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McCandless, Tompkins, Ballard and Heward Headline LLamasoft SummerCon

ANN ARBOR -- LLamasoft, a global provider of supply chain design software, announced the featured keynote speakers for its upcoming SummerCon 2013 conference on supply chain design.

The conference, held June 19-21 in Ann Arbor, is expected to draw an international audience of 300 attendees gathering to network among the best and brightest in supply chain design.

Pre-show training June 17-18 offers many opportunities for education as well, including the addition of CSCMP-lead courses this year.

"Supply chain design has become a critical business function, with supply chain disruptions such as escalating economic uncertainty and natural disasters as well as unprecedented competition for market share," said Don Hicks, president and CEO of LLamasoft. "Our SummerCon Supply Chain Design Conference is an opportunity for collaboration, learning and solution benchmarking for all who attend."

Keynote speakers include London-based author, data journalist and information designer David McCandless, who will discuss data visualization and the ability of graphics to create simple, elegant ways to see information that might be too complex or too big, small, abstract or scattered to otherwise be grasped. McCandless will demonstrate how he turns complex data sets like worldwide military spending, media buzz, and Facebook status updates into beautiful, simple diagrams that reveal unseen patterns and connections.

James A. Tompkins, founder and CEO of Tompkins International, will deliver SummerCon 2013's customer keynote presentation. Tompkins is an international authority on supply chain strategy, focusing on implementation of end-to-end supply chains that are demand driven. Tompkins will speak on achieving supply chain excellence in the multichannel environment and the strategic challenges of this undertaking. He will also discuss why today's supply chains need to be customer-centric, demand-driven and adaptable and why the supply chain is about happy customers, profitable growth and value creation.

Also speaking at the conference are Robert Ballard and Lyn Heward. Ballard is an explorer, discoverer and historian best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic and for tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck. Heward is the former Director of Creation, President and COO of the Creative Content Division of Cirque du Soleil. She will discuss risk-taking, leadership, teamwork, product development, finding and developing talent, and fostering a dynamic corporate culture.

Registration is available at www.summercon.net.

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