All Set for the INFORMS Practice Conference

Wonders never cease. One advantage of working for a solvent company is that it provides a rare chance of attending a major conference within the U.S. The INFORMS practice conference seemed like a good choice. Besides, the annual INFORMS conference is a few months away, and one never knows how the travel budget is gonna change. A greedy approach works better here... It's been eons since the previous conference - not surprising if you spent dog-years in the mostly-bankrupt airline industry.

Given the short notice, I'm presenting absolutely nothing, get four days off from work to listen to cool OR guys talk, and the plan is just to learn as much as possible and be an on-site reporter. Please email me at shivaram (dot) subramanian (at) gmail.com, if you are interested in talking OR during the meet. I will be posting daily tabs of the conference here, so watch this space. If you would have liked to be at the conference but could not make it, please email me any topics you would like me to cover here, and I will do my best. As always, any tips on the optimal way to cover conferences is welcome.

For those practitioners interested in the costs involved, here's the lowdown. Airfare is about 400$. 3-4 day hotel stay is about 700-900$ (now I know how it feels to be on the receiving side of Pricing optimization). I'm staying an additional day (Sunday) to take advantage of the technology workshops and network. Registration fees for non-members is about 900$. The total cost, including daily expenses is in the ballpark of $2500. It remains to be seen if the feedback and new ideas that one can get out of this outweighs these costs. Last year's Edelman work was fantastic, and hopefully this year will be just as good.