PSA holds Annual Conference, September 24-25, 2009
The Philippine Statistical Association (PSA) held its annual conference this year for two days on September 24-25, at the Philippine Social Science Center. The theme, Statistics in a Multidisciplinary Setting, illustrated the importance of statistics in various disciplines. The keynote message was delivered by Dr. Roberto S. Mariano who is Dean of the School of Economics as well as Director of the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics of the Singapore Management University and Professor Emeritus of Economics and Statistics of the University of Pennsylvania. His message set a tone of high expectations on what the sessions can offer and instilled pride in the profession among the participants.
Three sessions reflected the recent advocacies of the PSA - the teaching of statistics in tertiary education and proper use of statistics in opinion polling. The current PSA president, Ms. Nieves L. Osorio, and the former PSA president, Dr. Isidoro P. David, discussed PSA’s advocacies on Statistics Education. A roundtable discussion to further expound on the concerns of those teaching statistics especially in the college level was chaired by Dr. Lisa Grace S. Bersales and Dr. Emeterio S. Solivas. The soft launch of PSA’s advocacy with the Marketing and Opinion Research Society of the Philippines (MORES) on Evaluating Opinion Polls was done with PSA represented by Mr. Tomas P. Africa, Dr. Lisa Grace S. Bersales and Dr. Emeterio S. Solivas and MORES represented by Ms. Carole Sarthou.
The other sessions included: Business Intelligence, Health and Nutrition Statistics, Statistics in Risk Management, Statistics in Market Research, Statistics in Local Governance. These sessions were participated in by paper presenters, discussants, and moderators representing various institutions from government, industry, and the academe nationwide. Around 250 participants attended the conference with 17% from the private sector, 49% from government, 34% from the academe. 
The sponsors of the conference were: TNS Global and Home Guaranty Corporation as principal sponsors; San Miguel Corporation and West Visayas State University as major sponsors; and Globe Telecom, Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, National Statistics Office, Statistical Research and Training Center, U.P. Statistical Center Research Foundation, Inc, National Statistical Coordination Board, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Publicus, and Ms. Nieves Osorio as sponsors.
The PSA Annual Conference Committee composed of Dr. Lisa Grace S. Bersales, Dr. Erniel B. Barrios, Dir. Estela de Guzman, Ms. Imelda E. de Mesa, Ms. Jessamyn O. Encarnacion, Dir.Teresa V. Peralta, Dr. Emeterio S. Solivas, Dr. Corinne Grace Burgos, and Mr. Raymond Madamba with assistance of Mr. Jikko Mojica of SRTC and Mr. Gerry Labatorio of NSO. The committee was ably supported by the Secretariat headed by Ms. Teresita Abad and the different institutional members in the preparations and conduct of the conference. The National Statistics Office Statistical Research Training Center, U.P. School of Statistics, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics also provided both staff and equipments as part of their support.
