I am off to Berlin this afternoon with Jean-Michel Marin to attend the Winter SImulation Conference (WSC 2012). I hope I can go running around the nearby Tiergarten despite the sub-zero temperatures…(I am also of course looking forward the Monte Carlo sessions of the conference. And am curious at how well attended it will be for its first trip outside North-America.)
Archive for Tiergarten
nach Berlin! [WSC 2012]
Posted in Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Berlin, Hotel Intercontinental Berlin, Tiergarten, WSC 2012 on December 9, 2012 by xi'annach Berlin [bankrott!]
Posted in Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Berlin, conference, Hotel Intercontinental Berlin, simulation, Soviet era, Tiergarten, WSC on September 16, 2012 by xi'an
I have started to make preparations for the Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) in Berlin next December, like booking a (cheap) plane, finding a (cheap) flat thru Airbnb, and registering for the conference… However, when checking on the conference website, I was rather shocked to discover that the registration fee is $720 for non-members of sponsoring societies! (I am glad to be an ASA member as the registration fee down to $570.) I cannot really fathom the reason for this unusually high fee, the highest I ever paid for a conference. It indeed “includes access to all sessions, attendee bags, a USB stick or CD containing the conference proceedings, all coffee breaks, and a conference reception.” While I’d be happy to do without the useless “bags, coffee breaks and conference reception” package, this all-inclusive offer still does not add up to $720… By far. So either the organising society is making a profit by charging so much, or it picked such a luxurious hotel that it had to charge all participants enough to avoid making a loss. In both cases, not my vision of a conference run by an academic society… There is a clear tendency over the years to steadily increase conference rates and make conferences a source of profit for either the organisers or the organising society, tendency that I strongly object to.
By contrast, let me stress that MCMSki IV should have a fee of about 150 euros for the same duration (and in a highly touristy place in the heart of winter!). And all “ABC in…” have been free so far!
Tiergarten, Reichstag, und Brandenburger Tor
Posted in pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags Berlin, Brandenburg Gate, Germany, Tiergarten on July 1, 2011 by xi'an
This morning, I took advantage of the very early sunrise in Berlin to go running for one hour in Tiergarten. On the way there, I glimpsed the Reichstag building and the Siegessaüle column. In the (nice) park, I did not see many animals apart from rabbits and a few lamas. And those bicolor ravens:
When I got back to my hotel, traffic was starting to intensify and I had to watch for bikes at every crossing.
