understanding and negotiating out “hidden” costs built into the merchandise

• How to build effective relationships between Inventory Management and other departments (e.g. marketing. merchandising, creative, operations, finance, etc.) within your organization

Speaker
George Mollo, President, GJM Associates, Inc

6:00pm – 7:30pm

NCOF 2011 Kickoff Party!  

Mingle with fellow attendees, speakers and friends in this event filled with networking, light appetizers and cocktails. It’s our way of saying thank you for being at NCOF11!