Surpassing my expectations

I have found that a useful strategy at INFORMS conferences is to not have too great an expectation of the quality of the talks.  Today, I was pleasantly surprised.  I went to three technical sessions where the speakers gave good talks, and where I felt that I learned something of value.  I also met some new people today and touched base with some old friends.

The one plenary talk I went to was Salah E. Elmaghraby, who gave a talk on project networks.  I hope that I look that cute when I’m his age.  Salah was scheduled to give a talk from 10 AM to 10:50 AM.  I think that he misunderstood the schedule, and he seemed to think it was scheduled to 11:30.  Under the circumstances, he decided that he needed to compromise, so he ended the session promptly at 11, just in time for the 11 AM sessions to start.

At dinner I saw a colleague who complained about the quality of presentations in the technical sessions.  It was my time to show my experience and my acquired wisdom.  I said, “Compared to talks from 25 years ago, today’s talks are eloquence par excellence.”  Actually, I didn’t say that.  Instead, I said something that meant the same thing, but it wasn’t as eloquent.

To summarize, I had an enjoyable day.  I hope you enjoyed yourself too.