This was the question which occupied the 42 attendees at the Golden Horseshoe SAS User Group meeting on Friday morning during their networking break. As I walked around the room speaking with people, I caught snippets of SAS-related conversations being discussed with as much passion as the icebreaking topic. Champions of a variety of abilities struggled to convince their peers that their power provided the most advantage, for example, the convenience of teleporting versus the majestic power of flight. At the same time, the utility and ease of use of macros was a hot topic in certain corners as well!
I myself argued for invisibility for my superpower... how great would it be to go anywhere, do anything? Hours of operation would be meaningless: I could hop a flight to Paris, sit in an empty seat unnoticed, and drive the poor security guards at the Louvre absolutely batty as I set off alarms on a self-guided, private tour of the museum after hours! Given my deep love of archaeology, paleontology and history, I might be there for quite some time.
While we couldn't agree upon a universally-desired superpower, one thing I think we all can acknowledge is that yesterday's meeting was extremely successful. I was so pleased to see members of the Golden Horseshoe community connecting with each other at the meeting, and even more pleased to find a few messages waiting for me in the Golden Horseshoe LinkedIn Group. I'm optimistic that I managed to hit some of the right notes during my 'SAS and Social Media: What's in it for Me?!?!?' presentation, given the feedback I've had already. Speaking of which, I've posted that presentation in .pdf form on LinkedIn: if you'd like it or have questions, feel free to connect with me!
I'd like to single-out Debbie Weisensee of McMaster University and Ron Kaine of Bell Canada for their amazing presentations as well. Debbie reprised the talk she gave at TASS, once again opening up the hood and demonstrating how McMaster is using SAS for reporting, analyzing and distributing information. The demo went extremely well, and I think more than a few people were impressed by what she was able to do! In his presentation, Ron Kaine made it clear that as a business user of SAS, he enjoyed leveraging the power of the analytical and reporting capabilities of Enterprise Guide. In what will hopefully be the first in a series of small talks, Ron demonstrated how a commonly utilized procedure - PROC FREQ - could be run through Enterprise Guide, and why. Great stuff, Ron! These presentations will be posted this week on the GHSUG website for those interested in more information. Better yet, join us at the spring meeting on April 15th, 2011! That gives you plenty of time to figure out which superpower would best suit you.
Have a great weekend, everyone, and I'll be posting mid-week to give you feedback around the highly-anticipated Toronto Data Mining Forum!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
World Statistics Day Meets Toronto Data Mining
Sometimes, if we step back and take a moment, it's easy to appreciate how disambiguous the universe can be. As many statisticians will tell you, synchronicity occurs all the time in the world around us: unique cause and effect layers upon unique cause and effect, weaving a complex tapestry of correlation and interaction between seemingly disparate variables. I've often felt the thrill and shiver of discovery when exploring data in this way... and I find that the same principle can be happily applied to next week's Toronto Data Mining Forum.
As you might imagine, planning user group meetings requires a lot of thought and collboration in particular around logistical issues such as dates, times and venues. Planning for this fall season actually began in June! I can assure all of you that while I would LOVE to take credit for having had the foresight to suggest that October 20th - World Statistics Day - was the ideal day for a data mining symposium, but sadly, I cannot. There's that conspiratorial universe again... and this truly is a fortunate accident of synchronicity. Who better to celebrate World Statistics Day with than a room full of some of the best and brightest data miners in the greater Toronto area?
The date and sense of occasion play a distant second in terms of the most compelling of reasons forattending this meeting. As you can see here on the Toronto Data Mining Forum webpage (an opportunity to register for free appears with the agenda), we have a topical and intriguing morning of data mining-themed discussion to be delivered to you for your digestion!
Many of you may be aware that the Government of Canada recently made a decision to repeal the mandatory long-form census. As data miners, this must raise some eyebrows in concern and cause cold sweats to break out on a few foreheads. What will be the ultimate outcome: will we see no negligible change in the quality and amount of public data? Or, will this have negative effects on planning for social assistance programs, sociodemographically-reliant programs, marketing campaigns, and other data-driven initiatives? How about the health industry: will this impact their ability to administer programs and processes which are heavily data-driven? It's an exciting topic which I think lends itself extremely well to this forum.
I'm very pleased to announce that we'll have a very strong panel of senior data miners to help explore this topic. Featuring representatives of the financial services, marketing intelligence, health and business analytics verticals, I'm really, REALLY excited to listen in! I hope that you'll be able to join us and lend your voice and opinions to the conversation as well.
In addition to the panel discussion, I'm also thrilled that Obaid Rahman of Intact Insurance will be giving the group some insight into how statistics are used in the insurance industry. We don't often have insurance-based talks at our user group meetings, so don't miss this presentation. Finally, Victor Zurkowski will be referencing some of his own work at one of the major banks in his presentation on maximizing net lift and return.
I'll be in Hamilton tomorrow for their user group meeting and reporting back on it shortly. I do hope that the amazing synchronicity which happily married the Toronto Data Mining Forum with World Statistics Day also means that you and I will connect on October 20th as well!
As you might imagine, planning user group meetings requires a lot of thought and collboration in particular around logistical issues such as dates, times and venues. Planning for this fall season actually began in June! I can assure all of you that while I would LOVE to take credit for having had the foresight to suggest that October 20th - World Statistics Day - was the ideal day for a data mining symposium, but sadly, I cannot. There's that conspiratorial universe again... and this truly is a fortunate accident of synchronicity. Who better to celebrate World Statistics Day with than a room full of some of the best and brightest data miners in the greater Toronto area?
The date and sense of occasion play a distant second in terms of the most compelling of reasons forattending this meeting. As you can see here on the Toronto Data Mining Forum webpage (an opportunity to register for free appears with the agenda), we have a topical and intriguing morning of data mining-themed discussion to be delivered to you for your digestion!
Many of you may be aware that the Government of Canada recently made a decision to repeal the mandatory long-form census. As data miners, this must raise some eyebrows in concern and cause cold sweats to break out on a few foreheads. What will be the ultimate outcome: will we see no negligible change in the quality and amount of public data? Or, will this have negative effects on planning for social assistance programs, sociodemographically-reliant programs, marketing campaigns, and other data-driven initiatives? How about the health industry: will this impact their ability to administer programs and processes which are heavily data-driven? It's an exciting topic which I think lends itself extremely well to this forum.
I'm very pleased to announce that we'll have a very strong panel of senior data miners to help explore this topic. Featuring representatives of the financial services, marketing intelligence, health and business analytics verticals, I'm really, REALLY excited to listen in! I hope that you'll be able to join us and lend your voice and opinions to the conversation as well.
In addition to the panel discussion, I'm also thrilled that Obaid Rahman of Intact Insurance will be giving the group some insight into how statistics are used in the insurance industry. We don't often have insurance-based talks at our user group meetings, so don't miss this presentation. Finally, Victor Zurkowski will be referencing some of his own work at one of the major banks in his presentation on maximizing net lift and return.
I'll be in Hamilton tomorrow for their user group meeting and reporting back on it shortly. I do hope that the amazing synchronicity which happily married the Toronto Data Mining Forum with World Statistics Day also means that you and I will connect on October 20th as well!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
En Route to Steeltown North!
I don't know about you folks, but Thanksgiving has to be one of my favourite holidays - in terms of food for sure! I like to think of it as a dry-run for the huge family feasts which inevitably define the December holiday season around my household. This years' lessons learned: you can never have enough mashed potatoes and gravy, yams and cinnamon-flavored apple slices are a heavenly combination, and nothing - but nothing - beats a long walk on a beautiful cottage trail to take the edge off of tryptophan overload. I hope you had a great long weekend remembering all the people in your life for whom you are truly thankful.
High on my list of people I'm thankful for in the SAS world are the amazing individuals behind the Golden Horseshoe SAS Users Group (GHSUG). This innovative and approachable executive committee have consistently delivered exceptional value to their attendees, and the meeting taking place this Friday, October 15th, will be no different, I'm sure! Meeting out of the ArcelorMittal/Dofasco offices on Burlington St. East in Hamilton (you can find a map at the bottom of this page), this small but tremendously engaged group always features some of the most enjoyable and informative presentations in the SAS world... and the conversations which take place afterwards are truly inspiring. These are also some of the most accessible SAS user group meetings for individuals new to the SAS world. Graduate students are often featured presenters, and this is balanced by presentations from the manufacturing sector by SAS users with over 20 years of experience on average! Truly, it's the best of both worlds.
In fact, GHSUG is one of the leaders in terms of nurturing and growing the SAS user community. The executive committee members support new presenters by mentoring them through their build process: making suggestions, giving hints, and being generally supportive. It's also a forum for brand new SAS customers to get a sense of what the user group community offers. I recall that a year ago, one of our sales executives sent representatives of a new SAS customer to the meeting. Brand-new to the SAS world, their questions were quite broad and general. The other attendees and executive committee not only made them feel welcome and addressed all of their questions, but several individuals offered to assist the group beyond the meeting with some areas of confusion. It's this spirit of collaboration and support which makes me happiest: SAS users helping other SAS users, there's very little more rewarding in my world than when that type of connection is made.
If you're in the Greater Toronto Area and would like to benefit from the outstanding connections which can be made at GHSUG, feel free to check out their webpage for agenda details and an invitation to register. Remember, it's always free to attend!
The one thing my post-Thanksgiving stomach is NOT looking forward to right now? The traditional massive lunch with the executive committee at King's Buffet following the meeting. Oh, my aching stomach...
Stay tuned for a post later this week with more detail around the exciting Toronto Data Mining Forum taking on October 20th at the SAS offices.
High on my list of people I'm thankful for in the SAS world are the amazing individuals behind the Golden Horseshoe SAS Users Group (GHSUG). This innovative and approachable executive committee have consistently delivered exceptional value to their attendees, and the meeting taking place this Friday, October 15th, will be no different, I'm sure! Meeting out of the ArcelorMittal/Dofasco offices on Burlington St. East in Hamilton (you can find a map at the bottom of this page), this small but tremendously engaged group always features some of the most enjoyable and informative presentations in the SAS world... and the conversations which take place afterwards are truly inspiring. These are also some of the most accessible SAS user group meetings for individuals new to the SAS world. Graduate students are often featured presenters, and this is balanced by presentations from the manufacturing sector by SAS users with over 20 years of experience on average! Truly, it's the best of both worlds.
In fact, GHSUG is one of the leaders in terms of nurturing and growing the SAS user community. The executive committee members support new presenters by mentoring them through their build process: making suggestions, giving hints, and being generally supportive. It's also a forum for brand new SAS customers to get a sense of what the user group community offers. I recall that a year ago, one of our sales executives sent representatives of a new SAS customer to the meeting. Brand-new to the SAS world, their questions were quite broad and general. The other attendees and executive committee not only made them feel welcome and addressed all of their questions, but several individuals offered to assist the group beyond the meeting with some areas of confusion. It's this spirit of collaboration and support which makes me happiest: SAS users helping other SAS users, there's very little more rewarding in my world than when that type of connection is made.
If you're in the Greater Toronto Area and would like to benefit from the outstanding connections which can be made at GHSUG, feel free to check out their webpage for agenda details and an invitation to register. Remember, it's always free to attend!
The one thing my post-Thanksgiving stomach is NOT looking forward to right now? The traditional massive lunch with the executive committee at King's Buffet following the meeting. Oh, my aching stomach...
Stay tuned for a post later this week with more detail around the exciting Toronto Data Mining Forum taking on October 20th at the SAS offices.
Friday, October 1, 2010
SAS, Hockey and Prairie Life
What do these three things have to do with each other? Hockey fans are definitely awaiting the onset of the new NHL season, and the Winnipeg and Sasktoon user groups are rapidly approaching: but other than that, what's the connection? Speaking personally, these words trigger one of the earliest memories I have of my early days here at SAS Canada.
My colleague Tim Trussell - who formerly occupied my role - is a pretty amazing guy. Sharp as a knife and young as our sun, Tim shines just as brightly in the SAS universe. In my early days, I looked up to him immensely for his ability to offer presentations to user groups of a slightly different flavour. It's great to have case studies. Insight into how SAS is used in banks, universities, health organizations and government branches is always valuable and interesting. But Tim added an interesting wrinkle, one which I've tried to adopt in my day-to-day work here at SAS: fun.
Yes, fun. It's fun to play with data. It's even more fun to analyze and derive insight from it! True, this is my technical side talking, but I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a thrill of electric excitement run up my spine when opening a raw data set for the first time... oh boy, my inner SAS-user is definitely coming out to play!
I bring up the connection with Tim and the prairies because he delivered one of the most interesting presentations I've ever seen a few years ago at the Saskatoon and Winnipeg user groups. Entitled 'Selecting NHL Teams Using Linear Regression With SAS' , this talk married two of Tim's great passions together in one, fun-filled presentation. Tim demonstrated complex statistical processes and models based on actual National Hockey League data . This basically opened the kimono on his hockey pool selection strategy! Given that Tim is always at or near the top of his pools, all of you hockey junkies out there may want to give his presentation a look before the launch of the season next week.
Better still, join us in Saskatoon and Winnipeg on October 13th and 14th respectively for the user group meetings. We have dynamic agendas for each, featuring SAS Canada's Rob Wilson with an updated version of his very popular 'tips & tricks' presentation, and a variety of local presenters. I'd also like to mention that my friend and colleague Jamie Farnell, SAS' Education Program Manager for colleges and universities, will be attending and presenting as well. For all of you University of Saskatchewan and Manitoba readers, I'd highly recommend connecting with Jamie! He will be able to give you good insight into the recent SAS On Demand for Academics initiative, which provides complimentary SAS software to teaching institutions which qualify. He'll also be delivering some great content around how to get the most out of social media as a SAS user, a presentation build by yours truly!
I hope everyone has a great weekend, and that you hockey fans are strapped in and excited for the start of a new season. Hopefully, with Tim's help, you'll be able to achieve success in your own hockey pools this year... and if you want to say thank-you, I understand he's very partial to ginger-flavoured beer.
My colleague Tim Trussell - who formerly occupied my role - is a pretty amazing guy. Sharp as a knife and young as our sun, Tim shines just as brightly in the SAS universe. In my early days, I looked up to him immensely for his ability to offer presentations to user groups of a slightly different flavour. It's great to have case studies. Insight into how SAS is used in banks, universities, health organizations and government branches is always valuable and interesting. But Tim added an interesting wrinkle, one which I've tried to adopt in my day-to-day work here at SAS: fun.
Yes, fun. It's fun to play with data. It's even more fun to analyze and derive insight from it! True, this is my technical side talking, but I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a thrill of electric excitement run up my spine when opening a raw data set for the first time... oh boy, my inner SAS-user is definitely coming out to play!
I bring up the connection with Tim and the prairies because he delivered one of the most interesting presentations I've ever seen a few years ago at the Saskatoon and Winnipeg user groups. Entitled 'Selecting NHL Teams Using Linear Regression With SAS' , this talk married two of Tim's great passions together in one, fun-filled presentation. Tim demonstrated complex statistical processes and models based on actual National Hockey League data . This basically opened the kimono on his hockey pool selection strategy! Given that Tim is always at or near the top of his pools, all of you hockey junkies out there may want to give his presentation a look before the launch of the season next week.
Better still, join us in Saskatoon and Winnipeg on October 13th and 14th respectively for the user group meetings. We have dynamic agendas for each, featuring SAS Canada's Rob Wilson with an updated version of his very popular 'tips & tricks' presentation, and a variety of local presenters. I'd also like to mention that my friend and colleague Jamie Farnell, SAS' Education Program Manager for colleges and universities, will be attending and presenting as well. For all of you University of Saskatchewan and Manitoba readers, I'd highly recommend connecting with Jamie! He will be able to give you good insight into the recent SAS On Demand for Academics initiative, which provides complimentary SAS software to teaching institutions which qualify. He'll also be delivering some great content around how to get the most out of social media as a SAS user, a presentation build by yours truly!
I hope everyone has a great weekend, and that you hockey fans are strapped in and excited for the start of a new season. Hopefully, with Tim's help, you'll be able to achieve success in your own hockey pools this year... and if you want to say thank-you, I understand he's very partial to ginger-flavoured beer.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Quebec City Analytics Forum: What A Launch!
I'm sitting here at Lesage airport in beautiful Quebec City, as Lady Gaga's 'Pokerface' - the Muzak version - wafts gently out of the Duty Free store. And as I look around, I see a few others with raised eyebrows as they recognize the tune and the STRANGENESS of this version! I mean, a harp: really?
I truly do have magpie-like tendencies sometimes. Easily distracted by the music, I've now wandered off on a tangent. Where was I? Oh yes...
I sit here in the beautiful sunshine a mere 90 minutes after one of the most successful SAS user forum launches that I've seen. What a meeting! There were just over 30 attendees for the new 'ville de Quebec forum analytique de SAS'. Building on the incredible success of the existing 'club d'utilisateurs SAS de Quebec', the creation of this group represents a commitment to supporting and celebrating the wide diversity of SAS users. The 'club' has done a phenomenal job of supporting base SAS coders and programmers for many years now: yet as SAS has continued to develop and new solutions have hit the market, new types of users have also emerged. Data miners are using Enterprise Miner to plumb the depths of their information. Analysts are using Enterprise Guide to leverage powerful analytics in a visual setting and report on it with confidence. DataFlux users are up to their elbows in dirty data, trying to make sense of it all.
The meeting I just attended featured legendary SAS instructor Sylvain Tremblay (OK, a legend to his students, and to me). Sylvain showcased JMP for a very intrigued audience. He was followed by Sylvain Haince of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, who connected to his environment and demonstrated how SAS was being used at the Ministry to slice data, analyze and report. Powerful stuff! The audience was very engaged, asking many questions of the presenters and validating the importance of this new forum. No further proof is needed than the fact that 2 indivduals immediately stepped forward as volunteers for the new group's executive committee! Amazing!
I have to take a moment to comment on QC itself. What an unbelievable city. An opportunity to practice my French skills in the Paris of North America? Sign me up, anyday. In fact, why don't you join me? If you're in QC or Quebec in general, the next opportunity to engage with the SAS user community will come on November 1st with the semi-annual 'club d'utilisateurs' meeting. Also coming up in Quebec: MONSUG on November 8th and the Montreal Business Analytics Forum on December 1st. I hope to see you at one, if not all, of the meetings!
So what's next on the list? Well, you may see a surprise celebrity blogger shortly! One of my colleagues is going to the Saskatoon and Winnipeg groups in a few weeks time, and I'm curious to get his feelings. As for me? I'm looking forward to the Golden Horseshoe SAS Users Group meeting on October 15th in Hamilton...
I'll have more coming your way soon, SAS users! Until my next post, I hope all is well with you and yours, and hope to see you at a meeting in your area..
I truly do have magpie-like tendencies sometimes. Easily distracted by the music, I've now wandered off on a tangent. Where was I? Oh yes...
I sit here in the beautiful sunshine a mere 90 minutes after one of the most successful SAS user forum launches that I've seen. What a meeting! There were just over 30 attendees for the new 'ville de Quebec forum analytique de SAS'. Building on the incredible success of the existing 'club d'utilisateurs SAS de Quebec', the creation of this group represents a commitment to supporting and celebrating the wide diversity of SAS users. The 'club' has done a phenomenal job of supporting base SAS coders and programmers for many years now: yet as SAS has continued to develop and new solutions have hit the market, new types of users have also emerged. Data miners are using Enterprise Miner to plumb the depths of their information. Analysts are using Enterprise Guide to leverage powerful analytics in a visual setting and report on it with confidence. DataFlux users are up to their elbows in dirty data, trying to make sense of it all.
The meeting I just attended featured legendary SAS instructor Sylvain Tremblay (OK, a legend to his students, and to me). Sylvain showcased JMP for a very intrigued audience. He was followed by Sylvain Haince of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, who connected to his environment and demonstrated how SAS was being used at the Ministry to slice data, analyze and report. Powerful stuff! The audience was very engaged, asking many questions of the presenters and validating the importance of this new forum. No further proof is needed than the fact that 2 indivduals immediately stepped forward as volunteers for the new group's executive committee! Amazing!
I have to take a moment to comment on QC itself. What an unbelievable city. An opportunity to practice my French skills in the Paris of North America? Sign me up, anyday. In fact, why don't you join me? If you're in QC or Quebec in general, the next opportunity to engage with the SAS user community will come on November 1st with the semi-annual 'club d'utilisateurs' meeting. Also coming up in Quebec: MONSUG on November 8th and the Montreal Business Analytics Forum on December 1st. I hope to see you at one, if not all, of the meetings!
So what's next on the list? Well, you may see a surprise celebrity blogger shortly! One of my colleagues is going to the Saskatoon and Winnipeg groups in a few weeks time, and I'm curious to get his feelings. As for me? I'm looking forward to the Golden Horseshoe SAS Users Group meeting on October 15th in Hamilton...
I'll have more coming your way soon, SAS users! Until my next post, I hope all is well with you and yours, and hope to see you at a meeting in your area..
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Goodbye, Summer!
Well, SAS Users, I continue to recover from what can only be described as a roller-coaster of a week! 2 major user group meetings, a SAS-sponsored charity soccer tournament and a wedding: all in the span of 6 days.
The Toronto Management Exchange meeting took place last Tuesday. This invite-only event has become a real incubator for frank, open discussion by executives around SAS enterprise-wide solutions and services. The most recent meeting featured Aiman Zeid who works for SAS Global Practices in the Business Intelligence space. Aiman's particular gift is quite remarkable. He and his team will assess an organization's BI strengths, assets, shortcomings and requirements and suggest insititutional changes which might help realize an improvement in overall business processes. A small but engaged group of individuals from the financial services industry were able to learn through Aiman thanks to a Business Analytics Competency Centre mini-workshop. It was extremely exciting to listen to the robust discussion which took place!
The first TASS meeting of the year was held last Friday. I must admit, this event is a little more up my alley than the Management Exchange. I have personal relationships with many of the users in the greater Toronto area, and TASS is always a wonderful opportunity for me to get together with all of them. This meeting was no exception! Around 150 people attended over the course of the day, enjoying incredible presentations from a variety of presenters. Some were quite technical, like Dragos Capans' talk on 'Using the Descriptor Portion of a SAS Data File'. Others were incredibly in-depth examinations of front-to-back processes, such as Debbie Weisensee's amazing talk on how they used stored processes to make life easier at McMaster University. This was a truly amazing presentation. Debbie spoke about the business reasons behind building their environment, as well as acknowledging some of the roadblocks they had to overcome. Both technical and business-oreinted, this was really fascinating stuff!
Finally, the hit of the morning TASS session had to be Wayne Levin's presention entitled 'JMP & SAS: 1+1= ∞'. I've been fortunate enough to see Wayne present a few times, and I'm always floored. He's a naturally gifted speaker and is without question the greatest authority on JMP (in my mind) here in Canada. Wayne's breakout session was absolutely overflowing, a testament to the audience's interest. Wayne was also good enough to leave behind some information which might benefit you as well! If you're curious about JMP, Wayne has offered - for a very limited time! - free JMP e-learning. I can tell you that more than a few people wrote down the information Wayne provided, and I'm happy to pass it on to you as well. Simply go to http://predictum.com/elearning/ and click on the 'buy now' link. At this point, enter the following coupon code: 4A49E0D7D4. That's it! I hope you enjoy it as much as the good folks at TASS...
On a related note, I'd like to take this opportunity to single out a member of the TASS executive committee for recognition: Shan Ali Rasul. Shan has been an enthusiastic and indispensible member of the TASS Interfaces Executive Committee, and has also taken on the role of webmaster for the entire TASS group: no small task! Shan has earned my undying respect. With little java and .html background, Shan has created a fantastic website for the TASS group. You can see his handywork here at www.torsas.ca In building this site, Shan has taken time out of his evenings and weekends - in a volunteer capacity - to try and help out the SAS community in Toronto and beyond. It's this kind of selfless action that characterizes the SAS users in my world. You'll find all the presentations from the most recent TASS meeting and an archive of past presentations here.
Finally, on a cheery note, the annual King St. Kicks soccer tournament was held last week. Featuring 8 teams, a rainstorm of biblical proportions and starring Carl Farrell playing goal to rave reviews - if not stiff joints afterwards - the tournament was a great success, raising over $5000 for a local school. Carl was definitely the surprise of the tourney: he can really move!!! Watching him dive for well-struck soccer balls - and getting to them in time - is an image I won't soon forget.
That's all for this quick update. I'll have LOTS more to write a little later in the week, as I prepare to fly to Quebec City for the first meeting of a brand-new initiative in the city: the QC Analyics Forum! I'll be sure to have an update on that and other upcoming events shortly...
The Toronto Management Exchange meeting took place last Tuesday. This invite-only event has become a real incubator for frank, open discussion by executives around SAS enterprise-wide solutions and services. The most recent meeting featured Aiman Zeid who works for SAS Global Practices in the Business Intelligence space. Aiman's particular gift is quite remarkable. He and his team will assess an organization's BI strengths, assets, shortcomings and requirements and suggest insititutional changes which might help realize an improvement in overall business processes. A small but engaged group of individuals from the financial services industry were able to learn through Aiman thanks to a Business Analytics Competency Centre mini-workshop. It was extremely exciting to listen to the robust discussion which took place!
The first TASS meeting of the year was held last Friday. I must admit, this event is a little more up my alley than the Management Exchange. I have personal relationships with many of the users in the greater Toronto area, and TASS is always a wonderful opportunity for me to get together with all of them. This meeting was no exception! Around 150 people attended over the course of the day, enjoying incredible presentations from a variety of presenters. Some were quite technical, like Dragos Capans' talk on 'Using the Descriptor Portion of a SAS Data File'. Others were incredibly in-depth examinations of front-to-back processes, such as Debbie Weisensee's amazing talk on how they used stored processes to make life easier at McMaster University. This was a truly amazing presentation. Debbie spoke about the business reasons behind building their environment, as well as acknowledging some of the roadblocks they had to overcome. Both technical and business-oreinted, this was really fascinating stuff!
Finally, the hit of the morning TASS session had to be Wayne Levin's presention entitled 'JMP & SAS: 1+1= ∞'. I've been fortunate enough to see Wayne present a few times, and I'm always floored. He's a naturally gifted speaker and is without question the greatest authority on JMP (in my mind) here in Canada. Wayne's breakout session was absolutely overflowing, a testament to the audience's interest. Wayne was also good enough to leave behind some information which might benefit you as well! If you're curious about JMP, Wayne has offered - for a very limited time! - free JMP e-learning. I can tell you that more than a few people wrote down the information Wayne provided, and I'm happy to pass it on to you as well. Simply go to http://predictum.com/elearning/ and click on the 'buy now' link. At this point, enter the following coupon code: 4A49E0D7D4. That's it! I hope you enjoy it as much as the good folks at TASS...
On a related note, I'd like to take this opportunity to single out a member of the TASS executive committee for recognition: Shan Ali Rasul. Shan has been an enthusiastic and indispensible member of the TASS Interfaces Executive Committee, and has also taken on the role of webmaster for the entire TASS group: no small task! Shan has earned my undying respect. With little java and .html background, Shan has created a fantastic website for the TASS group. You can see his handywork here at www.torsas.ca In building this site, Shan has taken time out of his evenings and weekends - in a volunteer capacity - to try and help out the SAS community in Toronto and beyond. It's this kind of selfless action that characterizes the SAS users in my world. You'll find all the presentations from the most recent TASS meeting and an archive of past presentations here.
Finally, on a cheery note, the annual King St. Kicks soccer tournament was held last week. Featuring 8 teams, a rainstorm of biblical proportions and starring Carl Farrell playing goal to rave reviews - if not stiff joints afterwards - the tournament was a great success, raising over $5000 for a local school. Carl was definitely the surprise of the tourney: he can really move!!! Watching him dive for well-struck soccer balls - and getting to them in time - is an image I won't soon forget.
That's all for this quick update. I'll have LOTS more to write a little later in the week, as I prepare to fly to Quebec City for the first meeting of a brand-new initiative in the city: the QC Analyics Forum! I'll be sure to have an update on that and other upcoming events shortly...
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Serendipity In the SAS World
I think I've been fairly transparent in my unabashed love for my role here at SAS. For those who know me, I'm a pretty loud person in general: I'm not shy in the least, and one of my favourite things is meeting new and interesting people. And in the SAS world, there's no shortage of interesting people!
I wanted to share two stories which really drive home the amazing reach and reputation of SAS, and to highlight how a fortuitous encounter between strangers can sometimes lead to bigger and better things.
My personal computer recently imploded, necessitating a trip to my phenomenal PC guru. I recalled that about 6 months ago, I had visited the same shop to upgrade my machine. That day, I ended up chatting with the owner as he completed his work. Within the course of our conversation, a wonderful moment of serendipity took place. As I chatted about my career and role at SAS, his eyes lit up. It turned out that his fiancé had recently became SAS certified and was looking for an employment opportunity... and I happened to have a TASS user group meeting the following week! There are few places which are more conducive to making great connections in the SAS world than a user group meeting, particularly TASS, the oldest and largest of them all. Long story short, I was put in touch with the young lady and I met up with her at the user group meeting. After a great conversation, I introduced her to a few people. It was great to hear from my computer guru that less than 6 months later, she was able to connect with someone at the TASS meeting and is now working at a major bank, predicated by an innocent conversation between strangers!
Along a similar vein, last Friday I was braving end-of-week rush hour traffic on our subway system here in Toronto. For those who ride it often, I don't have to describe what an exercise in patience, tolerance and restraint this can be! Rudeness and selfishness seem to be personnified by the average rush hour commuter on the TTC. I happened to have a set of SAS course notes that I was reviewing in my lap: SAS Programming for Experienced EG Users, as I recall. A gentleman tapped me on the shoulder: in rush hour traffic, I instantly put up my conversational defences preparing for a pointed, tense exchange. Imagine my pleasant surprise when the gentleman only wanted to ask about the book I was reading. Within the context of a wonderful 30 minute conversation, I came to connect with him in terms of his skills set, his curiosity around SAS, and his personality. Once again, I was fortunate enough to make a new friend and a possible SAS advocate, just because of my clear public association with the company.
I bring forward these stories not to pat myself on the back: the take-away is not that I'm a gifted conversationalist or an unnaturally charming individual. Rather, it's that the SAS community is larger and more prevalent than we can imagine. It's amazing to see where SAS users can pop up! In this case, I think that the 'The Power to Know' refers to the willingness to take a chance, start a conversation and let nature take its course. It's the promise of relationship-building and being given the opportunity to assist and support SAS users that really motivates me to get out of bed everyday.
This Friday, the TASS meeting is taking place once again. I wonder who I might meet this time? What interesting conversations will I have? What will the ultimate outcome of this be down the road? I'll be sure to update you all in the coming weeks.
I encourage all of you in the Toronto area to come by the SAS offices for the TASS meetings on Friday. As always, it's free to attend, and the agendas are very solid. I hope to see you there: perhaps it's you and I who will be connecting this time!
I wanted to share two stories which really drive home the amazing reach and reputation of SAS, and to highlight how a fortuitous encounter between strangers can sometimes lead to bigger and better things.
My personal computer recently imploded, necessitating a trip to my phenomenal PC guru. I recalled that about 6 months ago, I had visited the same shop to upgrade my machine. That day, I ended up chatting with the owner as he completed his work. Within the course of our conversation, a wonderful moment of serendipity took place. As I chatted about my career and role at SAS, his eyes lit up. It turned out that his fiancé had recently became SAS certified and was looking for an employment opportunity... and I happened to have a TASS user group meeting the following week! There are few places which are more conducive to making great connections in the SAS world than a user group meeting, particularly TASS, the oldest and largest of them all. Long story short, I was put in touch with the young lady and I met up with her at the user group meeting. After a great conversation, I introduced her to a few people. It was great to hear from my computer guru that less than 6 months later, she was able to connect with someone at the TASS meeting and is now working at a major bank, predicated by an innocent conversation between strangers!
Along a similar vein, last Friday I was braving end-of-week rush hour traffic on our subway system here in Toronto. For those who ride it often, I don't have to describe what an exercise in patience, tolerance and restraint this can be! Rudeness and selfishness seem to be personnified by the average rush hour commuter on the TTC. I happened to have a set of SAS course notes that I was reviewing in my lap: SAS Programming for Experienced EG Users, as I recall. A gentleman tapped me on the shoulder: in rush hour traffic, I instantly put up my conversational defences preparing for a pointed, tense exchange. Imagine my pleasant surprise when the gentleman only wanted to ask about the book I was reading. Within the context of a wonderful 30 minute conversation, I came to connect with him in terms of his skills set, his curiosity around SAS, and his personality. Once again, I was fortunate enough to make a new friend and a possible SAS advocate, just because of my clear public association with the company.
I bring forward these stories not to pat myself on the back: the take-away is not that I'm a gifted conversationalist or an unnaturally charming individual. Rather, it's that the SAS community is larger and more prevalent than we can imagine. It's amazing to see where SAS users can pop up! In this case, I think that the 'The Power to Know' refers to the willingness to take a chance, start a conversation and let nature take its course. It's the promise of relationship-building and being given the opportunity to assist and support SAS users that really motivates me to get out of bed everyday.
This Friday, the TASS meeting is taking place once again. I wonder who I might meet this time? What interesting conversations will I have? What will the ultimate outcome of this be down the road? I'll be sure to update you all in the coming weeks.
I encourage all of you in the Toronto area to come by the SAS offices for the TASS meetings on Friday. As always, it's free to attend, and the agendas are very solid. I hope to see you there: perhaps it's you and I who will be connecting this time!
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