Procurecon Indirect West 2025

March 03 - 05, 2025

“I get to meet a lot of indirect sourcing professionals that are thinking about the same problems that I am plus solving problems that I don't have yet.”

Joe Catalano
Finance Specialist

ZS Associates

Joe’s ProcureCon Story At a Glance

First Year Attended: 2019

How He’s Participated: Attendee

Conference Highlights: Opportunity to learn how other service companies are modifying their structures to allow for expanded strategic procurement functions.

"Strategic sourcing is a fairly new development at our organization…"

I was recruited to get the ball rolling on strategic sourcing in our company. It was a new function for me too so I just googled for Procurement events to go to. ProcureCon was the only event that fit the bill I terms of what I was looking to learn. I have been to three ProcureCon events in 2019!

"The ProcureCon Series of events have been my go to learning platforms…"

Every ProcureCon event I have been to this year has given me a new tools, new strategies on how to build in procurement functions into our organization. I have already implemented so much of what I have learned from these events. To give a few examples:

  1. I learnt from Walmart that it is best to create your own terms and conditions in a contract so you don’t have to rely solely on the vendor. It also gives you control over the things you value and want included.
  2. I learned how to set up a new procurement team. What to look for in soft skills from a strategic perspective.
  3. Bringing EQ awareness in in-person negotiation. I did a presentation on this with my IT Department right after I got back from the event. And we’ve since modified our workflow to fit what was prescribed.

"I will continue to attend and bring my team to ProcureCon events in 2020!"

ProcureCon has become a learning tool for me and my team. I already brought along my one of our new analysts to the event to help him expand his perspective on all the possibilities in strategic sourcing. I will be bringing others to ramp up their training and to get them thinking early about how we can undertake strategic sourcing as a function of our team.