• TPM24
  • March 3-6, 2024 | Long Beach Convention Center

Dan L. Gardner

Trade Facilitators Inc.

Co-Founder, Trade XCelerators, and President

Dan Gardner is the president and co-founder of Trade Facilitators. He is a global trade executive with a unique combination of 3PL, consulting, and BCO experience. Gardner is fully bilingual (ESP), a licensed customs broker, a  multi-award-winning professor of supply chain management, a Six Sigma Black Belt, and the author of four books on global trade. He received his MBA from the University of Miami. 

Sessions With Dan L. Gardner

Sunday, 3 March

  • 01:30pm - 01:45pm (PST) / 03/mar/2024 09:30 pm - 03/mar/2024 09:45 pm

    TPM24 Academy: An Introduction
    RETURNING TO TPM24! Following a highly successful introduction at TPM23, TPM Academy returns with a series of 45-minute educational workshops offering a practical introduction and overview of key subjects that international trade professionals typically encounter in their day-to-day responsibilities. Taught by seasoned professionals with deep knowledge and experience, each 45-minute course provides attendees with a conceptional and practical understanding that will make dealing with these issues much easier in the real world. In this 15-minute introduction, Dan Gardner, an educator with 30 years of logistics experience, will run through the course material, the courses that make up TPM Academy, and other details of this essential feature for professionals who have recently joined the industry, for TPM newcomers, and for those who simply have a passion to learn.
  • 01:45pm - 03:15pm (PST) / 03/mar/2024 09:45 pm - 03/mar/2024 11:15 pm

    TPM24 Academy: From Supply Chains to Demand Loops — How the Fusion of AI and System Dynamics Will Revolutionize Global Trade

    Ask any businessperson what the newest thing in supply chain management is and they’ll invariably say “artificial intelligence.” All the hype notwithstanding and tempered with a dose of skepticism, it’s not an exaggeration to state that the application of AI to demand planning, purchasing, manufacturing, distribution planning and logistics can materially alter the way international trade is conducted. Despite its bright future, this session begins with the heresy that AI will be incapable of generating order-of- magnitude benefits until linear supply chain mindsets are abandoned for a circular, demand-based philosophy. Founded on the tenets of “System Dynamics,” the presentation’s core hypothesis is that AI’s potential will be reached only when folks stop engaging in silo-based cause-and-effect decision-making and start treating the dynamics between international business players as an array of interdependent and ever-changing feedback loops. In what will be a revolutionary perspective on operational execution, join us as we demonstrate how the future of trade lies in the fusion of AI with the organic tenets of Systems Thinking. By no means a futuristic view of trade, this here-and-now methodology will allow companies to avoid what can aptly be referred to as “Blockchain Syndrome” and prove once and for all that AI is capable of being much more intelligent than artificial.

    Content of this 90-minute presentation will include:

    • The original definition of Artificial Intelligence

    • System Dynamics defined

    • AI for demand planning

    • Pitfalls of linear supply chain thinking

    • Using AI to integrate purchasing and logistics

    • What the heck is a “Feedback Loop”?

    • AI, product sales and distribution planning

    • Applying systems thinking to global trade

    • The big winner: Sales and operations planning

    • Case Study: Valentina’s Fashion House

Monday, 4 March

  • 11:30am - 12:15pm (PST) / 04/mar/2024 07:30 pm - 04/mar/2024 08:15 pm

    TPM24 Academy: Incoterms® 2020 Rules — Understanding and Application

    Companywide knowledge of Incoterms is fundamental to supply chain execution and financial success. Because trade terms deal with the seller’s delivery responsibility under a sales contract, Incoterms impact areas that include risk transfer, shipping, landed cost controls, calculation of gross profit and payment for logistics services. Equally applicable to importers and exporters, the content of this module will go beyond the basics of understanding shipping terms to address rights and responsibilities between the seller and buyer, as well as the division of transportation costs between the parties. With an emphasis on the updates to Incoterms 2020, this class will set the stage for other modules to follow.   

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