PRESIDENT'S DESK

INFORMS President Rina Schneur rina.schneur@verizon.com

If I could summarize my experience at the recent INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research in Chicago in one word, it would be “Wow!” What an energizing and exciting meeting! The record number of attendees made the conference even more energetic and vibrant. What triggered the dramatic increase in attendance? What are the takeaways from the meeting? What insight can INFORMS gain from the statistics we gathered?

INFORMS has not yet analyzed the survey results, but we need to apply some descriptive analytics (“What happened?”) and some predictive analytics (“What will happen?”) to the conference data.

What can we learn from the attendance data? Excluding exhibitors, 623 people attended the conference compared to the all-high of 460 in Vancouver 2007 and 423 last year in Orlando, an increase of about 35 percent and 47 percent, respectively. Including exhibitors (many of whom are professionals who attended the sessions), the conference drew a record 729 total attendees compared to 510 in Vancouver and 475 in Orlando. Figure 1 demonstrates the trend. How can we explain the surge this year?

Investigating the data a bit further reveals that many of the attendees were newcomers. Specifically, 437 of the 729 attendees, or 60 percent, never attended the spring analytics/practice conference before, and 236 attendees, at least a third, were new to INFORMS. The new attendees came from organizations that had sent attendees before, as well as from 130 organizations (30 percent of the 439 organizations participated) who participated for the first time. Why was there such an increase in total attendees, and why did so many new organizations chose to send their employees?

Figure 1

Some of it could be attributed to a rebounding economy, but that alone could not account for the dramatic increase in attendance. It seems that the “rebranding” of the conference as a “Business Analytics” conference coupled with a modified program to reflect that theme was not just a name-changer, it was a game-changer.

Says Conference Chair David Leonhardi: “The overarching goal for the advisory council was to produce a conference that was complementary to the emerging business analytics movement, while at the same time maintaining or enhancing the valuable attributes of the conference that have been refined over the last 10 years.”

While it was not a major shift from previous years, it was significant enough to draw a larger crowd. Why? My hypothesis – supported by anecdotal evidence from my discussions with some attendees – is that the business analytics theme resonates much more with potential participants. Moreover, organizations, many of whom are now pushing to explore and apply more analytics internally, are not only willing but even encouraging their employees to attend conferences that target business analytics.

This marked the second year we held an Executive Forum for invited “C-level” executives from various organizations. Along with the forum, they attended the regular program and networking events. About 95 executives – twice the number as last year – accepted invitations this year.

Certainly the success of the first forum last year helped boost executive attendance this year, but the doubling of numbers indicates something more is going on. My hypothesis is that executives, while not doing analytics themselves, are pushing for more use of data analysis at various levels to guide their decision-making. Some execs have analytics teams built in their decision-making groups and processes, and therefore feel that they themselves need to become more knowledgeable about what analytics is and what it can do to make a difference and derive competitive advantage for their organization. The forum was a great opportunity for execs to not only learn but also to exchange ideas with other executives.

Companies that target the business analytics field apparently forecasted the surge in attendance as evidenced by the 50 percent increase in exhibiting vendors compared to last year (and from the 27 companies who participated in the new job fair). Clearly, vendors desired this audience, whether the companies were marketing products and services or looking for new employees as they build or expand their analytics groups.

Ninety-four of the attendees came from outside North America, another indication of the conference’s broad appeal. Twenty percent of the attendees hailed from academia, the same as last year, which means the surge in attendance was across the industry/government/academic spectrum. I consider that a good sign.

I would like to emphasize that these statement are my thoughts and hypotheses based on my insight derived from the data. Further analytics need to be applied to gain deeper insight. Most importantly, we need to practice what we preach and analyze the data to guide our decisions. We need to keep enhancing the conference content to make sure it remains “best of breed,” that it provides unique learning and networking opportunities, and that the attendees leave it energized with new ideas and acquainted with new colleagues.