Logistics and transportation professionals will head to Atlanta on Jan. 23 for SMC³ JumpStart, an annual three-day supply chain event designed to facilitate collaboration between carriers, shippers, logistics service providers, and technology companies.

Hosted by Peachtree City, Georgia-based freight pricing software firm SMC³ Inc., the strategic educational event will feature more than 20 targeted sessions, presentations from 40 industry experts, and 15 hours of networking opportunities.

Just two days later, logistics and supply chain executives will have a chance to tap into the pipeline of up-and-coming supply chain talent at a Research Expo hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Center for Transportation & Logistics. Scheduled for Jan. 25 on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass., the event showcases the company-sponsored thesis projects of 125 supply chain master's program students from the MIT Global Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) network. (The SCALE network consists of four institutions: MIT's Supply Chain Management program, the Zaragoza Logistics Center, the Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation, and the Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation.) Visitors are invited to to walk around, meet the students, and see their work.

This event also serves as the January meeting of several local supply chain professional societies: CSCMP's New England Roundtable; APICS' North Shore, Boston, and South Shore Chapters; and ISM-Boston.