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Inside TPM Tech and Editorial-Driven Conference Programming with Eric Johnson
85 Plays17 days ago
In this special TPM Tech Preview episode, Brian Glick sits down with Eric Johnson of the Journal of Commerce to go behind the scenes of TPM and TPM Tech. Eric explains how the conference has evolved from its transpacific shipping roots into a broader forum for containerized supply chains, global economics, geopolitics, and technology—and why an editorial-first approach remains central to its credibility.
Together, they explore how TPM Tech sessions are designed, how topics and speakers are selected months in advance, and how the program avoids becoming sales-driven or trend-chasing. The conversation also dives into what Eric is most excited about for the upcoming event, from challenging long-held industry assumptions to framing more practical, grounded discussions around AI.
Key topics discussed include:
- The evolution of TPM and the role of TPM Tech within the broader conference
- Why editorial independence matters in conference programming
- How panels are developed, prepped, and structured for real audience value
- Avoiding hype-driven content around AI, blockchain, and other “topic du jour” trends
- Challenging industry sacred cows like data silos and visibility models
- What attendees can expect from this year’s TPM Tech and main-stage sessions
About the guest
Eric Johnson is Senior Editor of Technology at the Journal of Commerce, where he leads coverage and analysis of how technology is shaping global logistics and trade. He regularly reports on how shippers, carriers, and logistics providers use software across procurement, execution, visibility, and payment, and is a frequent moderator and presenter at major industry events.
Eric also plays a key role in developing the TPM and TPM Tech conference programs, helping shape editorial-driven discussions that cut through hype and focus on practical, real-world technology challenges facing the supply chain industry.
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Transcript
Introduction to TPM Tech Preview
00:00:02
Speaker
Eric, welcome to the very special episode, TPM Tech Preview. Good to have you. It's always great to talk to you, Brian. Looking forward to it. So before we dive in to all of the nitty gritty details, why don't you tell everyone just in case what TPM is, what TPM tech is, how they're different.
00:00:24
Speaker
Sure. Give us the rundown and the context. So i am a reporter with the Journal of Commerce. I focus on technology. i am part of a team that puts together the program for TPM, which was started in 2001 as very much a trans-pacific shipping focused conference, but is involved over the 25 years plus into what we kind of consider sort of containerized supply chains. So touching the edges around container
Evolution and Focus of TPM
00:00:51
Speaker
shipping. And obviously I'm focused on the technology side of things, but we have...
00:00:55
Speaker
We have sessions now, a ton of sessions on global economics and geopolitics has become obviously a huge part of something that everybody who's involved in shipping needs to worry about.
00:01:08
Speaker
So we have lots of sessions on that. We look at kind of macro things around what supply demand is on various trade lanes. And then i focus on more of the technology side of things.
00:01:18
Speaker
So a few years ago, we started a side event that eventually got integrated into TPM called TPM Tech. And that is now a series of sessions that is fairly granular on topics, very frankly, that interest me. You know, that I have a bunch of conversations over the course of the year. And I try to think of like, what would be interesting for me to hear and talk about in front of an audience.
00:01:45
Speaker
And it's usually i try to round up a bunch of people that I have very interesting discussions with and frame something that I don't think people are really like paying attention to. But overall, the idea is how can I help someone like mentally navigate the fog of software and data?
00:02:07
Speaker
out there that they're having to make decisions on investing in. And so if I can make them, if I can help ease that burden a little bit, then I feel like I've done my job.
Editorial Integrity and Content Curation
00:02:16
Speaker
So I see other events take different tacks at this, right?
00:02:21
Speaker
Some events I go to are very almost exclusively case study focused. Others are thinly veiled marketing exercises for vendors.
00:02:33
Speaker
You have a much more editorial first approach. What informs that? Why is it different? Why do you guys choose to go that way? And how much do I have to pay you to get on the stage?
00:02:45
Speaker
Zero. yeah I mean, you're on the stage this year. I'd leave that up to the commercial team. so i The answer is actually zero, by the way. so it is Okay, so there you go. So this is very instructive. I swear we did not set this up.
00:02:59
Speaker
But it's a fair question. Obviously, it's important. An event is like a product, right? And some people call events, events. Some people call them exhibitions. Some people call them... symposiums, some people call them, conferences.
00:03:12
Speaker
think we think of TPM as a conference. And we think of pretty much any Journal of Commerce event as a conference where sometimes partners and sponsors are able to you know exhibit or show their what they're doing or talk to people, right? But it is always the heart of everything we do is always the program.
00:03:32
Speaker
So the editorial team long ago, long before I was ever with the Journal of Commerce decided, The most credible way to draw people to something over a number of years is to have the editorial team lead the program and have it completely firewalled off from the commercial side.
00:03:50
Speaker
So we as editors completely decide what the topics are, who's going to be on the program, and then the tenor of the discussion once we're on stage. So what does that do?
AI and Session Relevance
00:04:03
Speaker
It gives us the ability to look everybody straight in the eye and say, we are doing in a live setting what we try to do the rest of the year, which is report on the industry from a very neutral and credible perspective. So I can look at you. i can look at someone who might think that a sponsor, someone who sponsors and is also on the program, that it happened in that order.
00:04:26
Speaker
Generally, what happens is we invite someone. And then if they also sponsor, it's because they want to support with a sponsorship, the person who's been invited to speak. But I never, ever, and nobody on our team ever would say, you can only speak if you're sponsoring as well. So, you know, I'm not, we're not trying to be like holier than thou. We're not trying to be high and mighty.
00:04:47
Speaker
We're reporters and we put this together. And the reason we put it together is because we do, we put programming together the same way that we would assemble a story, which is to say, no one gets...
00:04:58
Speaker
a quote in a story simply because they advertised in that magazine or advertised on the website. So it's the same mentality that cuts all the way across. Yeah. And I mean, actually we're the perfect evidence because last year we sponsored this and I didn't speak. And this year I'm speaking and we're not sponsoring because of just didn't make sense for this year. Yeah. I mean, it is, I think there's probably an assumption that we usually have to fight like literally door to door sometimes that there is a cost to be on the program. And like a lot of people know that's not the case, but some people always assume that's the case. And so we have to walk people through our thinking.
00:05:34
Speaker
So let's go to the content.
Panel Preparation and Planning
00:05:35
Speaker
Which is more important. I am safe in making the assumption that the letters AI will be used in that order, at least once during this series of events.
00:05:47
Speaker
And is that an Allen Iverson reference or is that a, you know, you can't spell chain without AI. There's all sorts things. Oh, there you go. Thank you. You're now you're hired. Yes, you can safely assume AI will be. So, so how are you?
00:06:02
Speaker
One of the things I've noticed is this like convergence in a lot of the content and a lot of the events I've been at. How are you keeping the sessions distinct so they don't all just become like blockchain, blockchain, blockchain? Like, how are you trying to keep it so that you don't just have one continuous panel where the people are just like, well, that is going to be a challenge, even no matter how I set the dominoes up.
00:06:25
Speaker
Once one falls, you know you have a limited ability to like stop it if it's going the wrong way. So it could easily be, even if you set things up, even if you prep people and you name sessions so that it's not dominated by the subject du jour, it could just be like a four-hour Jerry Lewis telethon about AI, for sure. like That's very easy to do these days because it seems like it's all anyone wants to talk about. So I try to anchor it two ways. One is...
00:06:53
Speaker
What do the people in the audience, what is their day to day? What do they care about? How can we help relate what's going on at a technical level, at a software development level, at a marketing level? How can we ever relate it to something that matters to them? I always try to keep that in mind with any bit.
00:07:12
Speaker
And then second, like The reason I invite people to speak is not because I've heard they kind of know what they're talking about. I've generally had multiple, in your case, 100 conversations, if not more, with most of the people that I speak to on stage. And so I try to understand what their role is in the subject that we're talking about so that we can get really specific conversations.
00:07:38
Speaker
perspective on things so that it doesn't end up being like you can replace one session with another and it wouldn't have mattered. Now, certainly there's people, you're one of them. I could put on eight different panels and you would find a way to have an interesting perspective on that.
00:07:53
Speaker
But at least I'd say something. I mean, there's people who are very eloquent and very adaptable into different talking about different things. But I really try my best to plug people into specific roles that I have in mind that they're best suited to talk about.
00:08:10
Speaker
Take me behind the scenes for a second. I think this just may be interesting for people who've never done it. Like, so I'm going to be on a panel, right? The panel title is a little bit of a mouthful, but we're going to talk about some interesting stuff. So yeah go ahead.
00:08:23
Speaker
The silo fantasy. Yes. The silos about the breaking down silos and the issue. Right. So. When we talked at the beginning of the year, hey, you know, this what I'm thinking about. And then you sent us kind of your thesis, right? Which is actually what goes in the program.
00:08:40
Speaker
yeah And then a few weeks back, so maybe six weeks in advance of the show, we have a prep call. And we essentially ran through the panel as like a dry run, effectively.
00:08:54
Speaker
Not a dry run, but like we- Hashed out ideas. Yeah, we shout out ideas. You take notes, use that to build up the questions. And I think it's an interesting thing for people, and I remember having never done it before, that there is prep that goes into these things at some events. Other events that I've been on, like literally you just get up on the stage and- The person goes, who are you Right. Like that. It happens both ways. But I think what makes this event unique is that there is that kind of prep and continuity. So, you know, I won't say that everyone you prep remembers exactly what they said six weeks earlier, but. Or should they? The topic is fresh and you know the questions to ask that are going to prompt the similar answers.
00:09:35
Speaker
So sometimes just the prep call, right? The prep call is like really important. And sometimes the prep call ends up being like, like you just sort of mentioned, like the prep call that we had for your session, we could have just hit record and it would have been like an interesting session to play at TPM. Other times i I'm not as familiar with the people.
00:09:54
Speaker
I know them, but I don't know them as well. And it's more like, we're going to do this and then we're going to do this. And what questions can i answer? So not every prep call is the same, but to your point, like,
00:10:05
Speaker
You know, every year TPM is in beginning of March, end of February, or early March. I start putting thoughts down on what I want to happen at the next TPM around May, June.
00:10:18
Speaker
Over the summer, I start working up like a draft idea of the program for tech and even some sessions that are tech related that end up in the main program.
00:10:29
Speaker
And then I start like throwing ideas out to people or people throw out ideas to me. You've pitched me on ideas that we should have. Other people have too. And I sort of synthesize that into an initial draft. so that But that all happens like in August, September, that it's that there's something on paper, which is still like...
00:10:47
Speaker
six or seven months ahead of the actual event, which seems like a crazy amount of time, and it is, but to your point, there's a lot of thought that goes into it. So it's a 30-minute discussion. and Yeah, we could just roll up, you know you and Heidi and Grant, the three people who are on your panel, we could literally roll up five minutes before we go live and have an interesting discussion.
00:11:10
Speaker
Now, would it be as focused and hopefully valuable for the audience. If that's how we did it, probably not. It helps to like get everyone organized a little bit. It helps for me to plant the seed about what I want to talk to months in advance.
00:11:26
Speaker
So that's the way I approach
Indicators of Successful Sessions
00:11:27
Speaker
it. It's also, I think it's a signal to the market. When you are coming up with a program six months in advance, To me, that's our signal to the market that we know what we're talking about and we know the types of companies that we want to have on stage to discuss this. And these are durable subjects that matter in August of 25 as much as they do in March of 26. And we're not just sort of like at the whim of whoever like approached us last minute or whoever signed up as a sponsor last minute.
00:11:57
Speaker
So there's always a thing with when you see movie stars interviewed and they say, sometimes they say we thought the movie was going to be great and it flopped and sometimes they go i knew this was a dud the first day during the first scene that we shot right and i just wrote it out right at what point i'm just curious just for fun when do you know when it's gone bad because there are bad i've been on bad panels and there are bad presentations and there are you know like That's a good question. When do you get that feeling when you're like, oh man, I may i shouldn't have done this one?
00:12:37
Speaker
I would say I certainly don't bat a thousand on the things that I put together. But I will say that one of the advantages of being in charge of something cradle to grave, like literally coming up with the idea, literally thinking about who needs to be on it, recruiting them, and then leading the discussion is...
00:12:54
Speaker
you're able to sort of hopefully pick up on cues along the way that like, oh, I'm off base on this one. Or this person is just going to sell their product on stage. or They're not going to talk about what I want them to talk about. Or they're going to answer a question they want to answer rather than one that I actually asked.
00:13:10
Speaker
Or the topic is just not as interesting as I thought it was. You know, and I have a conversation and it's like, ah, I guess this is not that interesting, actually. So I would like to think that I can calibrate that as it because I'm in charge of this a long way. But obviously there's sessions you get up there and, you know, maybe I'm lacking a little energy because I've done too many in one day or maybe some, you know, the biggest problem I find is not necessarily that the topic is not interesting.
00:13:35
Speaker
I find the biggest problem is when people start venturing down the road of like saying our company does this, our company does that. instead of answering you as a human being, your perspective on the question I asked. So those are the scenarios where I sort of like die a little bit inside because I know the panel is missing where it could have gone, right? So I don't know if that's an answer. I really don't think we have- It's an answer. It's not an exciting answer. I don't think, well, I can't remember pulling the plug on any session. Well, I'll give you a good one that wasn't from TPM. And it's funny you made that AI reference.
00:14:14
Speaker
I was on an AI panel like close to a decade ago where a guy came out on the stage as the host of the panel with an Allen Iverson jersey on- Oh my God.
00:14:25
Speaker
and started making endless AI puns and then just sort of stared at the rest of us and expected us to keep going on the puns. And we weren't prepped for it. That was a rough paddle.
00:14:39
Speaker
That's one way to know when there's props. Yeah. So and someone who has to think about people's attention spans at events, especially like very
Challenging Industry Norms
00:14:49
Speaker
information dense events, you know, you're always trying to think of some little edge that will like perk people up a little bit. And you you know, you're a lot of these things end up looking and feeling like gimmicks.
00:15:00
Speaker
I mean, a couple of years ago, I don't know if you were there a couple of years ago, I had a swear jar. And anyone who said digital transformation had to throw... think I think that was the year I got stuck on a train on the way there. Yeah, I think I was. and I think that was. So, you know, you try to do something to like break the ice or get people away from their phones. But there's a point where you're like, if this is not landing, I just need to go back to like, okay...
00:15:24
Speaker
When people, if people have recorded it or if they've taken notes or they watched the recording, is it going to look like a zoo? Is it going to look like something that they'd rather fall asleep to? Or is there actually like even two little pieces of information that might end up being useful to them down the road?
00:15:40
Speaker
What are you excited about for this year? Like what's got Eric like that is something i want to see. Well, I mean, tech, I sort of called my own shot like Roy, what's the natural Roy Hobbs style? Yes. By saying I'm trying really hard this year to take aim at sacred cows.
00:15:58
Speaker
And by that, I mean, your panel is very much one of those things, which is, to just give a little more detail. Brian's on a panel called The Silo Fantasy, and it's all about, it it was just a brainwave that popped into my head that said, how many times have we heard someone say, you've got to break down the information silos or the decision-making silos, and that's the key to happiness in supply chain.
00:16:22
Speaker
And I've been hearing that for 20 years, as long as I've been covering this industry and everyone, and someone will say it tomorrow at an event and they'll say it next week at an event. Certainly it will be brought up over and over. And so I wanted to like have three people who felt like cut through the BS and be like,
00:16:38
Speaker
Is there a reason that silos exist? And if there is, what is that reason? And if there isn't a reason, why has it not been cut through before and will it be cut through? So that's one example. Another is visibility.
00:16:51
Speaker
We have a session that's looking at like, if I'm a shipper, I have to buy visibility as if every single product and every single shipment of mine has the exact same urgency and the same importance.
00:17:03
Speaker
What if there was a marketplace for me to acquire the milestones that I actually needed and the quality of milestone relevant to how important that shipment was? So maybe this is a ridiculous exercise to do, but I've never heard anyone have that conversation in public and ah people are free to poke holes in it, but we're going to have that conversation. It's a fascinating topic because I was talking to a different journalist today,
00:17:28
Speaker
about the ability to manage two shipments for the same shipper completely differently based on the relative importance of that shipment to the shipper. So you're onto something and you and I can have a much longer conversation about that offline.
00:17:44
Speaker
Different topic for a different day. Yeah. I mean, you could probably have been on that panel to our point earlier, but no. Eric's just saying I can bullshit on anything. That's what he's trying to bring. no, no. You have a catalog of experience and expertise and a wide range of topics. so same Same. So it's really like, I'm trying to like poke at things that people have just assumed a little bit. And then obviously...
00:18:09
Speaker
I'm very excited about the discussions around AI from one perspective.
AI in Software Development
00:18:13
Speaker
I've tried to structure the discussions about AI from the perspective of most people think of it in a very abstract terms outside of like using ChatGPT to put together a presentation or ask ah answer a question that they have about they're you know from that of a note they got from their doctor. right like Outside of that, there's like no people have trouble conceptualizing what to do with it.
00:18:38
Speaker
I'm looking at, i have two so different sessions that are looking at a couple things. One, how will what's going on in AI from like a code building perspective, how does that impact existing software providers and the people who use existing software and their ability to like, I'm not saying replace those systems, but customize or, you know, build features on those systems. And then the other aspect is,
00:19:05
Speaker
You have software providers that have been around for a while who are building agents within their software. And then you have a whole bunch of software vendors selling quote unquote digital workers or AI agents that sit between systems.
00:19:21
Speaker
And there's a healthy debate to be had about what the right approach is. And I guarantee you it's not the right, the same answer for every single person in the audience. So... Congratulations. You're a huge nerd. I am a big nerd. No question. That is an awesome thing to be excited about.
00:19:36
Speaker
Made me excited. ah so I mean, I know my audience.
Key Agenda Highlights
00:19:40
Speaker
Let's put it that way. What's on the main agenda for TPM that you're excited? What and what else is, what what are you going to sneak away to see?
00:19:48
Speaker
but but So on the main agenda, I'm also talking to Ryan Peterson for 45 minutes. The first time we've actually ever chatted in public. Like we've had many conversations behind the scenes. He's done a million interviews with other people, but we've actually never had a public interview podcast, video, live, anything. So that should be fun.
00:20:07
Speaker
I'm also talking to Pete Mento, who's... become sort of like the pretty face of trade compliance and policy over the last few years. So he and he's if you've ever heard him speak, he's hilarious, somehow brings the hilarity to trade compliance. But what am I excited to see other people talk about?
00:20:27
Speaker
Janet Yellen should be interesting. It's nice to, you know, this year we actually have a keynote who's not a you know middle-aged man. So that's always helpful, I think, to get different perspectives. And she should have some very interesting things to say. She's our keynote.
00:20:42
Speaker
What are some other sessions that I'm... I'm like so focused on the ones that I'm doing that it's hard to think about the ones that I'm not doing. Oh, you know what's an interesting one? Here's an interesting one that addresses something that we haven't always done a great job of addressing at TPM, which is we have a session...
Addressing Small Shippers' Challenges
00:20:59
Speaker
Monday afternoon that's looking at the challenges that small shippers face, um very specific to small shippers, which, you know, we have, I think it's fair to say we've tended to sort of like cater more toward the mid to ultra large size BCOs over the years and for good reason, but we really tried to focus a little, yeah the programming and some of the themes have been focused on the challenges that smaller shippers face. So that's going to be a great session with Kevin Parkinson and my friend, Jason Cook, who's ah a 3PL in Virginia, whose customers tend to be in that segment. So yeah, definitely. and is And Audrey Ross will be on that. one too. One of my good friends and former guest of this podcast. And we did a panel together at TPM Tech in the past.
00:21:46
Speaker
Long time ago. On what you expect from your forwarder during the pandemic. Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. i forgot about that. It's like, you know, these sessions are like midterm exams. As soon as I take them, I'm kind of, I know. I did what?
00:21:58
Speaker
Awesome. Well, I mean, I'm excited. It's always the highlight of my year. It is the only US-based conference I'm going to this year. I was going to say, I'm so sorry for dragging you back to the U.S. No, no, no. We'll make it worth your while. All good. But yeah, we're going to go It's always nice. Somehow we manage to every year get unseasonably cold weather in L.A. the first week of March. So I'll be looking forward to scattered raining clouds and kind of that Seattle vibe we seem to land on every year. And I don't know a better way to pitch it than that.
Conclusion and Event Anticipation
00:22:28
Speaker
What was the song? It never rains in Southern California, except during TPM. Except during TPM. So awesome. Well, thanks for coming on and chatting with us and looking forward to see you about a month. Appreciate it.