2006 Palisade User Conference: Americas
Miami, FL, November 13th – 14th

Palisade proudly announces the enormous success of its 2006 Palisade User Conference: Americas held at the Ritz-Carleton Coconut Grove Hotel, Miami, November 13th and 14th. The two-day symposium attracted risk management professionals from all corners of the globe, representing dozens of industries, including organizations such as S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Kimberly-Clark, Cummins Inc., McKinsey and Co., Capital One, WorleyParsons Komex, Boeing, General Dynamics, Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, Detroit Public Schools, Sumitomo Mitui Banking Corp. Group, United States Military Academy at West Point, ISA Colombia, Ontario Power Authority, and INCAE Business School.

“The feedback we’ve received from the conference delegates has been overwhelmingly positive,” noted Sam McLafferty, president and CEO of Palisade Corporation.  “Attendees expressed excitement about the new versions of @RISK and the DecisionTools Suite, and appreciated learning new applications from each other. We are very, very pleased that the conference made a difference for this great group of professionals, and we are looking forward to next year’s event.”

@RISK 5.0 and Keynote Among Highlights

Considered by many a high point of the conference was Mr. McLafferty’s unveiling of @RISK 5.0 and the DecisionTools Suite 5.0.  Spontaneous declarations of approval were heard as he explained feature after feature of the new versions including a more robust graphics engine, direct integration with the spreadsheet, @RISK Libraries for sharing distributions and simulation results, and the ability to share @RISK models with non-@RISK users. 

Author David Apgar’s keynote address presented and developed an interesting proposition about risk intelligence that is applicable across all industries.  Beginning with an overview of the three ages of risk providing perspective for our current era, he continued by asserting that business risks are learnable, and not simply random, thereby allowing organizations to learn how to manage the unknown better.  He provided a scorecard to help businesses quantify their risk intelligence, and continued by suggesting how business might better harness the risk intelligence already existing within their organizations by making their risk strategy visible. From there he explained how to build a "risk pipeline," which he highlighted with an example from AT&T.

Big Finish

The now annual Palisade User Conference Americas was the finale in a global user conference series that began in London, England in June, and moved on to Sydney.  The 2007 Palisade User Conference Europe is already set for April 23rd and 24th in London, while dates are being planned for events in Australia, Latin America, and North America as well.