29 APRIL 2026 LONDON

Big bang or bricks?

Where supply chain leaders, innovators and investors design faster, safer paths from idea to impact.

This one-day working event focuses on how to:

De-risk today’s priorities through iterative pilots, smarter change management and risk-sharing partnerships
Lay the bricks for tomorrow by exploring modular processes, harnessing AI and partnering models with startups, scaleup and established tech providers for capital-efficient innovation

The result: tangible insights you can use immediately, plus a clear view of how modular and composable approaches create competitive advantage over time.

Why this?

Big-bang, monolithic change is too slow, costly and risky.
Iterative, modular approaches - supported by smart change management and risk-sharing - allow supply chains to test, prove and scale innovation safely.
SCL-X brings operators, tech innovators and investors together to share playbooks and explore how composable supply chains create a lasting edge.

Why now?

Supply chains face margin pressure, disruption, decarbonisation demands, cyber threats and talent shortages...all at once.
Risk scrutiny is slowing tech adoption, yet AI, modularity and ecosystem partnerships are maturing fast.
Those who start building capability today will be ready to seize tomorrow’s advantage.

Key Themes & Questions to explore

From Big Projects to Modular Change

How do we de-risk transformation by breaking processes into smaller components?
What are the first steps to make this shift without disrupting current operations?
How can we safely “sandbox” new solutions before scaling?

Digital Fluency as a Leadership Skill

How can leaders build the capability to choose, adopt and integrate the right technologies?
What frameworks help decide between building in-house, buying off-the-shelf, or partnering?
How do we ensure digital decisions are business-led, not IT-led?

AI in the Right Places

Where does AI deliver the most value compared to simulation, optimisation or statistical models?
How can AI be introduced with guardrails to minimise risk?
What metrics show whether AI is genuinely improving performance?

Corporate Clienting & Venturing

What does a low-risk pilot or partnership with startups / scaleups look like in practice?
How can operators, startups, investors and corporates share both risk and reward?
How do we create fair, fast processes for onboarding external innovations?

Innovation Under Constraints

How do you prioritise when budgets and resources are tight?
How do we measure ROI for incremental changes versus large-scale projects?
What low-cost, high-impact solutions are being overlooked?

Resilience as a Moving Target

How do we design supply chains that adapt continuously without destabilising the core?
What signals tell us when a process or technology needs to change?
How do we balance resilience with efficiency and cost control?

Founding Partner

Supply Chain Wise

Leading provider of advice on AI-powered solutions that help customers optimize their supply chain operations.

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WHO SHOULD JOIN

Value creation needs the full ecosystem of capital, technology, innovation & talent...

Who for?

WHO's INTERESTED?

SC&L VALUE CREATION LEADERS

SCLI SPEAKER - JON BRADFORD, DYNAMO VENTURES

SCLI SPEAKER - ETHAN KHATRI, AIV CAPITAL

SCLI SPEAKER - SOPHIA KARANICHOLAS, DELOITTE-2

SCLI SPEAKER - LUCY HARDING, ODGERS BERNDTSON

SCLI SPEAKER - ARNAUD HOULES, NINE REALMS-2

SCLI SPEAKER - ALAN BRISTOW, ICON CORPORATE FINANCE

GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN & LOGISTICS INDUSTRY TRENDS

Tariffs & trade barriers
Deglobalisation, near-shoring & resilience
Network design & footprint
Supplier selection & risk management

How should GPs tailor funds for LPs?
What operational credentials to LPs want to see?
How are capital structures adapting to interest rates and financial volatility?
Which structures for which investment categories?
- Lease & revenue-sharing for infrastructure & assets?
- Convertible notes, equity & SAFE agreements for early-stage?
- Co-investments & JVs for growth?

Target discovery & due diligence

Target sectors & segments
Developing the investment thesis
Operational due diligence
Cultural alignment
Tech stack integration

How to identify targets with good fundamentals but lacking capital or expertise?
What drives value and makes a target attractive for acquisition?
Which technologies will create most value?
What is the role of AI in target discovery and due diligence?
What can Operating Partners add that data and AI can't?

Are there "easy wins" through procurement & cost reduction?
Longer-term transformations but with greater potential?
How to assess and prioritise operational excellence improvements?
How to eliminate siloed thinking for cross-functional alignment for operational value creation?
How to collaborate with suppliers to support innovation?
Is vertical integration a winning strategy?

How to long-term visions with innovation needs?
How to use corporate clienting to nurture innovation opportunities?
Which investment models work best?
How to combine internal ventures with external innovation?
Exit or integrate?
How to successfully integrate innovation into a parent company?

Enterprise technology

Data & digitalisation
Advanced analytics & process optimisation
Planning & inventory optimisation
Procurement & contract management
Visibility & orchestration
ESG & risk management

Is data governance the foundation for all digital transformation?
Which enterprise technologies offer the most potential for efficiencies, innovation & value creation?
Which types of supply chains have most to gain and how are technology innovators responding?
Integrated planning (S&OP / IBP) as the main engine for value creation?
How will agentic AI impact enterprise roles?

Logistics technology

Freight tech: multi-modal optimisation, fleet management, electric & autonomous vehicles
Warehouse tech: automation & robotics, AR, packaging, fulfilment & e-commerce / D2C
Last mile: autonomous vehicles & drones, delivery & returns
Asset monitoring, IoT & blockchain

Which logistics technologies offer the most potential for efficiencies, innovation & value creation?
Which types of supply chains have most to gain and how are technology innovators responding?
How can digitalising assets & automating workflows create value?
What is the full potential for robotics and autonomous vehicles?
How can you harness transactional data to drive process design, automation & innovation?

Infrastructure

Deglobalisation & emerging logistics hubs
Energy infrastructure for freight & cargo
Multi-modal integration
Warehouse location & design
Freeports

Which regions and countries will rise and fall as logistics hubs?
How does industrial scale clean energy infrastructure need to adapt to enable sustainable supply chains?
Are Private Electricity Networks (PENs) the answer to rising energy costs & resilience?
What investment is needed in UK sea ports, airports, road and rail infrastructure?
How should warehouse and distribution centre locations adapt to serve customer demand and support sustainability and resilience?

Outsource Partnerships

Logistics Service Providers & 3/4PLs
Global Competence Centres / Supply Chain as a Service (SCaaS)
Outsourced manufacturing & critical suppliers

What are core competences and value drivers versus what should be outsourced?
How can key partnerships in logistics and supply chain go beyond transactional, lowest cost calculations to become value drivers?
How to align incentives with key outsource partners?

How will roles evolve with AI and what future skills will be needed?
How to find leaders able to create value through rapid and lasting change?
How to capture valuable knowledge and skills before it moves on?

How can finance maximise the deployment of limited CAPEX budgets?
How to optimise inventory and free up working capital?
How can FP&A / XP&A processes lead the delivery of value creation and strategy?
How can blockchain create efficiencies in supply chain and trade finance?

08.00-09.00

Registration & Networking Breakfast

Informal start with curated introductions to help you meet peers with similar challenges.

09.00-09.15

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Setting the tone for a practitioner-first day — why innovation needs to move from large, slow projects to targeted, modular improvements.

09.15-09.45

Keynote: Why We Need a New Innovation Model

Leading supply chain operator

How global shifts in trade, climate, workforce and technology are exposing the limits of traditional approaches.
We’ll explore:

What’s holding back innovation in real operational settings
How modular processes open the door to safe, fast change
How to ensure that innovation is guided by a clear 'north star' and not just a mess of side projects that don't compound?
Early examples of operators blending their own IP with targeted external solutions

09.45-10.15

Keynote: Enabling Modular Transformation at Scale

Case study with a leading cloud platform & operator

Why modular, API-driven supply chains outperform monolithic ones in times of change — and how to make the shift without disruption.
We’ll explore:

How to design modular processes before tackling systems change
Ways to integrate point solutions (AI or otherwise) without creating tech debt
The role of simulation, optimisation and other non-AI tools alongside AI

10.15-10.45

Panel: Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

Operators from multiple sectors

What’s worked, what hasn’t, and what they’d do differently when moving to a modular, adaptive operating model

11.15-12.45

DISCUSSION LAB: The First Steps Towards Modular Innovation

Operators, tech innovators and consultants

Facilitated group work to identify your safest, highest-impact starting points.
We’ll explore:

Which processes to modularise first for quick wins
Building digital fluency to become a smarter innovation buyer
Guard-railing AI so it adds value without losing control

Output: Each participant leaves with a mapped first step for their own organisation

13.45-14.15

Panel: Corporate Clienting & Venturing

Operators, CVC leaders, startup founders and investors

Designing partnerships and pilots that move fast, minimise risk and create real operator value.
We’ll explore:

How to spot the right startup to work with
Piloting without getting bogged down in integration issues
How operators, investors and innovators share the upside when things scale

14.15-15.45

Workshop: Innovation Resilience in Practice

Facilitators: consultants, tech enablers and operators with lived experience

Shifting from episodic transformation to continuous, adaptive innovation.
We’ll explore:

Overcoming organisational inertia
Keeping momentum in modular transformation programmes
Linking innovation priorities to strategic resilience goals

16.15-117.00

PANEL-LED DISCUSSION: Capital-Efficient Innovation Strategies

Supply chain CFOs, transformation leaders and innovators

Making the numbers work without losing ambition.
We’ll explore:

CAPEX vs OPEX trade-offs in modular programmes
Unlocking value from existing IP and data sets
Prioritising under resource constraints
Building robust business cases for change that reinforces & delivers corporate strategy

17.15-17.45

Feedback & Continuing the Journey

Key takeaways from the day and identifying the next priorities and actions for SCL-X.

09.00-09.30

Opening Keynote: The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics Investments

Senior Partner, Private Equity Investor

Global supply chain & logistics shifts inc. nearshoring / friend shoring
Macroeconomic & geopolitical risks inc. tariffs
Where PE capitalism flowing in the sector

14.30-15.45

Roundtable discussions

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

Many strategic plans don't survive first contact with reality because they were developed with a top-down process with embedded assumptions that next year will look similar to last year. Value creation implies fundamental transformation of the operating model which requires symbiotic development including all functions with unified metrics across the business.

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

Jon Rawcliffe

Inward Investment Lead

EAST MIDLANDS FREEPORT
Raul Portela

Operating Partner & Advisor

SCL INVESTORS

SCL-X is not about distant visions — it’s about solving today’s problems while preparing for tomorrow.

You’ll leave with:

Practical playbooks to de-risk current initiatives
Benchmarks and metrics to strengthen your board-level cases
Peer connections with operators facing the same constraints
Future-ready insights into how modular and composable approaches can build lasting advantage

Why attend & who to meet in detail...

"I really enjoyed the day and thought it was well organised and informative. I did go into this thinking it was going to have some hard sell but that was not the case and the vendors were really part of the discussion"

Stuart Pritchard
RTS Textiles

"Very clear, loved the online personal agenda, time to set up my preferences etc. Had three people from very different industries yet common problems, great to connect and share insights."

Mike Shaverin
Mars

"A good day; glad I made the effort and several follow-ups already in progress"

Iain Harris
KP Snacks

"Numbers of people just right and allowed individuals to properly catch up. Atmosphere was relaxed and liked that the sales pitches from those companies sponsoring was relatively informal"

Neil Brown
Martin Brower

"Another super valuable session with an amazing mix of people who are all solution driven"

Matt Spencer-Skeen
Mundipharma

"A great mix of scale of business, industries and experience. I love the format of structured 121s with peers. I came to this with a real lack of understanding of the potential for AI, so this was an eye opener for me"

Dan Bird
Abcam

"Realised that others are also operating with a high degree of uncertainty following not just external macro economics dynamics but structural changes taking place internally. Clarity on the 3 problems we a trying to solve"

Angelo Bernardinello
LSA International

"[Discussions were the] best bit… Great to share and get each other's input and insight"

Adam Grimwood
AB Agri

"Was a great session and got some good information out of the day"

Lee Crowhurst
Cranfield Aerospace

"Sessions were insightful and good to see a range of speakers from different industries and consultancy as well as practitioners. Personal agenda is very helpful and also seeing who else will be joining the sessions is beneficial"

Matt Normington
LEGO

"Very informative and good to hear real life experiences not just theory. I felt my time was being treated as important and not being wasted. Made some good contacts and shared some valuable tips. Great fun at the end"

Alan Clarke
Landmann

"A very worthwhile day. A really great bunch of attendees and good roundtable discussions. I am going to try and push forward some AI initiatives…start small and grow"

Damian Bates
Atlas Copco

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SCL INVESTOR

The full eco-system event for value creation in logistics including investors, supply chain & logistics organisations, tech innovators and partners.

See next edition

OPERATORS

For all operators of supply chain & logistics businesses looking to support investment in operational transformation and tech-driven value creation.

See next edition

ENT TECH

Focused on innovations in enterprise technologies including:

Data & digitalisation
Advanced analytics & process optimisation
Planning & inventory optimisation
Procurement & contract management
Visibility, tracking & orchestration
ESG & risk management

See next edition

LOG TECH

Focused on innovations in logistics technologies including:

Freight tech: multi-modal optimisation, fleet management, electric & autonomous vehicles
Warehouse tech: automation & robotics, AR, packaging, fulfilment & e-commerce / D2C
Last mile: autonomous vehicles & drones, delivery & returns
Asset monitoring, IoT & blockchain

See next edition

INFRA

Focused on investments into logistics infrastructure including:

Emerging multimodal global hubs
Freight infrastructure for sea, rail, road and air
Real estate for distribution centres and warehouses
Energy transition for facilities & fleets

See next edition

PRODUCED BY

BESTPRACTICE.CLUB

BestPractice.Club is a peer-to-peer forum for supply chain and logistics leaders. After years of candid roundtable discussions across planning, sourcing, logistics and transformation, a clear pattern emerged: monolithic structures remain the single biggest blocker to innovation. SCL-X is the next step — helping supply chains de-risk today’s innovation while laying the bricks for tomorrow’s competitive advantage.

Go to website

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Chain makers magazine

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Latest news, strategy, investments, exits, value creation & transformation for rain makers in supply chain & logistics

Agenda

Big bang or bricks?

SCL TRANSFORM

SCL TRANSFORM

WHY THIS & WHY NOW?

Why this?

Why now?

Key Themes & Questions to explore

SCL TRANSFORM

Supply Chain Wise

WHO SHOULD JOIN

Private Equity & Venture Capital (GPs)

Corporate Venture Capital & Strategic Investors

Institutional Investors, Family Offices & Lenders (LPs)

Startup & SME

Mid-market & Growth

Enterprise

Startup & SME

Enterprise tech

Logistics tech

Deal Facilitators

Logistics Service Providers

Value Creators

Agenda

Who for?

Agenda

SC&L VALUE CREATION LEADERS

Topics

Supply Chain & Logistics investment landscape

GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN & LOGISTICS INDUSTRY TRENDS

Fundraising, Syndication & investment structures

Target discovery & due diligence

Value Creation

Corporate Venturing & Clienting

Enterprise technology

Logistics technology

Infrastructure

Outsource Partnerships

Sustainability & ESG

Human capital & skills

Finance

AGENDA

Registration & Networking Breakfast

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Keynote: Why We Need a New Innovation Model

Keynote: Enabling Modular Transformation at Scale

Panel: Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

Break & Networking

DISCUSSION LAB: The First Steps Towards Modular Innovation

Lunch & Networking

Panel: Corporate Clienting & Venturing

Workshop: Innovation Resilience in Practice

Break & Networking

PANEL-LED DISCUSSION: Capital-Efficient Innovation Strategies

Feedback & Continuing the Journey

Closing Remarks

Drinks & networking

WHY ATTEND?

Participants

Partners

Registration & Networking Breakfast

Opening Keynote: The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics Investments

Roundtable discussions

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

121 Meetings & Break

Register your interest

Testimonials

Gallery

SCL INVESTOR

OPERATORS

ENT TECH

LOG TECH

INFRA

BESTPRACTICE.CLUB

Chain makers magazine

M&A in Supply Chain & Logistics