Introduction-Program Chairman.

The article discusses the challenges that were faced in the arranging the program for the annual meeting of American Economic Association (AEA) in Atlanta. Seventy sessions were sponsored, in which about thirty were arranged jointly by the AEA and one of its allied associations. According to the author, sometimes it is easy to arrange a program which has sessions covering various fields rather than having one specific theme and sometimes it is harder. Arranging a program is harder which has some visible coherence, an apparent "theme." Thematic unity faces the difficulty that potential contributors obstinately insist on preparing reports of the work they are actually doing. Discussing the factors of the success of meetings, the author claims that many busy people are willing to accept the work and bother of planning a session, finding able contributors and discussants, and seeing to it that, on the appointed day, the participants are present, clutching their papers and comments and ready to read.