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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B><I><A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top">OR/MS Today</A> - December 2002</I></B></font><BR>
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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>Inside Story</B></FONT><br>
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<FONT SIZE="+2"><B>A Record Meeting</B></FONT><BR>
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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>Peter Horner, editor<BR>
<A HREF="mailto:horner@lionhrtpub.com">horner@lionhrtpub.com</A></B></FONT><br>
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INFORMS threw a party for itself in San Jose, Calif., in November and nearly 3,000 of its closest friends showed up.<BR>
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The Institute's national meeting drew 2,732 registrants, 86 guests and 108 exhibitor representatives. The grand total of 2,926 attendees broke the all-time record for an ORSA/TIMS/INFORMS national meeting, as did the number of registrants. The previous record attendance total was 2,879 and the previous high for registrants was 2,637, both set at the Washington, D.C., meeting in 1988.<BR>
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INFORMS Meetings Director Terry Cryan was still crunching numbers as we went to press, but the San Jose conference was clearly a major success. INFORMS President Mike Trick and V.P. of Meetings Paul Jensen handed out plenty of kudos, starting with the meeting's Co-General Chairs David Conrath and Burton Dean, and Program and Invited Sessions Chair Candi Yano.<BR>
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At a time when a slumping economy and a residual reluctance to travel stemming from Sept. 11, 2001, has dampened attendance at most academic, business and industry meetings, why did the INFORMS meeting in San Jose draw record numbers? Several factors were no doubt at work:<BR>
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<B><I>Addition by subtraction.</I></B> The Institute's strategic decision to hold one annual national academic-oriented meeting instead of two turned the San Jose meeting into a "must make" for many INFORMS members. 2001 was actually the first year under the new system, but the Miami academic meeting last November did not provide an accurate yardstick given that it occurred just two months after 9/11 and a hurricane was bearing down on Miami at the time of the conference. In addition, INFORMS held a highly successful international meeting in Hawaii in June of 2001 that satisfied some of the year's demand for OR conferences. Nevertheless, the Miami meeting attracted 1,978 registrants — respectable, if not spectacular, numbers.<BR>
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"This is a very sophisticated, international group of people who need to be at a meeting like this," Cryan says. "They're very resilient."<BR>
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<B><I>Party time.</I></B> The San Jose meeting doubled as the site for INFORMS' 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Operations Research Society of America. The anniversary and the special events related to it created additional excitement about the meeting. That, in turn, boosted attendance, particularly among the profession's pioneers and newly named Fellows, some of whom hadn't attended an INFORMS conference in years.<BR>
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<B><I>Student power.</I></B> An apparent record 765 students attended the meeting, a number that flies in the face of the recent downturn in student membership in INFORMS. Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, University of Santa Clara, San Jose State and the Naval Postgraduate School — all located within easy driving distance of the conference center — were well represented. Even Menlo College, a two-year school near Stanford, sent 23 students to the meeting.<BR>
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<B><I>Location and weather.</I></B> San Jose will never be confused with San Francisco, but it's close enough, at least geographically. And the weather was perfect, more than making up for last year's Miami hurricane.<BR>
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