Page Siplon, Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics

Logistics plays an increasingly complex and critical role in corporate operations and competitiveness, and companies must hire an educated and properly trained workforce in order to grow. What workforce supply is coming from our educational systems, and what overall demand will there be for them? The Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics recently released new research showing that based on U.S. Department of Labor data, the Nation will generate approximately 270,200 logistics-related job openings in the U.S. each year, and close to 1.1 million by 2016. In contrast, the nation’s 7,642 educational institutions currently generate just over 75,000 formally trained, degreed or certified workers annually… a pace that means roughly only 28% of the identified logistics-related job openings will be able to draw from a pool of trained candidates.
Page Siplon, the Center’s executive director will discuss this supply and demand of the logistics workforce, potential gaps the industry may see in the future, and current and emerging factors that are causing them.

Robert Pittman, Janus Economics

Many factors can influence logistics and supply chain management decisions in companies: transportation technology/costs, production/inventory techniques, customer/market trends, to name a few. This presentation will focus on some key trends in logistics and supply chain management and their underlying factors, and translate those into implications for site selection decisions and economic development strategy.

Lois Yates, GLD Partners

Logistics has always been a prime consideration in location decisions, but recent trends are pushing companies to take an even harder look at how well a location can accommodate their logistics needs when planning expansions or new development projects. The resurgence of U.S. manufacturing in many industry sectors, the trend toward increased reshoring of not only service, but manufacturing, along with mounting fuel costs and changes in overseas conditions and economic considerations are firing this new concentration on finding areas where logistics can give a company a competitive advantage
This session will define the steps a community should take to identify their logistics infrastructure strengths and weaknesses and the competitive opportunities that can be developed to differentiate them for investment attraction.

Tim Feemster, Foremost Quality Logistics

Learn about these trends in supply chain and how they impact your competitiveness.

• What about transportation? How can it hurt/help?
• Is a FTZ with ASF in your future?
• How do you showcase your assets?
• Do you have the workforce demographics? What about Unions?/li>
• Are you ripe for ecommerce sites?
• How does your risk score impact the client's decision?
• Is there an inland rail port in your future?

Phil Schneider, Schneider Consulting

The world’s largest consumer market appears to re-gaining momentum. Improving business cost competitiveness along with steady innovation and efficiency improvements has many experts projecting that the US is poised for growth. Rising costs in Asia and a weak European economy are putting the US and all of North American back in to central focus for global foreign direct investment. This presentation will explore these trends, the potential impact on US FDI, potential obstacles to growth, and which industries are more likely to prosper should these positive trends continue.

Brian McKiernan, CenterPoint Properties

Paige Webster, Foote Consulting Group

C.H. Robinson