Dear Colleagues:

We’re delighted that you will be joining us for the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and O.R. in Huntington Beach, April 15-17. Please review this important information to help make the most of the conference.

Hyatt Huntington Beach Resort & Spa
All conference events will be held at Hyatt, 21500 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, CA 72648; 1-714-698-1234.

Getting from the Airport to the Hotel
For complete information on travel to the hotel from three area airports (Orange County-John Wayne, Long Beach, and LAX), click here.  Super-Shuttle operates from all three airports.

Registration Opens Sunday, 8:00am-7:00pm
When you arrive, please come to the INFORMS registration desk just outside the Grand Ballroom to pick up your badge and registration materials. Registration hours on other days: Monday, 7:00am-6:30pm; Tuesday, 7:00am-3:00pm.

Conference Schedule & Full Program Book
You can download and print out a PDF of the final conference schedule, showing the day and time of all sessions and events, and/or the full program brochure here.   For the schedule, click on “Program Matrix.” For the full brochure, click on the picture of the brochure.

Speakers’ Slides Available Now
You can preview slides for most presentations now – a great way to make choices about which sessions to attend at the meeting.  Go here and click on “Conference Proceedings.”  You’ll need your user name and password to log in; this information was provided on your conference registration receipt or follow the instructions to retrieve the information.

Blogs and Tweets: Conversation Already Started
Scroll down on this page to read posts from our talented group of bloggers, and join the Twitter conversation by tweeting with hashtag #analytics2012

New Attendee Reception
If this is your first INFORMS Analytics Conference, we encourage you to stop by the New Attendee Reception for a brief orientation to the conference and the opportunity to connect with other first-timers and conference “veterans” in a small setting — Sunday, 6:00-7:00pm in the Catalina Room. This event is immediately followed by the Welcome Reception with exhibits, 7:00-8:30pm in Grand Ballroom ABC.

Pre-Conference Technology Workshops – Sunday
18 technology companies will offer workshops on Sunday; these are free to conference registrants. If you haven’t signed up yet and would like to attend, come by the INFORMS registration desk to see if space is still available. Details here.

Soft-Skills Workshop, Sunday
This full-day program provides information and practice in using the “soft skills” needed to work with business decision makers and analytics users. If you haven’t signed up yet and would like to attend, come by the INFORMS registration desk to see if space is still available. Details here.

Panel: Innovation and Big Data
In this special session on Monday afternoon, a panel of industry and academic experts will explore the excitement, promise and challenge of big data analytics. Moderator is the noted futurist Thornton May, Executive Director, IT Leadership Academy.  Panelists are: Diego Klabjan, Northwestern; Thomas Olavson, Google; Daniel Graham, Teradata; Blake Johnson, Stanford; and Michael Zeller, Zementis.  This session is sponsored by INFORMS and the Industry Studies Association under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Poster Sessions
We’re serving up a delectable afternoon dessert each day…along with real-world case studies of O.R. in action.  Thirty poster presentations each day will give you an inside look at analytics work across a wide range of industries, problems and solutions.

Analytics Connect Career Program
Our second annual professional job event, Analytics Connect, will be held at the Conference. Attendees of the conference receive free access. We’re planning a career fair reception, private interviews, and industry job search panel. Come to the career fair reception on Sunday evening to browse or to set up personal interviews for Monday or Tuesday. The following employers have confirmed so far: Amazon.com, Caterpillar, Chevron, Disney, Enova Financial, FedEx Revenue Management, IBM, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Mu-Sigma, Nestle, Oracle Labs, PROS Revenue Management, Quintiq, Travelers.

Networking Events
Many opportunities for networking are built right into the program. Roundtable discussions, facilitated by INFORMS leaders and conference speakers, will be held during lunch on Monday and Tuesday.  A birds-of-a-feather session on Monday afternoon focuses on specific topics (this is one of the most popular aspects of the conference). Bring plenty of business cards!

Spreadsheet Guru Competition
This fast-paced competition will kick off Sunday at 2:00pm, offering an opportunity to face test your spreadsheet chops against pre-qualified contestants from around the world via web as well as contestants onsite.  For information and to register, click here.

Edelman Award Ceremony and Banquet
This gala celebration on Monday evening will honor the very best in applied operations research, as we salute past Edelman competitors, the 2012 finalists and announce the 2012 winner. Winners of the INFORMS Prize, Daniel H. Wagner Prize, and the new UPS George D. Smith Prize will also be recognized.  All seating will be reserved. You will receive a voucher in your registration packet, which you must exchange for a ticket during the day on Monday. At that time, you’ll also be asked to select a table. We’ll provide all the details on how to do this at the conference.

Certification? Scott Nestler will Discuss in INFORMS Booth
You’ve probably heard that INFORMS is going to offer certification in 2013. We’ve talked about it for years, but now it’s finally going to happen. What you may not realize is that it is analytics certification, not O.R. certification. Stop by the INFORMS booth during the break on Monday 10:00-10:30am to learn more about INFORMS’ certification program. Certification Task Force member Scott Nestler will be on hand to explain what this means to you.

Exhibits and Software Tutorials
Check out the listing of exhibitors and abstracts for 24 software tutorials here.

What to Wear
Dress during the day and for the Sunday receptions is business casual. For the Edelman Awards Gala & Banquet on Monday evening, jacket and tie is preferred for men; women should dress for fine restaurant dining. We recommend that you check the weather online before traveling, and bring a sweater or light jacket. Even though we’ll be in beautiful southern California, some events, such as lunches, will be held outside.  In addition, no matter how warm it may be outside, hotel meeting rooms are often chilly!

Please let us know if you have questions. We look forward to seeing you in Huntington Beach!
meetings@informs.org; 1-800-446-3676 or 1-443-757-3592.