Why we Sponsor ProcureCon

What made 4C Associates sponsor ProcureCon Europe for the first time this year?

We decided to sponsor, as we saw it's a great opportunity to identify the overall procurement community and discuss all challenges. Also, the attendees were a broad range of corporate clients, so that was a key factor.

This was a great opportunity post COVID for everyone to come together and share what challenges they are facing - which have changed so much over the last few years. We've really been able to network and learn from each other.

How have the quality of delegates been on site?

The seniority and the breadth of people that have been here has been fantastic. It's been great to get experience from global CPOs, but then also to have the conversations with more junior purchasing managers, because everyone has slightly different challenges that they are dealing with.

Do you see sponsoring our event to have a positive impact on your 2022/23 goals?

Yes, we are coming away with real potential. What we've seen here, is a higher attendance and more people willing to network, which ultimately then means that we’ve had more meaningful conversations and have good follow-ups lined up.

The size of the conference has been perfect, it’s big enough to meet lots of people, but small enough for it to still feel intimate and be able to really build those relationships, as opposed to it being massive and then we get lost in the noise.

If we look around the room, we've spoken to everybody here, so now we’re familiar with their faces and know who they are and their specifics.

How have you found all the networking opportunities?

It’s great being back in person. You can have those informal conversations over coffee, over Sangria, over lunch and have more of a general chat, which takes the pressure away. Everyone is excited and trying to meet as many people as possible, and as there is so many challenges right now in the world of procurement, everyone wants to know how to deal with them. You get that from networking with your peers, but also talking to people like us who have dealt with these challenges.

There has been a great vibe here, which ProcureCon should champion, because people don't want to just talk about work 24/7 once they're in the conference. They want to know the people behind the brands. They want to understand how they work on a more human level, right? That's the great thing about the opportunities to network is, that you can discuss work, but you can also get to know other procurement professionals.

Compared to some of the other events that we've been to in the past, we are probably coming away from ProcureCon Europe with more follow up meetings than we've had in a long time.

Did you attend any of the sessions, and were they useful?

We attended as many sessions as we could, and we’ve found them very useful, as all the hot topics in procurement have been discussed.

It’s great to see how open everyone is about the challenges they're facing, and steps they're taking to tackle these. We also enjoyed the round tables, as the smaller discussions allow you to really get into the detail of what opportunities and challenges there are.

The brilliant thing about this particular conference, is that you’ve had great topics in a generalist environment, not too specific to one industry, which means you've got people from many different industries coming together and being able to collaborate.

How would you rate the organization of the event and the event team overall?

Having not have ever attended one of these events before, we think the way it was organized has been phenomenal. We’ve really enjoyed attending all the different round tables, but also the quick turnaround and how rigid the timings have been. We know we have specific times to network, but also to attend the sessions we wanted to.

Having the breakout area in the exhibition hall has been great too. The room big enough for everyone, and people can easily come and chat. It's been easy for everybody.

We also enjoyed using the app, as we were able to schedule which sessions you wanted to attend and then were prompted with the push notifications - which was great for us. It was also helpful to be able to look up someone’s name and be able to find them on the app.

Would you say that it will be important for 4C Associates to sponsor ProcureCon Europe going forward?

We are leaving ProcureCon Europe with a lot of potential for new business, so if we are successful after the event, that will be enough for us to build a case as to why we should sponsor again. If the standard of ProcureCon Europe remains the same, we would like to be back. (4C Associates have since come on board as ProcureCon Europe 2023 sponsors)

If we do sponsor again, we would like to add a keynote speaker session from us, to be able to share the insights into what we're doing in the industry and how we can help - having faced all the current challenges that have arisen.