SAP Ariba Live: Three Trillion Reasons to Help the World Spend Better

SAP Ariba Live is rightly known as the business commerce event of the year. Blown away by the innovation and diversity leadership at last year's event, I reached out to Tifenn Dano Kwan, chief marketing officer at SAP Ariba, for the full story on the 2019 conference, being held April 1-3 in Austin, Texas.

'Customers will discover how to drive groundbreaking innovation, lead for tangible business outcomes, and thrive by building an ecosystem of key partnerships,' said Dano Kwan. 'We're providing a vision for people to bring back to their organizations so they can innovate for impact and achieve their unique business goals. Success takes clear leadership and change management, and we're going to show attendees how we can do this together.'

Insights Lead to Business Outcomes

The three-day agenda is bursting with customer case studies, how-to educational sessions, and expert insights, including more than 140 breakout sessions. All are designed around one goal: to help procurement, supply chain, finance, accounts payable, and IT leaders earn a seat at the table with the CEO by supporting strategic organizational growth. Every attendee will gain immediately valuable information to future-proof the business. This encompasses agile workforce readiness, as well as what it takes for men and women to embrace diversity and drive pragmatic efficiencies around spend compliance and cash optimization for increased revenue.

Here's a sampling of keynotes, forums, and breakouts that will showcase SAP Ariba customers, partners, executives, and some of the greatest thought leaders on the planet:

• Barry Padgett, president of SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass: Hear how companies are racing ahead of the pack by becoming intelligent enterprises. Customers from world-class organizations will share the secrets of best-run businesses, including intelligent spend management and the importance of experience data.
• Simon Sinek, visionary thinker and bestselling author: Get inspired by Sinek, who popularized the concept of why in his first TED Talk, and wrote 'Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.'
• Diversity & Leadership Luncheon: Come for the book signings, stay for the practical insights. Among the headliners this year are Dr. Marshall Goldsmith and Sally Helgesen, both best-selling authors and renowned speakers. They'll talk about navigating the toughest attitudinal and behavioral challenges that foster inclusive leadership in an evolving workplace. The luncheon will be followed by two special sessions:
  • Mind the Gap - Strategies to Overcome Gender Gap at the Workplace, featuring real-world experiences from two leading SAP programs. 'Path Forward Return to Work' supports people who have paused their career for caregiving and 'Activating Men for Parity' invites more men to participate in diversity and inclusion activities.
  • Mind Your Bias, It's Showing - A Shift from Advocacy to Action, where you can learn how biases work and next steps for building an inclusive workplace environment.

Disruptive Innovation for Purpose, Business Impact

So much more than a technology conference, SAP Ariba Live is an inclusive, diverse community of inspired people coming together for real impact. This reverberates down to Ariba Network. For example, supplier diversity is baked into the guided buying capability and has become an industry standard. Procurement professionals - whether sourcing products, services, or people - can easily direct spend toward suppliers that reflect their company's priorities and values, including diversity and inclusion.

Everything about SAP Ariba Live in 2019 takes the company's commitment to business impact and championship of diversity and inclusion to a whole new level.

'People spend nearly $3 trillion on Ariba Network annually, and we want to help them spend better, one transaction at a time,' said Dano Kwan.

I hope to see you in Texas!

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