Shownotes Transcript
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The New Warehouse podcast hosted by Kevin Lawton is your source for insights and ideas from the distribution, transportation, and logistics industry. A new episode every Monday morning brings you the latest from industry experts and thought leaders. And now, here's Kevin.
Hey, it's Kevin with the New Warehouse Podcast bringing you a new episode today. And on today's episode, I am going to have two guests for this special episode focused on the work conference coming up in New Orleans this June 2024.
And I am going to be joined by Christy Montgomery, who is the VP of Innovation, Research, and Development at Kenco. And also Mel Alwood, who is the Regional VP of Operations at Neovia Logistics. And they're going to join me to, we're going to talk a little bit about the industry. We're going to talk a little bit about what's going on.
But we're also going to talk about the conference coming up. What's it expect there? The new warehouse will be on site doing some podcasts and enjoying some of the sessions and networking. But we're going to hear from their perspectives, too, on what we should be looking out for, who should be there and all of the ins and outs of work. So Mel and Christy, welcome to the show today. How are you both?
Great. Thanks. Thanks for having us. Definitely. Happy to get you both on. Happy to talk about work. I say work is like one of my favorite conferences, I think, because it's so, so
So warehouse focused, right? And obviously I got a podcast about warehousing, so I love the warehouse. So definitely excited for this coming up here in a couple of weeks. So tell us a little bit about yourselves, Christy. Why don't you start it off? Tell us a little bit about your role and a company you work for. Yeah, I'm Christy Montgomery and I work for Kenco Logistics Services. We're a 75 year old third party logistics company located in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
We're a $1.5 billion organization, and we have 140 plus sites around North America, warehouses around North America. And our focus is really on five industry verticals and celebrating the customers that sit in those, primarily Fortune 500 companies. So my role is really to
look out at what's happening in the marketplace, what's trending, where is warehousing headed, what's changing, what's going on with the workforce, how is automation impacting the warehouse, and then help our customers understand
choose and look at what their future of their warehouse needs to look like, whether that's an automation play or it's a digitization play, but how do we truly transform the warehouse into something that's going to be viable five, 10 years down the road. So I'm, I'm the person looking more at the long-term strategy versus the short-term wins and improvements. So that's, that's my role at Kenco. Very nice. Very nice. And it sounds like a fun role to me. I will say definitely. Yeah. And Mel, how about you?
So I'm Mel Allwood. I'm the regional vice president for Niovia Logistics. I have operations in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and LATAM, primarily in automotive, aerospace, industrial, and technology. Niovia is interesting. We were originally an OEM.
We're a global company, but that OEM background gives us a real unique perspective on what our customers need, how to engineer solutions, and then, frankly, ensure that we are executing flawlessly across all of our customers, across all of our sites.
Very interesting. And I'm sure it gives you some interesting perspective with everything that's going on right now, too. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So we're going to talk about work and the work conference today. And the tagline for this year, I think, is very interesting. It's leading with vision, right? So I'm curious from both of you, what does that tagline mean to you? And why is it important for the industry to lead with vision right now? Mel, you want to kick that one off?
Sure. For me, leading with vision means you set a course, right? And you follow that course short-term and long-term. And even when you have to adapt, you have to come back to center. So that's what the vision does. I think currently in our current geopolitical climate with all the things that are going on, having a vision has become even more important.
because we could very easily get pulled off course or get sidebarred. And coming back to that vision is going to keep us continuing to focus on the right things in the industry and then to be able to serve our customers, our supply base every day, every way. But having that vision, if you don't have it, you're just going to stray. And I think we're seeing that right now.
Yeah, absolutely. And it is certainly an interesting time. I think it's definitely a hot topic we're going to touch on here a little bit. But Christy, let's get your perspective. What does that tagline mean to you, leading with vision? I think Mel said it well. We're in such a period of economic uncertainty, market pressures, uncertainty.
random events like COVID, there's just so much that impacts the supply chain in today's world. And warehouses are so much the foundation of how
how we provide goods to our global workforce. And so I think when I think about it, we really at work, you said it in the intro, we're focused on truly an educational conference where people come together to learn about how they can do things better and walk away with things that are actual benefits
value generating action items that they can implement in their warehouse. And so I think, you know, for me, it's about, first of all, leadership. We need to lead. We in the supply chain industry have so often taken a background step in an organization. And I think with COVID, we've come to the forefront now. Warehousing and transportation supply chain is very important. People have realized it. And so
Now it's how, like Mel said, do we set a course, do we set a vision and we say this is what we see happening in the industry, this is what we see happening in the market, this is what we see happening in geopolitics and the economy.
And here's how we are going to navigate that with flexibility, obviously, but really being able to look at the short and midterm things that you need to do to be successful today. But where do you go in the future? How do you set yourself up for success and relevancy, quite frankly, five years from now?
So it's about being able to have that courage and that tenacity to stand up as a leader and say, this is where we're going and have people follow you and continue to elevate efficiency within your space, but also looking out for your workforce and being relevant down the road. Interesting. Interesting. And I love that you said have courage in there, right? Because I think it does take, it does take courage to say that like,
you know, we are going to do this and we're going to invest in this, even in these times of, you know, uncertainty a little bit to, to try and still see like, you know, five years down the road, like you mentioned, and try and have, have that vision and, and stick to it. Right. And not, not be wavered on, on,
you know, some of the uncertainty or the potential risk that's there. I think that that courage is really a great thing that you mentioned there, Christy. So now when we look at this, and I'm curious too, you mentioned there something about
You know, since COVID, right, the warehouse has gotten more attention, certainly, right? We've become a little bit of the spotlight in a good way, but also in a bad way, maybe, too, a little bit. So tell us a little bit about, you know, how is that climate, right? How is the atmosphere for companies when they're thinking now about their warehousing distribution or fulfillment? Are they...
Putting more importance, are they putting more attention, seeing it as more of a vital part of their organization as a whole and not just something that is just moving boxes around?
Yeah, I think, Kevin, for sure, we're seeing customers that are putting a lot more attention on supply chain than they have in the past and seeing their warehouse as a very critical piece of their success as an organization. And so we're seeing them focus on, you know, how do we do warehousing better? How do we automate? How do we put some attention on our workforce? What's happening with that workforce in the next 10-year horizon? And how do we ensure that
resiliency within our warehouses, you know, as we look out to the workforce shrinking and now we have to look at automation. And to your point about investment, that does require some ability to take a risk and say, we see what's coming, let's take that risk. And so we're seeing a lot of our customers being much more open to a longer term capital investment in their warehouses than they've previously been. You know, that was warehouses were kind of shoved to the side as
If we have extra money left over, we might spend it there, but we're really going to focus primarily on the core of the manufacturing of what we're making or the service we're offering versus really taking a look at that warehouse as an integral part of the success of their organization and being willing to put capital dollars there. And so that's for us since COVID, that's one of the biggest changes we've seen is our customers are a lot more open to
taking a risk and investing in their warehouse operations. And just for us, interestingly, we're having more conversations about the workforce. In the past, that was kind of our problem. You deal with your now, they're very interested in what's the stability of your workforce, what's your bench strength of your workforce, how are you going to address all the challenges that come with workforce because they've learned that
that workforce is no longer, right? There's not a pool of the same amount of capabilities. So you have to start getting creative and you have to start looking at different ways of addressing the workforce. Automation being one, but then there's always that core need of that work.
the people doing the work as well and conversations almost daily, weekly with customers about our workforce that didn't occur prior to COVID. You know, it was kind of, you deal with your people, just get them here now. It's like, what are you guys doing? How are you doing it? How are you going to make sure people are available? Has become a key topic. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's very interesting to see, see the interest there, right? Cause like it was interviewing somebody a couple of weeks ago and they were like, Oh, you know,
for so many years I did supply chain and then the pandemic happened and now my friends and family are like,
oh, this is what you do, right? Like, you're the problem. It's a problem, right? I say that all the time. Until COVID, my in-laws had no idea what I did for a living. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, you, and I'm like, yeah, me. It's all you. You're the reason I don't have toilet paper, yes. So I think it's very interesting to see that evolution, right? And we see even as...
you know, continuously now these, these changes are happening. You know, there's so much more of a focus on how do we do that? And I think there's like a realization to on, you know, especially like on the e-commerce side of things, like how, how do we look at the, the customer experience, right. And, and the fulfillment and warehousing is such a critical step in that customer experience for, for those interactions. Right. So, so as we go into the conference here, I think I know, um,
one of the answers to this question, right? But what do you think will be some of the kind of the main topics, trends that people are really interested in learning about or discussing with their peers at the conference this year? Mel, you want to answer that one? Yeah.
You already said it's going to be labor. I mean, labor has been the key topic for the last three years. Availability, of course, but also things such as, you know, how are we managing more than a multi-generational diversity? And we've talked diversity for a while, but now that generational diversity and maybe having leaders that aren't as comfortable with some of the different ways different generations approach work.
Also tapping into what, you know, kind of slang called the gig workers, right? How do we maximize to that? How do we start being more flexible?
Traditionally, warehousing is not a flexible, you come in, you walk out, you do your thing. Now it's like that doesn't work anymore. So how do you start tapping into that? And then another thing, which we actually have a good session on this year, is tapping into talent pools that we haven't. Whether it's people with challenges, right, that maybe we would not view as traditional workers, but can be very challenging.
strong workers in certain environments. How do we tap into that? How do we become more adaptable is a key part of the labor discussion as well. So I certainly think labor will continue to be, to tap into what Christie was saying, that also we know that our labor pools are shrinking. So what is automation, right? What does that really mean in terms of how it supports or replaces is a harsh word, but certainly replaces some level of workforce that no longer will be available.
Interesting. And what do you think, Chrissy, what do you think is going to be the hot topics this year? Yeah, I think I agree with Mel that certainly workforce is always, it's been at the top of our list for years at work. But you'll also see a significant focus this year, as you can imagine, on artificial intelligence and how that is impacting the warehouse. On the positive side of things, how do we, and this again, to me, goes back to the people aspect, which may sound a little odd, but
But how do you augment that workforce that you do have, give them better tools to make better decisions faster, quicker, be more efficient? So, you know, a lot of what we focus on is how do we bring a different level of efficiency to our warehouses so that we're continuing to improve and get better effectively?
as time goes on. And sometimes you've hit all the low hanging fruit with what you can do with the workforce. And now you have to layer something on a technology onto the workforce. And sometimes, like Mel said, that's an automation, but it also can be a digital technology. Something like gamification, for instance, the younger generation, how do we appeal to how they want to work in today's workforce? Things like flexibility and allowing them to swap shifts and things like that. So you'll see some changes
You'll see some things around artificial intelligence, around digital automation, around allowing us to have flexibility, but all focused on how do we become better at what we do in the warehousing industry? How do we level up our game? How do we continue to get more and more efficient customers demanding more? How do we give them more and yet do that in a cost-effective manner?
And yeah, those pesky customers, right? They're always demanding more. What's wrong with them? Yeah.
So I'm curious from you too, Christy, I mean, because your role, right, is, you know, innovation, research, and development, right? So you're, I mean, leading with vision, like, that's you, right? I mean, you're trying to find, like, what is in the next five years. So I'm curious, what is your approach to navigating some of that when you go to a conference like work or even like a ProMat, right, when you're trying to figure out what is next and, you know, how do you...
maybe navigating some of that and you know what's what's really viable and what's just like you know it's it's a little flashy but it's not quite sticky yet how do you navigate some of that now
That's a great question. It is. I spend, do attend ProMap, MODEX every year and spend a lot of time in the startup section, what's happening with those folks at CSCMP as well. But I also spend a lot of time in what I'll call startup accelerators. We have a couple of them. We're very fortunate here in Chattanooga, we're called Freight Alley. And so there's a lot of
startup community technology happening within the Chattanooga area around transportation distribution warehousing. And so as I walk through a lot of those accelerators and do corporate matchmaking events and things like that, there's always a theme. You'll see every year there's 10 companies doing this one thing. That generally leads me to say, okay, this is an important trend that I need to pay attention to because there's a whole bunch of startups kind of
clustering around this specific technology. A few years ago, that was camera vision. And how do we take computer vision, camera vision, and use that in the warehouse to augment our workforce, to notify us of potential opportunities to be more proactive, to prevent safety incidents, all sorts of different things. But I was seeing a huge uptick
in these startup companies that were working within the camera vision space. And so now, as I attended ProMAT this year, you see a number of companies that are using computer vision to navigate automation around the warehouse, to intercept your security cameras, to potentially notify you of a safety problem, a coaching opportunity, to recognize damage on inbound or outbound product.
to see fraud happening in the warehouse where cases are coming off, just all sorts of applications of that. So for me, it's a lot of spending time in this startup community to see what they're not, not so much a specific startup, but what is the, what are the cluster points for these startup companies that are really kind of starting to coalesce? And I say, okay, that's probably going to be something big in three to five years from now.
So that's kind of how I navigate this. But then there's a lot of just, you know, I follow a lot of companies on LinkedIn and a lot of the private equity and the venture capital kind of startup firms that say, hey, check this company out, check that company out. So figuring out which one's going to be viable, a little bit more difficult, but I think...
I mean, I've been in this industry for 30 plus years. I'm dating myself now. But I think if you've been around long enough and you've had the focus on the people aspect, I think that's what it comes down to. When these companies come into our industry,
not understanding the industry at all, but they're just, "Hey, I've built this robot. Look at it. It's really cool and it's a great robot and it works wonderfully." But it doesn't understand warehousing and how we actually do things in a warehouse, you know they're probably not going to make it. For me, it's having that domain expertise along with in their founder group that says, "Okay, these guys get it. They get what we do. They've lived in our world.
they know what they can understand the problem from our perspective. They're probably going to make it or, or get gobbled up by somebody who, who wants to own them, but they're probably going to be biased. I see too many of these companies that start out with a good idea of, I want to solve this problem, but they don't really understand the problem because they don't live in our world. Yeah. It's such a, such a great point. Cause you know, by association with the podcast, I mean, I talked to a lot of them too and I have, you know, some of them reach out in there and,
Coming from totally different industry and they've come up with some tech thing and they're like, oh, I think this could do something in the warehouse. And you're like, well, what about this part? Or what about this part? And they're like, oh, I didn't know. Is that really a thing in the warehouse that really happens? And it's like, yeah, that really happens, right? So, I mean, that's a great point and great advice too for anybody with a startup looking to get into the space. I mean, understanding that...
you know, those on the floor problems and the reality of what happens in these, these spaces is, is really, really critical. I think to the viability, as you, as you said there, and now Mel, and on your side, I'm curious, um,
What are you seeing? Like we kind of talked a little bit about some of the uncertainty happening right now, right? And we know that a lot of that is from what's going on with the tariffs and these different trade deals going or ending or who knows what they're doing at this point. But, you know, what are you seeing on your side? Because you mentioned you guys have your roots in being in OEM and you have some international presence there as well. What are you seeing in the...
I guess what's happening right now for you and your customers? What's kind of the feeling on the ground there? Really, it's uncertainty. Everything is right. It's this today. It's that tomorrow. It's this next week. It's uncertainty. And we are very partnered with our customers. That's one of our strengths. And their uncertainty is how is it going to impact them, right?
Literally like a call with a customer that just got words of tariffs and you can see the processing trying to figure out what is this going to mean? What do we have to do? But then maybe two days later that changes. So I think right now we're just in a real period of uncertainty and change.
And our goal is to make sure we meet the needs, not only just in the warehouse, but also it's going to change distribution, right? Looking at network, how is the distribution? Are we getting a product going to move from one country to another country? All of that is very much in works right now.
in conversations daily with the customers as they navigate it. And then we need to be prepared to be agile and be able to support their decisions even as they kind of flex through them. Right now, the good thing is I don't see anybody knee jerking right more as learning and figuring out, but being prepared because change changes already here. Right. I mean, change is with us every minute.
Now we're accelerating change again. So I think it's really being able to partner with our customers, being able to support our customers, and then being able to move with them to be able to support their decisions as they actually navigate this week, this month, next month, and going forward. Interesting. Yeah. And I think it's very just an interesting environment to be in, right? And just to see how are people...
working around this, preparing, and it is an uncertainty, right? And I'm certain that it will be a topic of discussion among people at the conference, right? And by then, you know, we're recording this on, it's April 22nd right now by
June 8th when the conference is, I'm sure there will be some other changes that have happened, right? The one certainty is there's going to be change. That is the one certainty. That is a good point there, Val, definitely. And I definitely think while it won't be a formal topic of our sessions, it's going to be a large topic of the informal network. I think everybody that comes together, this is going to be a conversation.
And I think that's a great opportunity to continue to kind of grow our share of knowledge to figure out how to move forward. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it's going to be a lot of great like peer to peer sharing there. Like, you know, what are you doing or what are you doing for your clients and what are your clients doing? How are we working through this? Right. So so I guess to that point, it's a good to you for this question for the work conference. Who for people that, you know, haven't been before, who would you say should attend? What do you think, Christy?
I would say anybody who has a leadership role in a warehouse needs to be there. We're going to have so many sessions that give you an opportunity to hear from others and how they've implemented things or how they do things, processes things.
that they've deployed. We really focus a lot at work on ensuring that you hear from practitioners, people who are actually doing the work every day and how they've done it. And we have these great peer-to-peer sessions where we get in a room, a round table, so to speak, in a room of 30 people, and we just discuss topics of how we've handled things, how we've dealt with things. And
it's such a great experience to hear from others and just an open, transparent manner. That's one of the things that's great. So, you know, from, you know, anybody VP level all the way down to the floor manager, I would say can learn something at work and can find people to really connect with and form those lasting relationships. You know, I have people that I met at work
20 years ago that I still reach out to and say, Hey, I was thinking about this. Have you guys done anything like this? And it's just a very, it's a very open, like I said, transparent relationship that forms at work where a unique community of practitioners, where we see each other as, you know, as expert experts that we can go to when we're, when we're struggling with something or, you know, just to find an opportunity to have a conversation and make a connection. So I would say anybody in that, in that warehouse space,
supervisor, manager, all the way up through corporate operations manager, directors, VPs. I mean, it's a, it's a great space to, to meet people that are doing the same kind of work that you're doing and, and learn from them. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a, an awesome place to, to do that for, for people in the warehouse, right? Because you go, I mean, there's so many, so many
so many other conferences and shows and things, right. But, um, not many that are really just focused on the, the warehouse part of the supply chain, right. You know, maybe there's a little, little warehouse track where there's like a little warehouse theater or something like that, but this is all warehouse all the time. Right. Which I think is, is great obviously, cause I'm passionate about the warehouse, but Mel, would you add anything to that? Any other advice?
Well, I'm one of those people. I attended, I think, four years ago and was immediately hooked. And literally put my hand up and said, "Hey, I'd like to be part of this." And for me, we spend a lot of time really trying to make it meaningful. We do a lot of work on looking over the submissions and then working with the presenters and really trying to make sure that it's meaningful to our participants.
And one of the things that really sets us apart, in my opinion, is the peer-to-peer. I've never been to a conference where the peer-to-peer is meaningful and it's not being led. It's because of the people in the room and that opportunity to sit there and talk through and, hey,
I'm doing this. We had a great session last year on managing across the generations that it was a blowout with people saying, can we do this again? Because they took so much away from being able to have that conversation. So I think that and then what's crispy said, anybody that interacts with warehouses can take away something meaningful from the work conference without a doubt. And I've had everybody from a student
to the CEO at TED, everybody's walked away with that feedback. We need to get more people knowing we're here and knowing how much value we provide back out to the warehouse space. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's a great, great place to do that and learn
and learn, you know, not only from the speakers, right, but also learn from your peers too. Like, what are you doing about this, right? How are you navigating that? And I think it's such a great environment for that and my experience has been the same, definitely. So, how would you recommend, you know, somebody's first time attendee or maybe they haven't gone in
in a couple of years or, or maybe they've gone a lot, but they're still trying to figure out how can they get the most out of the conference? How would you recommend they, they go about that? How would they set themselves up for, for success at the conference? For me, it's take advantage of everything.
Don't limit yourself. Don't think this is all I want to learn. Figure out your thought sessions. Figure out your peer-to-peers. Do the networking events. That's great. Like we talked about, informal conversations. Do the tours. And really, for me, use the app.
It is one of the best conference apps I've ever used. It's easy to use and helps you organize where you've got to be, where you're going, gives you everything. And then for us, it's even more important because we want the feedback. Again, we are very thoughtful and we take that feedback seriously and take it into the next year's conference to say, hey,
man, this session, it didn't resonate really well. What do we need to do to make it better next year? This like, you know, everybody wanted to go. They kept knocking on the door. How do we repeat this? But really, I think people have to come in and not get like, don't just get on one certain track, you know, sample things and take things across the spectrum to really be able to understand all that the conference, the value that it provides to someone. And what do you think, Christy? How do you get the most out of it?
Yeah, I would agree 100%. And this year, I'm really excited on Sunday, but right, you know, ahead of the conference, we have a class called Networking 101. And one of our council members, advisory council members and committee members is leading that and she's really targeting those folks who've never been to a work conference before on how you get involved, how you connect, how you connect with people.
how you really get the most out of the conference. But I would agree with Mel, like don't be afraid to participate. Like go walk up to somebody, introduce yourself and say, hey, who do you work for? This is what I do. You know, what are your challenges? What are you guys facing? What are the gaps happening in your organization? And just take it upon yourself to own your own participation. And because it's a smaller conference, it's not like there's, you know,
where there's 50,000 people, right? We're very focused on warehousing. We're all there to help each other. We're all there to share best practices. I think it fosters that community aspect. And that's what I've always loved about work. We all feel like we're one big community of warehousers. And, you know, I, I,
When I first started going to work was very much I'm not really an extrovert, but I wanted to meet people and I wanted to understand what they did. And I wanted to be able to come back and say, hey, I talked to somebody from Target and they're doing this really interesting thing. Or I talked to somebody from The Gap and they're doing this really interesting thing.
And just really plug in. And people are always willing to have a conversation. Find somebody you haven't sat down with before and have lunch with them, right? You know, have breakfast, sit beside them in the main sessions, whatever it takes. But put yourself out there. Meet people, I would say. But I think that networking one-on-one class is going to be great. And I will say the MHI organization and work does a fantastic job of putting together networking events before the conference, the nights of the conference. And our...
Our event on Tuesday night is going to be at the Mardi Gras Museum, which is going to be phenomenal and is going to be so much fun. And so I'm going to encourage people to stay, stay over and be there for that piece of that networking event, because that's going to be such an opportunity for people to make connections and build lifelong relationships with people who do the same thing they do every day.
Yeah, absolutely. And I love that you're having the networking one-on-one session because I think that's, to some of Mel's points earlier, like managing across generations and the new workforce coming in, I think there's some...
that's a challenge sometimes for, for younger generations, like as they're getting into the workforce or trying to learn more, like figuring out how to network and, you know, just walk up to somebody and say, Hey, this is, this is what I do. It can be intimidating a little bit. So I love that you're, you're putting that as kind of a little, little kickoff session for, for the conference that, that week. And you definitely want to get there on, on Sunday, I will say, and then, and hopefully stay till, till Wednesday because sometimes,
Tuesday night, I mean, I'm super excited for that. So I have family down there, so I've spent a lot of time in New Orleans myself. So I'm very excited that it's in New Orleans this year. I think it's fantastic. And I've been to the museum. It is fantastic as well. So it's awesome that dinner is going to be there. But you also want to stay through Wednesday, right? Because there are some facility tours as well. So tell us a little bit about those and what people can expect with those. We're offering four this year. And actually, it's really interesting. They're pretty diverse tours.
A couple of ones that we're doing is Intralux and I did a little research. They do conveyors. So all of us in warehousing, we have dealt with conveyors of all types. Belts. They also do automation. We're going to be able to look at the entire manufacturing end to end, including how they use robotics, which I think is cool because you hear a lot about use of robotics, but actually seeing being put into practice.
And it is based, its headquarters is there in New Orleans, so it's nice to go local and make sure we spotlight the manufacturing and the warehousing in the local area. The other one that I'm very interested in is the port. Going back to the world changing, ports have become more and more important and the flexibility of being able to shift ports.
I know when like the Panama Canal was having issues last year, a lot of things that were going West Coast started going East Coast, trying to get around it. So having knowledge of the port is really important. Mississippi, the port is in the Mississippi River. It's a deep water, which is unusual, but it also is intermodal, meaning it does everything. Trains,
to rail, to cars, so you can bring your product in and get it where it needs to be. So I think that's interesting. Jacksonville also has a port, and I've been kind of watching the evolution, so it'll be kind of cool to be able to see a port that's a little more mature on that. I can keep going? Christy, are you going to take it?
if you want to do any other ones. Sure, I'll talk about the other two. So we're going to Republic National Distributing Company, which is wholesale alcohol distribution. So I'm sure there are a lot of people who are going to be interested in going to that facility and seeing that. Yeah, any tastings, yeah.
Yes, that sort of thing. But I think when you go to a wholesaler, it's a whole different world than a lot of us experience in the typical warehouse industry, right? And so you see a different level of challenges that they deal with. And so there's some uniqueness to that whole concept of shipping to distributors. So I think that'll be an interesting tour and conversation of what technologies they use and how do they manage that whole distribution network of distributors. And then the other one is,
task performance and they're an athleisure company. So they provide items to things like the PGA tour to companies like Stitch Fix, very big in the golf community. So I'm sure we'll have a lot who, who want to see the kind of things that they do, specialty athleisure gear and that sort of thing. So it's, I mean, we've got, like Mel said, great diverse kind of interesting tours that we're going to have on Wednesday morning there, there in New Orleans. Yeah.
Yeah, fantastic. And I'm definitely looking forward to that. And I think anytime you have the opportunity to see another part of the supply chain or another facility and see how they're doing things, it's like another opportunity for learning for your own organization and your own facility. There's always some little tidbits I find that you can take away there and bring into your own operation. So very interesting, very exciting. We're looking forward to this. It's June 8th.
8th through 11th, right? June 8th is that Sunday when people want to come in and get that networking one-on-one in. And June 11th, the Wednesday is going to be those facility tours. And then in between Monday and Tuesday is going to be all the sessions, all the networking, all of the fantastic things happening there in New Orleans and super excited for it. We'll be there. The new warehouse will be on site and, and Christy will be there and Mel will be there. So we'll, we'll all be there to, to welcome you in and to say hi and, and get that networking kicked off.
a little bit. So I think I could speak for you both and say, you know, if you're feeling anxious about networking and coming up to somebody, you could come up to the three of us first to get warmed up a little bit, right? So now if people are interested in
in learning more about work and maybe getting involved? What's the best way to do that? First, tap in. I don't think everybody knows everything that work offers. If you go on the website, I mean, you know, we have micro credential programs, we have learning opportunities, we have webinars.
We have all the metrics and benchmarking. I think first off is just tap into the website, but then really I'm going to do a plug here and get involved with work. It's a great organization. It is my favorite by far. I've done several professional organizations, of course, the course of my career for all the things we just talked about. Work is unique. We welcome with open arms, people wanting to be involved. I'm an example.
And I think just put your hand up, attend the conference, but say, hey, I want to volunteer. I promise you we will find things for you to do and we'll match you to things you want to do. But really, I always say work has so much to offer and we need people to tap into it. All right. And that website, by the way, Kevin, is WERC.org.
So we'd love for people to go there. And we have some amazing certification courses for really becoming an expert in warehousing. Obviously, that's what work does. So we'd love for people to tap into that. But we really encourage you to get out there and register for the conference. Come, even if it's your first time, get a sense of who we are and what we do and get excited about warehousing. We'd love to have you at the conference this year.
Absolutely. And if you're not excited about warehousing already, what are you thinking? It's so exciting. I love it. We're housing in New Orleans. Yeah.
And of course, New Orleans. Yes, yes. So June 8th to 11th here and in New Orleans, as we mentioned. So make sure you register for the conference. We will put that link in the show notes and also at thenewwarehouse.com as well. And we hope to see you there. Come by, say hi, and definitely get some networking in. So Mel and Christy, thank you so much for joining me today. And thank you for telling us all about the upcoming work conference.
You've been listening to the New Warehouse Podcast with Kevin Lott. Subscribe and check us out online at thenewwarehouse.com. Enjoyed this episode? Make sure you are subscribed to the podcast and for more content from The New Warehouse, find us on LinkedIn and YouTube. Links to subscribe can be found in the show notes. And for everything The New Warehouse, head to thenewwarehouse.com.