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    Pre-Conference Workshop

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    About Us

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This event was very informative and there were great ideas presented that I will be using to improve our forecasting process.
Barbara Thomas, Demand Planning Manager, Ecolab, Inc.

This Virtual Predictive Business Analytics, Forecasting & Planning Conference is a comprehensive program of speakers and panel discussion uncovering the best practices and latest advancements in predictive analytics for business forecasting. We'll cover using new sources of data, methods, tools, talent management approaches, and more to become confident with our decision making and business plans. Predictive Analytics is revolutionizing our field and opening up new opportunities to add value to our organizations. This event is designed to equip with the skills you need to survive and thrive in the age of Big Data - do not miss it.

Why YOU should Attend:

  • Understand how to create a data driven culture in your organization and win
  • Learn how to turn Big Data into valuable insights for better operations planning
  • Learn how to apply predictive analytics to the S&OP process for maximum impact
  • Learn how to use social media, point-of-sale (POS), syndicated data, and other attributes to predict sales
  • Gain knowledge on emerging technology tools for predictive analytics & business forecasting that are making organizations more profitable
  • Learn how to optimize inventory and customer service through improved business analytics
  • See the significant financial benefits that can result from improving the analytics capabilities within your organization
  • Learn how to mitigate risk through predictive analytics
  • And much more
Event Speakers
Wes Womer
Wes Womer
KSM
Transaction Advisory Services Manager
Wes started his career as a Finance Analyst at Johnson & Johnson and Body Shop of America before moving into a Financial Planning role at Stanley Black and Decker. After being exposed to the S&OP process, his introduction to demand panning had begun and he would spend the next 5 years as Stanley Black and Decker’s S&OP/Sales Forecasting Manager. Wes is now Senior Finance Manager, Pricing Market and Analytics, at Wabash National, where he employs cutting edge machine learning and predictive analytics to drive forecasts and business insight. He holds a Law Degree from Indiana University, an Accounting degree from Butler University, a Master’s in law from The University of Alabama, and a Master of Science, Data Science, from India University.
Eric Wilson, ACPF
Eric Wilson, ACPF
Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning
Director – Thought Leadership

Prior Roles

  • Escalade Sports: Director of Demand Planning
  • Berry Plastics: Director of Demand Planning
  • Tempura Sealy International: Director of Demand Planning & S&OP

Industry Involvement

  • Frequent speaker and panelist for many executive forums and professional conferences
  • Written numerous articles in publications including The Journal of Business Forecasting and APICS Magazine
  • Author of the books Cultural Cycles and Predictive Analytics for Business Forecasting & Planning

Award

  • IBF Excellence in Business Forecasting & Planning

Certification

  • IBF Advanced Certified Professional Forecaster (ACPF)
Thomas Schleicher
Thomas Schleicher
National Consumer Panel (a joint venture of Nielsen/IRI)
Vice President, Measurement/Data Analytics
Thomas has led the Measurement/Data Science team at National Consumer Panel (NCP) for 9 years. Prior to his tenure at NCP, Thomas held a variety of positions with client-side manufacturers as well as smaller consulting companies. These included two stints at Bayer HealthCare where he focused on pharmaceutical market research and forecasting. He also worked at Ipsos-ASI and smaller consulting companies with an emphasis on marketing analytics and forecasting. He has also been a lecturer/adjunct professor, most recently having taught courses on social research methods, statistics and social behavior at Quinnipiac University. After earning his PhD in Experimental Social Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Thomas continued his life-long learning quest by earning a certificate in Predictive Analytics from the University of California-Irvine.
Jonathon Karelse
Jonathon Karelse
NorthFind Management
CEO

Prior Roles

  • Recognized thought leader in demand planning and S&OP and is CEO and co-founder of the consultancy NorthFind Management

Education

  • Graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management
  • Member of the 2019 Management Excellence cohort at Harvard Business School
  • Member of the Harvard Business Review’s Advisory Council

Industry Involvement

  • Long-term contributor to the IBF’s body of knowledge, with a specific focus on forecasting metrics, decision making, and behavioral science
  • Author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller for his book, Histories of the Future: Milestones in the Last 100 Years of Business Forecasting
Charles Chase, CPF
Charles Chase, CPF
SAS Institute
Executive Industry Consultant

Mr. Chase is an author, thought leader and trusted advisor delivering demand planning and forecasting solutions to improve consumer packaged goods companies supply chain efficiencies. Prior to that, he worked for various companies, including the Mennen Company, Johnson & Johnson, Consumer Products Inc., Reckitt Benckiser PLC, Polaroid Corporation, Coca Cola, Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals, and Heineken USA. He has more than 20 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry, and is an expert in sales forecasting, market response modeling, econometrics, and supply chain management. He is the author of several books, including Next Generation Demand Management: People, Process, Analytics, and Technology and Demand-Driven Forecasting: A Structured Approach to Forecasting. In addition, he is co-author of Bricks Matter: The Role of Supply Chains in Building Market-Driven Differentiation. He is also the second recipient of the IBF Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Sven F. Crone
Dr. Sven F. Crone
Lancaster University
Assistant Professor in Management Science

Prior Roles

  • Expert in forecasting, with more than 15 years of expertise in both its theory and practice
  • Trained more than 500 demand planner
  • Consulted with industry leaders on improving forecasting methods, systems and processes

Industry Involvement

  • Published in over 40 scientific publications
  • Received international awards for developing new forecasting algorithms
  • Regular speaker at IBF conferences
Sara Brumbaugh
Sara Brumbaugh
Ceres Analytics
Managing Principal

Sara Brumbaugh is Managing Principal of Ceres Analytics, a consultancy specializing in applied mathematics, statistics, and machine learning. Sara’s roots are in business forecasting: she’s worked with the IBF for over 20 years, and is the 2015 recipient of IBF’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Sara’s work in predictive analytics began with construction of forecast drivers to predict stock returns. Her recent work supported genetic brain research at Harvard Medical School. Other recent work includes, patent-pending algorithms to detect financial fraud, and genetic models to predict success of cancer chemotherapy. Sara holds a masters in Economics from Florida State University, and is a currently pursuing a second masters (Biology) at Harvard University.

Tina Burke
Tina Burke
Intel Corporation
Analytics, Modeling & Reporting Lead
Tina is a Senior Demand Planning Analyst at Intel Corporation. Her professional experience is interwoven among operations & supply chain, as well as information technology. Her career has seen her work for a range of global multinationals including Boston Scientific, Nestlé, Citrix Sytems and Google, covering a variety of roles including master scheduler, demand planner and S&OP manager and assuming responsibility for the monthly S&OP process, statistical forecasting, production scheduling and more. A data aficionado, she taught herself SQL to pull reports and build analytics to improve decision making. Tina is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional, holds an undergrad degree in Finance and Operations, and a Master’s in Business Management.
Kendell Churchwell, ACPF
Kendell Churchwell, ACPF
Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company
Senior Marketing Data Analyst
Kendell Churchwell is a senior analyst with Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance where she is responsible for the implementation of marketing predictive analytics projects. Her career started at IBM as an IT specialist before moving on to business analysis and analytics roles at C Spire where she spent 10 years. She is a Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®, INFORMS), a certified IBM SPSS Modeler Professional, and Project Management Professional (PMP). Kendell has BS in Mathematics and Computer Science and an MBA from Mississippi State University.
Event Speakers
Wes Womer
Wes Womer
KSM
Transaction Advisory Services Manager
Eric Wilson, ACPF
Eric Wilson, ACPF
Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning
Director – Thought Leadership
Thomas Schleicher
Thomas Schleicher
National Consumer Panel (a joint venture of Nielsen/IRI)
Vice President, Measurement/Data Analytics
Virtual Conference Schedule
Download Schedule
(PDF, ~2mb)
  • Pre-Conference Workshop
    Apr 20, 2021
  • Conference Day 1
    Apr 21, 2021
  • Conference Day 2
    Apr 22, 2021
April 20, IBF Members Only
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (EDT)
Data Science Workshop (Gold Package/IBF Members Only)

April 20, 2021

10:00am – 1:00pm EDT

Data Science Workshop

This workshop will provide practical tips to incorporate into your own organization, where you’ll learn to leverage the cutting-edge of analytics technology. We will focus on data science applications for forecasting and best practices. Recent advances in forecasting, often called Predictive Analytics techniques, involve the use of Big Data, including analysis of textual data like that created by social media (Facebook etc.). This ½ day masterclass will be especially helpful for demand planners and forecasters looking to implement the latest advancements and next-level techniques.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SOFTWARE OVERVIEW

• Popular Data Science tools

• Overview of Open Source Platforms (R & Python)

III. ENVIRONMENT

• Reading and summarizing data

• Merging data objects

• Feature engineering

• Installing and initiating packages

IV. DATA CLEANSING & PREPARATION

• Feature Scaling

• Univariate vs Multivariate Outlier Detection

• DBSCAN clustering, anomaly extraction

V.MACHINE LEARNING

MODULE 1 – REGRESSION

• Machine Learning Defined

• Comparison to Statistical Methods

• Artificial Neural Networks

VI. MODEL OPTIMIZATION

• K-Fold Cross Validation

• Parameter Selection

• Assessing model accuracy, stability

• Combining models to improve accuracy

VII.MACHINE LEARNING

MODULE 2 – CLASSIFICATION

• Overview of Ensemble Modeling

• Random Forest Trees

VIII.MACHINE LEARNING

MODULE 3 – ADVANCED TOPICS

• Gradient Boosted Trees

• Explaining model behavior

• Communication and Telling Stories with Data

IX. DATA VISUALIZATION

• Plotting Basics

• Advanced Graphics

X. TOPICS OF EXPLORATION

Speaker photo
Dr. Sven F. Crone
Lancaster UniversityAssistant Professor in Management Science
Pricing
Onsite Rate
(Expires in 0 days 0 hours)
SILVER PACKAGE
$599

Member’s discount: -$50

GOLD PACKAGE
$849
4TH FREE - GOLD GROUP PACKAGE
(4 PERSONS FOR PRICE OF 3)
$2,547
GOLD CERTIFY PACKAGE
$2,099
GOLD GROUP PACKAGE
(2 PERSONS)
$1,648
SILVER GROUP PACKAGE
(2 PERSONS)
$1,148
FUNDAMENTALS OF FORECASTING & PLANNING WORKSHOP
(FREE FOR REGISTERED IBF MEMBERS)
$649

Member’s discount: -$50

VIRTUAL PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS CONFERENCE
APRIL 21-22, 2021
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS WORKSHOP
(FREE FOR REGISTERED IBF MEMBERS) | APRIL 20, 2021
ACCESSS TO ALL SESSION RECORDINGS ON-DEMAND
(3 MONTHS)
ALL PRESENTATION SLIDES
BENCHMARKING RESEARCH
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FORECASTING
(JBF)
IBF MEMBERSHIP
CPF CERTIFICATION EXAMS
3 EXAMS
BOOK: FUNDAMENTALS OF DEMAND PLANNING & FORECASTING
(FREE SHIPPING)
COST OF FORECAST ERROR CALCULATOR
BUILD BUSINESS CASE FOR PLANNING RESOURCES

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Put the IBF to Work for You!

Become an IBF Member and Start Improving Your Forecasting & Planning Performance Today.

The IBF Advantage:

IBF members include well-known company professionals that span a broad array of business sectors. By joining our organization, you can make certain that your company sets up the right forecasting & planning process and uses the best techniques available. Moreover, you can be sure that your forecasting and demand planning staff has the proper knowledge and skill set for success.

As an IBF member you receive:

  • A subscription to the Journal of Business Forecasting, which is primarily written by and geared toward practitioners.
  • Our Research Reports which include valuable benchmarking information and provide you with eye opening information on various topics in Business Forecasting and Planning.
  • Special discounts on our Conferences, Workshops, Training Seminars, Certification Program, as well as on any new products and services we will offer in the future.
  • Access to Journal of Business Forecasting Past Articles (FREE)Access to our growing online Knowledge section & Action Templates
  • Complimentary 1-day Tutorials at select Global events ($1000 USD Value)
Upcoming Events & Trainings
February 3 – 5, 2025
Miami
w/ 1-Day Supply Chain Planning Workshop...