The Midwest Region of the Decision Sciences Institute will holdits 39th Annual Meeting on April 17-19 in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Program Team has been busy planning some unique experiences and sessions at the MWDSI Conference. Our objective is to provide a quality, accessible regional program. With today's budget crises in higher education, many academics do not have the resources to travel to the national conferences. We hope that the attendees will include colleagues from institutions of all sizes. Since we are piloting a number of new initiatives, we are hopeful that the conference will also attract others from outside the Midwest region as well as non-academics.

The conference is hosted by Penn State – Erie, The Behrend College (Sam & Irene Black School of Business), but three other local Colleges and Universities are also actively involved as co-hosts: Gannon University , Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and Mercyhurst College. This special consortium of academic units provides a lot of energy and a wealth of new ideas and approaches to the conference planning process.

The Saturday sessions of the conference are being held in Penn State – Erie 's new 160,000 square-foot Regional Economic Development Center (the RED-C) that houses both the Sam & Irene Black School of Business and the School of Engineering. In addition to facilitating cross-functional research tracks with engineering, holding the sessions in the RED-C allows us to offer some unique sessions. Some of these ‘first time' experiences include:

• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) laboratory demonstrations
• A “hands-on” live financial trading floor lab
• A “hands-on” SAP software lab demonstration
• A participative online procurement auction

* Another ‘first time' activity is the presentation of a set of Symposia designed specifically for College and University Administrators. These symposia will feature panels of experts discussing accreditation from various bodies, Evaluation of Teaching, the Evaluation of Research, and the Administrative Side of On-line Teaching.

* In addition to the traditional student paper competition, we are also offering a Case Study Competition that is open to teams of students. These teams may consist of Ph.D., Masters, or undergraduate students (or any combination thereof!). The top teams will be invited to present their analysis at the conference to a set of judges that includes the actual CEO of the subject corporation.

* Thursday, April 17 will include the traditional Doctoral Consortium. PhD students should apply on the website. The program will consist of a strategic plan for research workshop, a session on Life as an Academic, and a reception with local university administrators and Midwest officers. The doctoral consortium will be held in the century old Logan House mansion.

* Also on Thursday, the general membership is invited to visit to one of Western Pennsylvania 's finest wineries as well as a rare look inside the General Electric (GE) plant where the world's best and most environmentally friendly locomotives are produced. The Erie area of the Great Lakes has the largest uninterrupted stretch of vineyards of any along the Great Lakes . The GE locomotive facility is one of only a few in the world. Pre-arrangements are requested.

** Of special interest is our speaker on Friday night. We have arranged to for Albert H. Brinkman, Director of Equity Derivatives Marketing for the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX), to be our special guest and keynote speaker.

As we are also targeting the smaller colleges in our region, we have many new and cross-functional tracks designed to incorporate the faculty from all business and economics departments, even those in the liberal arts schools. Some of these tracks include Information Security, Innovative Education & On-line Instruction, Ethics and Sustainability, and Business Economics. We have developed a list of colleagues in the Midwest region as well as colleges near Erie and have been keeping them up to date on the activities planned by email.

Families are more than welcome and there is plenty to see and do in Erie to keep them happy. The conference hotel is the Courtyard by Marriott where we have secured very reasonable accommodations. In addition, the hotel owner also operates “Splash Lagoon” (where it's always 84 degrees!), Erie 's premier indoor water park and special discounts on tickets are available to us. The hotel provides a complimentary shuttle to Splash Lagoon. There's a lot to see and do in Erie, just check out the conference website (www.mwdsi2008.org) and discover Erie !

Please do not miss this incredible chance to participate and experience these new and exciting opportunities. We think we have prepared one of the best regional conferences ever and hope you will accept this challenge to come and see on April 17-19 in Erie, PA. All information needed to submit articles and abstracts as well as to register for the conference, is available at: www.mwdsi2008.org