Get ready for M5 with launch of the Makridakis Open Forecasting Centre

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With 2018's M4 Forecasting Competition behind us (although analysis, interpretation, and debate continue), the new M5 Competition starts March 2. Running through June 30, M5 is utilizing actual data provided by Walmart. It will be implemented using Kaggle's Platform, with $100,000 in prize money. Forecasting practitioners are encouraged to participate, as many of today's promising innovations are coming from industry.

Continue to search "M5 Forecasting Competition" to keep abreast as additional M5 details are released. And meantime, review M4 results and commentary in the dedicated International Journal of Forecasting M4 issue graciously made available online by the publisher Elsevier.

Announcing Launch of the Makridakis Open Forecasting Centre (MOFC)

MOFC GraphicJanuary 21, 2020 marks the official launch of the Makridakis Open Forecasting Centre, at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. Its mission is to conduct multidisciplinary research in the area of forecasting with emphasis on accuracy and uncertainty and to expand the utilization of forecasting to business firms. In addition to research (which includes organizing the M competitions), the MOFC will be offering an online Applied Forecasting Course:

TheĀ M Applied Forecasting Course is a six week online course, (next intake 10 February 2020) covering all types of forecasting, both time series and regression, offering concrete insight to businesses on how to improve their accuracy realistically estimating the uncertainty in their forecasts and its implications to risk. In additional to the traditional forecasting methods it also presents newer ones like Machine Deep and Cross Learning.

This is a great opportunity to learn forecasting directly from the source of so much of our present knowledge, Prof. Spyros Makridakis and his associates. The course is designed for executives in charge of finance, marketing, selling and operations as well as consultants. Find full details on cost and contents here.

Spyros Makridakis with Marinela Profi
My SAS colleague Marinela Profi meeting Prof. Makridakis at ISF 2019 in Thessaloniki, Greece

 

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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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