“I was humbled by the buy-in from the AOP community because, ultimately, people came on trust. They came on the trust that we would deliver what we said we would for our first in-person event.” - Philip Ideson, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Art of Procurement
On May 6th, we held our first-ever in-person event, Catalyst LA. Now that the dust has settled, I’m reflecting on everything that went into pulling off this ambitious experiment, where we introduced a new peer-to-peer learning experience to the procurement community.
Looking back, I'm struck by how much our team learned, not just about event planning, but about what today's procurement leaders truly need and want from their professional community.
In this week’s Art of Procurement podcast episode, Kelly Barner and I reflect on all this and more, including what worked, what we’d do differently, and whether you can expect more live events like this in our future.
To recap, here are a few of the biggest takeaways from our journey from digital-first to live experience:
Experience Above All Else
When I first envisioned Catalyst, I didn't start with an agenda or speaker list. I started with a vision. First, I knew what we didn’t want, which was another large, impersonal conference experience that didn’t leave attendees with a clear action plan at the end. But what would that look and feel like exactly? How could we create a welcoming space where procurement leaders could feel safe enough to be vulnerable with their peers and share real challenges and solutions?
This approach certainly made everything harder, from concept to planning to event day. But it also gave us a clear vision for what we wanted to accomplish: by designing the experience first, we created an environment that could accommodate any type of content, whether high-level strategic discussions or detailed tactical sessions.
Curation Is Everything (And It's Exhausting!)
The most time-intensive part of Catalyst wasn't creating content for the event, it was the deliberate pairing of attendees for Mastermind sessions and roundtables. We considered factors like procurement maturity levels, organization sizes, roles, and industries to make sure productive conversations would take place.
Believe it or not, we actually spent more time on these “easy” agenda blocks than on our main stage sessions. But this investment showed up in the impact. Attendees consistently told us the peer-to-peer sessions were the most valuable part of their experience.
Writing a New Playbook
The procurement leaders who attended Catalyst didn’t fit the old stereotypes of risk-averse, process-obsessed professionals. These were curious, innovative leaders excited about throwing out old playbooks and creating new ones.
Many attendees even came from non-procurement backgrounds, bringing fresh perspectives to traditional challenges. This confirms something we already knew but are still exploring: the procurement profession is evolving faster than its reputation. Today’s leaders are ready for bold, different approaches. They want to experiment, learn from failures, and build something new together. Hopefully, Catalyst will help them accomplish that.
Small Scale, Big Impact
We intentionally kept Catalyst small, and I’m so glad we did. We could have chosen to push the boundaries in terms of numbers, but it would have come at the cost of the intimacy and vulnerability we felt would be most productive for knowledge sharing. When everyone knows everyone else's name by lunch (or by the end of the first fire alarm, in our case!), when there are targeted sessions specifically designed to maximize group interaction… that's when the magic happens.
Peer-to-Peer Learning is the Ultimate Catalyst
Despite all our planning, the most powerful moments happened when procurement leaders simply shared their real challenges with each other. For example, in our Mastermind sessions, executives had 10-15 minutes in the “hot seat” to explain a challenge, then received concrete suggestions from peers who had faced similar situations. In many ways, our peers are still our best teachers, and creating more opportunities to learn from each other, whether in person or virtual, will always be our top priority.
The Million-Dollar Question
I’ve been asked many times both during and after the event, “would you do it again?”
Absolutely.
The stress, the planning, the unexpected fires we had to put out (almost literally!) were all worth it for all the knowledge shared and the connections made. That is the biggest reason we’re planning to host more in-person events like Catalyst LA.
If there's one thing this experience has confirmed for our team, it's that the procurement community is hungry for opportunities to experiment, learn, and grow together in ways that traditional conferences simply can't provide.
The future of procurement isn't just about testing out new tools or adopting the ‘shiny new thing.’ It's about the leaders who are curious enough to try new approaches and generous enough to share what they learn along the way. We plan to bring more of that to the AOP community soon!
