Catch the “Analytics” Wave at the Leading Analytics, Big Data Conference Huntington Beach, April 12-14

Features Keynotes by IBM & GE Execs, VIP Session for Senior Executives, Harvard Business Review Panel, and over 100 other panels and discussions

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA, March 16, 2015 – The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®), the leading international association for professionals in advanced analytics and operations research, announced today that its annual business analytics conference will take place in Huntington Beach, CA, April 12-14.

Expected to draw nearly 1,000 attendees from around the United States and globally, the 2015 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research will be held at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa, and feature keynote presentations and panel discussions from IBM, GE, and numerous other leading companies.

Attendees will hear from analytics leaders from established organizations and exciting new start-ups about how companies are leveraging advanced analytics to drive their businesses. Attendees will also gain key insights from prominent industry experts to help them drive better business decisions and outcomes.

Analytics 2015will go beyond the typical “buzz” about Big Data and the cloud, providing unique opportunities to learn about potential analytics applications to the Internet of Things, as well as practical implementations of cognitive computing, unstructured data analytics, and real-time decisions based on streaming data.

Key Highlights include:

Sunday, April 12, 5:30-7:30 PM PT: Executive Forum: Pasha Roberts, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Talent Analytics Corp, will deliver the primary presentation at this VIP reception for senior business executives.

Monday, April 13, 8 AM PT: Keynote, GE Research, William Ruh, VP; “The Industrial Internet” (Industrial Internet of Things)

Monday, April 13, 3:40 PM PT: Harvard Business Review Panel: How to Build a Top-Performance Analytics Team and Organization, Moderated by Julia Kirby, Harvard Business Review. Panelists include:

• Chevron: Bill Klimack, Manager, Decision Analysis Consulting
• FICO: Michelle Davis, Analytics Director
• Gartner: Lisa Kart, Research Director
• HP: Rohit Tandon, Vice President and WW Head of Global Analytics
• IBM: Brenda Dietrich, IBM Fellow, Vice President for Emerging Technologies, IBM Watson Group
• Schneider: Zahir Balaporia, Director, Engineering and Advanced Analytics

Monday, April 13, 7 PM PT: Six leading finalist organizations will compete for the 2015 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award. A prize gala for this year’s finalists, whose topics are as diverse as improving crop yields that feed a ballooning world population to U.S. military preparations to expanding broadband for major sporting events to protecting religious pilgrims to improved delivery of computers and components:

• IBM
• Ingram Micro
• LMI and the US Defense Logistics Agency
• Syngenta
• U.S. Army
• Saudi Arabia Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs

The gala will include presentations of the 2015 INFORMS Prize for overall achievement in analytics and operations research to Chevron and the Daniel H. Wagner Prize to a team led by Ford Motor that also includes researchers from MIT, Duke University, and Cornell University. The UPS George D. Smith Prize will be presented to one of three graduate analytics programs. Accompanied by a $10,000 cash award, the prize is named for the late UPS CEO who was a patron of operations researchers at the Fortune 50 Company.

Tuesday, April 14, 10:30 AM PT: Keynote: IBM, Brenda Dietrich, VP and IBM Fellow: “Emerging Technology IBM Watson”

For more information and to register for Analytics 2015visit http://meetings.informs.org/analytics2015.

About INFORMS

INFORMS is the leading international association for professionals in analytics and operations research (O.R.). INFORMS advances research, and develops and promotes best practices in analytics and O.R. through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional development. INFORMS helps business, government, and other organization professionals make better decisions to drive value to their organizations and society. Our certification program (CAP®), highly cited publications, educational meetings and conferences, continuing education, industry and process-focused networking communities, competitions, and recognition provide professionals with the knowledge and connections they need to achieve ever greater value for their organizations. Further information about INFORMS, analytics, and operations research is at www.informs.org or @informs.

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