My partner Brian and I are currently attending Salesforce’s Dreamforce event (online, of course), and while we’ll have full coverage of the event in next week’s newsletter, suffice it to say the earliest sessions have validated something I’ve been saying for a few weeks now: things are getting crazy out there.

Between environmental disasters, never-ending supply chain disruptions, shortages in the workforce (see Brian’s article this week), and what looks to now be a here-with-us-forever pandemic, the world is truly a different place than any of us could have imagined not even a few months ago, but just a few weeks ago. It’s all happening just so damn fast.

It’s part of why we’re hosting a webinar in a few weeks with some of our advisory clients. It’s not an infomercial – it’s a chance to hear from some of the brightest minds in the industry about what they are doing, what they are prioritizing and where they are investing to actually help retailers survive. One of the first rules of selling in the technology industry – help protect the people that make up your client base; if they’re not around, that’s going to be an awfully short pipeline reporting call with your sales folks.  

So if you have the time, join us on October 14^th. I’ll be the emcee, Brian will be the moderator, and we’ll be joined by some seriously heavy hitters: Ed Wong from Blue Yonder. Shannon Colquhoun from Talk Desk. And Rob Garf from – you guessed it – Salesforce. The conversation promises to be fascinating, and anyone who attends will quickly understand why my original idea for a title for the thing should be “Prepping For The Future: What Technologists are Finding”

Or the shorter version: “2022: WTF?”  

Here’s the link if you haven’t already signed up.