Comments of the participants:

 

         Marc Kilgour (Wilfrid Laurier University):

       I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Fuad again for the Moscow conference.  It was excellent.  Of course, a few things go wrong unpredictably in any undertaking of that magnitude, but this event shone through very well indeed, mostly because of good planning and hard work by the local people.  I'm sure that everyone who attended shares this view.  And I was very generously treated personally, so I am especially grateful.  Thanks, Fuad.

 

         John A. Weymark (Vanderbilt University):

          Thank you onceagain for organizing the SSCW conference and for all that you did for me. Having organized one of these events myself, I know how much work is involved.It is particularly impressive that you were able to arrange to have our dinneron Saturday at the State Historical Museum.

 

         Clemens Puppe (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology):

          Thanks for the wonderful conference. Dear Fuad, many thanks for organizing the wonderful conference in Moscow which I enjoyed very much! I hope we keep contact. With my best wishes, Сlemens

 

          Lars Schwettmann (Martin-Luther-UniversityHalle-Wittenberg):

           I shall thank you very much indeed for organizing anamazing and very inspiring conference in Moscow. I always felt welcome and ingood hands due to the help and care of you and your team.

 

         Joaquim Silvestre (Universityof California, Davis):

         Many thanks for all the effort that you had put into this successful conference.

 

         Semih Koray (Bilkent University):

        Many thanks for the wonderful organization of SCW 2010 in Moscow. The hot weather can now be also interpreted as something that made the conference an unforgettable event.

 

           A. S. Belenky (NRU-SE and MIT):

           Dear friends and colleagues!

           The Conference was one of the best scientific events I have ever attended.

          To bring together scientists working in such a broad field as social choice and welfare is always challenging, but to manage to get them from all over the world, especially at vacation times is beyond imagination.

         The program and the schedule of presentations were thoroughly crafted, so there was always a chance to attend several sections to listen to speakers whose presentation interested the participants. All the selected presentations that I happened to listen to were well prepared. They provided the state-of-the-art in the topics discussed. And certainly, I always had a chance to talk to the speakers in person.

        The idea to run a boat tour was excellent, and this idea was brilliantly executed. Informal contacts were throughout, and people got an additional chance to get acquainted and to establish both scientific and human contacts.

        The final rally at the Museum was remarkable. The conference participants were apparently a few lucky visitors of Moscow (from among millions) who were allowed to have a party inside this historic place.

          I am deeply thankful to all the organizers of this remarkable event. By assembling such a representative meeting, Prof. F.Aleskerov has once again demonstrated his high authority in scientific world, along with his leadership in managing complicated problems that arose due to unexpectedly high temperature in Moscow during the conference.

 

        Veronica Block (Karlsruhe Institute ofTechnology):

        Dear Fuad, Thank you very much for the organization of the Conference. It was really a great time in Moscow.

 

        Ulle Endriss (University ofAmsterdam):

       Dear Fuad, Thanks again for organising a truly great conference and of course for inviting me. It really was a wonderful event; I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot. Please also give my regards to the many helpful people who supported you in running the conference.

 

       Marc Fleurbaey (University Paris Descartes):

     Fuad, Many thanks again to you and your team for your lavish hospitality. I hope the heats cools off and you can have some rest after this beautiful conference! I also enjoyed meeting your family.

 

       Jack Stecher (Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business):

       I thought the program was extremely strong, and enjoyed the overwhelming majority of the talks.

       My chief suggestion is to have bottled water available in the rooms, at least to the speakers, and in the coffee break room, not just during the coffee breaks but throughout the day. I found myself dehydrating quickly, and it did make it somewhat difficult to focus at times.

       It would have been easier for me to plan which sessions to attend if the program had been organized by time slot, rather than by theme, but unless others make the same comment, please treat this as amatter of personal taste.

       The hotels at Izmailovo were a bit far from the conference site, and in subsequent conferences I would probably choose to stay inside the ring line, maybe near Tsetnoy Bulvar or Kuznetsky Most. I had a good experience once before in the Hotel Budapest, and heard from one of the guests that he was happy with the Hotel Peter 1; I'm sure there are others in the general area. It would have been slightly closer, and there would have been more activity nearby. So my suggestion on hotels is to recommend a few inside the inner ring, especially if there will be a large number of foreigners. There were not any  problems with the hotels, but because it was in the opposite direction from the tourist destinations, it made exploring the city a bit inconvenient.

       Also, because it was a 30 - 45 minute commute from Izmailovo to HSE (if I include time walking to and from the metro), the length of the break between the scientific and social programs was a bit short. During this heat wave, it would have been nice to have time to go back to the hotel, change clothes and shower, and then return for the dinner or the cruise. But the social program began around an hour after the scientific program ended, so this was infeasible. The distance also made it hard to attend the plenary sessions:  if I had breakfast in the hotel any later than 7:30 am, I could not make it to the plenaries.

       I realize that the Izmailovo hotels are easy to find, take major credit cards, and have a large number of services for those who need to conduct business in English. I therefore understand the motives for the suggestion. But if these hotels are strongly recommended, then it might make sense to start the program at 9 rather than at 8:30.

      The lunch suggestions were fine, but if the program had mentioned the canteen, I would have dined there every day.  The room was cool (which I appreciated given the weather), and it the food was good and inexpensive. I did manage to find the canteen on my own, but I would add it to the list of suggestions.

       I also would add My to the list of restaurant suggestions. Also, since most of the participants came via Kurskaya, I would recommend the kvas stand right outside the metrostation.  (30 RUB for 1/2 liter of kvas -- my wife and I bought kvas from the woman there every day on our way in.  It definitely helped us cool off.)

       I was unable to attend the river cruise, but it would have been useful to know whether there was food available for purchase or food provided, as the cruise was scheduled from 18:00 - 23:00.  If not, then I would want to know if I could bring my dinner on the cruise, or if I should plan to go to a Teremok or Yolki-Palki or somewhere else relatively fast prior to showing up.

       I do not recall whether Teremok was on the list of recommended restaurants, but if not, I would add it. During hot weather, it's nice to be able to get something cold like okroshka, which is available at least at the larger Teremoks (like the one near Kitay Gorod). Also, one of the most familiar Russian foods to Americans is blini, so I think many other American participants would have appreciated this suggestion.

       A larger map might have been useful, especially for the people who wanted to explore Tverskaya Ulitsa, since it was some what closeby.  I was able to read Cyrillic, but for those who could not, it may have helped to have metro maps with both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabet spellings of the station names.

      One night, I went to a Georgian restaurant on Arbat Street called Genatsvale (which I would recommend). Nearby, there was a small opera theater. I didn't manage to go, but if I had known of a list of websites that state where the opera and other theaters are, I might have planned a trip one night.

      It would have been useful to have directions by metro to some of the main tourist sites, like the Tretyakov Gallery or the Christ the Savior Church.

      I hope these suggestions are helpful. Thanks again greatly enjoyed the conference.

 

      Agnieszka Rusinowska (CNRS UMR 5824 –Universite Lumiere Lyon 2 – Ecole Normale Superieure LSH):

      Once again, I like to thank you all cordially for the wonderful conference! I have no critical remarks on the event, I do think that it was agreat success, thanks a lot! We only some what suffered because of the lack of air-conditioning, but this is definitely not your fault. :-)

 

      Umberto Grandi (Institutefor Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam):

      I have deeply enjoyed the conference, and I would like to thanks once again the organisers for the superb organisation.

 

     Annick Laruelle (University of the Basque Country and IKERBASQUE):

    Dear Fuad, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude for the conference in Moscow from which I have just returned. Both from an organizational and substantive aspect, these were excellent. I enjoyed interacting with both students and colleagues, and learned much from both. I am sure these intensive days will do much to encourage study and research in our field. I look forward to meeting you in next conferences! I attach the discussion paper at the basis of my presentation in Moscow.

 

        Jose Manuel Jimenez-Gomez (Universidad Politecnica De Cartagena and Universidad De Alicante):

      Dear organization committee, Thank you very much for everything.

 

        Hans Peters (Maastricht University):

      Dear Organizers, thanks again for the organization of this nice event. I hope that you will survive the on going heat wave!

 

        Michel Grabisch (University of Paris I):

      Dear Fuad, dear organizers, first of all I would like to congratulate you for the perfect organization of the conference and its quality. I enjoyed it, as well as Moscow, its marvellous museums and nice places to visit. I can see now from the news that we were still lucky with the heat, and I hope for all of you that the situation with the weather and all the problems will be cleared.

 

        Conal Duddy (National University of Ireland):

    I enjoyed the conference very much.  I thought it was very well organised, the plenary speakers were terrific, and the assistants at the registration desk were extremely helpful and courteous.

 

        Gerard van der Laan (VU Amsterdam):

        Dear Fuad, thank you very much for all efforts done to organize the 10th SCW meeting. Despite the heat, it was a remarkable conference. I noticed that the heat and smog even became much worse after the meeting. I hope that the conditions have been improved now.

 

 

      J. Roemer  (Yale University):

      I am pleased to report that the biennial meetings of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare, held recently at the Higher School of Economics, were a success. Prof. Fuad Aleskerov did a fine job of organizing the events. Over 200 scholars attended from many countries, with approximately as many papers presented, as well as special invited lectures. Thank you for making the School's facilities available for the event.

 

 

 

      Губко Михаил:

      Уважаемый Фуад Тагиевич.

      Также хочу отдать приятный долг и от всей души поблагодарить Вас за возможность посетить летом совещание по SC. Это было совсем особенное впечатление. Пожалуй, впервые я был на конференции, где участники настолько тесно общаются друг с другом и так хорошо разбираются в результатах коллег. Мне показалось, что среди докладчиков совсем не было "случайных людей", не говоря уже о том, что я увидел ученых, о встрече с которыми я не мог и мечтать. Именно такими, пожалуй, и должны быть все научные конференции. Может быть, я пишу чересчур восторженно, но я хочу выразить то действительно довольно глубокое впечатление (даже задним числом, через пару месяцев) которое на меня произвела эта конференция. Особенно приятно, что все это проходило в России, в Москве. Огромное спасибо Вам за то, что Вы сумели организовать это научное событие.

 

 

 

      C. Lasso de la Vega (Universidad del Pais Vasco):

      Dear Professor Aleskerov, I would like to congratulate all of you on the meeting success.

      Best regards, Casilda

 

 

 

      Joaquim Silvestre (University of California, Davis):

      Thank you, Fuad, for everything you did.

 

       Nan Li (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona):

       Dear Fuad and Organization Committee,

       It is my great pleasure to receive your email, which reminds me the pleasant memory in the summer of Moscow. Yes, it is a great conference. Besides plenary sessions and many wonderful presentations, the conference provided us a good chance for scientific communication in a personal way, for which I enjoyed so much. Thank you for your painstaking work.  

       I have checked Wiki and found that the average high temperature in July there in the last century is around 23 °C. So everybody understands it is extremely difficult to organize such a conference with the weather we have experienced. And despite that, I believe it is a success.  

       Please forward my gratitude to all the volunteers, for their bright smile and efficient help.  

       Sincerely, Nan Li