ISDC 2023

Ventana are proud to sponsor the System Dynamics conference for another year.

We are a group of System Dynamics practitioners with diverse interests in energy, infrastructure, logistics, project management, health and a variety of other fields. We also publish the Vensim and Ventity software, used worldwide for building models. We make versions of Vensim and Ventity available free for learners.

Ventana helps clients solve hard problems in strategy, operations, marketing and public policy. We integrate models and data to provide insights that machine learning and systems thinking alone can’t access. These pages give some examples of our work and describe our approach.
https://www.ventanasystems.com

Vensim is an industry standard simulation tool, enabling large models with extreme speed and serious data management, at the center of a large ecosystem, and supporting education with free PLE:
https://www.vensim.com

Ventity is a new hybrid modeling tool, with a natural data architecture, dynamic creation of new entities, sparse network support, and elegant graphics:
https://www.ventity.biz

Schedule

Several of us will be on site in Chicago this year. Want to learn more about Ventana, Vensim or Ventity? Visit our booth anytime, or catch our Sponsor Demo session and workshops.

Monday, July 24, 2023 – 2:00 PM Parallel Sessions
Combining System Dynamics and Structure Decision Making for Chronic Wasting Disease Policy

Monday, July 24, 2023 – 5:45 PM Live Posters
Bridging Statistics and Dynamic Modeling with Vensim

Wednesday, July 26, 2023 – 3:15 PM Meetings
Ventana Sponsor Demo – Vensim & Ventity

Thursday, July 27, 2023 – 8:30 AM Workshops
Workshop: Getting Started with Vensim + New Features

Thursday, July 27, 2023 – 10:30 AM Workshops
Workshop: Getting Started with Ventity – Model Reuse with Ad Hoc Data

See also the official ISDC schedule page. Note that everything listed here is in the Conference’s time zone (Chicago, US Central time).

Software

Vensim PLE – free for educational and personal learning use, including the workshop. You can always download a copy at https://vensim.com/free-download/.  After the conference, we ask that commercial and government users purchase an inexpensive license for continued use beyond workshops and software evaluation.

Vensim DSS Trial – you can get a fully functioning trial version of Vensim DSS by completing the following form.

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Ventity 5 beta is unlocked through the end of September – you can download a copy from https://ventity.biz/download/ . Note that Ventity requires Windows 10 or 11. People have used Mac emulators successfully. Win7 compatibility can’t be guaranteed due to End-of-Life issues. After downloading, educational users can request a free academic license.

Workshop Materials

2023 Workshops

Models and materials are posted to this OneDrive shared folder.

When you arrive, you will want to have Vensim or Ventity pre-installed on your computer (see links in the software section above), to avoid delays or surprises.

The materials should be copied to a convenient unlocked location on your drive and unzipped.

2022 Workshops

Last year we prerecorded all of our workshop content, so that it’s available to everyone, not just in-person conference attendees, all the time.

Introduction to Vensim

Finished models from this video: EX Customer Base.zip

Slides: Introduction to System Dynamics.pdf

Using Data in Vensim

This video walks you through most of the pathways for using time series data in Vensim. You’ll need Vensim PLE+, Pro or DSS for most of this – if you don’t have a copy, you can use the trial link above.

Models & Slides: VensimData

Vensim Calibration – Part 1

This video walks you through the essence of the calibration process, from creating synthetic data (for “real” data, see the previous workshop) to an initial, simple calibration.

Slides and start/finish models: CalibrationWithVensim2022 pt1.pdf CalibrationWithVensim2022 pt2.vdf VensimCalibration – PredatorPrey.zip

Vensim Calibration – Part 2

This video picks up where Part 1 ends, and covers advanced topics – weighting the payoff, Kalman fitering, using Markov Chain Monte Carlo for confidence bounds, sensitivity analysis, and priors for Bayesian System Dynamics.

Slides and start/finish models (same as above for Part 1): CalibrationWithVensim2022 pt1.pdf CalibrationWithVensim2022 pt2.vdf VensimCalibration – PredatorPrey.zip

Introduction to Ventity

This video introduces you to Ventity with an interesting agent-based model.

Ventity Intro – Agent.zip

For a quicker introduction, you might also be interested in Doing Classic SD with Ventity