1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,360 Very good day everyone and welcome to the Let's Talk 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,320 Pricing podcast. I'm Kevin Mitchell from 3 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:09,760 Professional Pricing Society and this time we're going to do 4 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,960 things a little bit different. We are not going to have a 5 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:17,000 special guest this time and that is because I am just returning 6 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,120 from PPS Profitable. Our spring conference was May 7 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:26,360 6th through 9th in Dallas, and I'm going to do a quick recap 8 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:30,480 for those who were there, those who wanted to join us but we're 9 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:33,840 not able to, and those who are interested in what professional 10 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:37,160 pricing society does at our conferences. 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,240 So last week in Dallas, we had a wonderful time. 12 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,600 We had 9 CPP workshops. We had eight keynotes. 13 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:49,760 We had 16 breakouts. We had nine panels in town 14 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:53,600 halls, networking receptions and industry connections. 15 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:58,680 Luncheon, 3 French hands, 2 turtle doves, at least one ice 16 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:00,920 cold shower. If you were there, you know what 17 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:04,760 I'm talking about. And lots of formal and informal 18 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:08,960 networking in Dallas's finest restaurants and bars during the 19 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:12,640 event and after hours as well. For me and my team, it was 20 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:16,240 wonderful to see our members from across the globe who are 21 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:20,160 nice enough to join us. And it was a great opportunity 22 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:24,320 for us to all connect, to get some answers to the questions 23 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:30,200 that we are facing and really to bench work, to network, to get 24 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,040 educated, to get trained, to hear about the latest and 25 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,360 greatest, to hear about best practices, and really to get the 26 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:39,760 psychological group hug that comes along with our conferences 27 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:41,840 where you are amongst colleagues. 28 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:46,520 And we have fun taking over a medium large sized hotel for the 29 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:51,280 better part of a week. Also, I do want to acknowledge 30 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,800 that my team and I know that it takes a lot for our members, our 31 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,160 speakers, our sponsors and our staff to join us for this event. 32 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,320 Obviously, there's a lot going on from a macroeconomic 33 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,440 perspective right now. There's a lot going on from a 34 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,039 lot of different perspectives right now, and people are really 35 00:02:10,039 --> 00:02:12,600 busy with their jobs and we realize it. 36 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:15,800 For quite a few of us, it's quite a sacrifice for you to 37 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,160 join us for our event. We are so thankful that you did, 38 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,920 and we hope that our event was a wonderful, great investment for 39 00:02:22,920 --> 00:02:26,880 you and for your company. For me personally, I thoroughly 40 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:30,720 enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, meeting 41 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:34,800 lots of new faces, and of course spending great time with PPS 42 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:38,680 members, our attendees, speakers, sponsors, the staff 43 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:42,280 there, and everything that was going on during our conference 44 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:44,120 week. If you attended our event, we'll 45 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:49,760 be sending you a recap very soon coming up as well, so make sure 46 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:52,920 to keep an eye out for that. Also, if you've not already done 47 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:55,320 so, if you did attend our event, make sure to fill out the 48 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:59,880 surveys that we send you because we build our programs based on 49 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:02,640 your feedback. And we want to make sure that 50 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:08,320 our events continue to be a wonderful opportunity for you to 51 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,520 again, connect with the pricing and revenue Management worldwide 52 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:16,320 communities and to learn strategies, tactics, best 53 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,880 practices and what's new for you and for your team. 54 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,800 So before I go into what a wonderful time that we had at 55 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:29,240 our event last week, I do want to share why we gather in 56 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:33,040 person. So PPS is for, by and about 57 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:36,080 pricing professionals, revenue management professionals, sales 58 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,440 enablement professionals and related fields all the time. 59 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:45,240 And our broad mission really is for those who are in these very 60 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:48,960 difficult jobs, we want to make sure that you have all of the 61 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:52,240 tools and all of the applications that you need in 62 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:54,880 order to do your jobs better, not only for yourselves and for 63 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,640 your careers, but for your companies as well. 64 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,000 So we are all about networking strategies, next steps, 65 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,640 benchmarking, learning from thought leaders, all of the 66 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:08,000 connections that you need. And since we are at the center 67 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:10,920 of this very important part of the pricing world, since we're 68 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:14,800 the Nexus of the revenue management space, our events are 69 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,880 the only place where everyone, where all of the practitioners, 70 00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:21,519 all of the experts, all the senior managers and leaders, all 71 00:04:21,519 --> 00:04:24,120 of the pricing software optimization companies, all of 72 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:27,680 the leading consultants, and everyone is welcome to come on 73 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:31,880 in and to join each other and to talk about what we do. 74 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:38,000 And to really come back from our events energized with a lot of 75 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,280 good actionable strategies and tactics that we can all use in 76 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:45,240 our jobs going forward. So at the PPS Profitable 77 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,560 conference, there were several new themes and several others 78 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:52,840 that we took very good deep dives into. 79 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:56,640 Of course, right now a lot of us are talking, a lot of us are 80 00:04:56,640 --> 00:04:59,800 talking about tariffs, a lot of us are talking about economic 81 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:03,040 uncertainty. We also had lots of information 82 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:07,080 about problem solving, about value based pricing strategies, 83 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:11,080 about segmentation, about innovation, about revenue growth 84 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:15,920 management and a lot more. And we also talked a lot about 85 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:19,880 artificial intelligence. So in our discussions about AII 86 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:24,800 was really struck by the depth and the breadth and we had 87 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,520 people who were 0 all the way on one end to 100 all the way on 88 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,080 the other end. But we had a wide variety of 89 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:36,040 thoughts and opinions and information regarding people's 90 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:41,000 knowledge of, experience with, and comfort level for AI as it 91 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,360 relates to their roles. So I've met a lot of people who 92 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,920 don't use it at all or maybe use it to write emails. 93 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,480 Some of our member companies have told our people never to 94 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:53,920 use it. Others have told people build a 95 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:58,280 strategy with it and anything and everything in between. 96 00:05:58,840 --> 00:06:03,400 So since AI is so important, since it's at the forefront of 97 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:05,400 what a lot of what we're thinking about and what we're 98 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,640 doing in our daily jobs, we will also have lots more information 99 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:12,920 available for you. I know a lot of you have talked 100 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:17,120 with me about the AI and pricing certification the Professional 101 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,680 Pricing Society offers. You can check our website For 102 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:22,840 more information there. And we will continue to have 103 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:27,240 lots of information about the issues, the challenges and the 104 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:29,080 opportunities that are facing you and your team. 105 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:33,200 New things such as tariff effects, AI effects, and also 106 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,600 some of the old classic things around revenue growth 107 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:39,800 management, around teamwork, around analysis, around 108 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:44,640 strategies, around negotiating and all of the other skill sets 109 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,440 that we all need to develop in order to do even better at our 110 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,480 jobs for our companies. So we had a lot of things that 111 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:55,400 were unique and new. This was the biggest number of 112 00:06:55,400 --> 00:07:00,240 panels that we have offered and this gave our members lots of 113 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,560 chances, lots of opportunities to address their issues, 114 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,760 questions and concerns with experts and thought leaders. 115 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:10,200 Also, we have a lot of peer learning that happens at our 116 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:13,440 event as well. Sometimes we learn almost as 117 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:16,760 much from each other and our questions and benchmarking as we 118 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,200 do from experts and people delivering presentations and 119 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:24,480 workshops. And we also had a very wide 120 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:28,840 variety of speakers and attendees from geographically 121 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,840 all over the world. I did not meet anyone from 122 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:35,960 Antarctica at this event, but I am pretty sure that we had the 123 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:37,760 other six continents represented. 124 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,160 People were from all over. From a business perspective, we 125 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:43,160 had people from lots of different industries, lots of 126 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,160 different verticals, lots of different management types, 127 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:50,440 ownership types and much more. Our event was split in half. 128 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:54,120 The first two days on Tuesday and Wednesday were for full day 129 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:57,080 CPP workshops. Thursday and Friday we're all 130 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,840 about conference keynotes, breakouts, networking panels, 131 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:03,920 town halls, and lots of other events there. 132 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:10,840 But there were a few standout sessions that I felt hit exactly 133 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,600 on the most important topics, the most important notes that 134 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,720 our members were looking for. And I'm very lucky because I get 135 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:21,200 to moderate great sessions throughout the four days. 136 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:26,360 At our event on Tuesday, I was very lucky and very fortunate to 137 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:31,320 moderate Stefan Leos Tuesday CPP workshop on value based pricing 138 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:35,520 and it was great. Stefan went over a lot of things 139 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,080 in his full day certified pricing professional workshop. 140 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,000 He talked about why your organization needs to develop 141 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,000 your pricing skills, how to do it, the effects of it, how you 142 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:49,600 can battle the inertia and the human change management issues 143 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:53,240 that always come up when you're trying to move, for example, 144 00:08:53,240 --> 00:09:00,120 from a cost plus based pricing theory to more of a value based 145 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:04,800 pricing concept. And Stefan offered his workshop 146 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:09,200 lots of great information on how we can do that and gave us a lot 147 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,200 to think about and also took a lot of time to answer all of our 148 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:16,960 questions and concerns as well. And on Wednesday, I'm sorry, 149 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:20,600 also on Tuesday, unfortunately I could only be in one place at 150 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:23,440 one time. So I was not able to take 151 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,840 advantage of Tim Smith's CPP workshop on price structures, 152 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,640 models and markets. And also on Tuesday, we had 153 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:35,480 another standout workshop. Joanne Smith, no relation as far 154 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:40,120 as I can tell, LED a workshop on segmentation and had lots of 155 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:44,240 great insights there as well. I know through Joanne's books 156 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,720 and Tim's books and Stefan's books, they're all experts in 157 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,520 the field. And we had wonderful workshops 158 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:55,240 on the Tuesday for people either pursue pursuing the CPP or 159 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:57,440 looking to expand their skill sets as well. 160 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,360 And hey, that was all just on Tuesday, the very first day of 161 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:03,520 our event. On Tuesday night, we had a great 162 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:07,960 Cajun Creole New Orleans style dinner sponsored by our friends 163 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:11,840 at the team from Enable. And because I'm a big fan of 164 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:15,720 Cajun Creole food just between us, I had to run out and 165 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,320 immediately buy a bigger suit in order to get ready for the rest 166 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:22,840 of the conference. I think I was over served as far 167 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:25,680 as food was at that event, but it was a very, very nice way to 168 00:10:25,680 --> 00:10:28,520 end out our first day. On Wednesday, the 2nd day of our 169 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:33,640 of our workshops, I had again the great pleasure of moderating 170 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,840 another wonderful workshop and that was Frederico Zornig's A 171 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:41,480 complete pricing journey. And Fred covered many critical 172 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:43,400 areas. He talked about analytics, about 173 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:46,400 team building, about negotiating, about corporate 174 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:51,040 strategy, about today's technology and its effects, and 175 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:55,960 really we had a great day again of opportunities and challenges, 176 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:01,040 addressed questions and answers, some group exercises and a 177 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:04,960 wonderful participation from his workshop as well. 178 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:07,880 We had a lot of people in there who asked questions and we had 179 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:09,680 very lively discussions throughout. 180 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:13,760 I heard quite a few people mentioned Deanne Hammer and 181 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:18,080 Antonella Sunito's workshop. Deanne and Anto are from the 182 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,280 Three M Company. Their workshop was Actioning 183 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:25,080 Practical Pricing Problems, a pricing escape room experience. 184 00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:28,360 I heard people throughout the event talking about escaping 185 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:31,560 from the escape room or almost escaping from the escape room, 186 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:36,200 and apparently it was a wonderful opportunity to work on 187 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:41,080 some pricing problems as well. And Solani Vestati from Emory 188 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:44,960 University down the street from me here in Atlanta, GA, USA LED 189 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,480 a workshop on monetizing innovation. 190 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:51,240 One workshop that I took advantage of at a previous event 191 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:55,440 but missed this time was Lori Rubowski and Travis Umbleby from 192 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:58,640 Holden Advisors. They load a workshop on how to 193 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:01,600 equip your sales team to build pricing power. 194 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,120 Other workshops that we had with great information were Ryan 195 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:08,280 Davies and Gregor Bill Jart on core pricing skills. 196 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:11,840 And of course, our friends Juan Echeberry and Laurent Dysonia 197 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,640 LED ACPP workshop on revenue growth management. 198 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,640 And hey, all of that stuff happened at our event on Tuesday 199 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:20,920 and Wednesday. So this was before we even 200 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:23,440 started the conference. Keynotes, breakouts, panels in 201 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:28,560 town halls on Thursday morning. So the first half of our event 202 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:31,400 for CPP workshops for people working on the certification, 203 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:34,960 people looking for advanced training, lots of great 204 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:38,480 information there. I'm very lucky at our 205 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:43,320 conferences because on Thursday and Friday morning I get to 206 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:47,240 moderate the keynotes and introduce the sessions. 207 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:51,200 And so we start off Thursday. Sebastian Bach from Boston 208 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,480 Consulting Group BCG talked about how you can overcome 209 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:59,160 pricing complexity with AI, and Deanne Hammer talked about price 210 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:02,120 management. Adrian Gordon delivered a great 211 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:05,840 session about pricing segmentation using AI. 212 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:11,120 And Lynn Gwynn, a lot of us know Lynn from when he LED pricing 213 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,080 for one of the largest companies on the planet. 214 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:16,800 He talked about team building, how you can build a group of 215 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:22,040 great people to exceed your expectations and some of the 216 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:27,600 team building and networking and so-called soft skills that are 217 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:31,480 involved with doing great things within revenue management as 218 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:34,200 well. So we had wonderful, wonderful 219 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:38,440 keynotes in Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon. 220 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,120 I had the great pleasure of really just being a normal 221 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:45,440 attendee at our conference. And I saw breakout tracks by 222 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,200 Stephanie Gay from Deloitte. She talked about pricing 223 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:51,440 transformation. Anita Venur from Pros talked 224 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:55,040 about the customer life cycle. And also I attended Kartik 225 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:57,080 Doraswami. He talked about ascribing 226 00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:00,480 commercial values. So we had a great variety of 227 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:06,160 topics in the breakouts as well. And we ended Thursday with the 228 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:10,080 keynote town halls where we had all of our keynote speakers and 229 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:13,120 you could get up close and discuss your issues with them, 230 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:14,920 your challenges, your opportunities. 231 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,000 And we ended the day with a wonderful reception. 232 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,640 I have pictures of several hundred of our members enjoying 233 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:24,840 good food and good drink in our exhibit hall and we had a great 234 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,240 day. And on Friday, we had even more 235 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:32,120 of insights. We had morning keynotes with 236 00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:35,320 Philip Douse from Simon Kutcher. He talked about pricing models. 237 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,400 G Mukherjee, who is the author of Pricing with Confidence, 238 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,920 talked about how to protect your company in a tariff era. 239 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:47,400 And somehow he did this while wearing an amazing pink suit. 240 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:50,680 He said it was salmon, but I've got pictures and I'll let you 241 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:53,800 make the distinction for yourself, but I'm going to, I'm 242 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:56,040 going to stick with a very stylish pink suit. 243 00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:58,200 So G, cheers to you for that one. 244 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:02,840 Tim Meeker from International Motors surprised us all with a 245 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:06,920 great podium stage dive before he started talking about agile 246 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,520 pricing principles. And Matt Nags, who came 247 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:14,840 partially dressed as Captain America, talked about defending 248 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:18,600 humanity in a world of AI. So again, in our keynotes, we 249 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:23,640 had a wide variety of thought leaders of perspectives and of 250 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:28,240 topics that address really what we're all talking about from a 251 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:33,480 revenue management perspective. And also on Friday in one of our 252 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:36,840 coffee breaks, we had our great prize giveaway where our exhibit 253 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,720 hall was packed. We had great prizes such as BBQ 254 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:45,560 grills, iPads, concert tickets, Mont Blanc pens, gift cards and 255 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:47,880 lots of other prizes from our exhibitors. 256 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:51,320 Once again, for some reason, I did not win any of the prizes. 257 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,280 I think it's a conspiracy. I need to check with someone in 258 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,240 charge about all of that. But hope everyone had a great 259 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,120 Friday. And As for me personally, my 260 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:05,000 Friday continued with a breakout session with Lay yen from 261 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,280 Emerson. He talked about machine learning 262 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:10,920 and new products, and then we had an experts panel with 263 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:14,640 Alfredo Amable, Ed Class, and Damiano Migliori. 264 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:17,800 We talked about everything including how tariffs are 265 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,040 affecting their respective businesses. 266 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:26,480 And on Friday, it's become a PPS classic where we end with a 267 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,720 Friday keynote. Town Hall, Philip Dallas and 268 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:33,200 Jeet Mukherjee and Matt Nags were all there. 269 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:37,320 And our friend Ed class raised a question, a great question that 270 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:39,920 started a debate amongst our panelists. 271 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:43,520 And so I'll ask you as well. If you only had to give one 272 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:49,720 answer, would you personally say that pricing is an art or a 273 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:51,920 science? I'd be interested in what people 274 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,160 think. I know that I have my opinions 275 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:56,920 there. But amongst our three panelists, 276 00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:01,120 I think we had one artist, one scientist, and one who is still 277 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:02,920 thinking it over. I'm not going to tell you who's 278 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:06,760 who, but interested in what everyone else thinks about that. 279 00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:10,119 So pricing, would you describe it if you only had to pick one 280 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:15,079 as either an art or a science? So again, great debates, great 281 00:17:15,079 --> 00:17:20,480 topics throughout and for me, the end of our conference week 282 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,240 on Friday afternoon, it's always a little bittersweet and I 283 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:26,800 expect that it is for my team as well. 284 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:30,160 Obviously, we work for many, many months on our conferences, 285 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,960 but then it feels like as soon as we touchdown and as soon as 286 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,000 we get signed into our conference hotel the weekend 287 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,800 before the event to get everything ready, next thing we 288 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,280 know it is Friday afternoon and we're either booking flights 289 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:47,080 back or getting ready to board our flights back or planning on 290 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:49,040 spending the weekends wherever we are. 291 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:52,080 And really our conference room week flies by. 292 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:53,880 We're so busy. It's so great to connect with 293 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:57,240 everyone. I'm always a little sad because 294 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,000 it will be many months before we see very large groups of our 295 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,600 members in person again. But of course I can't wait to 296 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:08,640 see everyone again in Las Vegas for our American Fall profitable 297 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:13,640 conference October 21st to 24th in Las Vegas and for our 298 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:18,320 European EMEA based profitable event will be in Barcelona from 299 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,360 the 2nd to the 5th of December. So I look forward to seeing 300 00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:23,920 everyone again in the second-half of the year. 301 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:29,320 For me personally, I always come back from our conference happy, 302 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:34,280 energized, excited, and really looking forward to hearing more 303 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:38,880 about the opportunities and the challenges that our members are 304 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,480 facing and looking forward to even more expertise in the 305 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:44,840 months ahead. Coming from thought leaders, 306 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:47,400 from expert, from leading academics, leading pricing 307 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:51,240 practitioners and more. I'm very, very thankful that 308 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,640 everyone took the time and the effort to join our event, to 309 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,280 network, to learn, to reconnect with old friends and colleagues, 310 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:01,280 to meet new faces in our very, very important part of the 311 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:04,120 business world. Our jobs are not easy and 312 00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:07,920 they're getting more complicated and in many cases more difficult 313 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,400 all of the time. So we want to make sure that 314 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,040 you're able to stay current with all of the information you need 315 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:20,120 in order to exceed expectations to continue to survive and drive 316 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,840 and do great things for your personal career and for your 317 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:29,240 company as well. So make sure to check out coming 318 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:33,720 your way very, very soon. We'll have a full agenda for our 319 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:38,960 fall events again, Las Vegas in October, October 21st to 24th in 320 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:41,840 Barcelona from the 2nd to the 5th of December. 321 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,720 We will have a lot more information for you and your 322 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:49,240 team, the availability to earn certified pricing professional 323 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:53,680 credits in our workshops and to take advantage of key keynotes, 324 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:58,840 breakouts, town halls, panels, networking, receptions, special 325 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:02,280 lunches and much, much more at our events coming up. 326 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:07,520 And before signing off, I want to make sure to thank a few 327 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:11,760 people, a few groups and a few people who really worked 328 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:15,880 overtime in order to make our event the great event that it 329 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:20,440 was last week in Dallas. So I do want to recognize our 330 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:25,200 sponsors, particularly our key supporters like the teams from 331 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:30,080 Pros from Simon Kutcher from BCG, Boston Consulting Group, 332 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:38,120 Zilliant, Enable, Flint, Fox Price FX, Vendavo, Vistar, Price 333 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:44,040 Beam, Vistex, 3C, Software Holding Advisors, Iris Pricing 334 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:49,720 Solutions, Canadian Qantas E Clerks, and the William E Simon 335 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:52,200 School of Business Administration at the University 336 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:58,240 of Rochester Wig Lab Pricing, Ravenera, Synchron and Price 337 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,840 Edge. Also, we were very lucky and 338 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,240 very excited to have several new sponsors who joined us. 339 00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:07,960 So to the teams from Web Data guru, from Revenue Management 340 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:12,480 Labs and from Jennings executive search teams, thank you so much 341 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,240 for joining us and we appreciate all that you did. 342 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,880 And of course, I do want to give a special thanks again to my 343 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:24,440 team who worked very early morning, noon and night on our 344 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:29,840 event, not only for our time on site at our conference last 345 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:33,720 week, but also in the weeks and months leading up to our event 346 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:36,680 to make sure that everything is perfect or as close to perfect 347 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,040 as it can be. So to the PPS team, to our 348 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:44,360 meetings teams, to our board members, to Winnetta Jones, to 349 00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:49,520 Johnny Haskins Junior, to Alex McFall, Darnell Shepherd, Angie 350 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:54,400 Jackson, Sharika Span, Maria Reynolds, Tina Darenzis, Chris 351 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:59,920 Buckingham, Sharon C, Amanda Peters, Tara Copeland, April 352 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:04,760 Leftwich, Susan Korac and everyone else who was around our 353 00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:06,880 event. Our board members, Lynn Gwynn, 354 00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:09,600 Patients Mutiso and Zan Chamberlain. 355 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,320 Zan Chamberlain. Sorry everyone, thank you so 356 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,680 much for joining our event and making it so special. 357 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,720 It was a wonderful time. I can't wait to see everyone 358 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,200 again. And hey, here's to the next 359 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,800 time. So looking forward to a great 360 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:26,720 second-half of the year coming up. 361 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,920 I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in Las Vegas and or 362 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,800 Barcelona. Make sure to check out pricing 363 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:36,040 society.com or just reach out to me for questions about some of 364 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:39,400 our other offerings. We have lots of special training 365 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,080 courses on tariffs and how to deal with them and their 366 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:45,760 effects. We have a special certification 367 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:49,240 on artificial intelligence, AI and its intersection with 368 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:53,080 pricing, how you handle the latest tools, how you handle the 369 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,160 latest technology, and how you can continue to move forward 370 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,960 there. If you and, or your team are 371 00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:02,040 interested in the Certified Pricing professional 372 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:05,920 designation, then of course you can reach out to me and I would 373 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,000 be happy to either answer any questions or connect you with my 374 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,480 team who can get you the information there as well. 375 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:16,560 And also for your teams that work in sales and marketing and 376 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:21,360 finance and product management and operations or other fields 377 00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:23,920 where they may touch upon pricing, even if they don't 378 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:27,160 consider themselves pricers or revenue managers themselves. 379 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:32,160 You can also check out our offerings for the Certificate of 380 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:36,400 profitability education, the CPE as in Edward, which has 381 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:40,600 information about what people in related fields and pricing 382 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,880 adjacent fields need to know about pricing, but maybe without 383 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:49,240 all of the extra Greek letters and analytics that go into the 384 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,600 CPP itself. So my team and I thank you for 385 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:54,600 your partnership. We look forward to seeing you 386 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,000 again soon. And once again, you can reach 387 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:02,280 out to me with any questions, but really my team and I love 388 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,160 the opportunity to work with you and your team on everything that 389 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,360 you need in order to move forward and to continue to do 390 00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:11,800 any better. So check our website, 391 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:15,720 pricingsociety.com For more information or to stay plugged 392 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,560 in. And you can also connect with us 393 00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:20,800 on LinkedIn. You'll find the PPS group or you 394 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:22,720 can search Kevin Mitchell. I'm sure you'll find me. 395 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:27,760 And also make sure to download the 365 A. 396 00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:31,120 It's available in both ALE and Google. 397 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,440 Of course, it's completely free and it's got lots of information 398 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,600 for you as well. So everyone, thanks so much for 399 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,880 tuning in to the Let's Talk Pricing podcast. 400 00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,920 Once again, this is Kevin Mitchell signing off and we will 401 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,440 have lots more information coming up for you soon. 402 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,560 Make sure to check out our podcast and webinars wherever 403 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,760 you get that information. And I look forward to talking 404 00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,440 with everyone and seeing everyone again soon. 405 00:24:57,720 --> 00:24:59,240 Thank you so much, have a great day. 406 00:24:59,440 --> 00:24:59,560 Bye.