Are you coming with small kids?
Over the past few years, I have accumulated some knowledge on the tastes of small kids. Here are my top 5 tips:
1. Zoo + Ciutadella park: right next door, and some greenery too. The zoo can turn out to be very expensive -- €12 per person (a clear price discrimination story - it is €60 per family for unlimited visits for a year).
2. Beach - never underrate the power of sand and seawater. The BCN beach is pretty much shade-less. You may have to take a train north to the Costa Brava beaches and calas for shade.
3. Tibidabo - there is a charming amusement park dating from the 50s. The trek up is quite entertaining in itself and involves: Metro->tram->funicular.
4. Montjuic- a mountain with a fort, the Joan Miro museum (kids seem to appreciate his paintings, and you will understand why), and lots of parks.
5. Boqueria market and Ramblas - free and quite entertaining, watching the market activity and the statues on the Ramblas.
jueves, 14 de junio de 2007
credits
June 28th is only a couple of weeks away, and all arrangements appear to be reasonably on track. No small credit for this should go to the two secretaries I have helping me in the organization, Mery Mar Gil initially, till she left to work for the Barcelona GSE, and subsequently, Teresa Serarols. I have also had strong high level support from Xavier Calsamiglia our department head, and Ana Mas, our other all-but-in-namesake head.
The financing of the conference wouldnt have been possible but for our sponsors: PROS, Starwood, JDA and Sabre. The total sponsorship money we got was $7000+€4500. I will explain how important their support is. Of our registration fee, roughly, 15% goes to CC charges, processing services, badges, materials and stuff, and 10% to the University for support and facilities - both actually quite reasonable charges. The Euro is a disaster (for us) - it had climbed to nearly $1.4, so the average net is roughly €170-180 (students pay very little and early registers get a discount).
We need to pay for two catered lunches, four coffee breaks and one cocktail+gala dinner+some miscellaneous stuff (flowers+podium etc.) whose combined total is roughly €220. So, there's the math - without sponsors it would have been rice-and-potato meals all throughout!
The financing of the conference wouldnt have been possible but for our sponsors: PROS, Starwood, JDA and Sabre. The total sponsorship money we got was $7000+€4500. I will explain how important their support is. Of our registration fee, roughly, 15% goes to CC charges, processing services, badges, materials and stuff, and 10% to the University for support and facilities - both actually quite reasonable charges. The Euro is a disaster (for us) - it had climbed to nearly $1.4, so the average net is roughly €170-180 (students pay very little and early registers get a discount).
We need to pay for two catered lunches, four coffee breaks and one cocktail+gala dinner+some miscellaneous stuff (flowers+podium etc.) whose combined total is roughly €220. So, there's the math - without sponsors it would have been rice-and-potato meals all throughout!
this blog business
I teach a course on Internet Marketing so I was curious about actually participating in this blog phenomenon. I am afraid my enthusiasm has lasted exactly three weeks. I tried to maintain the prevalent "open-diary" blog style (dear diary: Excel has been so mean to me today) , and keep ranting to a minimum; but reading back, the only sensation I have is of the guy on the Metro talking to himself loud. So, apart from opening my innermost thoughts to potential marketers, I don't see much point in this blog business.
On the other hand, they have made it remarkable easy to get some info on the web fast. It takes a few seconds to have your own well-formatted web site.
So that is a partial explanation of the dearth of recent entries and a full forewarning that I have maybe at most one or two further blog entries left in me.
On the other hand, they have made it remarkable easy to get some info on the web fast. It takes a few seconds to have your own well-formatted web site.
So that is a partial explanation of the dearth of recent entries and a full forewarning that I have maybe at most one or two further blog entries left in me.
miércoles, 9 de mayo de 2007
My boo-boo
I had an old mailing list called 2006 INFORMS speakers, and this year I created a list called 2007 INFORMS speakers. Guess which one I sent the acceptance email to?
If you spoke last year but did not submit anything this year, and got a message saying your talk has been accepted this year - no it was not time-travel, it was my screwup!
If you spoke last year but did not submit anything this year, and got a message saying your talk has been accepted this year - no it was not time-travel, it was my screwup!
lunes, 30 de abril de 2007
Schedule
We have a tentative schedule, but I have to format it and get it ready for the web; also we are still checking availability of our keynote speakers for the schedule times. Many thanks to Ioana for heading the programming part, and for the hard work over ten days. I hope to post it by the end of the week. We have scheduled a total of 63 talks (27 + 36) for the two days. Fortunately we could cut and trim and accommodate the vast majority of the speakers. If you haven't heard from me yet, you are in - you can go ahead and make your travel plans.
Our Practice key note speaker is confirmed by the way: we are honored to have Bruno Matheu, Executive Vice President-Marketing and Network Management, Air France. Thanks to Guillermo for his efforts on this.
Some minor details. The gala dinner on the first night will be at Hotel Arts, by the sea. It is convenient and a few minutes walk from our campus.
Our Practice key note speaker is confirmed by the way: we are honored to have Bruno Matheu, Executive Vice President-Marketing and Network Management, Air France. Thanks to Guillermo for his efforts on this.
Some minor details. The gala dinner on the first night will be at Hotel Arts, by the sea. It is convenient and a few minutes walk from our campus.
martes, 24 de abril de 2007
Keynote Speakers
I extracted out all the emails and abstracts from Outlook, packaged it and sent it out to the program committee.
I am surprised that one can programmatically interact with Outlook; here is the code to do it - could come in handy for extracting out student emails of homeworks etc. and organizing them in a directory. But thinking about it, it is a shame that Outlook 2007 cannot do that more easily. In fact, the whole Office 2007 thing is a shame, a rather miserable product. Don't buy it unless you are nostalgic for a 386 machine, which indeed is how my dual-Opteron feels like opening an Excel document.
Coming back to the conference, we have some news.
Our theory keynote speaker is going to be Xavier Vives. Prof. Vives is a leading researcher in Economics with major contributions in the areas of regulation, competition and financial economics. RM researchers would have come across his work on submodular games, and inevitably his book: Oligopoly Pricing: Old Ideas and New Tools. Prof. Vives teaches at IESE and had taught at Harvard, Penn, NYU, Berkeley, UAB, INSEAD and UPF.
The practice keynote speaker is not finalized yet. We are still working on it.
Andreu Mas-Colell will open the conference and give the welcoming address. Prof. Mas-Colell has taught at Berkeley and Harvard and is currently a professor at UPF. A former editor-in-chief of Econometrica and president of the Econometric Society, Prof. Mas-Colell also served as the minister of Universities and Research in Catalunya, and will be heading the European Research Council from 2009-11. He would be best known to RM researchers from his book on Microeconomic Theory with Whinston and Greene; I for one can attribute much of my economics knowledge to that book, as would many an economics student. Prof. Mas-Colell recently founded a new meta-school here in Barcelona called the Barcelona GSE.
I am surprised that one can programmatically interact with Outlook; here is the code to do it - could come in handy for extracting out student emails of homeworks etc. and organizing them in a directory. But thinking about it, it is a shame that Outlook 2007 cannot do that more easily. In fact, the whole Office 2007 thing is a shame, a rather miserable product. Don't buy it unless you are nostalgic for a 386 machine, which indeed is how my dual-Opteron feels like opening an Excel document.
Coming back to the conference, we have some news.
Our theory keynote speaker is going to be Xavier Vives. Prof. Vives is a leading researcher in Economics with major contributions in the areas of regulation, competition and financial economics. RM researchers would have come across his work on submodular games, and inevitably his book: Oligopoly Pricing: Old Ideas and New Tools. Prof. Vives teaches at IESE and had taught at Harvard, Penn, NYU, Berkeley, UAB, INSEAD and UPF.
The practice keynote speaker is not finalized yet. We are still working on it.
Andreu Mas-Colell will open the conference and give the welcoming address. Prof. Mas-Colell has taught at Berkeley and Harvard and is currently a professor at UPF. A former editor-in-chief of Econometrica and president of the Econometric Society, Prof. Mas-Colell also served as the minister of Universities and Research in Catalunya, and will be heading the European Research Council from 2009-11. He would be best known to RM researchers from his book on Microeconomic Theory with Whinston and Greene; I for one can attribute much of my economics knowledge to that book, as would many an economics student. Prof. Mas-Colell recently founded a new meta-school here in Barcelona called the Barcelona GSE.
jueves, 19 de abril de 2007
The Big-Three
If you stay on for a few days in Barcelona, you will quickly notice that any restaurant worth its sal gordo will say it has an El Bulli-trained chef manning the fogones. Don't be fooled though in thinking it is anywhere close to the real thing.
El Bulli: It is a good hour-and-half drive away from Barcelona in a rather schlocky town called Roses (blessed though with a great beach). It is open only six months a year (the other half devoted to research---6 mo. teaching/6mo. research); reservations open one specific day and fill up within an hour for all the six months. So little chance that one can get in this summer, but one can try. Chef Ferran Adria is the pride of Catalunya -- he made it to the NYT magazine cover, blowing lightly on an "air"; he has revolutionized cooking, creating new experiences, new sensations, a true artist if you will. His innovations include deconstructionism, foams and airs, inside-out foods etc. I personally never been there but reliable gourmet friends have confirmed that it is worth a visit and all the hype is justified. (One jarring note related by a friend is that you will see diners whipping out their cameras to take photos of every plate, not my idea of a fine meal, but I guess it is part of the experience.)
While El Bulli invented haute-trick cuisine, the other two are more straightforward and in their way equally stupendous. There is even a chance that one can get in during one's lifetime.
Sant Pau: Located in Sant Pol de Mar in Maresme, around half-an-hour by car, and an hour by train and run by the super talented Carme Ruscalleda (one of the few female 3-star chefs), this has long been the local secret till she got the third star last year. The cooking is rooted in Maresme, very complex and surprises by bringing together unexpected combinations. I would write a proper review but it has been a long time since I was there. Reservations are apparently hard to come by ever since she got the third star. Definitely worth a try.
Raco de Can Fabes: In Sant Celoni a town in the mountains called Montseny, also in Maresme, and run by Santi Santamaria, this is the turf vs. the surf of Ruscalleda -- not that he does seafood any the lesser. Perhaps the most straightforward of all three but nevertheless as high as haute cuisine gets. Especially recommended in the fall when the bolets come out.
Amazingly, all three chefs are self-trained, growing what were rather nondescript family restaurants.
They may sound expensive, but in fact all three restuarants are great bargains. Think of this two ways: same standard of cooking in Paris (say at L'Arpege) will cost you two to three times more; Two, if you see them as once-in-a-lifetime meals and amortize over your remaining expected lifespan, well, they cost nothing really.
El Bulli: It is a good hour-and-half drive away from Barcelona in a rather schlocky town called Roses (blessed though with a great beach). It is open only six months a year (the other half devoted to research---6 mo. teaching/6mo. research); reservations open one specific day and fill up within an hour for all the six months. So little chance that one can get in this summer, but one can try. Chef Ferran Adria is the pride of Catalunya -- he made it to the NYT magazine cover, blowing lightly on an "air"; he has revolutionized cooking, creating new experiences, new sensations, a true artist if you will. His innovations include deconstructionism, foams and airs, inside-out foods etc. I personally never been there but reliable gourmet friends have confirmed that it is worth a visit and all the hype is justified. (One jarring note related by a friend is that you will see diners whipping out their cameras to take photos of every plate, not my idea of a fine meal, but I guess it is part of the experience.)
While El Bulli invented haute-trick cuisine, the other two are more straightforward and in their way equally stupendous. There is even a chance that one can get in during one's lifetime.
Sant Pau: Located in Sant Pol de Mar in Maresme, around half-an-hour by car, and an hour by train and run by the super talented Carme Ruscalleda (one of the few female 3-star chefs), this has long been the local secret till she got the third star last year. The cooking is rooted in Maresme, very complex and surprises by bringing together unexpected combinations. I would write a proper review but it has been a long time since I was there. Reservations are apparently hard to come by ever since she got the third star. Definitely worth a try.
Raco de Can Fabes: In Sant Celoni a town in the mountains called Montseny, also in Maresme, and run by Santi Santamaria, this is the turf vs. the surf of Ruscalleda -- not that he does seafood any the lesser. Perhaps the most straightforward of all three but nevertheless as high as haute cuisine gets. Especially recommended in the fall when the bolets come out.
Amazingly, all three chefs are self-trained, growing what were rather nondescript family restaurants.
They may sound expensive, but in fact all three restuarants are great bargains. Think of this two ways: same standard of cooking in Paris (say at L'Arpege) will cost you two to three times more; Two, if you see them as once-in-a-lifetime meals and amortize over your remaining expected lifespan, well, they cost nothing really.
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