The fee buys sessions, receptions and coffee
The INFORMS Annual Meeting 2026 runs Sunday 1 November to Wednesday 4 November at Moscone Center South, 747 Howard Street, San Francisco. The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences states that the meeting is fully in person and offers no one-day registration.
The registration page carries the line that governs delegate spend: "The registration fee admits you to all technical sessions and receptions, coffee breaks, and the exhibit area (lunch is on your own)." A second line on the same page repeats it: "Other than the receptions, meals are not included in the registration fee." The what-to-expect page adds that attendees cover their own breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that INFORMS provides coffee and snack breaks daily.
The organiser publishes one scale figure: more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts. Registration runs from $750 for a member inside the 2 September early deadline to $1,250 for a regular nonmember. The group rate is $675 for a member registrant and $945 for a nonmember, at 10 or more registrants from one organisation.
Three one-hour windows
The agenda publishes three midday rows. Sunday 1 November carries Lunch (on your own) at 12:15 to 1:15pm. Monday 2 November and Tuesday 3 November carry Lunch Break (On Your Own) at the same hour. Wednesday 4 November carries no midday row, because the programme closes with the closing plenary at 11:00am to 12 noon.
Each window is one hour, set between an 11:00am to 12:15pm session block and a 1:15pm start. The exhibit hall is open 11am to 4pm on Sunday and 9am to 5pm on Monday and Tuesday, so the hall stays open across all three windows.
The building has one caterer
Legends Global states on the venue's catering page that it is "the exclusive provider of food service at the Moscone Center and on the surrounding streets when closed in conjunction with an event at the center". The same page sells the format the delegate hour suits: "From quick business lunches for two at any of our specialty concessions to galas for 10,000 guests to parties on Howard Street."
The exclusivity is stated as a rule. All food and beverage items must be supplied and prepared by Legends Global.
No hotel operates at 747 Howard Street
The delegate-spend question for this meeting turns on whether the money reaches hotel outlets at 747 Howard Street. The published record carries no hotel at that address. The venue's own footer block prints its administrative office at 747 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, and the organiser gives the same address for Moscone Center South.
The two hotels in the organiser's room block sit elsewhere. The San Francisco Marriott Marquis is at 780 Mission Street and the InterContinental San Francisco is at 888 Howard Street, both on the organiser's own venue page. Those two addresses carry the hotel outlets that can sell into the lunch hour.
The position
The open lunch hours at INFORMS do not reach a hotel at 747 Howard Street, because no hotel operates there. The delegate hour is a walk-time decision taken inside a 60-minute gap in a building whose food service is exclusive to one caterer, with the exhibit hall open across the whole window. The default destination is that caterer's concessions.
The alternative is the SoMa and Yerba Buena district, which the venue's own neighborhood page points delegates toward. Hotel outlets compete for that hour from the Marriott Marquis and the InterContinental.
The organiser publishes no delegate food and beverage spend, no covers and no check average for this meeting. Nothing in the published record prices that hour.