Applying Science to the Art of Business

The INFORMS conference on “Applying Science to the Art of Business,” held recently in Baltimore, once again proved its value to analytics professionals when 482 attendees came together for the three-day event. The meeting’s focus on real-world operations research attracted a mix of about 75 percent industry and government practitioners and 25 percent academics.

In written evaluations, practitioners cited the sharing of best practices, ideas and technical information as the highlights of the meeting.As one industry analyst put it, “This was a great opportunity to hear about different approaches people take to solve problems.” A first-time attendee called the meeting “the most useful conference I’ve ever attended.” Participants reported that they learned from each other as well as from the 80-plus speakers on the program.

Conference organizers worked hard to make sure that networking – so often touted as a meeting benefit – actually occurred. Networking events were a structured part of the program, with roundtable discussions at lunches and a popular beer-andtalk session that focused on specific “hot topics.”All of these small-group discussions were facilitated by committee members, speakers and INFORMS leaders.

The networking and formal program appealed to academics as an effective forum for enhancing their own research.According to one professor, the meeting was “an excellent opportunity to bridge the gap between practitioners and academics.” A special group of 20 junior faculty and young industry researchers participated in the Young Researcher Connection (YRC), a program designed to provide new perspectives into critical business problems and to help build connections.In addition to several tailored networking events, YRC participants were linked up with specific practitioner attendees who were doing work of interest to their research.

Another important group at the conference were students – people who represent the future of analytics in practice. Many of them took advantage of the INFORMS Professional Colloquium, an intensive career-building program for graduate students held the day before the meeting. One of them called the experience “awesome for students pursuing a career in industry, with great insight into successful O.R. applications and state-ofthe-art O.R. work.”

A new and innovative feature was introduced at the Baltimore meeting: a pre-conference workshop on “soft skills,” those interpersonal and group facilitation skills required to work effectively with business decision-makers and others who implement analytics solutions. The full-day program provided training and practice in skills such as interviewing, presentation of results, group process, conflict management and analytical collaboration. The workshop received high marks from participants for valuable and immediately useful learning.

The Edelman Award competition for the best applications of high-impact analytics is always a highly rated conference feature. The six finalists that delivered presentations in Baltimore included organizations from Norway (StatoilHydro/Gassco), Sweden (the City of Stockholm) and the U.S. (Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Environmental Protection, and Xerox). After an intensive day of competition and a gala awards banquet on Monday, Netherlands Railways brought home the top prize for development of a new robust timetable that reduced train delays, increased passengers and achieved an additional annual profit of 40 million Euros, all using the same railway infrastructure.

The success of this INFORMS conference can be traced directly to the 22 analytics professionals, both practitioners and academics, who met by conference call on a weekly basis for five months. Under the leadership of Karl Kempf, director of Decision Technologies at Intel, the 2008 committee put together a program that delivered on its promise of high-quality talks, engaged and expert speakers, intensive networking and innovative programs on real-world analytics.

For more information on upcoming INFORMS conferences, including future practice conferences on “Applying Science to the Art of Business,” visit www.informs.org/Conf.