2019 marked an impressive milestone for POI – our 11th anniversary. It is truly incredible to look back at the progress we have made as an Association and as an industry over the past years. This year, POI has grown to encompass a global network of more than 16,800 industry professionals, with our membership taking on, and achieving more today than in the prior years.

These changes, due in part to technological advancements, increased formats and competition, plus changing consumers have affected distribution channels, trading partner relationships, and, in many instances, helped spur targeted growth.

While we are proud of recent progress, we have not lost focus on the future. In fact, we have just graduated more of our next generation leaders (from Wawa, Constellation Brands, Atkins Nutritionals, McKee Foods, Campbell, and others) earlier this month at the POICertification in Collaborative Marketing at Saint Joseph’s University. We are more eager about 2020 and beyond, than ever before.

As you are well aware, our industry continues to face strong headwinds – talent acquisition, market pressures, shifting consumer preferences, evolving customer preferences, and an uncertain political landscape in the U.S. and Europe.

Acknowledging this reality, the POI is passionately working to build an even more engaged and impactful organization that can continue to effectively advocate, educate and communicate, and advise on necessary trends, and needed advancement for Sales, Marketing, and Merchandising Executives.

2019 Accomplishments included The inaugural POI Canadian Growth Summit, where over 200 FMCG and Retailer Attendees engaged around Canadian Retail best practices, and how to leverage AI, RGM, TPx, D2C, and Advanced Analytics to serve that shared shopper. The POI Spring 2019 Summit in Chicago was sold out, with more Manufacturers taking on new projects than ever before. We launched the successful POI Transformational Leadership Council, where senior executives took on our industry’s greatest, (and previously unsolvable) challenges, and began identifying solutions. The POI European Summit in May, in Rotterdam aboard The SS Rotterdam was a tremendous success with our growing community to navigate better with TPx, Retail Execution, AI, Omni Channel, and Advanced Analytics for ROI. The POI Webinar Series reached over 7500 unique professionals across the globe.  The 3rd Annual POI Northeast Regional Summit was a success, with engaged professionals lauding the focus, takeaways, and new ways to collaborate across teams and trading partners.  This included a deep dive on Advanced Trade Marketing Practices and the Substantial ROI for improved capabilities.  At POI Dallas, we experienced increased engagement in our executive RGM Share Group. We have room for 3 more senior level RGM Professionals. The renewed POI TPx and Retail Execution Survey and Report, used by POI Members to benchmark their efforts, and identify areas for improvement was utilized by more executives then in any year prior to identify gaps, opportunities, and strategic priorities.

2019 was also the year of POI Lightning Talk Sessions reaching all our event attendees!  These are five-minute talks presented sequentially without interruption.  The point of each lightning talk is not to give a detailed talk but rather to present briefly the latest and most interesting technological advancement.  They cover the vendors capabilities, start with the good stuff and end making a point. These efforts are especially important now as trading partners work to implement and harmonize new global systems, adjust to an evolving retail landscape, and set the stage to address challenges from Online Retailers that could directly and fundamentally impact our industry.

In 2019 Pam Brown, Chief Commercial Officer took on the advancement, and renewed relevance of the POI TPx and Retail Execution Vendor Panoramas’, where Consumer Goods companies now, more than ever, rely on these documents when considering technological advancements with their TPM, TPO, RGM, eCommerce, AI, and Retail Execution capabilities.  This was integral to our success in creating CPG Manufacturer Share Groups in Europe, Canada, and the US.

The POI’s recent efforts on each of these topics, and more (including reports, and presentations, may be found, and are described in detail on the POI Website here.  The upcoming Holidays’ present a great opportunity to catch up, and read through the wealth of POI Resources to prepare for a successful 2020!  Reach us with your thoughts, and needs.

As our year, and 11th anniversary comes to a close, I want to thank each of you for your support and dedication to making POI the leading voice of the global CPG and Retail industry focused on the distribution and promotion of Consumer Goods (TPM, TPO, RGM, AI, CX, Retail Execution, Omni Channel and Collaborative Marketing).

With your continued engagement and input, I am confident we can work together to build an even stronger, more connected POI Community that will advance the interests of our industry now and for years to come.

We sincerely invite you to share your thoughts, and needs with us by dropping us a note at mkantor@p-o-i.org, or pambrown@p-o-i.org

Sincerely,

Michael, Pam, and the entire POI Team
Reach us with any needs, questions, or requests to further engage with POI at:
PamBrown@P-O-I.org
MKantor@P-O-I.org

Have a sensational week!