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The Wrong Caesar -- An Account of IBF Dallas

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Have you ever wanted to look like George Clooney and get all the money, fame, and dates? I have long aspired to this. But in the great poker hand of life, I wasn't dealt an inside straight or even a nice pair. So I make do with what I've got.

Remember several years back, during his big rise to fame on ER, how Clooney set fashion trends with the Caesar haircut? If it worked for him, I figured, it would work for me. I asked my barber for a Caesar, but apparently there was something ambiguous about my request, and I ended up instead with a Sid Caesar. My dating life went downhill from there.

IBF Dallas

While I don't know how it feels to look like George Clooney (or date like George Clooney), I do now know how it feels to be a minor-league version of a celebrity.

This month's Institute of Business Forecasting conference in Dallas started with the annual Demand Management Forum, which I've been hosting since 2003. We had a great turnout and panel, that included Rob Miller of Avantor Performance Materials, Jesse Lehman of RadioShack, Todd Peterson of Robert Bosch, Sean Schubert and Ryan Rickard of Newell Rubbermaid, and industry analyst Lora Cecere of Altimeter Group. Check out Lora's Supply Chain Shaman blog for an extensive account of our worst practices confessional. (See also my colleague Charlie Chase's comment to Lora's blog post.)

Early the next morning I found myself in front of Iggy Pop's former makeup artist, being prepped for a High-Def Video interview with Russell Goodman, Editor-in-Chief for SupplyChainBrain.com.

Russell had asked me to arrive 15 minutes early to get into makeup, to which I wanted to reply "Are you assuming I won't be in makeup already?" but instead kept my mouth shut so as not to hurt his feelings. Although I wasn't afforded the usual comfort of a teleprompter and had to speak unscripted, the interview seemed to go well enough. Both the transcribed and video versions of the interview ("Taking the Lean Approach to Business Forecasting") are posted on the SupplyChainBrain website.

The conference wrapped up on Friday, after Breakfast with The BFD, a book signing arranged by Constance Korol of IBF and Kristine Vick of SAS. Over 50 early risers received a free autographed copy, and got to see what George Clooney doesn't look like in the morning.

(Photo by Constance Korol)

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About Author

Mike Gilliland

Product Marketing Manager

Michael Gilliland is a longtime business forecasting practitioner and formerly a Product Marketing Manager for SAS Forecasting. He is on the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Forecasters, and is Associate Editor of their practitioner journal Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting. Mike is author of The Business Forecasting Deal (Wiley, 2010) and former editor of the free e-book Forecasting with SAS: Special Collection (SAS Press, 2020). He is principal editor of Business Forecasting: Practical Problems and Solutions (Wiley, 2015) and Business Forecasting: The Emerging Role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (Wiley, 2021). In 2017 Mike received the Institute of Business Forecasting's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2021 his paper "FVA: A Reality Check on Forecasting Practices" was inducted into the Foresight Hall of Fame. Mike initiated The Business Forecasting Deal blog in 2009 to help expose the seamy underbelly of forecasting practice, and to provide practical solutions to its most vexing problems.

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