INFORMS Open Forum

 As many of us enter a 3-day weekend, I want to share four short updates on recent activities that you may be interested in.

One – Our recent 2021 Business Analytics Conference was a success, attracting over 500 attendees. The feedback we've received indicates a very high level of satisfaction with the conference speakers and content.  Attendees also commented they liked the platform, and that it was easy to engage with other attendees.  

Two – We installed AccessiBe code on informs.org. This new feature (stick figure icon in lower right hand corner) allows visitors to make adjustments related to content, color, and orientation to align with their individual needs.  This step significantly broadens our DEI efforts. Relatedly, we expanded closed captioning options during the 2021 Analytics Conference. We will continue doing more to increase accessibility in our future events and activities.    

Three – The membership and marketing teams recently made a series of improvements to the membership journey. Here are four highlights:  

• A link to Join was added to top visited pages on informs.org; 
• A link to the Member Benefits page was added near the top of informs.org home page; 
• A new, warmer-and-fuzzier automatic welcome email was created to replace the separate confirmation and receipt emails for new members; 
• A new member welcome thread was created in the Open Forum. (I ENCOURAGE you all to participate in this chain on INFORMS CONNECT.)  

       There is more to come, but we wanted to share that this significant journey is off to a great start.   

Four – Our Publications team has been hard at work chipping away at the production backlog to attain much-needed improvement in our time to publication. Unfortunately, after two solid months publishing in excess of 200 articles each, our production vendor's offshore operations were hit hard by the second wave of COVID in India, wiping out all gains we had made over the last 6 months. The production team is working to redistribute more work to their onshore operations and onboard new staff as quickly as possible, but ensuring health is the most important focus. Our thoughts are with our team during this challenging time. 
 

And…a bonus item...Registration is now open for the INFORMS 2021 Annual Meeting. This year's uniquely flexible conference format features a return to in-person meetings and face-to-face interaction, while prioritizing attendee safety. Plus, we are also offering a fully virtual attendee option as well. Detailed information on pricing and what to expect from in-person and virtual options is available here. Regardless of which option you choose, we are excited to host you in Anaheim or online October 24-27!