Icon Conference Agenda

Icon attendees and their 21+ guest may choose one Sunday Welcome Activity during conference registration. Activities have limited spots so sign up before you miss out!

• Golf at Hermitage Course and Lunch – Hermitage Golf Course
• Fly Fishing and Lunch – South Hall
• Axe Throwing and Lunch – South Hall
• The Best of Nashville – Trolly Tour
• Singer / Songwriter Workshop and Lunch – With Nashville Recording Artist, Season 2 runner-up, Meghan Lindsey

Start and end times vary for each event.

Come get your Icon badge and enjoy some treats between 9 AM – 4 PM.

Join us for networking and dinner to kick off Icon 2025 from 6 PM – 9 PM!

Steve Yurko, CEO of apexanalytix, will open the conference welcoming the attendees and lay the foundation for exploring breakthrough best practices from industry leaders.

Icon is more than just a place to learn—it’s a space to connect. Build meaningful relationships with global peers through valuable networking opportunities in an inspiring environment. From thought leaders in procurement to financial shared services experts, you’ll engage with a community dedicated to driving value and excellence in your field. Solutions. Relationships. Value.

Welcome to Icon, where your next big idea will take shape!

Master of Ceremonies, Stephanie Atkin, will introduce Icon’s the inspiring agenda, highlight opportunities to connect with global finance, procurement, and shared services leaders, and set the tone for impactful networking.

Join Chris Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group, as he shares insights from the 2025 edition of The Hackett Group’s Procurement Agenda and Key Issues Study. This comprehensive study surveyed procurement leaders at global midsized and large enterprises in late 2024, gathering data on their strategic priorities and initiatives for the upcoming year.

In this informative webinar, Chris will delve into the key findings from the study, including:

• The top trends expected to have a transformational impact on the procurement agenda over the next five years, including digital procurement and automation, artificial intelligence and generative AI, evolving skill sets, and real-time data visibility.

• The 2025 key objectives, transformation plans, and challenges facing procurement organizations, including projected changes in procurement workloads, staffing levels, operating budgets, and technology spending.

• The use of generative AI and technology to enable procurement capabilities, including the current state of adoption, growth, and value delivery.

Transforming compliance into a competitive edge can seem like a daunting task, but with the right strategies, it becomes a game-changer. This session is designed to guide Compliance Officers, IT Managers, Procurement Leaders, and Finance professionals through the intricacies of building and deploying a global Know Your Supplier (KYS) program.

Attendees will explore critical aspects of global compliance deployment, including overcoming challenges like managing multiple ERP systems, navigating regional nuances, and driving change management across diverse operations. Learn how to reduce cycle times—achieving a 70% improvement where 20% was the original goal—and mitigate risks through standardized, globally unified processes.

Featured topics will include:

• The Power of One Process, One Tool Globally: How a singular strategy drives efficiency and consistency.
• Self-Serve vs. Proxy Models: Explore the transition to supplier-managed data and the benefits of simplifying user experiences with streamlined self-serve capabilities.
• Mastering Supplier Data: Unlocking supplier master data as the linchpin for risk reduction and informed decision-making across the enterprise.
• Obstacles and Insights: Learn from real-world challenges like reverse engineering complex ERP landscapes, navigating regional compliance complications, and implementing change management strategies that achieved a 90% satisfaction rate.

The session will also discuss the future of supplier compliance, including third-party risk management, data accessibility, and emerging challenges such as data privacy laws in markets like China.

Join industry experts in a dynamic panel discussion exploring the rapidly evolving procure-to-pay (P2P) landscape. With technology driving transformation and global compliance shifts, the P2P process in 2025 is set to reach new heights of efficiency and innovation. This session will discuss emerging trends reshaping procurement, including the impact of global e-invoice mandates, the integration of generative AI into workflows, and the increasing importance of cross-departmental spend visibility. Attendees will gain actionable insights into how these advancements are redefining vendor relationships, strengthening fraud controls, and driving operational transparency.

Speakers to be announced.

The rapid evolution of AI is transforming how businesses evaluate and manage supplier risk. Join us for an in-depth session exploring how cutting-edge AI technology can streamline vendor risk assessments, saving time, enhancing accuracy, and improving compliance.

Key takeaways include:

• Understanding how AI can evaluate multiple risk domains
• Learning how a reduction in review times can translate to increased efficiency and ROI
• Envisioning the future of automated and integrated vendor risk workflows for enterprise systems

Deploying new technology in a large enterprise can be a complex and challenging process. This session will explore best practices for managing change, ensuring smooth transitions, and minimizing disruptions. Attendees will learn about key strategies for stakeholder engagement, communication plans, training programs, and risk management. Real-world case studies will illustrate successful implementations and highlight common pitfalls to avoid. Join us to gain valuable insights and practical tools to lead your organization through technological transformations with confidence and efficiency.

Join us for an informative session tailored to procure-to-pay practitioners in large enterprises. Gain valuable insights into three critical areas of compliance that are shaping global business operations today:

• EU Sustainability Regulation Compliance – Learn how to align your enterprise with evolving environmental policies and enhance corporate sustainability initiatives.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) – Discover how businesses can effectively manage product life cycles and meet EPR requirements to minimize environmental impact.
• Forced Labor Prevention – Understand legal frameworks like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and best practices for ensuring ethical supply chains.

This session offers practical strategies and expert guidance to help your organization meet rigorous compliance standards while fostering ethical and sustainable business practices. Don’t miss this opportunity to stay ahead in an evolving regulatory landscape!

—

See how Supplier Management amplifies the faint signals of risk across a broad spectrum of risk categories: financial health, cyber risk, sustainability and more.

ERPs aren’t perfect when it comes to overpayment controls. Major disruptions, like ERP migrations or eInvoicing deployment, happening in tandem with enterprise obstacles like poor vendor master data or invoice submission problems, leave organizations vulnerable to spikes in overpayments.

This session focuses on how to create AP processes that safeguard your organization from overpayments—from leveraging an audit to recover lost funds, to implementing technology that prevents creates greater control.

Is your P2P team prepared for substantial growth? Join this session to learn about Highgate’s digital transformation journey as it expanded from 40 to 500 properties resulting in the management of thousands of new vendors.

• Identifying key factors for what is needed during a period of change and growth within your organization and P2P teams.
• How to effectively lead an RFP process and lead a digital transformation project with various stakeholders across different departments.
• Centralizing supplier management across multiple locations and establishing a shared services model to streamline vendor touchpoints and expedite onboarding.
• Leveraging a new supplier management solution with new internal processes to help reduce duplicates, increase compliance, mitigate risks, and prevent fraud.

See how automated supplier onboarding and ongoing management looks from both a supplier and buyers perspective. Hint: it’s a better experience for both.

Kickoff the discussion with the latest and greatest technology to prevent payment fraud. Then have a private group conversation with your peers on fraud impacting your operations. From the constant phishing attempts to the near misses, share what you are doing to prevent the next event and learn from your peers that are facing the same problems.

Join us for an interactive session where we’ll explore the latest trends and challenges in talent management, remote work, and skills development. Discover innovative strategies for attracting and retaining top performers, learn how to effectively lead and motivate distributed teams, and find out how to upskill and reskill your teams to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing business landscape. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or an emerging manager, this session will provide you with practical insights and actionable advice to help you navigate the future of work.

Start off the session with an overview of how a global sports apparel company recently transformed their shared services operations. Then, open up the discussion with the problems your team is facing, recent success and plans for 2025. Join a group of your peers for the candid conversations that can help your company solve problems.

The complexities of third-party relationships are growing as organizations face increasing regulatory demands alongside growing complexity in operational risk and resilience. Legacy, siloed processes can no longer keep pace with today’s dynamic environments, leaving organizations vulnerable to disruptions and penalties.

This session explores the shift toward integrated, holistic third-party risk management strategies supported by modern Third-Party GRC platforms. These solutions unify fragmented processes, provide real-time insights, and automate key tasks like due diligence, monitoring, and compliance tracking. By leveraging advanced capabilities such as risk intelligence integration and automation, organizations can streamline operations, meet regulatory expectations, and build resilient third-party ecosystems that align with broader ESG and organizational objectives.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the challenges of traditional third-party risk management approaches.
• Explore how modern Third-Party GRC solutions streamline compliance and enhance risk visibility.
• Learn strategies to integrate ESG considerations into third-party risk management frameworks.
• Discover how automation and real-time intelligence drive efficiency and resilience in third-party ecosystems.

Step inside the history of country music. All the instruments, costumes, rare photos, one-of-a-kind recordings, films and priceless artifacts of the people who shaped country music’s story.

On Monday March 17th, Icon attendees will explore the museum’s incredible exhibits, followed by a dinner, a live band performance, and an immersive celebration of the iconic sounds of Nashville.

Discover how to transform your accounts payable operations with a live demo of Portal’s Inquiry and Dynamic Discounting modules.

Learn how the Inquiry Module empowers suppliers with 24/7 self-service access to invoice and payment details, significantly reducing helpdesk calls by up to 80%. See how seamless integrations with ERPs and P2P systems provide a single, consolidated global view for enhanced efficiency and supplier satisfaction.

Explore the Dynamic Discounting Module, where you’ll unlock the potential of flexible early payment programs to maximize supplier adoption and secure greater discount yields. With advanced predictive analytics and comprehensive supplier data, turn your Accounts Payable into a profit center while fostering stronger supplier relationships.

• Reduce workload and streamline AP processes by using supplier self-service tools.
• Learn strategies to achieve high adoption rates for early payment programs.
• Explore the benefits of predictive analytics for discount optimization.

• $2.1 Million Recovered through duplicate payment identification and prevention.
• 168% ROI achieved in just three years.
• 40% Productivity Gains through enhanced vendor management and automation.
• Streamlined Onboarding Processes, reducing vendor onboarding times by up to 60%.

Mistakes like overpayments, duplicate payments, and payment errors can add up to cost companies billions each year. These mistakes happen for all kinds of reasons—from something as big as a complex software migration, to something as small as a mistyped extra zero on an invoice.

Preventing these payment mistakes from going out the door means that your money can be used to further your success. During this session, we will talk through how companies are leveraging apexanalytix overpayment prevention software to prevent mistakes…in the millions.

apexanalytix is closing the compliance gap to level the playing field within your supplier base. Join us for the official unveiling of a new supplier-facing innovation that will provide your suppliers with more resources to manage their risk profiles: apexanalytix Conductor!

In this session, you will learn how Conductor will:

• Boost the performance of your existing portal modules
• Enable suppliers to self-manage their risk, without your involvement
• Improve business continuity and supplier performance
• Provide suppliers with critical business alerts
• Offer no-touch supplier development via a private Learning Community and Partner Marketplace
• Raise the capability and maturity of your entire supplier base

During the session, Melissa Cefalu will share her experience conducting comprehensive fraud risk assessments, mitigating anti-bribery and corruption challenges, and optimizing internal controls to ensure alignment with regulatory standards. By integrating practical takeaways from real-world fraud investigations and in-depth engagements with key regulatory agencies (DOJ, SEC), participants will be equipped to safeguard their organizations against financial losses and reputational damage.

Tailored for procurement, finance, and compliance leaders at large enterprises, this session will provide actionable strategies to proactively identify and address fraud risks while driving adherence to regulatory requirements.

Join us in creating meal kits with Rise Against Hunger. This is a growing global movement to end hunger by nourishing lives, empowering communities, and responding to emergencies. Targeting remote, last-mile communities within hunger pockets designated “serious” or higher by the Global Hunger Index, this giveback will supply those in need with their own food and nutrition security as they overcome these challenges.