DELIVER 2019 will be “bigger and better” than ever

Next week’s DELIVER conference and marketplace will be the biggest, most diverse and international to date, with over 1,000 participants, 80 exhibitors, new-look conference sessions and plenty of technology topics and product displays.

The number of delegates, who are mostly retailers, will top 1,000 from 40 countries this year compared to 750 from 30 countries last year, while the number of sponsors, most of whom are exhibiting, has risen to 80 from 60. The invitation-only event, for which CEP-Research is a media partner, will take place in Estoril, close to Lisbon, Portugal, on June 5-6.

“We are continuing our growth,” said event founder and organiser Stéphane Tomczak in an interview. “We are getting more and more international, and this year we have several exhibitors from China and the US.”

The big topic this year is artificial intelligence, continuing the technology theme that put automation and robots top of the agenda last year. “Last year was automation. This year is more about artificial intelligence,” Tomczak said.

The main conference has been expanded to four plenary sessions, each featuring a keynote speaker and a panel discussion. Each session will include speakers from Europe, North America and Asia to make them as international as possible. The new retail-focused session will focus on cashierless stores.

Top keynote speakers this year will include Chunhui Zhang, Alibaba Group’s Head of Logistics R&D, who will speak on artificial intelligence, Daniel Buczkowski, head of European expansion for Uber Freight, Stewart McGuire, Head of Corporate Development for Britain’s Ocado, and Cyril Bourgois, Chief Innovation Officer for France’s Casino Group.

In addition, there will be two kinds of break-out sessions, with company presentations running parallel to sessions in which a sponsor will present a case study of a successful project together with a customer. “This was really requested by the retailers. They want to hear about best practice cases,” Tomczak explained.

The exhibition will again showcase a wide range of international transportation, technology, fulfilment, packaging and other suppliers, with three exhibitors displaying their AVG robots.

CEP-Research will report from the event next week.