OR55 day zero

It is a law of conferences that you only remember the extraordinary events.  Soon after lunch, we heard that the plenary speaker for the first day was ill and in hospital.  Phil, the co-chair asked the ORSociety president to step in if necessary, and I made a delicate enquiry about another possible speaker.  Meanwhile there was a great deal of traffic on the motorway to Exeter, and an accident blocked it for a time.  So our 3pm start became a nearly 6pm start.  Still, we got the packing of delegate bags finished.  Just glad that we don't have the thousands of delegates that some INFORMS and EURO conferences attract!

The first evening has gone with the renewal of old friendships, over a meal and a drink, and then a social for about thirty, playing a game of horse racing.   I have started to tweet with the tag #OR55 and w have a twitter feed screen for that.