North America's largest supply chain IT event is ready to open its doors once again to more than 2,000 attendees in Chicago, May 17 through May 19.

Founded in 1983, D/C Expo has enjoyed a resurgence lately due to the up tick in the economy, says Tom Dulaney, president of C.S. Report Inc. "When the economy's better, there's more product sold and more product handled—more volume equates to more revenue," Dulaney notes. Better business leads to companies investing more in technology, he adds.

The event opens with 40 seminars, conducted by industry experts, on topics ranging from RFID implementation to choosing the right WMS. The exhibition portion of the event commences Wednesday and wraps up Thursday.

Differing from last year's event, the number of keynote speakers has been whittled down from six to two. Dulaney asserted that attendee feedback indicated that speakers providing a more general analysis of the industry would be of more value than keynotes exploring hyper-specific industry topics. As a result, John Hill, principal of ESYNC, is scheduled to speak on industry fundamentals on Wednesday. Following Hill on Thursday is Greg Cronin, chief executive officer of TrenStar, scheduled to discuss RFID implementation.

Continuing the RFID trend, D/C Expo will feature an RFID Workshop explaining the advantages of implementation and the challenges of pilot deployments. Michael Dempsey, vice president of product strategy at RedPrairie, Dean Frew, president, and CEO of Xterprise Inc., and Damon Bramble, director, professional services at Alien Technology Corp. are slated to present their experiences during the conference. D/C Expo also features ten RFID conferences exploring the technology's potential.

For more information on this year's D/C Expo visit www.logistar.com.