December 2000 INFORMS News Practice Conference to Focus on New Economy INFORMS' new conference, "Optimizing the Extended Enterprise in the New Economy," focuses on real-world applications, best practices and professional development in an intensive program of information and exchange. Scheduled for May 20-22, 2001 in San Diego, the meeting offers five tracks and more than 40 sessions on topics like supply-chain integration, revenue management, e-commerce and customer service. Speakers represent a broad range of industries, from high-tech to finance, with executives from Intel, UPS, Expedia, SAP and PricewaterhouseCoopers on the program. Methodology tutorials will be taught by faculty from MIT, George Mason University and Northwestern. In addition, attendees can attend all or part of the Edelman Award competition. Three plenary presentations will take a broad look at how analytic techniques and people have shaped business in the past and, what lies ahead for the future. A panel analyzing the role of the quantitative professional in the new economy will be moderated by Thomas L. Magnanti, dean of engineering at MIT, with panelists from UPS, i2 Technologies, Sabre and Level 3 Communications. Thomas L. Cook, CEO of TCI and previously the architect of revenue management at Sabre, will review how companies have used OR to maximize return. James Q. Crowe, CEO of Level 3 Communications, will look ahead to achieving sustainable competitive advantage through OR and optimization. Attendees can customize a program by selecting sessions from five concurrent tracks. Track 1, "Integrating Analytic Methods into the Enterprise Business Process," includes sessions on auctions and marketplaces, the challenge of embedding OR solutions in software packages and global deployment. Other Track 1 speakers will present strategies for positioning and managing the OR function: selling OR from within the company, selling as a consultant, recruiting and retaining analytic talent, and working with university faculty. Track 2 will present "New Models for the New Economy," with talks on revenue management, dynamic e-commerce and e-procurement, supply-chain integration, data mining for marketing and others. The third track will focus on "Best Practices," with a full day devoted to the Edelman Award competition. Five or six organizations will compete, giving attendees an inside look at the most current and significant analytic work being done today. On the second day, the "Best Practices" track will offer case studies of successful OR implementation, with several sessions sponsored by the INFORMS Roundtable. In addition, attendees can hear a reprise of the Wagner Prize presentation, an award that emphasizes the quality and coherence of implemented work. Tracks 4 and 5 offer opportunities for professional development. Attendees can choose from a menu of one- and two-hour tutorials on research methodologies; some of these will provide overviews of particular techniques, while others will focus on recent developments in key areas. The second professional development track will explore current technology solutions through software demonstrations presented by leading companies in the field. Complete program information, with registration materials, will be available in January 2001. For continuing updates, go to www.informs.org/Conf Table of Contents OR/MS Today Home Page OR/MS Today copyright © 2000 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved. Lionheart Publishing, Inc. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060, USA Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com URL: http://www.lionhrtpub.com Web Site © Copyright 2000 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.