The three-day MSOM INFORMS conference offered me a strong exposure to current research on societal welfare and sustainability in operations, direct engagement with scholars working on adjacent problems, and an opportunity to present and stress-test my own work.
On day 1, I attended the Societal Welfare and Sustainability SIG sessions, which aligned closely with my dissertation’s focus on equity and sustainability in platform operations. Talks covered socially responsible operations on food waste problems and equity in service design covering healthcare and education access. These sessions sharpened my thinking on how to identify problems around us and translate them into solvable operations questions.
Beyond the SIG sessions, I attended talks throughout the conference connected to my research, which gave me a clearer sense of where this research community currently stands and where it is heading. I also met several scholars working on similar problems. These exchanges generated new angles I had not considered and opened potential avenues for future collaboration.
On the last day, I also presented my own project in a research session. The audience raised useful questions on the project content and insights, which will inform our next round of revisions. This is also a good chance to introduce myself to the community, since I am preparing to be on the job market soon.
Overall, the conference sharpened both the framing of my current paper and my sense of where this research community is headed.