IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v58y2007i3d10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A small-to-medium-sized conference scheduling heuristic incorporating presenter and limited attendee preferences

Author

Listed:
  • M G Nicholls

    (RMIT University)

Abstract

In this paper, a simple heuristic is suggested that allows quick scheduling of small-to-medium-sized conferences by the programme chair/organizer. Owing to the nature of the problem that the heuristic was designed to solve, no annealing or combinatorial optimization techniques were required. Additionally, there is no explicit objective function associated with the problem only some simple constraints. The suggested heuristic aims to allocate all the conference papers to sessions over the conference duration taking into account presenter-based preferences (PBP) and some implicit attendee-based preferences. The conference programme chair (PC) may also insert preferences as to the positioning of papers and sessions. The heuristic also permits the PC to allocate appropriate rooms to sessions based on expectations regarding attendance. Owing to the simple nature of the heuristic, all that is required to facilitate its operation is a small programme created using a standard database package. The suggested heuristic, which effectively is a set of rules to be affected in a specific sequence, has been successfully used to schedule a Western Decision Sciences Institute (WDSI) annual conference. The conference spanned four days, had over three hundred participants, involved over 80 sessions with 200 papers and 50 special sessions.

Suggested Citation

  • M G Nicholls, 2007. "A small-to-medium-sized conference scheduling heuristic incorporating presenter and limited attendee preferences," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(3), pages 301-308, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:58:y:2007:i:3:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602144
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602144
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602144
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602144?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott E. Sampson & James R. Freeland & Elliott N. Weiss, 1995. "Class Scheduling to Maximize Participant Satisfaction," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 30-41, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bulhões, Teobaldo & Correia, Rubens & Subramanian, Anand, 2022. "Conference scheduling: A clustering-based approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(1), pages 15-26.
    2. Vangerven, Bart & Ficker, Annette M.C. & Goossens, Dries R. & Passchyn, Ward & Spieksma, Frits C.R. & Woeginger, Gerhard J., 2018. "Conference scheduling — A personalized approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 38-47.
    3. Pylyavskyy, Yaroslav & Jacko, Peter & Kheiri, Ahmed, 2024. "A generic approach to conference scheduling with integer programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 317(2), pages 487-499.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schirmer, Andreas & Potzhar, Kathrin, 2001. "Professional course scheduling in airline transport pilot training: A case from Lufthansa flight training," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 539, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    2. R. Alan Bowman, 2021. "Developing Optimal Student Plans of Study," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 51(6), pages 409-421, November.
    3. Haase, Knut & Latteier, Jörg & Schirmer, Andreas, 1997. "The course scheduling problem at Lufthansa Technical Training," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 441, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    4. Haase, Knut & Latteier, Jörg & Schirmer, Andreas, 1997. "Course planning at Lufthansa technical training: Constructing more profitable schedules," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 442, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    5. K A Willoughby & C J Zappe, 2006. "A methodology to optimize foundation seminar assignments," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(8), pages 950-956, August.
    6. Boronico, Jess, 2000. "Quantitative modeling and technology driven departmental course scheduling," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 327-346, June.
    7. Schirmer, Andreas & Potzahr, Kathrin, 2001. "Lehrgangsplanung für die Ausbildung von Verkehrsflugzeugführern: Ergebnisse einer Studie bei Lufthansa Flight Training," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 538, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    8. Haase, Knut & Latteier, Jorg & Schirmer, Andreas, 1998. "The course scheduling problem at Lufthansa Technical Training," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 441-456, November.
    9. Leo Lopes & Meredith Aronson & Gary Carstensen & Cole Smith, 2008. "Optimization Support for Senior Design Project Assignments," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 38(6), pages 448-464, December.
    10. Gerardo Gonzalez & Christopher Richards & Alexandra Newman, 2018. "Optimal Course Scheduling for United States Air Force Academy Cadets," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 217-234, June.
    11. Biniyam Asmare Kassa, 2015. "Implementing a Class-Scheduling System at the College of Business and Economics of Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 45(3), pages 203-215, June.
    12. Vid Ogris & Tomaž Kristan & Andrej Škraba & Marko Urh & Davorin Kofjač, 2016. "iUrnik: Timetabling for Primary Educational Institutions in Slovenia," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 46(3), pages 231-244, April.
    13. Timothy R. Hinkin & Gary M. Thompson, 2002. "SchedulExpert: Scheduling Courses in the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 32(6), pages 45-57, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:58:y:2007:i:3:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.