• Anthony Levandowski of Google will talk
about the Google Driverless Car project, offering his perspective as both a developer
and a user of the technology.
• A panel of experts from within the
INFORMS community will discuss
their experience with, and offer advice on, massively open online courses
(MOOCs).
If this is not enough, there will be
more than 4,000 technical presentations
by experts from industry, academia and
government. Topics will be wide-ranging, covering the full breadth of the field,
from leading-edge advancements in operations research methodologies and
analytics, to applications in healthcare,
energy, critical infrastructure management, environmental management and
supply chain management.
If you are not already overwhelmed
while filling your mind, you will have ample
opportunity to fill your heart – and stomach. San Francisco is regarded as one of
the most beautiful cities in the world and
offers world-class cuisine from almost
every ethnic heritage. The meeting will
take place in two adjacent hotels, the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the
Parc 55 Wyndham. The location is in close
proximity to the city’s prime shopping district and near the boarding point for cable
cars to Fisherman’s Wharf – famous for
A NA L Y T I C S
fresh seafood and Pier 39 – where you
can see dozens of sea lions and walk to
ferries that offer everything from simple
rides across San Francisco Bay to amazingly scenic tours, as well as Ghirardelli
Square, known for Ghirardelli chocolate.
Venturing into other parts of San Francisco, you can visit world-class museums, including the Palace of the Legion of
Honor, DeYoung Museum, Asian Art Museum and California Academy of Sciences. The performing arts, including the
symphony, ballet, opera, jazz, theater and
concerts, are all within easy reach. If you
prefer the outdoors, you can take a trip
to the former prison on Alcatraz (a limited
number of tickets will be available to conferees for purchase), see the redwoods in
Muir Woods, hike in the Marin Headlands
with an unobstructed view of the Golden
Gate Bridge, sign up to play a round of golf
with other conferees at TPC Harding Golf
Course the day before the conference, or
simply wander through the haunts of the
hippies in Haight-Ashbury or the Beat poets in North Beach. Just a bit further from
the city are the wine regions of Napa and
Sonoma, only an hour’s drive away.
Both the meeting and the venue will
have much to offer in many dimensions.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Candace “Candi” Yano is general chair of the
2014 INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
She is a longtime member of INFORMS.
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