2008 ASGA Industry Forum - The Changing Landscape

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Li Cunxin (pron "Lee Schwin Sing"), author "Mao’s Last Dancer"

As a motivational and inspirational speaker, Li’s unique real life story has inspired many corporations and conferences.  It is a unique story that has touched people deep in the heart. Li is one of the top international speakers today.

Born into “bitter poverty” Li recounts his determination, perseverance, vision, courage and hard work, and in particular, the sacred family values and integrity that he learned in poverty stricken China that drove him to become one of the best dancers in the world.

Li Cunxin is a remarkable man borne of a remarkable story.

GUEST PRESENTATIONS

Jeff Fairbairn, Country Manager UPS Australia

UPS is the world’s largest package delivery company and a global leader in supply chain services, serving more than 200 countries and territories around the globe.

UPS offers an extensive range of options for synchronising the movement of goods, information and funds, from supply chain management to financial services. Synchronising all these services is what sets UPS apart.

Jeff will discuss the changing landscape in supply chain services, the movement of sporting goods manufacturing away from China and into other Asian countries and how Australian companies can save on significant warehousing costs.

Jeff will also discuss the UPS supply chain relationship with the BOCOG 2008 (Beijing Olympic Games).

In this capacity, Jeff oversees the management of the company’s operations in Australia and New Zealand, in areas including marketing, business development, finance & accounting, supply chain management as well as their day-to-day operations.

Jeff joined UPS in 1992 in Melbourne as the Victorian State Manager. Six years later, Jeff was promoted to the position of President Director of UPS’s operations in Indonesia, where he played an instrumental role in growing the business and expanding the reach of UPS across the Indonesian archipelago.

In 2001, Jeff was relocated to India where he led the UPS operations and successfully expanded UPS’s service coverage to span 16 Indian cities within three years.

Jeff is a veteran of the industry with over 30 years’ experience. Prior to his career with UPS, Jeff has worked in various capacities in the logistics industry in regions such as Papua New Guinea, Sydney, the Pacific Islands, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Julie Callinan, Manager of the Intellectual Property Rights Group – Customs Australia.

Julie works closely with other Government agencies in the development of domestic and international policy in relation to intellectual property rights enforcement.  She oversees the administration of the Customs Notice of Objection Scheme and develops and conducts IP training for Customs regional officers involved in the detection of counterfeit and pirated goods.  In 2007 Julie was selected by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) as an expert trainer in Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy and is authorised to conduct training on behalf of the WCO in this area.

Prior to joining Customs I worked for IP Australia in the Trade Marks & Designs Office, initially as an examiner of trade marks and in my last two years with the office, as the project manager for the Trade Marks Legislation Review.  I hold a Graduate Certificate in Trade Mark Law & Practice and have a real interest in the effective enforcement of IP rights.

Lisa Egan, Senior Associate and Jonathan Feder, Solicitor - Middletons Lawyers

Brand protection is critical to maintaining a competitive edge in business.  Lisa Egan and Jonathan Feder of Middletons will discuss the importance of obtaining the right sort of protection through trade mark and design registrations  both in Australia and internationally.  In particular, they will outline more novel ways of protecting your brand and the appearance of products so that you can stay one step ahead of the copycats.

Lisa Egan is a senior associate in the Innovations group at Middletons.  Lisa has extensive experience in advising clients on issues related to counterfeiting, parallel importation and protection of their intellectual property rights.  Lisa has acted for a number of clients in litigation to enforce protection of their trade marks, copyright and registered design rights, as well as protection of reputation and misleading and deceptive conduct.  Lisa has been a member of the International Trade Mark Association Anti-Counterfeiting Committee since 2006.

Jonathan Feder is a solicitor in the Innovations group at Middletons.  He has acted for a wide range of clients particularly in the fashion industry, in advising on how to best protect their intellectual property rights through trade marks and design registrations, and enforcing copyright rights.  Jonathan also has experience in litigation in these areas.

Tim Lewis,  Director for Product Innovation and Strategy, Hitwise

The on-line market space is becoming more relevant to our entire industry, whether you be a supplier, manufacturer or retailer. 

Tim will discuss solutions to arm you with a better understanding of your “on-line” market and the “on-line” behavioural purchasing patterns of consumers wanting your products.

Hitwise is a leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,400 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behaviour of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing.

Sean Sloan, Manager Retail and Logistics, GS-1 Australia

Sean has been with GS-1 Australia for over 18 months now, focussing on the General Merchandising and Apparel Sectors within Retail as well as logistics. Sean’s main role is to engage industry sectors to determine what value the implementation of the GS-1 System can give them, whether that is basic numbering and bar coding or advanced supply chain products like RFID. Sean is currently working with the Surfwear and Lifestyle Clothing sector introducing a range of standards, as well as the Music and Entertainment sector looking at RFID.

Sean will provide insight into how GS-1 Australia helped ASGA Member, SportZStats use the GS-1 System, and the help of an Alliance partner to get into Kmart and others who mandated the use of e-Messaging standards. In short it is a simple story that demonstrates that major retailers utilise standards and it is not difficult to comply with, no matter what your company size is!