Disney Senior V.P. of Revenue Management to Headline INFORMS Practice Conference

Mark Shafer, senior vice president of revenue management for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, will headline the 2010 “Applying Science to the Art of Business” as a keynote speaker. The 2010 year’s INFORMS Conference on Practice will be held April 18-20 at the Hilton Bonnet Creek in Orlando, Fla.

In addition to Shafer’s plenary talk, attendees will learn from the “best of the best” in applied operations research: organizations that have been selected as finalists for the 2010 Edelman Award Competition. Finalist teams will present their highimpact work during the competition on April 19, with the winner announced during a gala ceremony and banquet that evening. The 2010 champions will join a prestigious lineup of organizations that have won the award over its 38-year span.

The INFORMS Practice Conference has become known for high quality talks on applied ORMS work. Each year a committee of practitioners and academics meets by weekly conference call over a period of three months, with the goal of putting together a program that showcases the real-world, strategic use of analytics.

This year’s team of 20 professionals, led by William Klimack, senior consultant at Kromite, Inc., has designated five topical track areas for the Invited program: decision analysis; supply chain and logistics; sustainability; service science and healthcare; and forecasting, risk and uncertainty. Several additional tracks will focus on methodology tutorials and software solutions.

Another four tracks will be filled by contributed talks submitted to the Select Presentations. Submissions to the “Selects” go through a rigorous review process, with both content and speaking expertise considered in the judging. Select talks are 50 minutes in length and can cover the full range of OR/MS topics, including best practice examples, tutorials with a practice orientation, emerging topics and applications reports.

For the 2010 conference, a new contributed option is being introduced – a poster presentation format that lends itself to OR/MS work that may not be extensive enough for a 50-minute talk, such as works-in-progress and case studies. To encourage both Select and poster submissions, presenters who are selected are able to register for the conference at $495 - 40 percent off the lowest regular rate.

The conference venue, the Hilton Bonnet Creek, is a brand-new upscale Orlando hotel, surrounded on three sides by Disney World and just a half-mile from Epcot. The hotel offers complimentary direct transportation to all the Disney parks and attractions. Adjacent to the Hilton and sharing its meeting space is the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, the first Waldorf Astoria to be built outside the flagship property in New York City. This two-hotel complex is set in the center of 482 acres of mature woodlands and waterways known as Bonnet Creek.

FOCUSED TRACKS

• Decision Analysis
  
  
• Service Science and Healthcare
  
  
• Sustainability
  
  
• Methodology Tutorials
  
  
• Forecasting, Risk and Uncertainty
  
  
• Software Tutorials
  
  
• Supply Chain Management and Logistics

Plus

• Select Presentations on a range of topics
  
  
• Poster Presentations

SPECIAL PROGRAMS

• Richard E. Rosenthal Young Researcher Connection: Exclusive networking program for junior faculty and young industry practitioners. Reduced conference registration rate $355; nominations due March 30.
  
  
• INFORMS Professional Colloquium: Full-day, intensive career guidance for master ’s and Ph.D. students interested in practice. Reduced conference registration rate $355; nominations due March 30.
  
  
• Soft Skills Workshop: Half - and full-day workshops on the “soft” skills needed to partner with decision-makers and users.
  
  
• Technology Workshops: In-depth training from leading solution providers. Free to conference registrations.
  
  
• Birds-of-a-Feather: Facilitated discussion groups that provide the opportunity to share common challenges and solutions.