Another Record-Breaking Event - The 20th Annual RLA Conference, February 6-8, 2024 in Las Vegas

By Cathy Roberson, Sandra Rhee and David Medof and Brandy Aslanian, ASLAN Business Services LLC

The Reverse Logistics Association hosted an exciting and educational 20th annual conference in Las Vegas in February. A record number of registrations, a maxed-out exhibit hall, and a great content-driven event led to a successful conference.

Pre-conference events included the Women’s Luncheon with over 150 women in reverse logistics attendees. Kimberly Bell of Sims Lifecycle Services introduced Colleen and Sims Lifecycle Services sponsored the luncheon. 

The Fifth Annual Women in Reverse Logistics luncheon was held in which Colleen Robinson, Director of Reverse Logistics at Amazon Lab126, was the guest speaker. Colleen shared a glimpse of her 28 year career journey through supply chain management to reverse logistics and what she has learned as a “Woman in Leadership”. 

At 22 years-old she was the manager of a small team where she learned on the job that being a people manager required skills that she had yet to develop. Colleen refined her management approach through the years to shift from manager to leader. Colleen currently manages 86 employees globally at Amazon Lab126. 

Some Key Take-Aways

• Define your vision and mission statements to create clear messaging to align your team to walk in the same direction.
• Empower your team to make decisions referencing defined tenants of decision making.  
• Teach don’t tell.  
• Mentorship - ask for it and offer it.

Utilizing Amazon’s Leadership Principles, Colleen created tenants for her teams to reference when faced with decisions.

1. How to balance risk taking vs. perfectionism: Be okay with only 70% of the data (the absence of data is data itself).
2. Measure, Audit, and Review: Model for your team; share when you’re unsure.
3. Be okay with some ambiguity: Most decisions aren’t permanent; you can pivot and redirect.

In the Industry Roundtable, Carol Havis of DB Schenker showed how harvesting big data can shine a light on the opaque world of B2B returns. Academics discuss warnings for companies looking to use generative AI, Buy Online Store Systems, and training for frontline employees for reverse logistics. Rich Bulger unveiled his new textbook for Reverse Logistics, and Sean Magann of SIMS Lifecycle Services discussed the CE facts program. Matt Zieminski of iFixit and Jeff Seibert of SERI discussed current and future regulations shaping returns.

Meanwhile, in the Retailer & Manufacturer Roundtable, Scot Case, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability of the National Retail Federation led a four-part discussion on the benefits, future, and unanswered questions of the RLA and NRF merger.

The pre-conference events ended with RLA Executive Director Tony Sciarrotta presenting awards to companies and leaders innovating in reverse logistics for lifetime contributions, circular economy, and other achievements and the 2nd Annual RLA Startup Pitch Competition.

Award winners were:

• Lifetime Achievement Award: Julie Ryan
• Education Award: Jim Stock of the University of South Florida
• Circular Economy Award: HP
• Green Reverse Logistics Award: OnProcess Technology
• Reverse Logistics Innovation Solution Partner Award: goTRG
• Operational Excellence Award:  Trove

Five diverse reverse logistics startups participated in the pitch contest. A big congratulations to Returned.com for winning the Judges Award and 360 ID Tag for winning the Audience Award. Also, a big thanks to the judges – Julie Ryan, Senior Manager of North American Returns and Remanufacturing for HP; Isaiah McPeak, VP of Operations for Vendidit; Nikos Papaioannou, Senior Business Manager for Amazon; Sean Magann, Chief Commercial Officer for Sims Lifecycle Services; and Rudee Bertie, Chairman for NEX, E-Commerce Supply Chain Hub.

The official first day of the conference started with keynote speaker John Paul DeJoria, the self-made billionaire best known for his founding roles in Paul Mitchell hair products and The Patrón Spirits Company. John Paul delivered a series of stories about his past ventures, philanthropy, and visionary projects like RenewLogic and Vendidit.com.

In addition to the numerous sessions, former RLA Advisory Board Member and industry leader Richard Bulger introduced his book, Going Circular: The Evolution of Reverse Logistics into a Competitive Weapon. Bulger shared his journey of reinventing reverse logistics at Verizon and Cisco to generate a new revenue stream and returning to school to receive a Master’s in Reverse Logistics from American Public University. Each RLA Conference attendee received a complimentary hard copy.

The second-day keynote speaker was Nerrick Jackson, Director of Supply Chain Operations at Zappos. Nerrick’s speech covered a spectrum of topics, including Zappos’s core values, Zappos’ top four reasons for returns, and their team’s thoughtful approach towards return customer service.

The final conference activity, which has become a tradition, the Interactive Champagne Roundtables, provided an engaging platform for intimate conversations among RLA attendees and RLA Advisory Board Members. RLA attendees were given three rotations of twenty minutes each to sit with a contact that interested them, reflect upon the lessons learned throughout the conference, and provide an RLA advisory board member with final feedback.