Welcome Message from the Conference Chair

Committee members, distinguished speakers and participants,

          As Chair of the 9 th International Decision Sciences Institute Conference, held in conjunction with the 12 th Asia-Pacific Decision Sciences Institute Conference, it is my great honor and privilege to welcome all conference participants to Bangkok , Thailand .

          As many of you may know, Thailand has in the past year experienced incidents of violence in the South and political instability in the capital city. Despite these difficult times, we have tried to bring you the best conference ever. Indeed, we appear to have been successful to some degree, with more than 100 papers passing the peer-review and being accepted.

          The theme of this year's conference is “Effective Decision Making through Knowledge Management.” It relates directly to the effectiveness of leveraging the firm's intellectual assets in order to deal with the present situation and make better decisions in the future. We are honored to have as our keynote speaker, Mr. Mechai Viravaidya, the Chairman and Founder of Thailand's Population and Community Development Association (PDA), who has just received the Gates Award for Global Health from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Programme, for outstanding family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention works. Additionally, he has been awarded the 2007 Nikkei Award for Regional Growth. Mr. Viravaidya's presentation tries to illustrate the importance of knowledge management as an essential tool to drive strategy for any organization. Other panelists we have invited will also share their experiences in implementing KM in the public and private sectors.

          This conference would not be successful without support from many people. I would first like to express my sincere gratitude to the International DSI and APDSI Board members and committee members for their confidence and contributions in promoting the conference. Next, I wish to offer my deepest appreciation to the Conference Committee members, Sub-committee members and reviewers for their hard work and dedication in bringing this conference to fruition. I would also like to thank all contributors for their very interesting papers and for attending the conference. Finally, I would like to thank the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) and Dhurakij Pundit University (DPU), as well as our sponsors for their generous financial support.

          We do hope that the conference program will give participants a better insight into the extensive and fast growing research in the area of KM and other related fields, as well as the opportunity to strengthen networks amongst our participants and to reinforce bonds of friendship and mutual ties.

          In closing, let me wish all of you a fruitful and wonderful experience. To our overseas guests, we hope that you will enjoy your stay in Bangkok . Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable.

Anumongkol Sirivedhin
2007 Conference Chair