59th Annual AUBER Fall Conference: Energy

Conference Program & Presentations
Acknowledgements
Awards
Photos
"The AUBER Song"

AUBER’s 59th annual conference, held in Missoula, Montana, October 8-11, will remain an unforgettable experience for all the attendees. With 33 first-time AUBER attendees, it was a jam-packed conference, full of excitement. The conference program focused on the economics of energy and featured a keynote presentation from Under Secretary of Energy David K. Garman, as well as a session entitled Energy, Economics and Environmental Security by Arnold Baker of the International Association for Energy Economics. In addition, sessions were held on the U.S economic forecast, the use of federal statistics, successful center marketing practices, tips on effective survey techniques, and much more. A hands-on Adobe software workshop using the new set of software, Adobe Creative Suite 2, was hosted by Lorena Akioka of the University of Georgia and presented by Jason Blackburn of Digital Impact Design. Some of our special guests included Duncan Meldrum, Air Products & Chemicals and former NABE president; Don Bagwell, Digital Impact Design; Kevin Lansing, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; and David Talan, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thank you to all the session organizers, poster session contributors, and presenters for their hard work and great presentations. If you were unable to attend the conference, a summary of the conference, along with more than 30 conference presentations, are available online.

Other festivities included an opening reception on Saturday evening at the newly renovated home of the conference host, Paul Polzin, in Missoula. On Sunday evening a reception was held at the University of Montana’s School of Business and Administration, allowing attendees an opportunity to visit the campus and tour the facilities of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The evening followed with a banquet dinner back at the hotel with hilarious entertainment from the local theatre group, “Bits and Pieces” from the Missoula Children’s Theatre. The weather in Missoula cooperated beautifully throughout the weekend into Monday as the group headed north to the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. We traveled to the National Bison Range in Moiese for spectacular views of the Mission Mountains. Unfortunately, the elusive bison were nowhere to be found. Dinner was served in Polson on Flathead Lake, with local entertainment provided by a Native American drumming and dancing group.

Many thanks to our hosts at the University of Montana for a fun-filled conference! For those of you who couldn’t make it to Big Sky Country, we hope to see you next year in Memphis for blues and barbeque!