1. Bucharest Dialogues
Expert Knowledge, Prediction, Forecasting:
A Social Sciences Perspective
November 20 – November 21, 2010
Bucharest, Romania
November 20
09:00 – 09:15 A welcome speech by Adrian Curaj
Introducing the programme of the conference-workshop and explaining the logic and role of
the event by putting it in the larger context of the future-oriented “Quality and Leadership for
Romanian Higher Education” project by Radu Gheorghiu, Dan Grosu and Paul Dragos
Aligica, the moderator of the event.
09:15 – 10:30 The Black Swan and Beyond: the limits of predicting human action in an
ever-increasing web of complexity
Mark Blyth, Professor, Brown University and Faculty Fellow at the Watson Institute.
09:15 – 09:45 Mark Blyth presentation
09:45 – 10:30 Questions, answers, comments
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – 12:00 Global Warming: scientific forecasting or forecasting by scientists?
Scott Armstrong, Professor, Wharton School of Business – University of Pennsylvania.
10:45 – 11:15 Scott Armstrong presentation
11:15 – 12:00 Questions, answers, comments
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break
13:00 – 14:15 Forecasts and Judgement: What experts can and can’t do
Robert Evans, Lecturer, Cardiff School of Social Sciences
13:00 – 13:30 Robert Evans presentation
13:30 – 14:15 Questions, answers, comments
14:15 – 14:30 Break
14:30 – 15:45 Forecasting Decisions in Conflicts: politics, business, military...

2. Kesten C. Green, Senior Lecturer, International Graduate School of Business, University of
South Australia.
14:30 – 15:00 Kesten C. Green presentation
15:00 – 15:45 Questions, answers, comments
15:45 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 17:15 Validating the quality of scenario methods
Peter Bishop, Associate Professor of Strategic Foresight and Coordinator of the graduate
program in Futures Studies at the University of Houston.
16:00 – 16:30 Peter Bishop presentation
16:30 – 17:15 Questions, answers, comments
November 21
9:00 – 11:00 Electoral and Political Forecasting: Pollywote and Beyond
Alfred G. Cuzán, Professor and Chairman, Department of Government, University of West
Florida.
The Fiscal Model and Case Study. The 2010 contest for the US congress: comparing
experts with models
Randall J. Jones, Jr., Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oklahoma.
The use of expert judgment in forecasting elections
Andreas Graefe, Researcher at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Forecasting Elections from Voters’ Perceptions of Candidates’ Ability to Handle Issues
09:00 – 10:00 Presentations
10:00 – 10:45 Questions, answers, comments
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:30 Final colloquium: Comments, conclusions, further steps
12:30 Lunch and the Conclusion of the Event
13:30 Post-conference working group
Debriefing, preparation of written materials, post-conference action planning.
Participants: the MLW core team.