By Mosab Bazargani, Co-Chair OR66 Annual Conference, Bangor University
As Co-Chair of the #OR66 Annual Conference of The OR Society, I'm thrilled to share the success of this year's event, held at Bangor University last week. We welcomed around 300 delegates, with a fantastic mix of practitioners and academics.
The conference opened with an inspiring speech by Professor Edmund Burke, Vice-Chancellor of Bangor University and past president of The OR Society, and featured 23 parallel streams running across three days. Among the standout sessions were the "Making Impact" sessions organised by John Medhurst, the "Future of OR" session, which had John Hopes among its presenters, and an engaging panel on "Knowledge Exchange Between Academia, Industry, and Government", featuring Dr Gilbert Owusu, President of The OR Society, as one of the panellists. Additionally, there was excellent work on "Grand Challenges in Sustainability" by Dr Miles Weaver and Christopher Roberts, as well as a panel on measuring the impact of the third sector, featuring Ruth Kaufman OBE, FORS, FIMA, CSci.
We were fortunate to have three incredible plenary speakers. Dr Jeroen MULDER, from Air France-KLM discussed six #OR challenges within the company. Professor Sanja Petrovic, President-Elect of The OR Society, shared insights into how OR can improve healthcare well-being. Professor Michel Gendreau provided a comprehensive overview of the stochastic vehicle routing problem.
The social activities were equally exciting, thanks to the fantastic weather in North Wales! Delegates enjoyed a thrilling zip line adventure, an Aber Falls walking tour, and a visit to the Aber Falls Whisky Distillery.
Another highlight was the prestigious Presidential Medal competition, with three strong candidates. The award went to the Smith Institute for their exceptional work with National Grid ESO, which could save over 300 megawatts of reserve per settlement every 30 minutes.
It was fantastic to see so many key representatives from NHS Wales, NHS England, the Government Operational Research Service, the Welsh Government, EPSRC, the Office for National Statistics, DEFRA, DWP, the UK National Audit Office, HMRC, and many other esteemed organisations.
This event wouldn't have been possible without the dedication of the incredible programming committee, including Mithu Norris, Stephan Onggo, Maria Battarra, and Jonathan Thompson, as well as the outstanding team at The OR Society — John Medhurst, Sarah Davies, Carol McLaughlin, Caitlin Griffin, Karen Down, Emma Nelson, Elli Michael, Sophie Rouse, and many more. A special thanks to the Bangor University team, Llŷr Aled Hughes and Ingrid Pedersen, for their resilience and teamwork in making this event a success.
Finally, thank you to all the delegates, sponsors, presenters, The OR Society Executive team, and everyone behind the scenes who helped bring OR66 to Bangor. We look forward to seeing you all next year in University of Leeds for #EURO2025! #ThisIsOR