Join us on April 27-29, 2016 at the fourth annual AWESOME Symposium
Hosted by Nike in Portland, Oregon
Watch for more details.
The AWESOME team is planning a one-of-a-kind symposium for you this year! NIKE, Inc. has agreed to be our Host Partner. To begin planning the symposium, the AWESOME group visited NIKE World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon – just outside of Portland – and found messages of inspiration and innovation throughout the 200-acre main campus.
A wall of motivational quotes reminded the AWESOME team that the symposium is only five months away – and we’re getting there FAST!
Maybe bikes available to employees for getting around the campus will help!
Throughout the campus are tributes to some of the greatest athletes of all time, including Nolan Ryan, Hall of Fame pitcher for the Texas Rangers; Tiger Woods, winner of 79 PGA Tour tournaments and the first golfer to hold all four professional major championships at the same time; and, Mia Hamm, Women’s World Cup Soccer Champion and Gold Medal Olympian.
April 27th kicks off the AWESOME Symposium with the 2016 AWESOME Legendary Leadership (ALL) Awards (honorees to be announced). Prior to the networking reception and dinner, which will take place at the NIKE campus, symposium attendees will have an opportunity to see the NIKE World Headquarters for themselves.
After a full day of planning, the team relocated to downtown Portland for dinner – checking out the atmosphere and making plans for Day Two of the symposium.
(Front row, left to right) Wendy Huston, NIKE; Jennifer Nix, DSC Logistics and AWESOME; Nancy Nix, Executive Director, AWESOME; Ann Drake, CEO, DSC Logistics and founder of AWESOME; Trish Young, VP of North America Supply Chain, NIKE; Alisa Patrone, NIKE; Carrie Bob, NIKE. (Back row) Sitora Muzafarova, NIKE; Cheryl Harbour, DSC Logistics and AWESOME; Ceal Anderson, NIKE. (Not in photo: Suzanne Hilton-Esaki, NIKE; Renee Epperly, NIKE)
Day Two of the symposium – April 28 — will take place at The Nines Hotel in downtown Portland with panel discussions and up-close conversations, and many more surprises to help you experience the unique culture of Nike and Portland.
To make your trip to the Northwest complete and to continue the networking opportunities, the AWESOME Symposium will offer options for a third day – April 29th – to explore some of what makes Portland great. One option is certain to be a winery tour to the Willamette Valley where there are more than 400 wineries.
The team decided to visit a few wineries and, at our first stop, we saw one of the most beautiful “warehouses” imaginable! (Behind every great wine, there’s a great supply chain!) We also sampled regionally produced products including olive oil and chocolates.
We’ll have more to tell you soon — keep watching for updates!
May 2015: Johnson & Johnson passed the Host Partner baton to NIKE
At the conclusion of the 2015 Symposium, attendees learned that Nike will host the next AWESOME Symposium on April 27-29 at the company’s World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, outside Portland.
The announcement came in a passing of the baton ceremony in which Kathy Wengel, SVP Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain (JJSC), handed the official role of “Host Partner” to Suzanne Hilton-Esaki, who represented Nike.
The AWESOME web site will provide details as plans are developed. The 2015 event was hosted by Johnson & Johnson in partnership with DSC Logistics which was the sole host in 2013 and 2014. Ann Drake, CEO of DSC, is the founder of AWESOME.