Coupa Inspires 1,000 Professionals with Spend Management
Last week, we hosted our biggest EMEA Inspire yet! Thank you to everyone who attended for an inspiring, educational, and enjoyable experience! With almost 1,000 guests and twice as many customer speakers as last year, the Intercontinental O2 in London was positively abuzz with Coupa excitement.
To kick off the day, CEO Rob Bernshteyn delivered a keynote address on Coupa's innovative vision, including the announcement of Coupa Pay, and the value of global community intelligence. He also announced the winners of our 2018 BSM EMEA Awards for their outstanding spend management achievements within their organizations. Dan Cameron, from Pearson Education, was recognized for ensuring customer success; Rajesh Gopal, of Unilever, was highlighted for focusing on results; and Debbi Jowett, from Rolls-Royce, was named for striving for excellence.
Next, guest speaker Robert Peston, an award-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker, gave a captivating keynote on economic implications of today's polarizing political climate. In his insightful speech, he stressed the value of innovation as a way to minimize risk and maximize opportunity in these uncertain times.
Following Mr. Peston, CMO Chandar Pattabhiram moderated a lively discussion about the exponential impact of BSM with the CPOs of Coupa customers Pearson, Sanofi, and Zurich Insurance. Finally, Raja Hammoud, SVP of Products, highlighted Coupa’s latest BSM innovations, including 150+ new platform capabilities like optimized user moments through voice inventory and visual ordering. Ravi Thakur, SVP of Business Acceleration, also focused on exciting additions to Coupa’s offerings by introducing new technology and financing solutions from Coupa Pay and Coupa's partnership with Barclaycard.
For the first time in Europe, Coupa Cares made an appearance at Inspire! Coupa Cares hosted an event in partnership with Donate4Refugees to pack bags for refugees in Europe. In total, Inspire attendees packed about 1,000 bags full of thermal hats, warm gloves, cozy socks, and other winter clothes, which will be distributed as needed to people seeking asylum in Europe.
Other key programs included 20 breakout sessions with engaging guest speakers, a VIP luncheon with 60+ attendees, and hundreds of customers participating in training. And, of course, the lively and highly anticipated Inspire party was an exciting way to finish Day 2.
If you couldn’t make it, or missed a session, we are developing a library based on the session content, including blog posts, recordings, and webinars to bring the most important learnings from Inspire to you.
Stay tuned, mark your calendar for next June 25th - 27th for Inspire ’19 at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, and we’ll see you soon!
