The Best of Practice 2010

Overall I was very satisfied with the Practice conference. Clearly I didn’t attend ALL of the presentations, but I wanted to pitch my nomination for this year’s “Best Of”. If you presented but don’t see your name here – just assume that I must not have attended yours. :)

Most Interesting New Idea: ”Better, Smarter Electricity Markets” Richard O’Neill – Apparently my future refrigerator will talk with power grid about the best time to defrost – how cool is that!

Most Entertaining Presentation: A TIE between “Fueled By Randomness” by Sanjay Saigal and “The Balance Beam Process” by Donald Buckshaw. Who says O.R. Analyst don’t have a sense of humor?

Most Educational: “Solving the World’s Simplest Problem” by Homie Razavi. All of the small diversions on why the data was shaped the way it was contained bits of trivia I never knew I didn’t know.

Best Networking Event: The Posters. I would have thought that one of the lunches would be better for this – but the noise was so loud that I could only talk to those right next to me. However, while the poster displays were a bit tight – it was much easier to have a conversation and learn about someone’s work.

Best Badge Ribbon: The Neon-Yellow “Blogger” ribbon could be seen from across the room. There was one report that London would start allowing planes to leave due to a break in the ash-cloud – only to learn that the light was really coming from these bright ribbons in Orlando.

Best Memory from the Conference: INDEVAL winning the Edelman Award. The immediate celebration by the winners was so infectious that I felt like joining in the dancing.

Til next year!