Workforce events such as ProcureCon and CWS Summit Europe are often presented as the place where the future of workforce management becomes visible. And to be fair: that’s partly true.
But let’s also stay realistic.
Many technology vendors, MSPs and other sponsors tend to bring their most appealing and successful clients onto the stage. The finest implementations. The best use cases. The organisations where governance works, adoption is high and the business case stacks up.
Understandable, of course.
Nobody enjoys presenting a stalled VMS implementation, a sourcing model that turned out not to be scalable, or a new AI application that failed to deliver a return.
And that’s precisely why the real value of these kinds of events often isn’t just on the stage, but in the corridors as well. That’s where you hear:
- which implementations took far longer than planned;
- how much customisation organisations have actually built and/or applied;
- how difficult ownership discussions are between HR, Procurement and Finance continues to be;
- and how many companies are still struggling to achieve full visibility across their total external workforce.
And perhaps that’s exactly why events like the CWS Summit remain valuable.
Not just because of the polished presentations and discussions, but because between the lines you get a sense of where the market really stands. And honestly? That’s often just as interesting as the official presentations.
