Something for everyone

I recently attended the 2012 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research in Huntington Beach, Calif. The conference continues to draw record numbers and kudos for its outstanding program and networking events, highlighted by the Oscar-like Edelman Awards Gala.

The Franz Edelman Award is a nearly yearlong competition that seeks to identify the world’s most outstanding example of applied, high-end analytics known as operations research (O.R.). After an extensive nominating and vetting process, a handful of finalists are invited to make presentations before a panel of judges at INFORMS’ spring conference. The judges then meet in private to compare the finalists, taking into consideration such things as the monetary impact and technical innovation of the nominated project, along with the quality of the presentation itself.

The judges also like to see strong support for analytics from the highest levels of the nominated organization, which is why company presidents and CEOs are routinely involved in the presentations, either in person or via video.

With all the prestige that goes along with the award and the 40 years of history behind it, it’s no wonder the Edelman is called the “Super Bowl of O.R.” To find out more about the Edelman, including this year’s winner and the winner of other INFORMS awards such as the Innovation in Analytics Award, see page 13 or visit www.informs.org.

The Edelman Awards Gala was just one of many events that made the conference a success. The program featured more than 100 presentations from industry leaders and expert speakers on just about every analytics topic imaginable. Two of Analytics magazine’s regular columnists, Andy Boyd (“Profit Center”) and Harrison Schramm (“Five-Minute Analyst”), were among the presenters. Harrison’s session, “Fifty minutes with the Five-Minute Analyst,” drew a standing-room only crowd for a series of riffs on some of his favorite columns.

The conference also dished up a networking lollapalooza, especially the “Birds of a Feather” discussion groups that gave attendees an opportunity to gather around tables overlooking the Pacific Ocean one warm evening to discuss such topics as “Big Data: What to do with it once you’ve got it.”