This was one of the best scientific meetings I have ever attended. A reasonable small number of participants, but all developing high-quality research in the scientific domain of the symposium, contributed for interesting high-level scientific talks, with lively discussions, often extended to coffee breaks and other leisure moments. I also appreciated the participation of a reasonable number of graduated students, contributing to the refreshment of the Derivative-free Optimization community.

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BIRS outstanding patience and stellar service. Birs partnering with UBC hosted an amazing event at the Derivative Free Optimization Symposium. We had 25 outstanding talks and enjoyed many fruitful discussions. The success has already prompted another university to announce that it will host a follow-up symposium in 2024. I am hopeful that this will be remembered as the flag-ship event in an exceptional conference series.

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I absolutely loved this BIRS workshop. Especially coming off a global pandemic, a small gathering of closely-aligned researchers giving focused talks encouraged wonderful discussion, and fostered potential collaboration. I wish all workshops could be structured this way.

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