Dear EWGLA members,

We recently received an email from INFORMS that the Annual Meeting will be hosted online this year. I'm forwarding this email to you below. If you would like to chair a SOLA sponsored invited session or present in one, please email Ismail Capar (capar@tamu.edu) as soon as possible.

This year SOLA is preparing a panel on "The Future of Location Analysis: Challenges and Opportunities" with distinguished speakers and we would like all of you to be a part of these discussions. We will share the details of its schedule.

We look forward to seeing you all in the first-ever virtual INFORMS annual meeting!

Best regards, Sibel

Sibel Alumur Alev, PhD Associate Professor Department of Management Sciences Faculty of Engineering | University of Waterloo 200 University Avenue West | Waterloo | Ontario | N2L 3G1 | Canada Office: CPH 4321 | Tel: 1-519-888-4567, ext. 33365 Email: sibel.alumur@uwaterloo.camailto:sibel.alumur@uwaterloo.ca | Url: http://www.mansci.uwaterloo.ca/~salumura/

We were looking forward to hosting this year's Annual Meeting attendees in the Washington, DC area, however, COVID-19 has changed that.

Now, instead of meeting in person, we're holding our first-ever virtual annual meeting, featuring the same great content that you would have experienced at a traditional meeting along with many new features! This new format will ensure the global INFORMS community stays safe, healthy, and well-connected during these challenging times.

We hope that you and your sessions chairs can still present at the conference. The system is open for you to invite session chairs, that may have declined to fill a session because of COVID-19. The system will remain open for Cluster Chairs, Session Chairs and Presenters, until July 30th. Presenters and all attendees will be required to register at a reduced fee. The conference will take place in Eastern Time zone. We would also like to let you know that structure may change (ie) time, dates, length of session, etc) further details will be provided in the upcoming weeks.

Attendees that register will have access to many live presentations and Q&A opportunities, combined with 24/7 access to on-demand sessions. All told, our virtual meeting attendees will have the chance to hear more than 5,000 presentations from their peers and colleagues around the world.

And that's just the start. The INFORMS virtual meeting will also feature chat rooms and other online networking opportunities; a virtual exhibit hall; an online career center, and so much more.

Join us for the inaugural INFORMS virtual Annual Meeting! We look forward to seeing you online!