On episode 189 of SCNR, Scott and Will welcome Patrick Maley, Pat McCusker, and Nick Darmanchev on for takeaways on the CSCMP EDGE 2019 Conference.

“…most great customer experiences now involve multiple enterprises.”

-Amazon Executive

Industry conferences are a great way to catch up with peers, learn about the latest innovations and make new connections. The CSCMP EDGE 2019 Conference was no exception, including everything from surprisingly inspiring panels featuring millennials to… well… fabulous food trucks.

In this conversation, Co-hosts Scott Luton and Will Haraway, Founder and Chief Evangelist of Backbeat Marketing, spoke with Patrick Maley, Pat McCusker, and Nick Darmanchev about their takeaways from the CSCMP EDGE 2019 Conference.

The leading topics of discussion serve to demonstrate just how vibrant a field supply chain is.  Visibility and customer centricity were front and center, whether the customer in question was a “B2C” or a “B2C”. Unfortunately, some traditional challenges persist, especially internal information silos. New technologies and improved communication have not yet eliminated the problems of internal teams that don’t talk to each other or share data.

In addition, Patrick, Pat and Nick provide insight into:

-Why companies are putting an emphasis on the customer experience

-The correlations between the customer experience and technology adoption rates

-Barriers to supply chain innovation

[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live from the Supply chain capital of the country, Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology’s the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

[00:00:29] All right. Good morning. Scott Luton here with you libeled Supply Chain Now Radio. Welcome back to the show. So we’ve got a really a neat show lined up today. We’re going to be featuring three Supply chain leaders and their key takeaways from one of the premiere Supply chain trade shows in North America. The CSC MP Edge Conference, which took place in September 2013 in Anaheim, California. So stay tuned for what we believe is gonna be very insightful and compelling perspective. So quick programing note. Like all of our series on Supply Chain Now Radio, you can find our replays on a wide variety channels Apple podcast, SoundCloud, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast from. As always, love to have you subscribe so you don’t miss anything. So let’s quickly thank all of our fantastic sponsors that allow us to bring best practices and innovative ideas to you. Verusen. The Effective syndicate. Vector Global Logistics, Spend Management Experts. And many more. You can check out each of our sponsors on the show notes at the bottom of this episode. So let’s welcome in my fearless co-host on today’s show. We’ll hear away. founder and chief evangelist with backbeat marketing. Will. How you doing? I’m doing great, Scott. Thank you for asking, sir. It’s been a year despite our wills. A club will no easy, big fella. Well, the cards fan, of course, I’m big Braves fan. So we’ve had better weeks, right?

[00:01:52] I mean, it’s hard for me to complain too much, man. I mean, I understand you. We definitely broke your heart last week. And I’m just going to pretend that the series that the season ended, then that’s all. That wasn’t enough. Rough winds. We got embarrassed right after it. If you know, I don’t have it makes Philly better. Probably not. But, you know, we certainly love the Nats. Ran ran right through us, man. Just complete wipeout.

[00:02:14] But by the time the audience hears this episode, World Series Beyond Series Beyond. So we’ll see what happens. We’re both predicting this is pre this is, you know, the Yankees, Nasser’s are still playing Anthony’s favorite. They’ve the Astros are leading what, two games wants two to one.

[00:02:28] Yeah, because Cole pitched another gem. I mean, that’s all he pitches his gems, you know? Garrett goal is amazing.

[00:02:34] So we’re both predicting the Astros knocking off the Yankees and then Astros and the Nationals in the World Series.

[00:02:39] Right. I just love that Astros team. I mean, there is a young talent on it. I mean, Springer in Korea. I mean, I just they. I mean, Alex Bregman, all of them. And it’s just it’s an impressive organization. I’ve got to say, I never thought I would say that when they used to be in the central division with the cards, but now they’re having the a-l, they’re a little bit more proudly. They don’t really bother me as much.

[00:03:00] That’s right. All right. So, baseball aside, we’re here to talk about getting some key takeaways from the Sea SCMP Edge Conference. Twenty nine test, right. And we’ll know you were out there. And before we we bring on our first guest, you had a great time.

[00:03:16] I did.

[00:03:17] You know, and and I’ve gone to a number of these over the years. And this was definitely one of my favorites. You know it for a lot of different reasons, probably because when it comes to that Anaheim facility that you kind of just in that facility, I mean, you know, you’re just kind of right there and everybody’s together. And there’s a lot of different, you know, restaurants and watering holes. And they did a good job with with the networking and and some of the social events there. But it was fun to kind of serve as the Supply chain now radio Sherpa. So just being your eyes and ears and and finding different, you know, these three that we we could have spoken to, you know, I could have found 15 for us. But but but these were three that I thought made sense for us to to focus on. And I’m glad that we were able to to set it up with them today.

[00:04:09] All in due time, we’ll get all 50. All right. Oh, 15 hundred. But from football accounts, a great another great conference put on by the great folks over SCAC.

[00:04:18] And it didn’t hurt that when we left here, it was 95 degrees. And I literally got a 20 degree break just back going out there. It was just it was just a vacation in that respect. Absolutely. Good stuff.

[00:04:31] Our first guest here today, we’re excited to talk with Patrick Mei-Ling, chief marketing officer with Bluejay Solutions. Patrick, how you doing?

[00:04:39] Great. How are you guys doing? Fantastic.

[00:04:42] What about you will ask your brick out a crystal ball. Who do you think’s gonna win between Astros and Yankees?

[00:04:49] We’re still stuck on, you know, getting Bryce Harper here in Philly. Okay, 13 year, 330 million and then watching the Nationals head off to the World Series. Man.

[00:05:01] Castile, as much as it pains me to say it. I think the Yankees are winning.

[00:05:05] Clearly, you’re a Phillies fan, but you’re also you’re from Philadelphia, if you could, for our listeners. Paint a picture. Tell us more about who Patrick is and where you from and your professional journey.

[00:05:15] I am born and bred in the great city of Philadelphia. I grew up in the city and ended up in college at the University of Pennsylvania, which is also in Philadelphia. I don’t know. And then I embarked on my career, which took me around the country. I lived in California. I lived in Chicago. And then Chicago is when we started to have our family. We have five kids. We have four girls and a boy and the oldest just turned 20. So for a period of a couple of weeks, I had five teenagers. So I feel like that’s a milestone that I made it through. I don’t think it’s like a a like a war story.

[00:05:57] You get several badges for that, I believe. Well, yeah. And we moved it back to Philly. And then I was in Wisconsin.

[00:06:06] And during that time period, I’ve been in Supply chain for the past twenty five years with. I started with Manhattan Associates. I spent some time at Red Prairie and the last almost three and a half years with Blue Jay, which was a re-branded company when Kidwell acquired Lehne Logistics.

[00:06:27] So we’ll see. Yeah. So in that capacity, I’ve been mostly about half my career in sales. So I like to kind of lean on myself. Is kind of a salesperson to understand the buyer, you know, the buying journey. And I’ve been an executive roles and GM roles and recently a blue jay as a chief marketing officer.

[00:06:46] Speaking of understanding the buyer, it seems like the modern sales professional, the modern sales leader, there’s a much greater emphasis on truly understanding the customer and the buyer and what they’re looking for. Would you agree with that?

[00:07:01] Oh, without a doubt. I mean, it’s it’s all about and it’s always been about this.

[00:07:06] It’s always been about listening. Listening to your audience, listening to what people need, listening to what people, you know, have experienced in the past. So, absolutely.

[00:07:17] So you mentioned Bluejay. That’s where you serve now as chief marketing officer. Tell us more. Give us a quick overview. Bluejay.

[00:07:23] So Bluejay is a global company. As I said, it was, you know, prior to three and four years ago it well. So many people know Keith well and we were a number of companies that were kind of scattered around the world. Q What was known is different things to different people. And if you went to Germany, they would know us as a as a World-Class Customs solution for the German market. If you went to the UK, they would know us as a B2B FDI company. And in the US it was a parcel transportation management and Asia-Pac it was a forwarding company. So we were known for different things to different people around the world and they operated that way. And that is that is not what we wanted to do when we came in the current leadership team. We wanted to create a unified company, a unified go to market, unified vision and brand. So that required, you know, a unified organization. So we rebranded first as Bluejay Solutions with a new vision and new go to market. And yeah, it’s been really, really fantastic. We’ve got a ton of momentum. We’ve got great ownership. And what we do is Logistics, of course, but specifically in transportation management, and that includes parcel and mobility and it also includes global trade management such as customs. We sell to freight forwarders brokers three Keel’s and l.A.P.D. And shippers around the world. So, yes, it’s been a it’s been a great ride with this company and it’s a great place to be.

[00:09:06] We know we’re talking before the show here. Will Stacey Roman Jedis at the EAF 23 Piel and Supply chain Summit home-run. INTERVIEWER Yeah, you have a supply chain rock n roll star there.

[00:09:18] Patrick Yes, she is. She came in and then gave us gave us a partial overview, talked a little bit about the freight forwarding market. It was, you know, she you know, we come out to Hollywood now. You know, she’s you know, she’s really great. She’s a good name for her. Knows the market goes the customers. And, you know, going back to listening, she’s she’s great at understanding what our customers want.

[00:09:38] So important. Okay. So let’s talk the SC Competes Edge conference at twenty nineteen. I know you’re a you’re a SEUS NDP veteran been, you know, maybe not 20 consecutive years, but you’ve been to a lot of the college conferences. What brought you to the one in twenty nineteen. Anything different that that appealed to you about this past one.

[00:09:58] We go. We go. Sheer Bluejay. We love seeing SCMP Peter, a great partner of ours and the preeminent Logistics organization. So we go there and I think over the years the reasons for going have changed.

[00:10:14] And I’ve talked to a lot of other vendors, you know. You know, it’s a small industry and you know, for me it’s gone from kind of what we used to see as kind of a traditional lead generation show now. To me, it’s more of a an industry conference, which is something that we had to adjust our thinking along the way about how we view the show and look at the show. But we go because it brings the industry together, whether it’s academia, whether it’s our own partners or our own competitors or analysts. And we get to listen to what people are doing, what people are thinking, and we get to share what we’re doing and what we’re thinking and get great feedback and also network with, you know, with with peers. So it is still to some degree, we meet a lot of leads and we meet a lot of opportunities. But it’s also a great event for us to, you know, keep our fingers on the pulse of the industry.

[00:11:11] So what I heard, there’s someone that when I heard there will the market intel exchange. That’s right. The best practices, the insights, that exchange of information, there’s a greater emphasis placed on these types of shows and the SC Competes conference versus just the Legion from.

[00:11:27] Yeah. He’s gone about it. And I would agree with it as someone that’s been to a few of these myself. I would agree. I mean, it has changed from that perspective. It’s it really is a sharing of ideas. It’s a sharing of trends. And and frankly, you know, meeting up with people that you’ve known in Supply chain for, if you’ve been in the industry for any length of time, you generally see them there.

[00:11:49] I mean, you just do. And it’s good to reconnect with them and they do a good job of making a good mix of business and, you know, good social events. I’m thinking, particularly Patrick, of the food truck thing out in the 70s, great weather, where Patrick and I decided to try every single food on the food trucks.

[00:12:13] Sounds like a good day. Well, we thought we thought it was our duty.

[00:12:16] It felt like we needed to give everybody, you know, some attention. I didn’t want to be left out.

[00:12:21] So. And we should we should if we haven’t already. Will, you are also out there at the SC Competes Ryder conference 2019. So, Patrick, let’s let’s talk about from this particular show. You kind of talked about some reasons. What’s changed? Let’s talk about, you know, what your use your some of your key takeaways, some of the keynotes like some. What was particular about the 20, 19 edge conference that you really liked?

[00:12:49] I like again, my big takeaway was what kind of feedback we got on our own research, which I’ll share with you in a few moments from the keynote standpoint. You know, we really enjoyed my team and I that were there. The the awards, the recognition. I thought it was very unique. You know, where they recognized some of that summit, historical figures and Logistics both, you know, around the world.

[00:13:16] And I thought that was an interesting way to start building this kind of Hall of Fame and kind of paying homage back across the industry. The second one was, you know, the panel. I’ll get your thoughts on it. We haven’t talked about it, but that panel, I thought, was fantastic on the millennials. Oh, yeah. I did not have high hopes. I’m not a big fan of panels, but I thought that panel was just absolutely fantastic. There were so many great takeaways from that, from, you know, how to build an organization, how to treat employees, how to how to view, you know, the constantly changing market and how to, you know, prioritize and focus and and how great organizations do that. So those are a couple of things I really enjoyed.

[00:14:02] Yeah, I liked it, too, because especially when it’s almost like a you know, when you get to a certain age. And then we’ve seen it in conferences all across the you know, all across the spectrum.

[00:14:14] When they throw that, you know, the millennial in the title, there’s a tendency to think, well, it’s just going to be, you know, pot shots really and jokes, you know.

[00:14:23] But I liked the way that they, you know, that they genuinely tried to discuss how, you know, some of the relatable tendencies. And and certainly when it comes to, you know, communication and productivity. I thought it was excellent.

[00:14:39] Yeah. And these were millennials actually building, you know, really great businesses and organization.

[00:14:45] Yeah. So speaking of the conference, in the presentation that you delivered, it wasn’t focused on the food truck.

[00:14:56] I think you also spent a day in cheeseburger. The best. Right. Cheeseburger is always the best motto of this reigning champion. That’s right.

[00:15:04] Kidding aside, the yo yo gave what we heard was a very informational and and really insightful presentation entitled Focus on Customer Experience. Research on Supply chain Properties and Investments. And we want to get, Patrick, your five key takeaways from the research. But before we do that, let’s tee up let’s talk about what went into, you know, gathering all the all the data and all the insights.

[00:15:33] Yeah, Patrick. How do we how do we get to this point with with the presentation and the research?

[00:15:38] Yeah, that’s a great question. About two years ago, you know, we like to listen to our customers. As we’ve said, I like to pride myself on listening. And we started to hear some things that that made us think that there might be something there rather than just anecdotal stories. And we started to hear an emphasis on customer experience. And, you know, I’ve been in sales almost half my career. Much of it in the Supply chain industry. And for the most part, it’s been people looking to reduce cost, improve productivity in order to justify the investment of software services and all the things that that that we do. And we started to hear this this recurring theme of people are buying solutions to improve the customer experience and the cost cutting. That savings to productivity seem to be taking a backseat. And as it as a software company, you know, we are literally made up of people, intellectual property, our brains, you know, and time. So that that’s we’re made up of. So what we decide to invest in takes quite a bit of effort and lots of talent and processing and getting our our best and brightest and some really smart people focused on on a vision and a direction. We wanted to understand this trend or what we saw as a trend and kind of its relationship to a number of other factors. So that was kind of the genesis of it. We started to hear and listen to customers and we wanted more than just this anecdotal. We wanted to start to research it and understand in more detail and see if we could identify things that that would help us as we as we built the organization.

[00:17:29] So from the research and it’s probably stuff to maybe just pick five file. But if you are thinking of our audience and in a in a small conversation, you know, what are five of the key takeaways from this? What sounds like some exhaustive research.

[00:17:48] Yeah. So we saw it. I’ll tell you what the hypothesis was going in. So we again, going back to investment drivers between cost reduction and customer experience. We had this we sense that there was a cultural difference between the companies and best described. And Jeffrey Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm. That’s kind of that technology adoption life cycle curve. Whether you’re an early adopter of technology or whether you’re a laggard. And we wanted to see as we laid out customers and companies that were more focused on the customer experience, did they tend to be more early adopters or more laggard? And then we wanted to see what the financial success rate was. So, ah, hypothesis going in is the more successful companies were more focused on customer experience and were really good at adopting technology. And that was kind of what we set out to do. And we found that that is, you know, in our research there, still a lot more to do. You know, we had four hundred and thirty eight respondents, which is an asset that’s a very good number for Sheer.

[00:19:03] Yeah, yeah, it was. We’re very excited to get that the year before. I think we had one hundred and forty. Wow. So we’re seeing a lot of people wanted to engage with this this research and this concept.

[00:19:15] So you know what? We’re going to have you on another podcast and you’re out to offer some of your best practices to conducting research. That is a remarkable year over year growth number.

[00:19:27] Yeah, yeah. It was great. Very exciting. And I think it’s maybe I have a great team. You know, we really did our own research about how to reach our channels and meeting the right people. But at the end of the day, I really think that the people are excited to talk about customer experience.

[00:19:43] Mm hmm. So hot. Definitely a hot topic in business in general, but certainly also in the supply chain industry right now. All right. So speaking of some of the key findings, where do you want to start? Patrick?

[00:19:56] Yeah. So I’ll just from the highest level we. And it started to see real trends in our hypothesis that, first of all, that the customer experience is overtaking price and product as a number one differentiator. And companies expect to see that trend continue. So we are. It’s not just something anecdotal. We’re seeing companies really focus on the customer experience. It doesn’t mean cost reduction in cost is is is going away at all in the country. It’s still very high. But we’re seeing this investment in Supply chain and Logistics software to help support a better customer and brand experience. So that that was one of the big things. And then we saw some interesting disconnects. So for shippers, if you start to break this down and there’s a lot of research on supply chain, we search dot info. But when you break this information down between, say, shippers and Logistics service providers, you start to see some real differences. And one of the differences we saw really shows kind of a disconnect that while 63 percent agree or strongly agree that the customer experience will become the number one differentiator. They they weren’t driving their investment in technology in that area. They were driving it in cost reduction. So we still see some. Right. You know, some some kind of you know, a body in motion tends to stay in motion kind of thing where people are just still kind of doing the same thing. But no, that’s something different coming. So we’ll be interested to see your rear. You know, are people starting to redirect some of that investment to support a better customer experience?

[00:21:38] You know, customer experience. What what is I’m so curious. I loved the poll. The 37 percent. Yeah. On the flip side of that, 63 percent about what their views are of customer experience. Yeah. Think of it immediately makes me think of some of the transactions that that we make as consumers based on just your location, not necessarily experience that even the pricing. Just because that store is right there on the way home and seems like some of those some of those companies know that and play to that and don’t dedicate nearly as much time or resources investments on the consumer experience or the customer experience side.

[00:22:20] I wonder if that plays out in the Supply chain as well. All right, so the next let’s talk about the management support, leadership support. I know you’ve got a key finding there as well.

[00:22:34] Yes. So one of the barriers so we also, you know, pulled our respondents about, you know, what are the barriers to actually investing in Supply chain innovation? And we saw that. And I think this is common across any organization when you’re you find a barrier that upper management would be in the way. Right. As an upper manager, sometimes, you know, we prioritize different things. And that’s just what our job is. But what we saw interesting was that the laggard late majority companies and these are self-described laggardly majorities. So we asked them to describe themselves on a technology adoption life cycle curve and where do you fit? And the companies that and the respondents that pick their organizations is kind of laggard late majority. The upper management seemed to really be a bigger barrier. So, again, going back to that hypothesis of this relationship between, you know, companies focused on a customer experience and the ability to to manage technology and adopt technology into the organization and financial success was was really apparent there.

[00:23:37] So it seems like you’re the respondents were really being honest with themselves when it comes to, you know, self-identifying. That’s a really important feature of solid research, I would imagine.

[00:23:50] Yeah, for sure. You know, it’s funny. And the session, that’s every time I’ve done and I’ve done this presentation in Europe at Gartner and a number of different conferences. And one of the first things they ask is it’s about the self-assessment. And people agree that that that’s probably the best way to do it.

[00:24:09] Well, so speak to the importance of and and the effectiveness. It seems like from some of your research, you identify folks that were really good at developing and communicating the business case for Supply chain Innovation Investments, and some teams weren’t effective at doing that. How do you see that playing a factor in some of your findings?

[00:24:29] Well, obviously, you know, setting a vision and setting the story is really what it’s all about. And as a marketer, that’s that’s what we do, right? We help people see where they can go and what they can be. And, you know, the ability to present and convince upper management, you know, where they need to be and where they need to go. Requires a really unique skill set. And and again, this is something that we need to dig into more about. You know, that may be part of the issues. People don’t know how to operationalize kind of visions and kind of, you know, translate them into tactical plans. That makes sense to upper management so that that that that is something we plan to investigate more interesting.

[00:25:12] Yeah, I think that speaks to the ever evolving skill sets of your your supporting professional, you know, different whether it’s analytical skills. Communication skills. Technology, certainly. I mean, gosh, all the elegance. Potchen these days it’s requiring a different set of skill sets coming into the industry to make a supply chain professional successful. Right?

[00:25:37] Indeed. And that’s going back to that comment about the millennials at the CSC and Peepshow. I’m a huge fan. I may be swimming upstream a little bit, but I’m a big fan of millennials. I hire millennials. You know, they’ve worked out really fantastic for me. And they you know, these are the digital natives. This is all they know, right? The way they interact with technology. And they’ve been looking at screens since they can remember. They can’t remember not looking at screens. And, you know, the ability to create, you know, easy to use solutions and solutions that, you know, that that that they’ve grown up with is something that, you know, at Bluejay, we hold an eye important. So.

[00:26:19] All right. So let’s talk about one of the hottest topics in Supply chain today. That’s Supply chain visibility. What were some of your findings there?

[00:26:25] So visibility is a top priority. So, you know, when you look in to, you know, visibility and you think about customer experience, you know, that’s. And there’s varying degrees of visibility. And right now, we’re spending a lot of time on kind of from an operational tactical application standpoint, how to break down visibility. Because when you talk about global multimodal visibility, that’s a big, big topic. But suffice it to say that visibility is something where people continue to invest in and it relates directly to that customer experience. You know, where’s my stuff? Where’s my water? Where’s my ship? It kind of redirect my shipment because I needed to go somewhere else. So, you know, Supply chain visibility is clearly something that we’re focused on and that that came back strong and our research.

[00:27:16] Yeah, and Supply chain visibility is now trickling down, like you said, right to the consumer, honestly, I mean, they might not know that it is specifically supply chain visibility, but that is it. And you talk about in the in the research where you where in transportation as well, you know, they’re leveraging g._p._s. I mean a lot of the I know the Bluejay, we actually had Carnivale in here the day that you all announced your partnership with them. I know I got a partnership with them and Uber Freight. And in those digital freight marketplaces, I mean, that they’re leveraging at any number of technologies to provide visibility to to their customers on both ends. But the carriers and the shippers agree.

[00:27:57] Great. I mean, I think it came from that beat it B2C market. Right. People people could see, you know, 10 years ago that, you know, and they start to say, why? Why can’t I see my things? Why can’t I see in real time in my my orders when I get into the office?

[00:28:12] So I think one last things we’ll ask you about related to the research is the proverbial silos that we can find across the business world. And I think you’ll have some interesting insights from the research that spooks that speaks to siloed systems and processes in in supply chain.

[00:28:31] Yeah. And that’s that’s you know, that’s to me, that’s something that’s been there for a long, long time. And this is what is driving a lot of the investment. You know, people that have systems that can’t speak to each other and can’t speak to their partners. So when you think about one of my favorite lines from our conference last year, we had an executive, an ex executive from Amazon, and one of his great quotes was most great customer experiences now involve multiple enterprises. So it’s not just internal silo systems and being able to communicate and get across. It’s also how do I connect to my partners? Because if you want to create a seamless customer experience, you absolutely need to be able to connect to partners. And that gets into all kinds of things, you know, around integration and API eyes and data and data quality. And so these are things that are really big, big projects for companies that haven’t gotten there. So, you know, siloed systems and inability to connect with partners is absolutely one of the one of the biggest obstacles today.

[00:29:42] And it’s preventing organizations and enterprises really from from innovating, right?

[00:29:48] Absolutely. Well, they can’t I mean, it just as simple as you can’t connect the way we think about the market. We think about solutions and supply chain excellence. We think about it and three components, the first being the applications themselves, which, you know, we say the automate optimized kind of your operation. And then the second level is the network. Right, your ability to connect to a network. And in our case, it’s it’s carriers and brokers and three peoples and all the people that touch your orders from end to end need to be seamless. You need to be part of a network in order to in order to react, in order to be agile, in order to serve your customer. And then the third piece is really data, right.

[00:30:35] Taken that data from your applications and from the network and being able to make sense of it all. So, you know, that that network piece in a model that we just discussed and connecting the partners is it’s really you know, I mean, it’s something that is absolutely critical to, you know, high performance supply chain.

[00:30:53] Yeah. And Patrick, you know, that’s certainly the. Yeah, that seemed to be the overarching theme and continues to be and has been for a number of years. Really. It’s just the more that technologies are improving, it’s starting to close these gaps. You know, and and more and more vendors are finding ways to to connect those silos and make it just one view across the entire across the entire supply chain, which is what we’re all striving for.

[00:31:23] Everybody’s got play nice and sandbox sort of customer, really. I mean, the technology got all the teams got to talk, the planning, it’s got to be aligned. That’s right. And it seems like the research, the exhaustive research, I keep going back because I can only imagine all the the team you had and all the work that goes into putting together. This isn’t like sending out a SurveyMonkey link. And I have three multiple choice answers. I mean, this is some of this is some heavy hitting, heavy duty, lots of homework went into producing this research here.

[00:31:54] Patrick and Patrick, I was at your presentation and it was a full room and people were very engaged. I was just. What were your impressions of the way it was received and some of the feedback?

[00:32:04] Again, I like to measure engagement if anyone’s been a speaker on stage. You know, the number of people that hold up phone to take pictures of your slides. Mm-Hmm. You know, it’s. So there was a lot of that. A lot of the research and the data that came up, kind of our hypothesis and the number of questions afterwards was was really great. And, you know, people that want to be a part of the research, people at, you know, deeper questions about the research have suggestions about where we could go with the research. So, yeah, the engagement is just really great.

[00:32:37] All right. So we’ll make sure that folks, if they liked something they heard, they want to reach out and learn more information. The Web site for Bluejay is B, L, you know, e, b, l UJA Solutions dot com. And Patrick, you’ve got some other tradeshows. You’ll be at rest of the year and into the first, first part of 2020.

[00:32:57] Oh, yeah, yeah. We probably do 50 events a year, so we’re all over the world. Yep. And that’s on our web site too about where we’ll be.

[00:33:04] But yeah, we have Patrick you know you should, you should tell people and certainly Scott because he is a he is a traveler and a big Clemson football supporter about the traveling tailgate roadshow that’s going on.

[00:33:17] Yeah. Let’s RV. Yeah. If you haven’t seen this, Scott, you have to go check it out.

[00:33:22] So we we basically leased a and almost 50 foot RV, wrapped it with Blue Jay kind of bar our kind of go to market message and kind of our tag line stuff.

[00:33:35] And we are crossing the country. We’re about halfway through it. We started an Lambeau. The Eagles Packers game went down. Now I went and noted on that one there, Patrick. Wait. Let me think about that. I think I’m pretty sure the Eagles Kids City, we went to University of Tennessee last week.

[00:33:56] You know, a big Supply chain school down to Tennessee. So we had a great, great tailgate there with a lot of Tennessee alarm and a couple of students and some partners. And this week were up at Penn State spreaded Penn State, Michigan game. They’re going to have a white out, which is which is pretty awesome. So we’ll be in the O.R. v lot if anyone’s at the Penn State game. You’re welcome to come by. Friends of Bluejay are always welcome. Certainly. Good night. Supply chain School. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s why we went there. And and then we’ll be in New England, Philly, Cleveland, and then we finish up the tour at Michigan, Michigan State in Ann Arbor. Wow. Yeah. So a pretty exciting event and it’s been received really, really well. And you know, anyone listening is interested in attending. Just go to Bluejay Solutions dot com and you can see the frictionless RV roadshow and you can register and just tell us you’re gonna come by and insole chocolate milk and healthy option parents.

[00:34:57] And I have to tell Gates. Right. Homosexually. You’re not a Hamas player. This has been great.

[00:35:03] Patrick, first off, safe travels. The best look at you. You call that a frictionless RV now army.

[00:35:10] Yeah. The friction on the supply chain is how we like to describe, you know, our value. So the RV ARV’s wrapped in frictionless supply chain.

[00:35:20] I love that. Okay. So to our audience again, check out Bluejay Solutions dot com. No e. You can check out probably more information on this research. You can check out what they do and of course, their upcoming trade show schedule they’ll be at. But Patrick maylee, chief marketing officer with Bluejay Solutions. Thanks so much for joining us here today on Supply Chain Now Radio. And we hope to reconnect Haralson.

[00:35:42] Great. Thanks. It was great being here. Great. Thanks, Patrick. Thanks. Bye. Bye, guys.

[00:35:48] So we’ll let’s welcome in our next guest today, Pat McCusker, chief operating officer with fast radius. Pat, how you doing?

[00:35:56] Almost God. Thanks for having us on the on the podcast here.

[00:36:00] You bet. Well, you know, I understand you were also out at the CCP edge. conference in beautiful Anaheim, California, along with Will and looking forward to learning more about fast radius, as Will suggested in the warm up conversation. We’ve talked about y’all’s ears may have been burning. We’ve talked a good bit about fast radius and some of the neat things you’re doing. But for four members of our audience that May had not that the three members of our audience maybe hadn’t checked out yet. Give us a quick overview of the company.

[00:36:28] Yes, sure. Happy to. So we did have a great time there at CSC, E.M.T. And look forward to share more about our experience of the conference. But but just to give you a bit of background on fast radius, so we are a software driven manufacturing firm helping companies embrace new products and business models that are uniquely enabled by advanced manufacturing and primarily additive or additive manufacturing or 3D printing is what we mean by that is, as you may be aware, there has been a wave of innovation that has occurred on the materials and the economics and the kind of technology platforms that allow you to make entirely new to the world products and economics that were previously impossible, which are mykes all kinds of exciting new performance characteristics for those products as well as new business models. So you talk a little bit about things like a virtual supply and mass customization, accelerating new product development that we’re unlocking with our software and our and our team across a number of different industries and in our client base.

[00:37:30] Mm-hmm. And you’ve got some interesting connections to right here in Atlanta, right?

[00:37:35] We do. U.P.S. is a important strategic partner of ours, are also a minority shareholder in Fast Radius, and we have a facility onsite at Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, at UBS as World Port Headquarters, kind of North America Supply chain headquarters as well as facility up here in Chicago and a couple of folks there in Atlanta. So we have deep ties to your neighborhood.

[00:37:57] They’re up there, up by PDK, Scott. You can watch planes take off effect where the fancy folks get on and off.

[00:38:04] Yeah, well, you know, I love it. And as we’ve had folks from u._p._s. On the show, I think one of our earliest episodes as as this relationship was getting off the ground, the focus of that show was was all the innovation and the meaningful the investment that U.P.S. is putting into innovative ventures like this here at fast radio. So blessed be the ties that bind love here. And that, of course, we’re big fans Vetlanta, too. So we’d love to see how the Supply chain Cities is fueling what’s next really in Indian Supply chain. All right. So so circling back to CSICOP Edge again, kind of a theme of this show we’ve been interviewing of all folks that were there that presented that that I really enjoyed the show. What? Watch. I’ll go out to the Edge conference.

[00:38:51] And so we wanted to get closer to the Supply chain professionals who are just starting to understand and appreciate what’s now possible with additive or UBS friends. Of course, we’re active in the conference and invited us to do a panel discussion with with our friends at UBS. And it went very well. We had a big room of folks and a lot of really compelling dialog as companies are. And professionals in the industry are trying to wrap their arms around what’s actually happening and this kind of disruption that additive is bringing. And it was a great conversation.

[00:39:25] So your presentation focused on kind of what’s new in the additive manufacturing space.

[00:39:30] That’s right. So we talked about I’ve stuck loaded it about fast radius, new partnership. But more importantly, talked about the trends we’re seeing and how companies are embracing these new technologies to drive efficiencies in their supply chain. So I mentioned at the beginning this idea of a virtual warehouse.

[00:39:47] This is an offering that we have where companies, instead of storing parts physically on a warehouse, you know, in a traditional physical warehouse, they’re storing them virtually in our digital warehouse. And we’re producing these parts on demand as they’re needed. There’s all kinds of efficiency gains that come from that. So it is no, no more obsolescence. You don’t have working capital tied up in inventory. In some cases, you don’t even need a tool in certain technologies. You don’t have to pay for the warehousing costs and the APICS and the carbon emissions that come along with storing parts for years on years on end without, you know, real big turns. So there’s one that one of the things we talked about and a lot of depth, a couple others around mass personalization. And how do you think about that with your supply chain and accelerate enterprise development? Happy to have your share. More details. But is it really interactive dialog? A lot of good Q&A, a lot of folks from different kind of supply chain angles. We’re engaged in the dialog.

[00:40:48] And Scott, you know, there’s so many issues that go into that. I mean, I know we’ve talked about a few these when when bringing up 3D printing and the virtual warehouse. But I mean, if you think about how much we talk about inventory cost and safety stock, that that that really informs some of some retailers bottom lines. And there the difference between success and failure of a holiday season, you know, where where carried inventory comes into play when you start talking about a virtual warehouse. I mean, it’s a complete industry game changer. It’s you know, when these companies start to start to make these investments and an end in technologies like fast radius where where you can, you know, begin to make this a reality.

[00:41:38] Well, like I want you I’ll put it. I’m not sure if it was part of it. You will in the warm up the the web becomes a warehouse. Right. That’s a that adds a little layer of flexibility. And you know that the word nimble comes to mind or by thereby is looking for the maximizer flexibility. Right. And it seems like that’s one of the advantages that that your clients enjoy.

[00:42:01] Yeah, that’s that’s exactly right. I mean, we were working with a large automotive OEM right now and they’ve got this this part that they look at the math and they say, I’m going to need they know exactly how many they’re gonna need over the next five years. But they said, look, I do not want to go cut a purchase order for one hundred and fifty thousand of these parts.

[00:42:21] Guys, can we just order two thousand at a time from you guys? As we need them and you guys store it virtually. And we don’t have any risk of of ordering more than we need. We don’t have to store these parts in any warehouse. You guys handle all the kind of back end logistics of getting these parts where we need them. It’s a totally different mindset.

[00:42:42] And and companies are just now starting to recognize this as a viable option for their supply chain.

[00:42:50] And like I said, it’s happening now. And we have parts that are on cars, on planes, in medical devices. And it’s just in the last couple of quarters, this is not something that’s been going on for a very long time.

[00:43:03] So, Scott, we should we should take just a small palls right here and sit to let the Supply chain CFO pick their jaws up off the floor that just sits. They’re rewriting their bottom lines right now, I’m telling you.

[00:43:17] So all kidding aside, though. On that note pad yal as we facilitated a variety of events, different supply chain organizations bringing different keynotes and speakers and of course, having a lot of digital conversations, so to speak. It seems like to me and correct me if I’m wrong, it seems like to me that the market is is still understanding and digesting the fact that that additive manufacturing and 3D printing, those aren’t what’s tomorrow. That that’s that’s what’s taking place today. It’s been taking place in a very meaningful and practical way. Right. You do find that that’s still the market is still understanding that.

[00:43:56] Absolutely. It is. It is a pretty recent phenomenon where additive and 3D printing is kind of cross this chasm from what has traditionally been a prototyping tool. As you guys know, additive free brings me around since the 80s. So this is not a new concept, but the ability to make real and use parts that an automotive OEM is going to certify to put on their cars like that is very, very new. These new platforms, new materials, new economics are just just starting to become real and kind of past the certifications required for these production applications.

[00:44:34] And so that’s very recent. And to your point, engineers and even CFO. To your point, will are not fully appreciated. They they’ve heard about 3D printing. You know, there’s been a lot of buzz over the last decade or so and arguably gotten ahead of itself a little bit. If you rewind to the last decade. But but now it’s really happening. I mean, we’re working with customers that for the first time ever are certifying a production additive partner, fought for real and use parts. We have parts that we’re hosting our virtual warehouse. The first time these companies have ever done this. So it is happening now. To your point about education, it’s a really good one. We do find that that companies come to us and say, guys, we know this is out there. We hear we read about it. Maybe our competitors are doing something that piques our interest. What do we do? Fast radius. And so we have a number of ways that we engage with our customers. There are companies that are looking to embrace additive to help them on that journey. So we have a program where we call the application launch program, for example. This is a structure nine month program where we bring a cohort of noncompetitive companies together. And over the course of that six to nine months, we take them through a. Structured process to to first learn what’s possible across all the different technology platforms. Help them build the tools to create the Technical case in the business case, to identify and ultimately launch additive applications. And the goal coming out of that program is not not a training program, although people do learn it is a program designed to deliver impact and really launch an application. And so that done this with a couple of dozen folks now and it’s been really, really successful and are finding a lot of receptivity for this idea of just helping companies jumpstart their additive journey.

[00:46:23] Well, it’s my understanding that fast radius of your work and with more than 300 customers already, including a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies. So it’s not like a clearly a lot of folks are getting it right.

[00:46:37] Yep. No, that’s absolutely right. And, you know, work on those companies in a wide range of engagements. We do, of course, focus primarily on additive manufacturing. But we also have capabilities and some of the legacy techniques. Sometimes we refer to it as hybrid manufacturing, where we’re providing additive parts where they make sense. But in some cases, for whatever reason, additive doesn’t make sense and that’s fine. And so we have a robust network of suppliers for the more traditional manufacturing techniques like injection molding, SEUS, machining, et cetera, that will often rely on to build that full solution for our customers. And so as you mentioned, you know, 300 plus customers, a majority of which are doing additive with us, and some of them are using us more for the traditional manufacturing as well.

[00:47:23] Are you all seeing with the companies you’re dealing with? Are you seeing certain sectors kind of embrace, embrace it more versus the others? Any observations you can share there?

[00:47:36] That’s a great question. We. What’s so exciting about what we’re doing is, is we’re seeing it across almost every industry that makes stuff. So I mentioned automotive there really going into it in a big way, both the OEMs and the Tier 1s and we’re working with a lot of them.

[00:47:53] Aerospace has been pushing the envelope on on metal additive for a long time and they’re really leading into a number of our customers are in the aerospace vertical excuse me, medical devices is another really exciting one where you have these kind of low volume, high value products that are just a really, really nice fit for for additive.

[00:48:18] And then all kinds of consumer applications that are blossoming, the ability to create these new geometries that create performance characteristics, you couldn’t do anything that you couldn’t create any of the way. Things like foam replacement, for example, are our blossoming. And then and then the other one is industrials companies that have a big complex air handling equipment or fluid handling equipment or need to create new manifolds or heat exchangers, things like this, that additive that’s uniquely suited to address.

[00:48:50] So it’s exciting. It’s a bit overwhelming in terms of how many are affected by but by the additive disruption.

[00:48:59] But but it’s great for us. We’re working with all other verticals.

[00:49:02] As you started the answer, if you’re working with automotive, aerospace and medical device, three highly regulated industries where the parts you know, there’s very little tolerance there. Right? A tight tolerances, I mean. And so that tells me that if those industries are turning to out of additive manufacturing and 3D printing to make things happen, that the rest of Tata Wave is surely to follow. Yeah.

[00:49:29] And if you just if you follow, you know, you follow this topic in the news, you’ll see just about every week you’ll hear about an additive manufacturing 3D printed heart that is used, you know, for transplant practice. Honestly, you know, it’s like a very realistic and logical application of the technology because it enables you can get the same size, same weight, you know, specific to what these doctors will be working with. And you’ll hear about that. You’ll hear about 3D printed jol, you know, for four of you know, for a dog, you know that there’s all kinds of stories like that. If you if you if you look form it and they continue to advance, you know, almost month by month, day by day.

[00:50:17] Hey, Pat, can you can, you know, work or manufacturing a top of the rotation staff for the Braves for twenty. Twenty. Yeah, they’re at Wrigley, man. I mean, I knew there. Yeah. All right. So really impressive. You know, I’m really glad this the first time we’ve had some Froome faster ideas on the show. We’ve heard so much about the organization. Of course, the Atlanta Roots Pride helps that. But also what you’re doing out industry is fascinating to be able to kind of put our finger on the pulse with a company of that’s making what’s next happened today. But speaking of that, what is next for fast radius?

[00:50:54] You know, we we just are coming off a pretty significant round of funding. So we raised about forty eight million dollars of growth capital earlier this year and we’re putting that to work.

[00:51:05] We’re hiring sales professional Hurley software developers ramping up our marketing machine. And so it’s it’s grow time works where we’re putting more fuel on the fire to help customers understand what’s now possible and ramp up.

[00:51:20] Both are our engineering and a kind of business development muscle, but but also our infrastructure and bolting on new technology capabilities and new software modules that will that will facilitate the whole process. So it’s making a lot of really big investments to to lay the foundation for what we fully expect will be explosive growth over the next couple of years.

[00:51:44] We’re going to have to have you back on to kind of share more of what you’re what you’re learning, what you’re doing, what you’re how you’re innovating things. The it’s really interesting to see all the different partnerships you’re involved in. So I imagine just like you had the invite from from U.P.S. and CSC, ADP come out in Sheer, what’s new with additive manufacturing? You’ve got a big mailbox, so you’re parking it, beginning a lot more invites out to these industry association events.

[00:52:11] Yeah. So first of all, appreciate being invited to sign it and would be thrilled to continue the dialog. And yeah, you’re right. There are a lot of folks out there that are excited about what we’re doing. Want to learn more both in the industry kind of trade events and publications, but also customers. And so folks are listening and want to learn more. Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

[00:52:34] One of the places that folks can learn more is fast radius dot com, right?

[00:52:39] That’s correct. You know, we’ve got a robust set of materials and common knowledge library there on a Web site and of course, can reach out to me directly or or any one of our our folks through the contact button there in a Web site.

[00:52:51] And you can learn a lot on that site. You know, especially you dig into the resources page and learn learn about some of the materials like polymer and and lattice structures, some of the things that make that make this technology useful and impossible. And Apple applicable for any number of industries.

[00:53:13] Well, good deal. Well, Pat McCusker, chief operating officer with Fast Radius. Thanks so much for joining us here on Supply Chain Now Radio.

[00:53:20] Thank you, Scott. Thank you. Will, appreciate it.

[00:53:23] All right. So Will, let’s welcome in our next guest here today, Nick Dharmendra, founder and CEO at Archer Hub. Nick, how you doing?

[00:53:31] Very good. How are you?

[00:53:33] We’re doing great. Great week here in Atlanta, Supply chain City. And I understand you’re out in Denver, right?

[00:53:40] That’s correct.

[00:53:41] And also understand you’ve got beautiful weather now, but just a few days ago.

[00:53:47] Well, that’s what you get. Living in Denver, what they live in.

[00:53:52] It really is. We’re big fans of the 80s. John Elway and the Denver Broncos. I think they’re getting back to getting to the Super Bowl. Might take him a few extra years, huh?

[00:54:03] Well, that’s the nature of the game.

[00:54:06] That’s just mean to get another manning in there, man. That’s it. That’s for sure. You know, Eli’s there waiting for all the ideas. Trade for him. Just put him in, man. I would definitely miss him.

[00:54:17] Yes. Yes. You’re his brother, Peyton. I guess. All right. So let’s talk about you know, we’re talking today with Supply chain leaders over at CSICOP Edge Conference, a great trade show. And, you know, you have found this this fascinating business, small AACR hub. And my understanding is, is that if y’all being out there was part of the launch of the organization. So. So give our listeners a quick overview of Arter Hub, if you would, Nick.

[00:54:46] Well, auto hub is an acid base. Digital freight broker disrupting the way trucking companies operate and how shippers procure for truck capacity by creating an industry leading digital marketplace for truck load freight. What I mean by that, we make it very easy for shippers and carriers to connect to our mobile application.

[00:55:07] Mm hmm. And that’s that’s critical these days, right? As busy as everyone is. Everyone’s on the go. Certainly if you’re in Supply chain, you’ve got ten different things coming at you all day long. So to be able to to make decisions and make things happen, be your smartphone as a critical advantage of.

[00:55:25] Correct. On top of the fact that we get real time visibility on mobile applications.

[00:55:33] It’s a hot market. I mean, you know, Scott, that’s something that we’ve talked about a number of times on this show. You know, everything from our friends, like a Maureen from Suda here in town. And, you know, certainly starting with cargo chief back in 2015 and moving on into convoy and uber freight. I mean, this is a this is a a marketplace that continues to grow and evolve. And you and you could actually see that Etsy SCMP, all of the companies I just mentioned were there. And in it and in my opinion, it brings this level of innovation and enthusiasm to the space that that hasn’t been seen really, you know, since since I’ve been in, you know, for 20 years now. So we.

[00:56:16] Nick, we’re gonna dove into we’ll to get your thoughts on CE SCMP, the Edge conference here momentarily. But here in the later, we’re gonna wrap up on some of the differences between being an asset based digital freight forwarder and those without assets, but shelving that for a second. Let’s talk about your experience at CSC SCMP, where your team was. This is part of the Lu launch of AACR Hub. What what what appealed to you, you know, making the trip this year to the CSC Impey Edge Conference?

[00:56:46] Well, Keith Sandeep really, as provided one of the best networks experienced in the past, starting from all the parties they hosted, as well as hanging out at the bar, meeting new people in the industry, learning things from each other was just a great show overall.

[00:57:08] That’s what we heard. And Will, I know you were out there too. You enjoyed yourself. Yeah, always. I mean, it’s fun to just reconnect with people that you’ve known for.

[00:57:16] It’s a small world, especially in Supply chain. And to even see like I was able to, you know, Nick and I hanging out with the guys from Logistics Management, that peerless publishing group. You know, there’s there’s there’s a fun loving guys and getting to make sure everybody knows each other and has a couple of beers together and does business but has fun at the same time. I think that that’s that’s a good aspect of that conference that maybe you don’t see and in all of them.

[00:57:40] And so Nick, unquestioned when the networking you enjoyed in particular.

[00:57:47] Oh, yeah. As long as you control your drinking, you’re you’re in great hands.

[00:57:51] No, that’s all I have to say. What’s what goes on in Anaheim stays in hot.

[00:57:57] But so the keynotes and the information exchange. This is some of the things we’ve heard. You know, it’s I think it’s a hallmark of a great event. Yeah, it is. Is when, you know, folks are are coming back with with notebooks full of best practices and ideas and innovative business models, much like Arter Hub. Any any other thoughts about the show before we kind of circle back to the different the advantages and some of the differentiators that your company has?

[00:58:27] Well, one of the things I want to mention about the S&P is how much it has actually helped us. We actually realized a lot of trends in the industry. We also wanted to share our new innovative approach when it comes to digital freight brokerage model.

[00:58:46] And overall, we we really we got very excited about the fact that we weren’t the only one that’s an asset base digital freight broker to show. So was a great show.

[00:59:00] And that’s a really important distinction. There are so many in this that kind of will what you are alluding to there, so many freight forwarders in this era of kind of where we are in this global supply chain era business era, but not nearly as many asset base. That’s a big distinction. So. So, Nick, tell us more about that in the value of working with an asset based digital freight organization versus, you know, those without your own affiliates. Yeah.

[00:59:32] Well, to make a very short. Promotion, internal analysis. 5 percent of all the freight always experiences hiccup while in transit to its delivery, our fleet is there to recover and serve as a backup plan to ensure on time delivery. So every time anything happens while in transit, our algorithm constantly sources for backup plans. And if we are not able to find anything from an outside carrier, we’re using our fleet. It doesn’t matter how many miles it has to do that. We will recover the load and we’ll make sure it gets delivered on time.

[01:00:12] It’s like a ongoing contingency plan or insert plan. That is a that’s a very valuable in this day and age where curve balls seem to seemingly get thrown at us hourly, even if you’re a cards fan or bracing.

[01:00:26] We’ve had our share of curveballs that way. That’s right. Well, you know, this industry, this this, you know, subset of the digital freight freight brokers. You know, it really started because of, you know, backhaul, because of of trucks running empty and smaller carriers trying to compete on a larger level by picking up some of those backhaul. You know, the mom and pops over in McDonough, Georgia, and, you know, Durango, Colorado and such. You know, being able to compete with some of the larger brokers. And I think when you when you bring a believe it assets and having your own fleet adds a new a new layer to the whole conversation, because a lot of times on these connections are made. And correct me if I’m wrong, you Nick, you know, sometimes the connections can’t be made because of remote locations. You know, people may want you to come pick up their backhaul or, you know, from a location that’s maybe not convenient for all of the carriers in your network. And in that case, having a fleet really is an advantage. Correct.

[01:01:35] Correct. And just to break it down in terms of numbers, sometimes it helps the audience to understand when you go in the numbers, let’s say, for example, our shippers giving us a hundred loads, one hundred loads a week as an example. We will always allocate about five chunks because from our analysis, five percent of all the freight always has problems. So we will have five trucks ready just in case to make sure we have the backup, the recovery plan. And that’s how we’re winning shippers over. That’s how a lot of our ships. Okay. Are you happy with us? Because we don’t give them excuse. The freight just gets delivered. So that’s one of the cargo yachts. Why? An asset based digital freight brokerage model is very important for the success of our customers.

[01:02:26] We also, like you, touched on visibility and the transparency in that measure. Those are really hot topics right in this. Then in 2019, supply chain. And it seems like with your technology approach and certainly with the mobile platform, your customers are able to tap into that. All right. So how can folks that you’re your URL is AACR hub dot com, right?

[01:02:58] Yes. And the.

[01:03:02] So folks can could find it. So what else? So this is kind of you’re launching the platform. Well, good.

[01:03:07] Well, one point I was going to make, you know, is that when you have that peace of mind, knowing that you know, that you’re not just reliant on on on the on the magic of the network to sort of make these connections happen. Nick, what are the types of industries that are probably the the most interested in having that? I mean, it’s almost a hybrid solution. Really, when it comes to, you know, to bringing to bringing assets into the equation of digital freight brokerage, what are some of the industries that are most interested in that that you’ve seen?

[01:03:43] Well, we’ve known we’ve noticed any industries related which suit.

[01:03:50] Real like working with us. Right. Basically correct. Especially when they’re located very far away from any other major hubs. It’s very difficult to source for truck capacity. A lot of times, especially when it comes to weather during winter times, good luck finding a truck that heading 300 miles. It doesn’t matter at the base. Well, we’re not. We weren’t doing where we’re actually able to supply with our own trucks. We’re getting ready to make sure that no matter what happens, they constantly have capacity.

[01:04:30] Mm hmm. That’s a good thing. That is a good thing.

[01:04:34] All right, so well, congratulations on the launch of Archer Hub. Seems like it’s been successful. As we mentioned, after Hurricane Wilma. More information? Any other events? Nick, on your count, are you all is part of launching and growing the company to get out and shake hands and meet folks across the botching?

[01:04:55] Well, we’re definitely going to be visiting other conferences, such as I think the next one we’re going to his J-Lo’s seen land distribution, which is going to happen pretty soon.

[01:05:06] Yes, that’s next week, I believe, right? That’s right. Right.

[01:05:11] And then what about freight waves? I know you like going to those shows, too. You hit any of this?

[01:05:17] We’ll definitely. And we’re going to get our V.P. of technology and showing up over there. We’re going to be there as well. We’ll we’ll probably be heading come next. Sheer will probably visit at least 15 different shows so that we get our work out there.

[01:05:34] So one understands the benefits of an asset based brokerage model.

[01:05:42] Fantastic. Yeah. You’re gonna have to. You’re gonna have to sublease an apartment in Chicago over the next 30, 60 days.

[01:05:50] But talk about great town Chicago this time of year. Man, it’s before that weather comes. This is just where it’s at for those guys. Absolutely. We were in Chicago last October, 2018. And my wife and I had a wonderful time where there was an apex event up there. Yeah. And, you know, eaten brunch on the patio. It was probably, you know, sixty five, seven degrees sunny. It was it was gorgeous. Went to a farmer’s market there in one of the neighborhoods. Just had a wonderful time. So anyway. So I’m jealous of your travels. Nixon, enjoy yourself in these upcoming events. Certainly enjoy yourself in Chicago. We look forward to having you back on the show, especially as your organization continues to grow in the upcoming months. What have you back on? And get some your key takeaways from 2019.

[01:06:39] Thank you. You bet.

[01:06:41] Well, great of you. Really big thanks to Nick darvin, chef, founder and CEO at Arcaro Hub. And you can learn more about Archer Hub at a simple u._r._l Arkia iReport.com. Check it out. Good deal.

[01:06:55] All right, Will a great show. Love the tick ways, the insights. Three companies doing some big things and they’re all there at SC Competes Edge Conference.

[01:07:04] Yeah. I mean, again, it’s fun to have three different, completely different industries in the way that they affect Supply chain and in so many different ways. On one show, I thought that was very fun for and hopefully the listeners enjoyed that as well.

[01:07:20] Yep. So big thanks to the team too. Fast Radius aka Hub and Bluejay Solutions. We’ll look forward to checking back in on what they’re doing later this year or early next. So we will wrap up this show by inviting our audience. Come check us out in person. We’ve got the show out on the road. Just next week, October 23rd, we’re going be in Charleston at the South Carolina Logistics Tech Talk, where we’re partnering with the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness. The good news is you can find out more information at SC Competes. Dot org is nice, short and simple. Or on Ailey’s events, you can go to the upcoming events tab at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com and learn more. But looking forward to being back in Charleston was last time you were in Charleston, Will.

[01:08:03] And not that long ago. I’ve got to think about it. But it’s probably eight months ago. Yeah. I love Charleston and especially Sullivan’s Island and Folly Beach, Froome, Mt. Pleasant. It’s all pretty great. So let’s spread out for my taste. But if you stick to one of those areas and just concentrate on that. It sure is a great time.

[01:08:22] Well, we’re looking forward to it. And then we’re going to Austin for the EAFE Logistics CEO forum. By the way, did you know E.M.T. Was recently acquired by Reuters?

[01:08:34] I did. When I get sighting. Yeah, that’s a big deal for all involved. As smart as I think it’s a smart acquisition for Reuters, actually.

[01:08:43] Well, it’s gonna it’s gonna definitely take their events to a whole new level. And they were already outstanding. We’ve enjoyed our partnership with E.M.T. But congrats to the whole HFT team. Nick, A.F. and and the whole team. So, Scott, do you have your do you have your wardrobe together for. For Austin? I mean, it’s a it’s a pretty hip, weird town over there. Well, I also get some tips. You know, I want to make sure I look like a Hollywood hair. HIRWAY Over here as we head in Austin.

[01:09:07] So you have to give some tips on the west side. We can just make a little stop, but there’s barely. Reed Right here. We can make a stop by. SID MASHBURN Right. And, you know, you just gonna we can walk you through it. There’s gasket. They crack you up in a beer. And and just they make you feel comfortable and find what fits your style.

[01:09:23] But my wife would appreciate that. So I’ll take you up on that. So all that four hour trip into Austin, we’re looking forward to sitting down with some leading technology thought. Leaders from the Logistics premiere at an event is all about. You know, freight tech, Logistics tech, Supply chain Tech and all things going on there. So looking forward to that forum in Austin on November 7th and 8th. And then we have got CSC and Atlanta is hosting a roundtable event here in January. Wow. They’re bringing in Gail Rakowski, who’s the executive director with Narced Track Australia. Sam? So I think Gail is going to present a variety of how some of the most recent trucking regulations, how it’s rippling out throughout industry.

[01:10:10] Well, in January, I mean, that’ll be right after the E.O.D. M&A. You know, you finally have have grandfathered out the AOB r.d technology, which you’ve been talking about now for three years. But at the end of that month. It’s really going to finally be the sea change in the industry and it’s going to be a major disruption if those folks aren’t ready for it. I know that’s what I would love to hear from her. I know that that’d be probably one of the top one of her one of her top talking points. Absolutely.

[01:10:37] Looking forward to that in January. Great timing, as you suggest. And appreciate the invite from the local chapter. And then, you know, as we continue on in 2020, we’re still we’re still talking to a variety of different events or I mean, gosh, come on in industry association event space. Yeah, there’s there’s somebody for everybody, right? Yeah. But looking forward to the reverse Logistics Association conference on the shadow in Vegas. Yes. Tony had Tony his team or they’re on the move. You know, while they’re based here in Atlanta, it’s truly a global organization. We have enjoyed our monthly reverse Logistics series that we put on with him, that he go down to Athens and watch his fat Fighting Irish. You know, I don’t know, but he did miss that. I bet you that neither. There’s not much that Tony misses. But looking forward to that event in Vegas in February. And then finally, as we’re launching here, not only is Moto X coming back here to Atlanta, you know, it’s pro Matt in Chicago, one year, the very next year’s Moto X here in Atlanta, one of the largest supply chain trade shows. And. Country, but beyond that, the outsome trade show it is their hosting are 2020 Atlanta Supply chain a man that’s so exciting. It is exciting. And you know, we not only have have confirmed a great Keith keynote in Christian Fisher, president and CEO Georgia-Pacific. Yeah, but SHANN Cooper, executive director with the Atlanta Committee for Progress, is going to serve as our emcee, which is outstanding. And we’re launching a whole new brand related to the Atlanta Supply chain Awards Nute new new award categories. We’ve got a supply chain start up category this year. We’re excited about we’ve added a reverse Logistics award this year, which were great department with early on that. And you know, we appreciate what backbeat marketing does. Y’all are integral to making the first year event 2019 event happen and be a smashing success. So looking forward to partnering with you and your coworkers.

[01:12:34] Well, of course. Yeah, that that’s very important for the for the city, for the Supply chain city and and its role in the industry at large. I mean, I think it’s it’s a great celebration and a needed bit of fellowship. And, you know, the organization that brings us all together.

[01:12:56] Yeah, absolutely. So the awards last Potchen Awards is presented by Supply Chain Now Radio and in partnership with the Metro Atlanta Chamber, CSC, MPE, Atlanta and Apex, Atlanta. So, you know, three, four organizations doing some neat things in the in the in Supply chain community. Okay. For listeners, Moto X is free to attend. You can learn more at mode X, Sherkin, come out and join your 35000 of your your best friends and make them arta.

[01:13:25] Martin, it’s going to it’s going to dump you right in there. Just take them, Arta. Absolutely. Marda is smart.

[01:13:31] So great again. Great show. Appreciate all the takeaways we had on this show from our friends at Bluejay Solutions and Arcaro Hub and Fast Radius. Yeah, we had Patrick maylee, chief marketing officer with Bluejay. We had Nick Garmin, Chef, Dorment, chef. Thank you very much, founder and CEO at Archer Hub. And of course, Pat McCusker, chief operating officer with a fast radio store, doing some really neat things.

[01:13:56] Each of those organizations, I love the conversation. I mean, like I said, it’s it’s that that that’s tackling it from all three sides. And yeah, that’s that’s that’s what we try to do here.

[01:14:05] Absolutely. So to our audience, be sure to check out other upcoming events, replays for interviews, other resources at Supply Chain Now Radio RT.com. If you want to kind of see behind the scenes view of our podcasts here, check out our YouTube where we’re publishing more, more video content. Kind of a behind the scenes podcast approach. And if you’re a visual person like I am, you’ll you’ll you’ll dig that as well. But check this out Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. On behalf of the entire team here, this is Scott Luton. And we’ll here away wishing you a wonderful week ahead and we will see you next time on Supply Chain Now Radio. Thanks everyone.