INFORMS Open Forum

  • 1.  Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-01-2017 12:52

    As the flood waters in Houston recede, and people begin to move forward with the recovery, there remain numerous questions that INFORMS is working through with respect to the upcoming 2017 INFORMS Annual Meeting.

    We are actively monitoring the situation on the ground, and are engaged in ongoing conversations with INFORMS leadership, our program committee, local Houston officials and others to determine Harvey's impact on the 2017 INFORMS Annual Meeting.

    INFORMS has not yet reached a final decision about whether the Meeting will take place in Houston as currently scheduled or if we will need to move to another location, and possibly date.

    We are working hard to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible and will provide an update soon.

    In the meantime, we continue to wish the people of Houston all the best as they work to recover from Harvey, and we thank the INFORMS community for your patience.

    Brian Denton                      Melissa Moore
    President                            Executive Director



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    Brian Denton, President & Melissa Moore, Executive Director
    INFORMS
    Catonsville MD
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  • 2.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-02-2017 01:22
    Dear Sir/Madam,

    I am K Reddy, the participant of INFORMS annual meeting. As you mentioned in the open forum, because of the flood waters in Houston, INFORMS not yet reached a final decision about whether the Meeting will take place in Houston as currently scheduled or if we will need to move to another location, and possibly date. Can I book the flight for Houston or wait for some time??

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    K Reddy
    Research Scholar
    Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
    Kharagpur, west Bengal
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  • 3.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-03-2017 17:57
    Hello,

    At this point I am certain that nobody can answer your question (if anyone could answer your question, she or he would have already done so). This is an extremely complicated situation, and INFORMS will certainly make an announcement as soon as a decision has been made.

    Please note that I am speaking from experience - I was the General Chair of the 2005 INFORMS annual conference that had to be moved from New Orleans to San Francisco because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, so I have been through what Bill Klimack, the members of his organizing committee, and INFORMS Meeting department are now experiencing. I know these people well, and I can assure you that they are all extremely capable and they will certainly resolve this issue in the optimal manner for INFORMS and it members!

    Have a good evening,

    Jim

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    James Cochran
    Associate Dean for Research
    University of Alabama
    Tuscaloosa AL
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  • 4.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-04-2017 12:36
    ​INFORMS Community,

    I'm the General Chair for the 2017 Annual Meeting.  I have been part of the discussion about the meeting location with the INFORMS elected leadership and professional staff.  The decision about location will probably be made in the next few days after additional information has been gathered.  The location may or may not change.  If the location changes, the dates may or may not change.  Any date changes are anticipated to move the meeting into November.  I appreciate everyone's patience as we work through these decisions. 

    For these reasons, my personal recommendation is to wait to purchase airline tickets.

    Thanks,
    Bill Klimack

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    William Klimack
    Functional Manager, Decision Analysis
    Chevron
    Houston TX
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  • 5.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-05-2017 07:48

    The terrible things harry brought are nobody's fault. But, for many of us, plane tickets are bought and hotels are booked with first nights already paid.

    TG Crainic



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    Teodor Crainic
    Professor
    Universite du Quebec a Montreal
    Montréal QC
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  • 6.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-05-2017 17:02
    Please also take into consideration students who need to book all the hotels in advance at a non-refundable price to keep the cost within the budget. We do understand if the change is unavoidable.

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    Matt
    University of Colorado-Denver
    Denver CO
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  • 7.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-06-2017 03:15
    I totally agree with Professor Crainic. Especially for those of us coming from overseas, this constitutes a big problem. I am sure a lot of people like me have already purchased their tickets and the problem is we may not be able to change the tickets, unless we pay penalty or buy new ones. 

     

    Vedat Bayram



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    Vedat Bayram
    Assistant Professor
    Department of Industrial Enginering
    TED University
    Ankara
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  • 8.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-06-2017 07:31

    I totally appreciate the problems and am very grateful to Bill for his practical advice. It would however be helpful if INFORMS could issue a statement on their policy on refunding the full registration fee if the date gets changed and people are no longer able to attend. I personally am very reluctant to register for this expensive conference without knowing when or where it will take place. 



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    Sally Brailsford
    University of Southampton
    Southampton, UK
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  • 9.  RE: Annual Meeting

    Posted 09-06-2017 09:00
    Dear All:

    Thank you for your messages and your understanding about the situation. We have been following the aftermath of the Hurricane very closely, and we are collecting information on a daily basis. Everyone involved in leading the planning of the meeting has been part of the decision-making process, and we are weighing all the considerations about the impact to members, including the cost and inconvenience of moving the conference.

    We have the best possible meetings group and organizing committee we could hope for and all the options are being explored and discussed. We are all hoping we will not have to move the conference and we expect to have a decision on this very soon. We will post the latest information to INFORMS Connect and the conference web page:

    2017 INFORMS Annual Meeting - Houston, Texas October 22-25


    Regards,

    Brian Denton, INFORMS President

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    Brian Denton, INFORMS President
    Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering
    University of Michigan
    Ann Arbor MI
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