Well, it's taken me a week to sit down and recap the great SAS User Group meeting we had last Friday in Halifax... blame it on the travel, a crazy work week, or blame it on the boogie. I prefer the boogie, myself, but that's just me.
I was fortunate enough to be joined on my journey by Toronto Area SAS Society President Art Tabachneck. How and why, you might ask? Or, you might not... but I think some of you were pondering those great questions, feeling the weight of the world upon you due to not knowing the answer. Well, allow me to share. Art won a contest in the SAS Canada Community we at SAS Canada sponsored about a year ago. Simply put, we wanted to hear interesting stories and uses of SAS... something a bit off the beaten path, if you will. The lucky winner would travel with me to any user group of their choice across the country. Well, I suppose 'lucky' is being a bit subjective... but I'd like to think I'm a pretty good travel buddy (we'll have to ask Art for his thoughts). Art was the clear winner of this contest and his choice was to head to Halifax. Being a gentleman and a scholar, he even graciously offered to reprise his SAS Global Forum talk 'Copy and Paste Almost Anything' for the group. It was also the first time Art and I were able to travel together. We've worked closely together for many years and shared a few fleeting drinks at large conferences, but that was it. I wasn't to be disappointed.
Halifax is a great place to eat, socialize and converse. We met up with the other guest speakers and user group executives for dinner and had an absolutely fantastic time. Over out-of-this-world seafood, a few bottles of wine and some great east coast hospitality, I had a great conversation about SAS' use in academia, the presentations which were to come the following day, and more. I had just enough time to introduce Art to the wonderful experience that is The Old Triangle before we tip-toed off to bed to rest up for the meeting.
The morning saw about 25 SAS users gathered for a nice breakfast and a chance to socialize before we got down to the business of the day. I have to say, the camaraderie and cheerfulness are a few of my favourite things about Halifax. Familiar faces made a point of saying hello and inquiring about my health and my life (both fine, thank you). I always feel like I'm at home in Halifax.
The meeting itself was punctuated by a great range of talks, all of which can be found posted on the SHRUG website. In addition to Art's talk, we heard from the wonderful Martha Cox who shared some tips around making journal-ready graphs using SAS. I had no idea the parameters were so specific, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised! We also experienced a team talk which was very near and dear to my heart as it focused around a marketing problem. Patrick Vandermeulen and his co-authors walked us through a business challenge of Lawton's Drugs and explained how they were using data mining and regression modeling to extrapolate a solution which could be applied to their entire chain. It certainly sparked some interesting discussion! I myself was very impressed with Faye Xu, a recent student of Dalhousie who was really driving a lot of the model creation through Enterprise Miner. The future of data mining looks to be in good hands, at least in Halifax!
Following the meeting it was time for Art and I to relax over lunch while overlooking the Halifax Harbour on a picture-perfect day. Those moments will stay with me as we head into a typical Canadian winter... the blue skies, warm winds and sunny dispositions of the Haligonians we spent time with will certainly give me cause to smile in the cold months to come.
Next up for me: I'm headed to Alberta for the Calgary and Edmonton user group meetings. There are always interesting stories which come out of the Canadian prairies and I'm looking forward to sharing them with you.
Until then...
Friday, October 5, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Stars in My Eyes at TASS
... and that's not just because the famous Toronto International Film Festival was wrapping up this past weekend. No, before the stars all left town we were to be graced by one more very special visitor - at least, special to those of us in the SAS world. Chris Hemedinger was to be the keynote speaker at the September edition of the Toronto Area SAS Society. What a way to start off the Fall/Winter season of Canadian user groups!
I'll admit to having a little bit of a fanboy moment or two with Chris, one of the originators of Enterprise Guide. As a self-proclaimed lousy SAS programmer, I learned my SAS during my post-graduate work primarily through EG. I've also delivered several talks on using EG over the years at user groups from Whitehorse to Halifax. Whether reporting on Titanic passenger data, peeking into the Communities at SAS discussion forums to find EG tips, and even using it to analyze and quasi-optimize my darts game, it's been a powerful tool in my workbench for quite some time and one I've been proud to show off. I've had the privilege of meeting Chris several times over the years - mostly at SAS Global Forum - but to have almost 24 hours to talk with one of the people responsible for the creation and subsequent development of my beloved EG was an opportunity I'd been looking forward to for quite some time.
Naturally, we ended up speaking very little about Enterprise Guide over the course of his visit! Whether sharing stories with Canadian user group executives over dinner or trying to navigate the oh-too-small parking garage at the SAS Canada offices, Chris was obliging, gracious and fun. The depth and breadth of his knowledge is truly unbelievable as well; it was amazing to watch him solve users' questions by simply turning them over briefly in his mind.
OK, enough of the hero worship: on to the meeting itself! Chris was truly 'the show'. He delivered two talks in the morning around moving from 32-bit SAS to 64-bit SAS on Windows and another on PowerShell and SAS. Both were extremely interesting and as I remarked at the meeting, the migration talk in particular would serve me well as the question of what migration meant is one I'm asked quite often. In addition to the breakout sessions, Michael Lerner delivered a very deep dive into the importance of understanding what it meant to give a variable weight. His talk explained how different SAS procedures treated this concept differently and offered some suggestions around best practice.
The afternoon session featured more Chris Hemedinger with talks around moving from EG 4.1 to EG 4.3 and a fantastic talk around some of the custom tasks he created within the Enterprise Guide framework. This talk in particular blew me away... not only because Chris made it look so easy, but because the code used to add the tasks to EG was made publicly available on Chris' blog The SAS Dummy. Anyone can search for the tasks he's collected here and apply them to their own EG environment! Of course, as Chris explained, a SAS administrator will still have ultimate control over the EG environment but hey: it's a nice option to have.
We also tried out a new feature for TASS: the Solution to the Posed Problem, a staple of the Victoria SAS User Group. A fairly simple problem was postulated online with a sample dataset, and we solicited methods of solving the problem. We received almost ten responses back, which was great! Whether using Enterprise Guide, PROC SQL or even Microsoft Excel, the variety of solutions highlighted the strength of SAS and its flexibility as well. I'm quite sure we'll refine this particular element of the meeting and bring in back once again. A special thanks to Art Tabachneck for animating this part of the meeting as only he can!
It would be remiss of me if I didn't mention rookie TASS presenter Eric Cai of Predictum. I first met Eric about a year ago as a student finishing his work at the University of Toronto and attending his first SAS user group... the Health User Group, as I recall. At any rate here we are a year later and Eric is putting his statistical background to great use as a valued member of Wayne Levin's team, the flagship of JMP training and sales in Canada. As I mentioned at the meeting, Eric is the first presenter to ever have 'out-energied' me. He was a real dynamo: passionate, expressive and full of life. I was exhausted by the end of his talk just watching him. Given the throng of SAS users around him at the end of the meeting, many found his talk on multicollinearity resonated with their own passion.
It was a real thrill to have a luminary like Chris at our meeting and I know that the SAS users in Toronto felt the same way. He'll always be welcome in Toronto! The meeting ended with satisified SAS supporters working their way into a drizzly end-of-summer afternoon. If you'd like to read another take on the meeting, please feel free to visit Chris Battiston's blog in two parts on the TASS meeting. Part one is posted here and part two will be go live on September 24th.
Next up for me: I'll be travelling to Halifax for their user group meeting next week... I expect the drizzle I felt on Friday will have nothing on the fresh sea spray from the Atlantic. There's another Toronto connection going out with me as well as Art Tabachneck, the TASS President, will be the keynote speaker. Of course I'll be back to report on my thoughts from Halifax - and I ALWAYS have a great time there.
Until then...
I'll admit to having a little bit of a fanboy moment or two with Chris, one of the originators of Enterprise Guide. As a self-proclaimed lousy SAS programmer, I learned my SAS during my post-graduate work primarily through EG. I've also delivered several talks on using EG over the years at user groups from Whitehorse to Halifax. Whether reporting on Titanic passenger data, peeking into the Communities at SAS discussion forums to find EG tips, and even using it to analyze and quasi-optimize my darts game, it's been a powerful tool in my workbench for quite some time and one I've been proud to show off. I've had the privilege of meeting Chris several times over the years - mostly at SAS Global Forum - but to have almost 24 hours to talk with one of the people responsible for the creation and subsequent development of my beloved EG was an opportunity I'd been looking forward to for quite some time.
Naturally, we ended up speaking very little about Enterprise Guide over the course of his visit! Whether sharing stories with Canadian user group executives over dinner or trying to navigate the oh-too-small parking garage at the SAS Canada offices, Chris was obliging, gracious and fun. The depth and breadth of his knowledge is truly unbelievable as well; it was amazing to watch him solve users' questions by simply turning them over briefly in his mind.
OK, enough of the hero worship: on to the meeting itself! Chris was truly 'the show'. He delivered two talks in the morning around moving from 32-bit SAS to 64-bit SAS on Windows and another on PowerShell and SAS. Both were extremely interesting and as I remarked at the meeting, the migration talk in particular would serve me well as the question of what migration meant is one I'm asked quite often. In addition to the breakout sessions, Michael Lerner delivered a very deep dive into the importance of understanding what it meant to give a variable weight. His talk explained how different SAS procedures treated this concept differently and offered some suggestions around best practice.
The afternoon session featured more Chris Hemedinger with talks around moving from EG 4.1 to EG 4.3 and a fantastic talk around some of the custom tasks he created within the Enterprise Guide framework. This talk in particular blew me away... not only because Chris made it look so easy, but because the code used to add the tasks to EG was made publicly available on Chris' blog The SAS Dummy. Anyone can search for the tasks he's collected here and apply them to their own EG environment! Of course, as Chris explained, a SAS administrator will still have ultimate control over the EG environment but hey: it's a nice option to have.
We also tried out a new feature for TASS: the Solution to the Posed Problem, a staple of the Victoria SAS User Group. A fairly simple problem was postulated online with a sample dataset, and we solicited methods of solving the problem. We received almost ten responses back, which was great! Whether using Enterprise Guide, PROC SQL or even Microsoft Excel, the variety of solutions highlighted the strength of SAS and its flexibility as well. I'm quite sure we'll refine this particular element of the meeting and bring in back once again. A special thanks to Art Tabachneck for animating this part of the meeting as only he can!
It would be remiss of me if I didn't mention rookie TASS presenter Eric Cai of Predictum. I first met Eric about a year ago as a student finishing his work at the University of Toronto and attending his first SAS user group... the Health User Group, as I recall. At any rate here we are a year later and Eric is putting his statistical background to great use as a valued member of Wayne Levin's team, the flagship of JMP training and sales in Canada. As I mentioned at the meeting, Eric is the first presenter to ever have 'out-energied' me. He was a real dynamo: passionate, expressive and full of life. I was exhausted by the end of his talk just watching him. Given the throng of SAS users around him at the end of the meeting, many found his talk on multicollinearity resonated with their own passion.
It was a real thrill to have a luminary like Chris at our meeting and I know that the SAS users in Toronto felt the same way. He'll always be welcome in Toronto! The meeting ended with satisified SAS supporters working their way into a drizzly end-of-summer afternoon. If you'd like to read another take on the meeting, please feel free to visit Chris Battiston's blog in two parts on the TASS meeting. Part one is posted here and part two will be go live on September 24th.
Next up for me: I'll be travelling to Halifax for their user group meeting next week... I expect the drizzle I felt on Friday will have nothing on the fresh sea spray from the Atlantic. There's another Toronto connection going out with me as well as Art Tabachneck, the TASS President, will be the keynote speaker. Of course I'll be back to report on my thoughts from Halifax - and I ALWAYS have a great time there.
Until then...
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Un Autre Triomphe à Montréal: MONSUG User Group Meeting Dazzles and Delights
The recent meeting in Montréal marked my second visit to
this great city in less than a month… how lucky am I! Sometimes I have to pinch myself as a
reminder that this is all real, that my job does in fact entail travel,
camaraderie and a certain joie de vivre which the good folks of Montréal
understand all too well. To be frank,
that may not be exactly the case at this moment as student protests have recently frayed nerves, elevated tensions and deepened lines of division in this normally
carefree city… but from what I saw in my brief time there, the vast majority of
the population were as kind, hospitable and unflappable as ever.
I arrived with the setting sun smacking off the mountain. What a sight.
I’ve never had occasion to truly appreciate how beautiful Montréal
can be: I’m often flying in during a winter storm or cloud cover, I suppose…
but landing during the ‘magic hour’ certain took my breath away. I was met by Hercules, the most personable
limousine driver on the north side of the St. Lawrence river, and with laughter
ringing out from the car, my adventure began.
The meeting itself took place the following day. Thanks
to all the powers that be for Chantal Lessard, the undisputable glue of the SAS
Montréal
office. I don’t know when this woman
sleeps: she does a top-shelf job of supporting everyone locally as well as
provincially and in my case, beyond. In beautiful sunshine, we
arrived at the Centre Mt-Royale for the meeting, ready for the arrival of eager
early-morning SAS users.
Although we had a smaller group than normal, they were no
less vocal nor less passionate. In fact,
perhaps even more so than usual. Each
presentation was punctuated by pointed questions, which told me that the
audience was engaged and appreciative of the topics and the presenters. With four presentations on the slate, there
was certainly more than enough to pique the interest of all.
Leading off the day was Eric Lacombe, one of the co-leaders
of the MONSUG Executive Committee.
Without meaning to sound over-indulgent, I can say with conviction that
his presentation on his ‘top tricks from SAS Global Forum’ was simply the best I have
ever seen. This is a talk which we ask
all of our user group attendees to deliver at their meetings upon their return
from SGF, and I’ve always had a particular vision of what that talk would look
like. It would offer a tip or a trick
learned at the conference which the presenter would bring back to their
workplace or explore as a new component of their work life, and it would be shared with their local user group. Eric didn't deliver a single tip, he delivered
ten. He went through the entire catalogue
of SAS Global Forum papers – some 400+ - and whittled his favourite talks down
to a top ten. He then summarized why each of
these was of importance, why it should be investigated further, and provided
code, examples and even links to the archived presentations. Absolutely phenomenal. I told Eric that I would be using his
presentation as a model for a ‘best practice’ for all groups going forward.
Thanks for an illuminating, inspiring talk, Eric… and for the many hours I know
you put into its development. It's no wonder the evaluation forms rated yours as the most appreciated talk at the meeting.
Next up, Alex Salvas of Banque Nationale de Canada reprised
a talk he delivered in the Fall at the Toronto Data Mining Forum around data quality assurance and how BNC identified challenges and took action. It was great to see Alex once again – he’s a
dynamic speaker and a very friendly person – and his talk was even better in
French than in English. It was also very
nice of him not to poke fun of my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs once again… still
stinging from that jab in the Fall, Alex! Given the number of other financial
institutions who were listening attentively and asking questions afterwards, I
would say his talk was a clear hit. The
path towards great data quality which he illustrated made sense and his
openness to discussing this topic resonated strongly with the entire
audience.
Our next speaker was Jacques Pagé. Jacques has been a SAS user almost as long as
there has been SAS, and as a consultant recently relocated back to Montréal,
he was certainly eager to demonstrate his knowledge…. although his expertise
was known and acknowledged by everyone in the room. His talk on Windows-based API routines executed by SAS was a little out of my comfort zone, but was no less compelling
a talk than any of the others. I suppose
that is a testament to the strength of the presenter and the breadth of his
knowledge. Again, the audience had many
questions which they brought forward and I was thrilled to see that his talk
was a popular one. It just goes to show that SAS user groups offer compelling and interesting views of different SAS products, solutions and approaches which although unfamiliar can yet be of value.
Finally, Carolyn Cunnison of SAS Canada stepped into the
breach for her fellow training specialist Sylvain Tremblay. Sylvain is a good friend of this blog – and a
great friend to SAS users everywhere – and his presence was certainly missed as
he tended to some personal matters.
However, Carolyn was more than up for the challenge of filling his shoes,
and she did so admirably. I can say this
with confidence as I’d seen the presentation she delivered given by Sylvain
week earlier in Saskatoon. The talk
centered around encrypting SAS datasets and datasteps, and was a ‘must see’ for
anyone who was highly sensitive to information being transmitted through code,
such as embedded passwords.
I left Montréal all too soon after a great lunch
with good friends. However, I didn’t
leave without some important takeaways.
Firstly, it’s clear to me that I need to rekindle my confidence in
speaking French. While it can be
intimidating to do so to a large room – I’m always afraid of offending – it was
made clear to me that it was expected that I do so moving forward. I’ll admit to being a little intimidated by
this prospect, but I’m certainly up for the challenge. I do consider myself a lapsed –billingualist
(is that even a term? It is now!) so it
should be a straightforward matter of brushing up and shaking free the cobwebs from my
mind... and finding a little courage. I also left with a clear view of
the strength of the SAS community in Montréal. Mathieu and Eric have been a two-man show on the executive committee for
a while now, but when I appealed to the group for some support for their efforts, I could see
that others were more than willing to step up and assist. In fact, there are at least four individuals who will likely be helping out moving forward. Thanks to them and to the community for their
willingness to continue to support these great meetings.
I have to play some catch-up with this blog: I haven’t done
justice to the Saskatoon or Winnipeg meetings yet, and I cry pardon for this
oversight. It's been a crazy month of May for me, but no excuses! I hope to be able to write
about their meetings shortly and share my amazing experiences there with all of
you.
Until then…
Thursday, May 10, 2012
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!
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…
Sunday, May 6, 2012
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...
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...
Friday, April 20, 2012
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…
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…
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
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….
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….
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