Record-Setting Attendance for A Record-Appreciating Audience

Of course, I’m not referring to LPs and EPs here… that would be something this former Disc Jockey would certainly gravitate towards but I’m quite sure more of this blogs audience is actually more into data records.   Actually, come to think of it, so am I in the professional phase of my life!

I’m sitting in an airplane as I write this.  I know: what a HUGE surprise.  To tell you the truth, I do feel a little discombobulated at the moment.  Wednesday morning I was up bright and early to head in to the office in Toronto – with a little trepidation, I might add – for the Toronto Data Mining Forum and by dinner I was in Saskatoon.  I was feeling a little anxious a little while ago for all the right reasons.  Registration for the Toronto Data Mining event was hovering around 350 individuals, and we only had enough room for about 260.  Even with expected drop-off, it was a little nail-biting for me as I never want anyone to be turned away from a SAS Canada user group… that would certainly have been a first.

Another important first was actually achieved, however.  I’ll have to confirm this for sure, but by scanning the room, I could guess-timate that there were about 220 people in attendance.  I know, I know, it’s exceptionally dangerous to use the work ‘guess’ around statisticians and data miners: it’s practically a swear word in some circles.  This attendance for a single, half-day morning session (if accurate) will represent the single largest gathering of SAS users for a user group in Canada ever.  All credit goes to the executive committee led by Dina Duhon of Scotiabank who so consistently find incredible presenters offering great content to a willing and eager audience.  Congratulations to them for helping to realize this amazing achievement! 

The agenda certainly promised great things.  The presenters were all relatively unknown on the stage of the user groups, but their topics were certainly compelling.  Given the audience reaction to each of the talks, it was clear to me that they were a hit.  This just goes to show that anyone can – and should – feel empowered to stand up and give a talk on any topic at a user group meeting.  Nothing but good things can happen.

Leading off the agenda, Charles Chen started us off with an hour on survival model attrition and analysis.  With great energy, humour and above all, confidence, Charles walked us through a variety of scenarios and the rationale behind employing survival models within a finance-based environment.  The patient was in fact the customer, and permanent events – possibly death, in a health context – were representative of churn and attrition.  I have to say, the audience LOVED this talk.  Charles was fielding questions left, right and centre with a smile on his face and a well-thought out answer on his lips.  As he finished I had at least five people come up to me raving about his talk and hoping to get an advance copy of it to take back to their environment and start discussions around implementing similar strategies.  There is no greater reward within the SAS community than helping someone else: whether an individual or an organization.  In this respect, Charles more than succeeded.  The best news of all is that he had to leave out a significant portion of information… I guess this means we’ll happily have him back for round two in the near future.  Great job Charles, I know we all learned a lot!

Following our networking break, Masoud Charkabi of CIBC took the microphone.  Masoud is a young, well-polished, unflappable presenter.  He clearly radiated confidence in his material and was no stranger to the stage.  Some people might be intimidated talking to a room full of data mining practitioners about considerations around computing resources in data mining, but not Masoud.  From both a hardware perspective and a software perspective, he confidently walked us through some of the more important considerations when considering efficiency and scalability.  He even referenced both my own brief talk around SAS’ High Performance Analytics offerings and a previous presentation given by Daymond Ling on segmentation at the fall Data Mining Forum.  I was very impressed with how he tied together so many disparate elements into one cohesive talk…. and he teased us enough about text mining for me to make a note that he would be an ideal person to give a talk around this fascinating topic in the future.  Fantastic stuff, Masoud!

Our next presenter kept up the hot streak of the group in terms of exceptional delivery and relevance.  Mario Wen of TD Bank discussed the philosophy and application of fraud detection analysis.  Coming from the perspective of debit card fraud, he was able to explain in layman’s terms how fraud takes place and his organizations strategy for fighting back.  He likened it to a game of cat and mouse, and it certainly seemed that way; the ‘bad guys’ were always learning and adapting, but so were the good guys.  Fraud detection is clearly an art form which requires patience, diligence and near-constant vigilance.  Having been on the opposite end – my debit and credit cards have both been shut down erroneously by banks because it was perceived as unusual behavior – I can say that I didn’t mind one bit the slightly over-zealous security measures taken by anti-fraudsters.  I’d rather be protected constantly and inconvenienced rarely than the other way around.  Mario handled all the questions that came his way with unflappable calm, and I was truly impressed with the complexity of his subject – but the simplicity of how he conveyed it.

Finally, Bob Saaramaki of DataMaApp closed out the session with a thought-provoking presentation on using experimental design techniques to maximize marketing efforts.  Bob is a natural; a great presenter very comfortable and at ease in front of an audience, he was able to explain and contextualize his organizations unique approach to marketing processes with great clarity and humour.  I shouldn’t have been surprised: when Bob presented at the TASS meeting in March, his room was overflowing!  At any rate, I think that he opened some eyes and got some wheels spinning around a much more efficient way to do marketing.  In terms of time, lift, and spend, he very effectively demonstrated that a biology-inspired approach to experiment design could indeed pay off in spades… and could be driven through base SAS as well!  I only wish we had more time for him to dive deeper into his talk.  Next time, Bob.

At meetings’ end, I heard from many attendees that they really appreciated all of the presentations and the general sense of community which came from the group.  Here’s hoping the next meeting is just as well-received!

Until then…

Business Analytics & The Next Wave of SAS Solutions

I had the privilege this past week of attending the Forum analytique SAS de Quebec and the Forum analytique d'affaires SAS de Montreal, two of the leading edge user groups in Canada.  These groups are formidable in structure and in scope, and last week's meetings were no different.

Both groups are strongly supported by SAS Canada solution specialists which means that they have the opportunity to have the newest SAS solutions presented and demonstrated by some of the brightest in Canada.  The theme for both meetings this past week was high performance analytics (HPA) with a strong focus on the new SAS Visual Analytics solution, which featured heavily at SAS Global Forum in Orlando.  I, for one, was extremely excited to see the talks on the slate.

I've been fascinated by HPA long before Dr. Jim Goodnight demonstrated the unbelievable hardware power required to perform billions of calculations in minutes at SGF... with the aid of a hologram, no less!  I'm one of those data geeks who really loves efficiencies of all kinds.  If a few hours, minutes or seconds can be shaved off a task, I'm immediately interested - although given my proclivity for coffee breaks during this time, perhaps my local barista doesn't necessarily share my excitement given the sharp drop in business which will inevitably follow. 

Both groups featured Ron Allard giving an overview of the challenges of Big Data which make HPA such a game-changer. His talk was entitled 'Le "Big Data": Pourquoi les entreprises devraient s'en préoccuper et quels sont les moyens d'y faire face'? or in English, why organizations need to pay attention and how to do so most effectively.  Ron's talk certainly sparked some great conversation in Quebec where a small but engaged audience found a lot of value out of his talk.  Ron nicely framed out the consideration around what Big Data actually is - no small task in a rapidly changing discussion space.  He also gave an overview of some of the hardware requirements necessary to use HPA effectively and discussed the difference between in-database and in-memory analytics. His talk also nicely set up Andre Lafreniere who would be carrying the majority of the meeting with an overview and demonstration of the SAS Visual Analytics solution.

Now, I've seen VA demonstrated a few times.  I first saw a sneak peek of it at our annual kick-off meeting in January.  Of course, we saw a lot of it at SAS Global Forum as well.  Now I don't know about you, o gentle reader, but I often wonder if the products work as quickly as they do when they're not the feature component of a huge conference or presentation.  After last weeks meetings, I can happily attest that the answer is 'yes'.  I was blown away with how quickly the drag and drop functionality worked.  Andre was able to run logistic regressions against a fairly robust dataset in mere seconds... and the GUI interface was as slick off of his iPad and laptop as it was on the big stages of the past few months.  True, I'm a SAS employee, but I con honestly say I was blown away by the possibilities allowed by the combination of HPA and VA.  No more subsetting data for the sake of saving time?  Visual data exploration, real-time drilldowns and easy drag-and-drop?  Sign me up!

The Canadian SAS user groups are traditionally a great way of supporting SAS users by offering tricks, tips and hints around optimizing existing SAS implementations.  This often means speaking to the vast number of SAS programmers out there who are doing amazing work with a tried, tested and true system.  I'm glad I had the chance to get a glimpse at the future of SAS and analytics... who knows, in 5 years or so, perhaps we'll be seeing tips and tricks on SAS Visual Analytics.  I think the users who attended were impressed by the next wave of SAS solutions and I hope we'll see even more talks as they become prevalent in industry moving forward.

Speaking of moving forward, I have a hectic week of user group meetings coming up.  Toronto Data Mining, Saskatoon and Winnipeg are all on the docket for me this week with my manager Wally Thiessen making the short hop down to Hamilton for the GHSUG user group meeting on Friday.  You'll be hearing a lot more from me over the next seven days or so, I can guarantee you that!

Until then...

IML IRL: Another Fantastic Rendez-vous au Club SAS de Québec

I’m composing this en route to Toronto from one of my favourite stops on the user group tour, the beautiful historic city of Québec. I always find myself grinning with anticipation before arrival and disappointed when I have to leave. It’s not just the phenomenal food, beautiful hotel (for those who get the chance: do yourself a favour and stay at l’Auberge Saint-Antoine, it’s phenomenal) or the promise of great presentations at a well-run user group meeting. Québec for me is all about the people. From the hard-working, diligent executive committee through to the habitual attendees who always find time to tease me on my facility with la belle langue, I relish each time I get the chance to catch up with friends and colleagues as they patiently smile through my attempts at French conversation. I consider myself very lucky that I find myself in their company at least 4 times a year.

I began my adventure this time with some close friends from the SAS Institute for dinner, drinks and discussion the night before the user group meeting. It’s always a pleasure to see Training Specialist Sylvain Tremblay and long-time SAS employee Rosie Foti. Discussing the following day’s meeting over a delicious meal which was conceived and inspired by seasonal wine direct from France is enough to get anyone’s creative juices flowing… no matter how ‘complex’ the ingredients might be. In fact, if I’m not stretching this too much, the meal itself in some ways mirrored the complexity – yet harmony – of the SAS community I am privileged to experience across Canada through the auspices of the user group meetings.  Some of the SAS users I meet are programmers, statisticians, others and data mining practitioners. Others are business analysts, database administrators, and beyond. They come from all kinds of backgrounds: academic, civil service, healthcare, financial, retail, communications. And yet – somehow – there is a harmony which is achieved when we all come together. In this case, the ‘wine’ which binds us is SAS. And like the meal I enjoyed with Sylvain and Rosie, many elements come together inspired by the wine to form a perfectly balanced experience. Now, I’m not sure where dessert fits into this metaphor, but I can only say this much: I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Perhaps a parallel with SAS Global Forum? Now I’m really stretching this far.

The meeting itself was prefaced by another wonderful meal – this time, with the user group executive committee. A total of 9 of us sat down in more casual environs to catch-up and discuss our thoughts around the planning process and our expectations for the upcoming meeting. Québec City is fairly unique in this regard. There is a consistent desire to constantly improve and adjust, even before a meeting has taken place! I have to single out Latifa for really leading the charge in terms of breaking new ground. She has taken the initiative to reach out to new potential attendees – the Statistical Society of Québec – and is a real driver. I’m very grateful for her participation!  Of course, that’s not to say the rest of the executive committee didn’t do their part as well. The team functions very well together with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

We arrived at the Université de Laval for the meeting proper to find attendees already waiting for us. One of the best things about Québec is the level of networking and discussion which takes place outside of the presentations. It’s a true joy to watch the group liaise and interact before the talks and during the break. The presentations themselves offered a wide variety of themes. I wasn’t able to hear the talk on segmentation by M. Bouhia from Banque Nationale de Canada nor Sylvain’s SAS/IML talk – there were a few latecomers I needed to catch up with and as I explained to Louis-René Rheault, the once-again-acclaimed President of the group, ‘someone needs to guard the coffee and sweets from the hungry eyes of the students!’ I did catch Mme. Diarra and her great talk on the Autoexec feature of Enterprise Guide and from what I heard in the room – and saw on the evaluations afterwards – it was quite well received. I’ve linked the talks above but for those interested, have a peek at the website du Club: you’ll find all the previous talks archived there as well.

I’m also pleased that the majority of the current executive was acclaimed to continue their work together. Again, this team just seems to function extremely well as a unit. Jean, Patrice, JF, LR, Latifa, Audrey, Hans, Ismael, Jerome: il faut que je vous remerciez fortement pour tous vos efforts! Merci, merci, merci.

As I begin to approach Toronto, I know I’ll have moments for the next day when I want to speak or respond in French – a wonderful legacy of each visit to Québec. I’m also glad that I’ll be seeing Patrice Brisebois in a few short days at SAS Global Forum in Orlando…. And you’ll be hearing from me there as well: that is, when I can tear myself away from the presentations long enough to find some time to write!

À la prochaine…

All I Ever Wanted To Know About Competing Risks, Administrative Data & Data Quality Assurance

Last Friday, the Health User Group met in Toronto, an occasion which always brings me great joy when it occurs. The Executive Committee is a great mix of savvy SAS supporters who have seen – and survived! – almost everything, and bright young SAS stars who are already making a name for themselves in the world of the SAS Canada Community. The group consistently delivers in terms of potent presenters, engaged audiences, timely and topical questions, and great dialogue. In these respects, last Friday’s meeting didn’t disappoint.

I should mention that we didn’t escape unscathed from the sense of dread which seems to permeate Friday the 13th… for there were a few hiccups in an otherwise very smooth meeting. Overlapping meetings meant that the normally cozy environment of our meeting rooms at SAS Canada threatened to be even more so; the entire company was to be having breakfast in the midst of the registration process! This proved to be a non-factor: in fact, I think some of the attendees did benefit from connecting with some familiar faces on the SAS side. Regardless, it was very tempting to all of us as the smells of the delicious company breakfast wafted over our group. I found myself looking down at my bagel and fruit resignedly as my colleagues filled up on hash browns, bacon and more… not to complain, of course: I guess I was just thinking a bit too much with my stomach early in the morning.

One of the happy consequences of having a company breakfast and lunch around the Health User Group was that we were treated to a slightly different set-up in terms of the meeting space. The normally cramped and confined quarters of rows of chairs gave way to a much more ‘civilized’ arrangement. Tables were provided with groups of 4 chairs at each. This situation afforded people the chance to network and get to know their fellow healthcare SAS practitioners even more than normal… and as a Community Manager, there’s nothing I like to see more than connections being made between people. An obvious secondary benefit: a clear, clean writing surface! This made note-taking easy, and given the strength of all 3 of our presenters, this was undoubtedly a good thing.

The meeting led off with a powerhouse of a presentation. Melania Pintilie of the Ontario Cancer Institute at Princess Margaret Hospital came with the highest possible recommendation from Ruth Croxford, the HUG President. I trust Ruth implicitly in all things, and she certainly hit a home run in lining up Melania to present. Her talk was on competing risks in survival analysis, a topic she knew inside and out, having authored a book on the subject and taught a course or two as well. Her relaxed approach to a very complex topic – as a non-statistician, I felt lucky to understand a small bit of the complex mathematics she explained – was clearly popular with the crowd, an observation which was reflected by the extremely high average mark of appreciation on the evaluation forms. I think Melania managed to shed new light on something many in the room had never considered: that death itself could be considered a competing risk in certain survival analysis models. It certainly provoked many questions… and even more nervousness from a few of the attendees I chatted with afterwards! It was clear that the insight they received had caused them to rethink the accuracy of their own models, and many were grateful for the shift in perspective. I’m curious to see if there is any future feedback on how their model accuracy has improved. Melania’s talk was a tough act to follow, but Simon Tavasoli of CIHI managed to do so… in spades.

Simon is a fascinating individual. Well-educated, well-spoken and clearly well-versed in database administration, he is part of a ‘tactical data squad’ which is tasked with performing quick, short turnover data pulls and analysis. Who better to talk about efficiencies in administrative data? Simon has seen and done it all. His talk was comprehensive and even more importantly, comprehensible. Progressing through many elements of SAS programming, Simon clearly demonstrated how proper syntax, thinking through the structured order of a SAS statement and streamlining database processing could clearly improve wait time on job completion. He almost took a step-wise approach to data steps, if that makes sense. Even for a moderately skilled programmer such as myself, the tips and tricks he shared were ones which I could embrace and call forth in the future. Great talk, Simon!

Finally, we were treated to Mahmoud Azimaee of ICES talking about data quality assurance: a perfect progression from the previous efficiency-based talk. Mahmoud has graced the SAS Global Forum stage with a more in-depth version of the technical aspects of this talk… and it was a treat for me to see the theory behind the practice. He is a very gifted speaker; affable, intelligent, and well-polished. Of course, his knowledge in this space is second to none as well! In a perfectly timed talk he was able to lay out the vision of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy’s data quality approach, the progression to how they determined their needs, process and practice, and offered many resources and contacts along the way. Given the feedback on the evaluation forms many of the attendees were also impressed with Mahmoud’s thoroughness, and many were looking forward to taking a closer look at his presentation.

All in all, the meeting was a great success. The attendees seemed to be extremely happy with the presentations and I was thrilled with the engagement and synergies flowing between the attendees, presenters and myself. I echo one of the comments on the evaluation which said ‘I wish these meetings could happen over weekends: there’s so much to learn!’. Next up for me: Quebec City, home of my favourite poutine in the world as well as some of my favourite users. I’ll have more on that meeting upcoming…. And of course, SAS Global Forum!

Until then….

Quarterly TASS Meeting Hits All the Right Notes

Last Friday saw the return of TASS... and my premonition that it would be a well-attended, well-received meeting proved to be accurate. Almost 250 people attended the full-day session and it was great to see so many familiar faces after a few months absence. I even had the opportunity to wish many a long-overdue happy New Year!

The reason the meeting was so well-attended isn't a mystery, of course: it has everything to do with the strength of the agendas of both Classic TASS and TASS Interfaces. The groups are very fortunate as there is a very strong contingent of willing and able presenters that enjoy presenting at TASS who are globally recognized for their SAS knowledge. In fact, many of the talks we enjoyed in the morning session were 'dry-runs' for the upcoming SAS Global Forum taking place April 22-25 in Orlando, Florida.

Leading off was Barry Hong, Past-President of TASS' sister group, the Golden Horseshoe SAS User Group (GHSUG). The talk centered around the ODS Graphics Designer, and it really did peel back the layers of mystery which seem to often surround graphs and graphing procedures. As Barry explained, 'it's pretty intuitive once you open up the code'. Perhaps not to this humble author and admittedly amateur-ish SAS programmer, but the majority of the audience certainly appreciated the step-by-step approach towards creating and sharing graph templates. It was quite compelling stuff: Barry took a significant amount of quite complex code and broke it down in layman's terms bit by bit. Such was the interest that one of the open breakout session spots was co-opted by Barry and a hardy group of graphing enthusiasts a little later in the morning. This talk definitely had SAS Global Forum all over it... perhaps you'll update and submit it next year, Barry?

Not to be outdone, the always entertaining Peter Eberhardt delivered a talk which he'll be giving in Orlando in about seven weeks' time. Known for his humour, his energy and his deep knowledge of all things SAS, Peter's presentation certainly didn't disappoint in any respect. His 'One Guy On Hash' talk was a scaled-down version of his SAS Global Forum talk which he'll be delivering with a collaborator. Although I did learn more about hash objects and why they're so useful than I thought I ever could in 45 minutes, I can't help but to be reminded of the image of Peter which led off the slide deck. Featuring Peter in the 1970s on a Disneyland visit, it even more shockingly featured Peter with shoulder-length hair. I was stunned... and impressed! Those of you going down to Orlando would be well-served by attending the extended version of this talk... or catching Peter at some point as he expertly chairs the Enterprise Guide section of SAS Global Forum. In fact, if you're interested in volunteering your time to help him out, send him an email and tell him I sent you; he'll be very grateful for your interest!

As I alluded to earlier, the break-out sessions at this past TASS meeting were something special. Michael Lerner has traditionally offered compelling, consistently interesting discussion in the 'Statistics' group. This meeting was the first time during my tenure at SAS that he wasn't leading this session. We were privileged to have Bob Saarimaki of DatamaApp who walked through some 'whens & how's' of statistical processes for the purposes of modeling. His room was literally bursting at the seams: standing room only was definitely the order of the session... I'm sure new friendships were forged due to forced proximity more than any other reason! Of course, TASS President Art Tabachneck wasn't about to surrender his title of 'most attended breakout session' without a fight. Explaining that he had recently had a third presentation accepted for SAS Global Forum as a 'back-up', he was more than happy to try it out on a willing audience in his Coder's Corner break-out session. His presentation around unusual date formats and how to handle them was incredibly full as well. I'm very pleased that there were only a few individuals who weren't in one of these two talks: clearly, they were just what the Doctor ordered (and the Health User Group isn't taking place until April 13th).

The afternoon session was extremely well attended and featured at least one nervous presenter. Yes, it's true: for the second TASS meeting in a row, I delivered a technical talk... with the added pressure of a live demo this time. Given the amazing level of expertise of the SAS users in the room, I wasn't sure if my talk on how I used Enterprise Guide to help set my darts team's line-up to best advantage was going to go over well. At the very least, I hope the attendees were amused as I walked the room through the high and lows of how I strategized for a darts match on a semi-professional level. It was a lot of fun to deliver, and to be honest, I hope I encouraged others to consider giving a talk as well. It's amazing to see how one can extrapolate and correlate examples which may seem simple to more complex, real-world business issues... in this case, using darts to illustrate an operational research problem.

New TASS Interfaces President Laurent Josso also delivered a great talk around SAS Graph NV. There's something about the ability to visualize and manipulate relationships which the vast majority find fascinating... including myself. Laurent demonstrated how this type of manipulation of data can be both informative and intuitive from a micro and macro perspective. The meeting's presentations concluded on a high-note: SAS Canada Training Specialist Barb Crowther walked us through a DataFlux presentation and demonstration which really showcased the importance and power of data cleanliness.

The last item of note for the afternoon session was the SAS User Exchange. Led by Jim Burkhardt, this new element is actually an old feature from the TASS meetings of yore. Users are free to bring their general SAS issues, questions and comments and direct them to the group. The executive committee and fellow attendees then try and help walk through these problems in a collaborative fashion. Nothing says community more than group collaboration!

As we say goodbye to TASS until the early days of June, it would be remiss of me if I didn't thank and acknowledge the work of Past President of TASS Interfaces, Craig McCulloch. His efforts helped grow this group through the first two years of its existence from a concept to a vibrant community of Enterprise Guide, Enterprise Miner, JMP and DataFlux users. Craig will be taking a well-deserved break from the leadership function, but it's important to note that his contribution to the group's forward momentum will be a lasting one. Many thanks, Craig.

As always, there seems to be another meeting just around the corner... and in fact, one managed to slip by me (due to a bout of illness) that I haven't yet blogged about; the Halifax SAS User Group took place just a few weeks ago! I'm going to try and catch you up on the wonderful dialogue and presentations which took place then and look ahead to the Health User Group taking place in about a month's time. Stay tuned!

Until then...

... and A Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that 2012 is upon us: it feels like just yesterday that I was heavily embroiled in 2011 planning. I thought I'd take a minute to look back at the year that was, and a sneak peek at the year that will be. Now if only I could find a way to bring in the state of how things currently are, I'd be the SAS version of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'... one of my all-time favourite works of literature. So let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?

SAS Canada Community Launch
Without a shadow of a doubt, this was the biggest, most exciting element of my year. The concept of developing a community of SAS users sharing best practices and engaging with SAS Canada staff through dialogue, debate and the occasional diatribe has been high on my list for a few years. We're currently sitting at nearly 500 members and growing daily... and I must say, in many ways, it's exceeded my expectations in these early days. SAS Canada staff have been increasingly engaged through blogs and discussion groups. A few superstars have emerged: some are new to the SAS world (looking at you, Chris Battiston) and some are long-time SAS supporters. The best thing about the environment is that we continue to grow and learn together; mistakes have been made and corrected. Triumphs and successes have been shared and celebrated. Moving into 2012 I'm even more excited than ever (and that's saying something: I'm not exactly a subtle person). Even more SAS Canada industry experts and solution specialists have signed on to help grow the type and range of voices in the Community... and there's a distinct buzz about the site through the users I've talked with this year. I'm looking forward to even more value being offered through new functionality we've enabled as well.

Canadian User Groups: Steady as She Goes
Of course, it would be remiss of me not to give a nod to the great work done by the 19 different user group executive committees across the country in 2011. Attendance at user group meetings remained high, despite challenging economic conditions which kept many SAS users tied to their desks. Given the value that these marketers, analysts, statisticians and instructors add to their various organizations, it's not hard to imagine why it might have been a challenge for these critical corporate components to get to the meetings... and yet they did! I credit each and every volunteer executive member for helping maintain the appeal and value of the user group meetings. The knowledge of their communities, willingness to present or help with logistics and receptiveness to new ways of thinking about SAS ensured that content was fresh, relevant and compelling: the best way to guarantee continued enthusiasm for these meetings. The user group schedule has already been established for the spring, 2012 meetings: I encourage you to make a point of dropping in to one near you if you haven't already. Getting to know SAS users in your field and geography while also interacting with SAS Canada thought leaders and getting enjoying great presentations is worth the half-day investment of your time.

insights Continues To Grow
The Canadian SAS user newsletter kind of got away from me a bit last year... a reluctant casualty of many plates spinning on many sticks on my end. That's not to say it went away: it just fell to others to maintain the high quality of SAS news, techie tips, event listings and interviews which the 5,000+ subscribers have come to expect. I'm quite happy that it's back in my hands for the foreseeable future; I've missed it, to be honest! This year I'm expecting partcipation from SAS Canada staff and supporters to continue to grow... and with it, the readership. The upcoming issue is well into the planning cycle and as a preview to you, o devoted reader, the theme will be 'big data'. I can't wait for the content to start coming in... but perhaps I've said too much already. You'll just have to hang on until the end of February for the full edition to arrive. Trust me, it will be worth the wait!

These are the 3 major thrusts of my focus moving into 2012. Of course, there are lots of other pieces of the pie which I could expand on such as ongoing initiatives with the user groups in LinkedIn, Facebook and of course, the SAS Canada YouTube channel... and Twitter too! I'm a firm believer in leaving something to the imagination; and if there's one thing I've learned in my time at SAS, it's that SAS users have extremely vivid imaginations! There will be lots more to come in 2012, I can promise you that much.

The user group season is fast approaching and I'll be back with blogs about the upcoming meetings. We'll be kicking off the year in Halifax at the end of February, so you can be sure you'll hear from me by then. In the interim, I hope to see you in an online SAS community!

Until then...

HUG-ging It Out

Yes, this blog post is well overdue… a week and a half to be exact. And there are so many things I want to share! To be honest, I’ve been quite busy over the last fortnight with one of my other passions; helping out my alma mater, George Brown College.

I’m a firm believer in the maxim ‘each one, teach one’. Since I graduated four years ago from my post-graduate program I’ve made a point of coming back to help whenever I’ve been asked. Sometimes, that’s meant participating in a question/answer session for students’ sitting in seats I so recently occupied myself…. Sometimes, it’s a more structured session. I recently gave a talk to a very keen, highly-motivated class of marketers-to-be around the importance of online reputation management and development. I hope some of them are peeking in on this blog: guys, you’ll go far! Recently I was accepted as one of the participants in a mentorship program at the school. Alumni who have been out in the wild work world for a while have been paired with students who are excelling in their program and looking for some further guidance, inspiration and direction. I’m really looking forward to getting involved in giving back; I encourage each and every one of you reading this blog to consider doing the same… it feels great, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. It really is like a big warm hug!

Hug… that reminds me of something. Oh yes, the HUG user group meeting! It’s truly easy to get distracted by something you’re passionate about. The Toronto Health User Group is another one of those passions of mine.

I’ve previously mentioned how near and dear this group is to my heart. As the first executive committee I worked with on a planning level, I’ll always remember the excitement – and nervousness as well, to be sure! – that accompanied my first ‘solo’ user group endeavour. Would I let down the team? My company? SAS users? As I approach my fourth anniversary with SAS, I smile to think back on those early, tentative days. It’s safe to say that with the help of Ruth Croxford and the rest of the executive committee, my nerves have never been in better shape and all my fears emphatically allayed.

Through evaluation forms, previous meetings had revealed that there was a keen desire to have more of a statistical focus as part of an upcoming meeting, and I think we managed to deliver in spades! The November 18th meeting boasted a bit of a dream-team for statisticians… at least as far as this non-statistician could tell. Good friends and former SAS colleagues Lorne Rothman and John Amrhein provided a potent one-two punch as they led out the meeting. As a SAS Training Specialist and Ph.D (in zoology, not statistics as I was reminded), Lorne is familiar to many SAS users. In fact, more than a few had attended a Bayesian analysis-themed course earlier in the week. Lorne is an incredibly knowledgeable, affable and comfortable speaker – no surprise, considering his profession. His talk centered around the latest and greatest features of SAS/STAT, a component of SAS familiar to many in the room. Not only was he able to speak at length about features that had the crowd ‘ooh’ing and ‘aah’ing, he was able to demonstrate how they ran, and why he saw them as a benefit. John followed with a tremendous talk of his own, dovetailing nicely off of Lorne’s to focus on Bayesian analysis… it’s almost as if they discussed this beforehand! Oh wait, they did. Nevermind.

John’s presentation was especially interesting for an amateur archaeologist such as I. I may have mentioned previously that I worked at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum for 6 years before I started my career at SAS. Those were some of the happiest, most blissful years of my life. It’s a wonderful thing to be surrounded by one’s passion, and I had the good fortune to live my dream every day. I hinted earlier that statistics and I were not good friends. We have a healthy respect for each other, but know to stay out of each other’s way, for the most part. The same can be said for chemistry… hence my inability to pursue my dream career of archaeology. At any rate, John’s talk happily married my past and my present by presenting a case study around dental decay which hoped to prove – or disprove – whether the particular feature in question could be used as a reliable dating technique. I was absolutely hooked. Thanks for helping me relive (and to a degree, rekindle) the passion, John.

Next to last, we come to Chris Battiston, the ‘wunderkind’ of the SAS world this past year and my personal SAS hero. Chris has been working with SAS for less than a year, but has established himself as a true force in the SAS Canada Community – you may know him better as the Darth Vader-visaged, blogger extreme in that space – and as of the past meeting, a fledgling member of the Health user group executive committee. Did I mention he’s also a Section Chair for NESUG, the large regional SAS user group? Chris’ energy, enthusiasm and boundless excitement is infectious and inspiring. He was in fine form in delivering what was to be his first SAS Canada user group presentation, ‘Wake Up Your Data with SAS Graph’n Go’. I loved this talk. Simple, accessible and interesting… and delivered with the charm and polish of a veteran public speaker. Methinks we haven’t seen the last of Chris as a presenter (at least, I hope so!).

The final presentation was delivered by Paul Cascagnette of ICES. I’ve been aware of Paul for a while: formerly based in Saskatoon, I’d hoped to have him speak at a meeting there before his relocation to Toronto. Circumstance ensured that we missed each other a few times… I was beginning to think he was the real-life version of Polkaroo from Polka Dot Door. Wow, just dated myself. Suffice it to say, his talk was worth the wait! He offered a great discussion of how to appropriately use simulations in SAS. I joked at the meeting that I was a little nervous as he had close to 50 slides and only 20 minutes to present! He was able to get through just fine, though, and I think we all learned a lot about trial, error and complexity which we hadn’t considered previously. Great to finally meet you Paul!

Lunch afterwards was a relaxed and engaging affair as always. It was a bit of a blast from the past and a foreshadowing of the future as we were joined by Tim Trussell of SAS who helped found the group in his previous role as the User Group Program Manager as well as Issa Guindo also of SAS who will be certainly be contributing more in the near future. A great time was had by all!

My final observation: creativity is a funny thing. I’ve wanted to write this blog post for a while, but hadn’t found the time or the right words. Here I sit in an airplane 25,000 feet above northeastern Ontario en route to Quebec for the last time this year and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s come out. It must be something in the air (other than me). I’ll have more on the two meetings I’m attending – one in Quebec, one in Montreal – over the next few days (fingers crossed).