Zip Forward 2026: “Flow State” to Bring Together Over 1000 Finance and Procurement Leaders in New York City
Zip Forward 2026: “Flow State” to Bring Together Over 1000 Finance and Procurement Leaders in New York City
Zip Forward makes its NYC debut, featuring leaders from Shopify, Visa, Databricks, and Invesco, along with a keynote from Good Morning America Co-Host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan
SAN FRANCISCO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zip, the AI platform for enterprise procurement, today announced that its annual conference, Zip Forward, is coming to New York for the first time. The two-day event will be held September 16-17, 2026 at The Glasshouse in Manhattan, and marks the event’s expansion beyond its San Francisco roots. The conference will feature a keynote from entrepreneur, Good Morning America Co-Host, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, alongside finance and procurement executives including Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister, Visa CPO Aaron Bearce, Databricks CPO Emma Chontos, Invesco Global CPO Al Williams, and Humana CPO Bryan Miller, among others.
“AI is changing what procurement teams can accomplish,” said Aaron Bearce, Chief Procurement Officer at Visa. "That broader shift is what I’m looking forward to discussing at Zip Forward.”
Share
Under the theme “Flow State,” Zip Forward 2026 will explore what happens when humans and AI agents are orchestrated seamlessly into a single platform, moving procurement from a series of manual checkpoints to continuous, forward momentum. The two-day event will include keynotes, customer-led fireside chats, live product demos, and hands-on workshops for building and deploying agentic workflows.
“So much of our work now happens heads-down, one person and an AI assistant, in a silo,” said Rujul Zaparde, cofounder and CEO of Zip. “Zip Forward is the opposite of that. We’re bringing the community together in the enterprise capital of the world to figure out – in the same room – not just which AI is worth adopting, but what it takes to lead a finance or procurement team through this shift.”
“AI is changing what procurement teams can accomplish,” added Aaron Bearce, Chief Procurement Officer at Visa. “It’s enabling teams to streamline repetitive tasks, surface insights faster, and focus on judgment, strategy, and value creation. That broader shift is what I’m looking forward to discussing at Zip Forward.”
Introducing the Zippies: Zip Forward’s Inaugural Community Awards
For the first time, Zip Forward 2026 will recognize the customers and community members driving innovation in procurement and finance through the inaugural Zip Forward Community Awards, including:
- Innovation in Procurement Award: Honoring organizations that have undertaken major procurement and finance overhauls to modernize for the future
- Rising Star Award: Recognizing customers who, in under a year with Zip, have already made significant progress
- AI & Procurement Pioneer Award: Celebrating customers leading the charge on real-world AI use cases in procurement
Two customers will be honored in each category. This year’s Rising Star Award winners are Humana and Gunderson Dettmer, and the AI & Procurement Pioneer Award winners are Mutual of Omaha and Idaho Central Credit Union. The Innovation in Procurement Award winners will be announced at the event. Zip will also recognize standout members of its broader customer community for their leadership and contributions during the event.
Event Highlights:
- When: September 16-17, 2026
- What: Keynotes, customer fireside chats, live demos, hands-on workshops, and the inaugural Zip Forward Community Awards
- Who: CFOs, CPOs, and finance and procurement leaders
- Where: The Glasshouse, 660 12th Ave, Floor 6, New York, NY 10019
- How: Register at zip.com/forward-nyc
About Zip
Zip is the leading AI platform for enterprise procurement. Through one platform, Zip unifies how companies purchase – replacing fragmented tools and manual processes with intelligent orchestration and governed AI agents that procurement teams and employees actually want to use. Zip is the only procurement orchestration platform with full intake-to-pay capabilities and the most widely deployed, fully governed AI agents in enterprise procurement. Zip has delivered billions in customer savings and powers modern procurement for hundreds of global enterprises, including Anthropic, AMD, Discover, Dollar Tree, OpenAI, T-Mobile, and more. To learn more, visit zip.com.
