The Best of INFORMS 2011 Analytics Conference

In quick succession, here are what I consider to be the highlights of this year’s conference.  (In no particular order).

• Attending the Edelman Gala and learning that Midwest ISO wins the Franz Edelman award.  Also, being able to see the high caliber of work that all of the finalist demonstrated was very inspiring.
• I learned that to become a millionaire, one should start as a billionaire and invest in the airline industry.
• The presentations came from a large variety of disciplines, from Public Sector to Energy to Banking and so on.  For me, I enjoy attending a breadth of presentations and learning about these different disciplines.  What are the issues they face, and how similar are they to the issues I face as an analyst in the Government?
• INFORMS is serious about getting those surveys back.  They find them so useful that they are willing to incentives participants to fill them out by randomly selecting some of them to win prizes, such as free conference fees!
• I also enjoyed attending the presentations of last year’s INFORMS Prize winner and last year’s Wagner Prize winner.  I found the presentations to offer very good examples of Operations Research in practice.
• Lastly, I found there to be a surprising bias against Zebra-stripped automobiles.  I, for one, might actually enjoy such a design!  (This entry is just for you, Don, who felt I could use a few more snarky comments!)