A recap of 2024 with the INFORMS president

Ashley K:

Welcome to the latest episode of Resoundingly Human, the podcast brought to you by informs the leading association for professionals and students who apply science, math, technology and analytics to make smarter decisions for a better world. I’m your host, Ashley Kay, and thank you for joining me to explore how informs members are saving lives, saving money, and solving problems. As we close out another year of resounding the human podcasts. I’m joined once again by the 2024 informs President Julie Swan to share a final look back over the past year at informs and reflect on Julie’s time as president. Julie, it’s been such a pleasure to speak with you throughout the year and share updates on INFORMS and its 2024 milestones.

Julie Swann:

I’m delighted to be here. Thank you, Ash.

Ashley K:

So I’d love to start with a look back at our 2024 INFORMS annual meeting in Seattle just this past October, which drum roll please experienced record breaking attendance. I believe the final count was over 7,000 attendees. Could you share some highlights for you from this year’s meeting?

Julie Swann:

Thank you, Ashley. Yes, it was really a record setting conference as you commented. I have to tell you, I love the award ceremonies as one of the aspects of the conference. You get to recognize people for their hard work and everybody’s happy and excited. In addition to the awards, I love networking with people across the board. This is one of the great opportunities that our organization has to bring a lot of people together and to hear different perspectives and learn from each other.

Ashley K:

So now speaking of records being broken, 2024 was the first year that informs membership return to pre covid numbers. I’d love for you to share some insight on what factors contributed to this growth.

Julie Swann:

It is amazing, isn’t it? Just yesterday I had an undergraduate student approach me and ask how they could become a member of informs and what we’re seeing is that there is increased interest in informs and from lots of different places. I think one of the things that we’re seeing as we move forward into the future is that we’ll likely need to think carefully about how to serve members who may be in different roles, have different perspectives or different needs, and making sure that we continue to serve our base while also providing some needs for these newer populations. But that might lead to a menu of options for members. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that kind of thing as we continue to focus on our value proposition across the whole spectrum of members.

Ashley K:

What do you think will be key to continued growth in the INFORMS membership?

Julie Swann:

Well, certainly the ability to attract new populations, whether that is international members or undergraduate members or others. I think that we will also see that how we’re serving different types of members may change. So not necessarily everyone will want to come together at a national meeting like the one in October or the analytics one in the spring, but rather maybe there’ll be regional events that can help serve a membership base that is different and has different needs. We will of course continue to focus on our core offerings, which includes publications in addition to meetings, and we are also seeing increased interest in the accreditation associated with analytics. So I see that as another growth opportunity in the future, probably membership will become less tied to the conference itself and more generally about the value that the organization can provide.

Ashley K:

So this was a really action packed year for informs. What are some additional milestones from the past year that you’re particularly proud of?

Julie Swann:

Well, I’m really excited about the expanded partnership with EBSCO on publications. As some people have heard, we’re going to take the distribution reach of our journals from around 2000 libraries to over 35,000 libraries in the transition in the year 2025. Our reach will go from 60 countries to more than 120 countries. So this gives a lot of opportunity for impact for the publications of INFORMS and broader reach into populations that might not have had that before. So that one’s really exciting. I think we’re going to continue to work on improvement to our conferences, so that includes both the conference that occurs typically in October and the one that occurs typically in spring and think about both how to scale. As you mentioned earlier, the conference has grown a lot and we need to find ways to make sure that we’re serving needs within the constraints of the space of the conference and the number of days that people will attend.

We also are now a member officially of the organization that’s doing certification for data science undergraduate degrees. That’s the computing Society advisory board, and that’s an exciting move forward as we continue to focus not only on OR and ms, but also on analytics. And then finally the ad hoc committees that we’ve seen at the enterprise level associated with artificial intelligence and early career this year, next year likely one or there is one on quantum computing. These are all exciting initiatives that are ongoing at informs and we are planting seeds that may continue to grow for years to come.

Ashley K:

Wow. Just like I said, an action packed year.

Julie Swann:

You’re exactly right.

Ashley K:

After working so closely with the informed staff and leadership over the past year, what would you like for other informants members to know about your behind the scenes view of informs?

Julie Swann:

Well, of course it’s not one person doing anything. In fact, the president really doesn’t do the majority of the work that happens with the volunteers and their staff partners. They really are the arms and legs of informs in making things happen. And we have a really diverse organization across all 13,000 members in the many subdivisions that we have. People differ in so many different ways, and I’m thinking about professional diversity in terms of the type of employment and what kind of focus they have in their job and what their interests are in technical areas and what their background and experiences are. And so that is a really vibrant community. That’s been exciting to see a little bit more of that behind the scenes, as you say, where the sausage gets made as they sometimes say.

Ashley K:

What ultimately will your biggest takeaway or even takeaways from your time as he informs president?

Julie Swann:

Oh, it has been really and truly a lot of fun. And I’ll be sorry when the presidency year comes to an end, as I have sometimes said, I’m not dead yet as Monty Python says, but I will be turning over the reins to the more than capable Dave Hunt and then following him to Mark Lewis. Dave Hunt has a long experience volunteering within informs a founder of pro bono and many other ways that he has impacted the organization. And so the organization is in good hands there. I do take away the many relationships that I’ve formed both within the board and with other parts of the organization and really new on what kinds of things are of interest to the INFORMS community and how we can continue to innovate as we move forward to meet tomorrow’s needs.

Ashley K:

Julie, what’s next for you? Do you have any exciting new projects or plans in the near future?

Julie Swann:

Well, the role of president is not done December 31st. I will become past president very soon and when I do, one of the first things I will do will be chairing the nominating committee that will help put forward a set of candidates for the open roles on the board for elections. And that’s a really important process and a fundamental part of the institution. So I take that very seriously along with the committee that’s participating. I’ll also be chairing the strategic planning committee and I’m really excited about that. The strategic plan of informs really drives what the organization does and on a regular basis, the INFORMS board and inform staff go back to the strategic plan and say, does this fit within what we have said that we want to do strategically? And it’s time to take a look at that plan and work together with a committee to continue to build our strategic planning for the future. Those are my two big plans right now, but I’m sure there’ll be other things that come up as well.

Ashley K:

Well, Julie, thank you so much for joining me today and throughout the past year. Before we wrap up, are there any final thoughts that you’d like to share with our listeners?

Julie Swann:

I certainly want to encourage the members of INFORMS to get involved to find a way to participate in the organization. And there are different ways, different places where you can do that. We will be rolling out a volunteer database where you can put your name in the hat for certain kinds of things, but it can start with joining a chapter or subdivision and just volunteering to do what you can to help. And that’s really where you build the core of what is so important for so many informed members and that network, that participation, and that really brings the value. So I encourage everyone to get involved and maybe one day you’ll be interviewing some of them. Ashley,

Ashley K:

If you’d like to learn more about today’s episode and guest, visit resoundingly human.com and check out our show notes. The podcast is also available for streaming and download on Amazon Music, apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Wherever you listen, please be sure to leave a five star review to help others find and enjoy the podcast. Until next time, I’m Ashley K and this is Resoundingly Human.