What is it about numbers that end with 0 or 5?

I've commented in the past about anniversaries, and how we tend to give greater emphasis to ones that end with the number five or zero. My wife and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary this November (we were very young when we wed, as I can't be THAT old!), and this will therefore be a special occasion. The Journal of Performance Measurement was 15 years old last year, and we highlighted that publishing year with a specially designed logo for each issue. We held the 50th meeting of The Performance Measurement Forum last year, and celebrated with a commemorative photo album. And so on.

This May will see the 10th annual Performance Measurement, Attribution & Risk conference. And so, we are trying to give this occasion greater attention, too! Our event logos have been kept pretty static since we first began the program (other than altering the dates), but we wanted something extra special. And why? Well, we, like just about everyone else, feel that a 10th anniversary counts more than a 9th (or, for that matter, an 11th!).

You have to credit Disney because they seem to have introduced their theme parks in such a way that every year is a similar celebration for at least one of their parks. We are all guilty of giving greater  emphasis to the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, etc. anniversary. Of course, this all stems from our use of the decimal number system; if we used a hexadecimal system, then events that occurred in the 8th, 16th, 32nd, etc., would probably garner more attention.

I love numbers (thus my love of mathematics, in general), and find  much of this fascinating. And as far as PMAR X, hope you can join us as it will have record attendance. And although PMAR Europe hasn't yet hit such a notable anniversary (the third annual is this June in London), it, too, is expected to be a grand event. PMAR is a place where remarkable things happen, and we're sure you'll want to be a part of it. Please contact Patrick Fowler with any questions you may have about these events.