It's hard to believe that 2012 is upon us: it feels like just yesterday that I was heavily embroiled in 2011 planning. I thought I'd take a minute to look back at the year that was, and a sneak peek at the year that will be. Now if only I could find a way to bring in the state of how things currently are, I'd be the SAS version of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'... one of my all-time favourite works of literature. So let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?
SAS Canada Community Launch
Without a shadow of a doubt, this was the biggest, most exciting element of my year. The concept of developing a community of SAS users sharing best practices and engaging with SAS Canada staff through dialogue, debate and the occasional diatribe has been high on my list for a few years. We're currently sitting at nearly 500 members and growing daily... and I must say, in many ways, it's exceeded my expectations in these early days. SAS Canada staff have been increasingly engaged through blogs and discussion groups. A few superstars have emerged: some are new to the SAS world (looking at you, Chris Battiston) and some are long-time SAS supporters. The best thing about the environment is that we continue to grow and learn together; mistakes have been made and corrected. Triumphs and successes have been shared and celebrated. Moving into 2012 I'm even more excited than ever (and that's saying something: I'm not exactly a subtle person). Even more SAS Canada industry experts and solution specialists have signed on to help grow the type and range of voices in the Community... and there's a distinct buzz about the site through the users I've talked with this year. I'm looking forward to even more value being offered through new functionality we've enabled as well.
Canadian User Groups: Steady as She Goes
Of course, it would be remiss of me not to give a nod to the great work done by the 19 different user group executive committees across the country in 2011. Attendance at user group meetings remained high, despite challenging economic conditions which kept many SAS users tied to their desks. Given the value that these marketers, analysts, statisticians and instructors add to their various organizations, it's not hard to imagine why it might have been a challenge for these critical corporate components to get to the meetings... and yet they did! I credit each and every volunteer executive member for helping maintain the appeal and value of the user group meetings. The knowledge of their communities, willingness to present or help with logistics and receptiveness to new ways of thinking about SAS ensured that content was fresh, relevant and compelling: the best way to guarantee continued enthusiasm for these meetings. The user group schedule has already been established for the spring, 2012 meetings: I encourage you to make a point of dropping in to one near you if you haven't already. Getting to know SAS users in your field and geography while also interacting with SAS Canada thought leaders and getting enjoying great presentations is worth the half-day investment of your time.
insights Continues To Grow
The Canadian SAS user newsletter kind of got away from me a bit last year... a reluctant casualty of many plates spinning on many sticks on my end. That's not to say it went away: it just fell to others to maintain the high quality of SAS news, techie tips, event listings and interviews which the 5,000+ subscribers have come to expect. I'm quite happy that it's back in my hands for the foreseeable future; I've missed it, to be honest! This year I'm expecting partcipation from SAS Canada staff and supporters to continue to grow... and with it, the readership. The upcoming issue is well into the planning cycle and as a preview to you, o devoted reader, the theme will be 'big data'. I can't wait for the content to start coming in... but perhaps I've said too much already. You'll just have to hang on until the end of February for the full edition to arrive. Trust me, it will be worth the wait!
These are the 3 major thrusts of my focus moving into 2012. Of course, there are lots of other pieces of the pie which I could expand on such as ongoing initiatives with the user groups in LinkedIn, Facebook and of course, the SAS Canada YouTube channel... and Twitter too! I'm a firm believer in leaving something to the imagination; and if there's one thing I've learned in my time at SAS, it's that SAS users have extremely vivid imaginations! There will be lots more to come in 2012, I can promise you that much.
The user group season is fast approaching and I'll be back with blogs about the upcoming meetings. We'll be kicking off the year in Halifax at the end of February, so you can be sure you'll hear from me by then. In the interim, I hope to see you in an online SAS community!
Until then...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
HUG-ging It Out
Yes, this blog post is well overdue… a week and a half to be exact. And there are so many things I want to share! To be honest, I’ve been quite busy over the last fortnight with one of my other passions; helping out my alma mater, George Brown College.
I’m a firm believer in the maxim ‘each one, teach one’. Since I graduated four years ago from my post-graduate program I’ve made a point of coming back to help whenever I’ve been asked. Sometimes, that’s meant participating in a question/answer session for students’ sitting in seats I so recently occupied myself…. Sometimes, it’s a more structured session. I recently gave a talk to a very keen, highly-motivated class of marketers-to-be around the importance of online reputation management and development. I hope some of them are peeking in on this blog: guys, you’ll go far! Recently I was accepted as one of the participants in a mentorship program at the school. Alumni who have been out in the wild work world for a while have been paired with students who are excelling in their program and looking for some further guidance, inspiration and direction. I’m really looking forward to getting involved in giving back; I encourage each and every one of you reading this blog to consider doing the same… it feels great, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. It really is like a big warm hug!
Hug… that reminds me of something. Oh yes, the HUG user group meeting! It’s truly easy to get distracted by something you’re passionate about. The Toronto Health User Group is another one of those passions of mine.
I’ve previously mentioned how near and dear this group is to my heart. As the first executive committee I worked with on a planning level, I’ll always remember the excitement – and nervousness as well, to be sure! – that accompanied my first ‘solo’ user group endeavour. Would I let down the team? My company? SAS users? As I approach my fourth anniversary with SAS, I smile to think back on those early, tentative days. It’s safe to say that with the help of Ruth Croxford and the rest of the executive committee, my nerves have never been in better shape and all my fears emphatically allayed.
Through evaluation forms, previous meetings had revealed that there was a keen desire to have more of a statistical focus as part of an upcoming meeting, and I think we managed to deliver in spades! The November 18th meeting boasted a bit of a dream-team for statisticians… at least as far as this non-statistician could tell. Good friends and former SAS colleagues Lorne Rothman and John Amrhein provided a potent one-two punch as they led out the meeting. As a SAS Training Specialist and Ph.D (in zoology, not statistics as I was reminded), Lorne is familiar to many SAS users. In fact, more than a few had attended a Bayesian analysis-themed course earlier in the week. Lorne is an incredibly knowledgeable, affable and comfortable speaker – no surprise, considering his profession. His talk centered around the latest and greatest features of SAS/STAT, a component of SAS familiar to many in the room. Not only was he able to speak at length about features that had the crowd ‘ooh’ing and ‘aah’ing, he was able to demonstrate how they ran, and why he saw them as a benefit. John followed with a tremendous talk of his own, dovetailing nicely off of Lorne’s to focus on Bayesian analysis… it’s almost as if they discussed this beforehand! Oh wait, they did. Nevermind.
John’s presentation was especially interesting for an amateur archaeologist such as I. I may have mentioned previously that I worked at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum for 6 years before I started my career at SAS. Those were some of the happiest, most blissful years of my life. It’s a wonderful thing to be surrounded by one’s passion, and I had the good fortune to live my dream every day. I hinted earlier that statistics and I were not good friends. We have a healthy respect for each other, but know to stay out of each other’s way, for the most part. The same can be said for chemistry… hence my inability to pursue my dream career of archaeology. At any rate, John’s talk happily married my past and my present by presenting a case study around dental decay which hoped to prove – or disprove – whether the particular feature in question could be used as a reliable dating technique. I was absolutely hooked. Thanks for helping me relive (and to a degree, rekindle) the passion, John.
Next to last, we come to Chris Battiston, the ‘wunderkind’ of the SAS world this past year and my personal SAS hero. Chris has been working with SAS for less than a year, but has established himself as a true force in the SAS Canada Community – you may know him better as the Darth Vader-visaged, blogger extreme in that space – and as of the past meeting, a fledgling member of the Health user group executive committee. Did I mention he’s also a Section Chair for NESUG, the large regional SAS user group? Chris’ energy, enthusiasm and boundless excitement is infectious and inspiring. He was in fine form in delivering what was to be his first SAS Canada user group presentation, ‘Wake Up Your Data with SAS Graph’n Go’. I loved this talk. Simple, accessible and interesting… and delivered with the charm and polish of a veteran public speaker. Methinks we haven’t seen the last of Chris as a presenter (at least, I hope so!).
The final presentation was delivered by Paul Cascagnette of ICES. I’ve been aware of Paul for a while: formerly based in Saskatoon, I’d hoped to have him speak at a meeting there before his relocation to Toronto. Circumstance ensured that we missed each other a few times… I was beginning to think he was the real-life version of Polkaroo from Polka Dot Door. Wow, just dated myself. Suffice it to say, his talk was worth the wait! He offered a great discussion of how to appropriately use simulations in SAS. I joked at the meeting that I was a little nervous as he had close to 50 slides and only 20 minutes to present! He was able to get through just fine, though, and I think we all learned a lot about trial, error and complexity which we hadn’t considered previously. Great to finally meet you Paul!
Lunch afterwards was a relaxed and engaging affair as always. It was a bit of a blast from the past and a foreshadowing of the future as we were joined by Tim Trussell of SAS who helped found the group in his previous role as the User Group Program Manager as well as Issa Guindo also of SAS who will be certainly be contributing more in the near future. A great time was had by all!
My final observation: creativity is a funny thing. I’ve wanted to write this blog post for a while, but hadn’t found the time or the right words. Here I sit in an airplane 25,000 feet above northeastern Ontario en route to Quebec for the last time this year and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s come out. It must be something in the air (other than me). I’ll have more on the two meetings I’m attending – one in Quebec, one in Montreal – over the next few days (fingers crossed).
I’m a firm believer in the maxim ‘each one, teach one’. Since I graduated four years ago from my post-graduate program I’ve made a point of coming back to help whenever I’ve been asked. Sometimes, that’s meant participating in a question/answer session for students’ sitting in seats I so recently occupied myself…. Sometimes, it’s a more structured session. I recently gave a talk to a very keen, highly-motivated class of marketers-to-be around the importance of online reputation management and development. I hope some of them are peeking in on this blog: guys, you’ll go far! Recently I was accepted as one of the participants in a mentorship program at the school. Alumni who have been out in the wild work world for a while have been paired with students who are excelling in their program and looking for some further guidance, inspiration and direction. I’m really looking forward to getting involved in giving back; I encourage each and every one of you reading this blog to consider doing the same… it feels great, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. It really is like a big warm hug!
Hug… that reminds me of something. Oh yes, the HUG user group meeting! It’s truly easy to get distracted by something you’re passionate about. The Toronto Health User Group is another one of those passions of mine.
I’ve previously mentioned how near and dear this group is to my heart. As the first executive committee I worked with on a planning level, I’ll always remember the excitement – and nervousness as well, to be sure! – that accompanied my first ‘solo’ user group endeavour. Would I let down the team? My company? SAS users? As I approach my fourth anniversary with SAS, I smile to think back on those early, tentative days. It’s safe to say that with the help of Ruth Croxford and the rest of the executive committee, my nerves have never been in better shape and all my fears emphatically allayed.
Through evaluation forms, previous meetings had revealed that there was a keen desire to have more of a statistical focus as part of an upcoming meeting, and I think we managed to deliver in spades! The November 18th meeting boasted a bit of a dream-team for statisticians… at least as far as this non-statistician could tell. Good friends and former SAS colleagues Lorne Rothman and John Amrhein provided a potent one-two punch as they led out the meeting. As a SAS Training Specialist and Ph.D (in zoology, not statistics as I was reminded), Lorne is familiar to many SAS users. In fact, more than a few had attended a Bayesian analysis-themed course earlier in the week. Lorne is an incredibly knowledgeable, affable and comfortable speaker – no surprise, considering his profession. His talk centered around the latest and greatest features of SAS/STAT, a component of SAS familiar to many in the room. Not only was he able to speak at length about features that had the crowd ‘ooh’ing and ‘aah’ing, he was able to demonstrate how they ran, and why he saw them as a benefit. John followed with a tremendous talk of his own, dovetailing nicely off of Lorne’s to focus on Bayesian analysis… it’s almost as if they discussed this beforehand! Oh wait, they did. Nevermind.
John’s presentation was especially interesting for an amateur archaeologist such as I. I may have mentioned previously that I worked at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum for 6 years before I started my career at SAS. Those were some of the happiest, most blissful years of my life. It’s a wonderful thing to be surrounded by one’s passion, and I had the good fortune to live my dream every day. I hinted earlier that statistics and I were not good friends. We have a healthy respect for each other, but know to stay out of each other’s way, for the most part. The same can be said for chemistry… hence my inability to pursue my dream career of archaeology. At any rate, John’s talk happily married my past and my present by presenting a case study around dental decay which hoped to prove – or disprove – whether the particular feature in question could be used as a reliable dating technique. I was absolutely hooked. Thanks for helping me relive (and to a degree, rekindle) the passion, John.
Next to last, we come to Chris Battiston, the ‘wunderkind’ of the SAS world this past year and my personal SAS hero. Chris has been working with SAS for less than a year, but has established himself as a true force in the SAS Canada Community – you may know him better as the Darth Vader-visaged, blogger extreme in that space – and as of the past meeting, a fledgling member of the Health user group executive committee. Did I mention he’s also a Section Chair for NESUG, the large regional SAS user group? Chris’ energy, enthusiasm and boundless excitement is infectious and inspiring. He was in fine form in delivering what was to be his first SAS Canada user group presentation, ‘Wake Up Your Data with SAS Graph’n Go’. I loved this talk. Simple, accessible and interesting… and delivered with the charm and polish of a veteran public speaker. Methinks we haven’t seen the last of Chris as a presenter (at least, I hope so!).
The final presentation was delivered by Paul Cascagnette of ICES. I’ve been aware of Paul for a while: formerly based in Saskatoon, I’d hoped to have him speak at a meeting there before his relocation to Toronto. Circumstance ensured that we missed each other a few times… I was beginning to think he was the real-life version of Polkaroo from Polka Dot Door. Wow, just dated myself. Suffice it to say, his talk was worth the wait! He offered a great discussion of how to appropriately use simulations in SAS. I joked at the meeting that I was a little nervous as he had close to 50 slides and only 20 minutes to present! He was able to get through just fine, though, and I think we all learned a lot about trial, error and complexity which we hadn’t considered previously. Great to finally meet you Paul!
Lunch afterwards was a relaxed and engaging affair as always. It was a bit of a blast from the past and a foreshadowing of the future as we were joined by Tim Trussell of SAS who helped found the group in his previous role as the User Group Program Manager as well as Issa Guindo also of SAS who will be certainly be contributing more in the near future. A great time was had by all!
My final observation: creativity is a funny thing. I’ve wanted to write this blog post for a while, but hadn’t found the time or the right words. Here I sit in an airplane 25,000 feet above northeastern Ontario en route to Quebec for the last time this year and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s come out. It must be something in the air (other than me). I’ll have more on the two meetings I’m attending – one in Quebec, one in Montreal – over the next few days (fingers crossed).
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
In the Club: SAS meets in la ville de Québec
I've said it before and I'll say it again: God, I love Québec. Whether it's having the chance to wander the streets of vieux Québec while feeling transported a continent - and a few centuries - away, enjoying the chance to practice my French once again or wondering just how many attendees would grace us with their presence at the Club d'utilisateurs SAS de Québec this time.... c'est toujours une experience exceptionnelle.
Today proved to be no exception to the rule. Almost 100 SAS users from a wide variety of industries, organizations and backgrounds came together for an afternoon of learning and networking on the campus of the Université de Laval. Once again, SAS Canada showed up in numbers as well! Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa and of course the ville de Québec were all well represented. It was great to see so many of my colleagues take an interest in the growth of the user groups and rekindle relationships with the attendees.
The meeting itself was the result of a lot of hard work and perseverance. As I did last year around this time, I'd like to take a moment to single out M. Jean Hardy for his contribution. Jean has experienced personal challenges around the last two fall meetings; both times, he was heavily involved as a presenter or as a facilitator. As he has done previously, Jean ensured that his contribution went ahead as planned. My respect and admiration for him has growth appreciably given the difficult circumstances of his participation. Jean led an 'éspace participatif': an open discussion forum to share Enteprise Guide-related tips and tricks for editing and creating SAS tables within this environment. Contributions were solicited in advance... and I must say, I was overwhelmed by the response. It's a hallmark of the strength of the community that not only did over 10 individuals volunteer their own tricks - and explained them at the meeting - but the discussion was so robust, this section of the meeting had to end early! It's always gratifying and refreshing for me to see this level of support amongst SAS users in a community, it's what these user group meetings and online efforts like the SAS Canada Community are all about. Merci pour tes efforts, Jean: ils étaient bien reçus.
The agenda also featured Carolyn Cunnison of SAS Canada. I am perpetually in awe of Carolyn's ability to command la langue de Molière easily and with great poise. I'm even more in awe of how accessible she makes very complex topics... and this meeting was no different. Carolyn discussed the rationale behind creating OLAP cubes and demonstrated how to do so... with a hint as to the power and utility of them as well. Truly inspiring stuff: the power of cubes is remarkable for looking at data in multiple dimensions and deriving meaningful, valuable insight. I found myself wanting to know more and more... hey, I think there are some courses around this and other BI-related topics, perhaps my next training path addition when (if) I find some time!
Finally, the amazingly named Jean-François Ducré-Robitaille offered us a talk around 'l'utilisation de SAS dans un environnement intranet multiplateforme'... which for the non-French speakers reading this blog sums up as 'amazingly cool Flash-based live graphical representations of data using SAS'. What a finish to an outstanding day's worth of talks! JF is a fantastically gifted speaker; you can actually view a video interview I conducted with him in the SAS Canada Community to get a sense of how natural and well-spoken he can be. As an aside, you'll also find an interview I conducted with Jean Hardy and club président Louis-René Rheault in the same space... well worth a view! At any rate, JF has joined the ranks of the 'bravest of the brave' by attempting - successfully! - a live demo in the midst of a presentation. Given the 'oohs' and 'aahs' emenating from the crowd, I'm pretty sure everyone had the same reaction as I. In a word, WOW. Thanks JF for a very enlightening talk!
Although I've enjoyed myself here in Québec, I must confess to being a little annoyed. I haven't been able to satisfy my craving from what is the Worlds. Best. Poutine (no, I'm not telling you where, stop asking!). My delightful dinner this evening was lovely but not the proper time or place... and a 9:00am flight precludes me grabbing some on this trip, I'm afraid. Fortunately I'll be back here in Québec in just a few weeks for the Forum analytique SAS de Québec. I'm looking forward to seeing many friends once again... as I said at the beginning of this post, I just can't get enough of this city!
As I wing my way homewards I have one final meeting to prepare for this week; the Health User Group in Toronto. I'll have more on this meeting late on Friday. Merci, Québec pour votre hospitalité!
À la prochaine...
Today proved to be no exception to the rule. Almost 100 SAS users from a wide variety of industries, organizations and backgrounds came together for an afternoon of learning and networking on the campus of the Université de Laval. Once again, SAS Canada showed up in numbers as well! Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa and of course the ville de Québec were all well represented. It was great to see so many of my colleagues take an interest in the growth of the user groups and rekindle relationships with the attendees.
The meeting itself was the result of a lot of hard work and perseverance. As I did last year around this time, I'd like to take a moment to single out M. Jean Hardy for his contribution. Jean has experienced personal challenges around the last two fall meetings; both times, he was heavily involved as a presenter or as a facilitator. As he has done previously, Jean ensured that his contribution went ahead as planned. My respect and admiration for him has growth appreciably given the difficult circumstances of his participation. Jean led an 'éspace participatif': an open discussion forum to share Enteprise Guide-related tips and tricks for editing and creating SAS tables within this environment. Contributions were solicited in advance... and I must say, I was overwhelmed by the response. It's a hallmark of the strength of the community that not only did over 10 individuals volunteer their own tricks - and explained them at the meeting - but the discussion was so robust, this section of the meeting had to end early! It's always gratifying and refreshing for me to see this level of support amongst SAS users in a community, it's what these user group meetings and online efforts like the SAS Canada Community are all about. Merci pour tes efforts, Jean: ils étaient bien reçus.
The agenda also featured Carolyn Cunnison of SAS Canada. I am perpetually in awe of Carolyn's ability to command la langue de Molière easily and with great poise. I'm even more in awe of how accessible she makes very complex topics... and this meeting was no different. Carolyn discussed the rationale behind creating OLAP cubes and demonstrated how to do so... with a hint as to the power and utility of them as well. Truly inspiring stuff: the power of cubes is remarkable for looking at data in multiple dimensions and deriving meaningful, valuable insight. I found myself wanting to know more and more... hey, I think there are some courses around this and other BI-related topics, perhaps my next training path addition when (if) I find some time!
Finally, the amazingly named Jean-François Ducré-Robitaille offered us a talk around 'l'utilisation de SAS dans un environnement intranet multiplateforme'... which for the non-French speakers reading this blog sums up as 'amazingly cool Flash-based live graphical representations of data using SAS'. What a finish to an outstanding day's worth of talks! JF is a fantastically gifted speaker; you can actually view a video interview I conducted with him in the SAS Canada Community to get a sense of how natural and well-spoken he can be. As an aside, you'll also find an interview I conducted with Jean Hardy and club président Louis-René Rheault in the same space... well worth a view! At any rate, JF has joined the ranks of the 'bravest of the brave' by attempting - successfully! - a live demo in the midst of a presentation. Given the 'oohs' and 'aahs' emenating from the crowd, I'm pretty sure everyone had the same reaction as I. In a word, WOW. Thanks JF for a very enlightening talk!
Although I've enjoyed myself here in Québec, I must confess to being a little annoyed. I haven't been able to satisfy my craving from what is the Worlds. Best. Poutine (no, I'm not telling you where, stop asking!). My delightful dinner this evening was lovely but not the proper time or place... and a 9:00am flight precludes me grabbing some on this trip, I'm afraid. Fortunately I'll be back here in Québec in just a few weeks for the Forum analytique SAS de Québec. I'm looking forward to seeing many friends once again... as I said at the beginning of this post, I just can't get enough of this city!
As I wing my way homewards I have one final meeting to prepare for this week; the Health User Group in Toronto. I'll have more on this meeting late on Friday. Merci, Québec pour votre hospitalité!
À la prochaine...
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
SAS Leads the Charge in Montréal
I'm sitting at Trudeau Airport, sorry to be leaving the beautiful city of Montréal... yet heartened because I'll be returning here in just a few short weeks' time for the Montréal Business Analytics Forum meeting. I'll be blogging shortly about my expectations around that meeting - as a teaser, a phenomenal agenda is driving HUGE registration - in an upcoming blog post on the SAS Canada Community... but for now, how about I stick on topic and discuss the wonderful experience which was today's MONSUG meeting.
In terms of leadership, Montréal is fortunate to have two very strong individuals working well together to ensure that each MONSUG meeting meets the diverse expectations of the knowledgeable membership. Primarily a group focused on programming topics, Eric Lacombe & Mathieu Gaouette elected to look outside the group's comfort zone for this most recent meeting. No, they didn't wear their Maple Leafs jerseys (come on guys, let the world know your dark secret: it's liberating to love the Leafs! ;)). Rather, they chose to feature an 'all-SAS staff' agenda at the meeting... and not only that, to showcase several topics which had not been as favourably received as programming-heavy topics in meetings past.
First-time MONSUG presenter (and new SAS employee) Seng Tang was the catalyst for this risk... and perhaps didn't realize it at the time, which may have been best for all. With a relaxed, approachable demeanour and wonderful self-deprecating sense of humour, Seng walked the audience through an unfamiliar element of SAS which they embraced with the fervour they tend to reserve for programming-based talks. His presentation focused on data mining: more specifically, decision trees, the rationale behind their use and their strengths and weaknesses. This was done from within the context of the Enterprise Miner environment which was certainly unfamiliar to many attendees. I think it's fair to say that Seng knocked it out of the park. Questions flew fast and furious as he concluded, and the room seemed to really gravitate towards the subject matter. Their questions were relevant and belied a curiosity about the power of data mining which was certainly most pleasant to hear! My colleague Sylvain Tremblay, a data mining expert and SAS instructor, was able to lend his expertise to the conversation which helped ensure that all inquiries were addressed appropriately.
Not to be outdone, SAS' own André Lafreniere stepped up to offer another forward-looking topic: that of the 'strategie mobile BI de SAS'. I've seen André give a version of this talk a few times previously and while I knew the quality of his talk, I was curious to see how - or if - the audience would appreciate a presentation which featured very little in the way of code. André painted a picture of the wave of the future: remote access of SAS business analytics processes, analysis and reports. I'm always amazed to see how dramatically far business has come in terms of this mobile presence. There's an expression which I picked up off of Twitter which I think captures how far mobile technology has come in recent years. In the 1960's, we launched mankind to the moon with less power than can be found in today's mobile phones. Somewhat tongue in cheek, the poster also commented that today, using more computing power, we launch birds at pigs a la Angry Birds. That being as it may, André did a great job of demonstrating how the complexities of an analytical environment can now be found on a tablet or smartphone... and gave us all a small peek as to what's to come. As an unrepentant social media junkie, I was enthralled... especially by the prospect of accessing the power of SAS' social media analytics software over mobile. Drool.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention our third of four presenters; leading by example, Mathieu Gaouette of the MONSUG executive 'dynamic duo' offered a succinct - yet revealing - book review. His walkthrough gave just enough information to intrigue the audience about the book. As Mathieu noted, Amazon had actually sold out of the Pocket SAS Reference Guide at the time of his talk, so I suppose the MONSUG audience weren't the only ones! Magnanimously, Mathieu donated a copy for the prize draw at the end of the meeting: truly a hallmark of leadership if I ever saw one. Mathieu, you're a gentleman and a scholar; may your shadow never grow dim.
Finally, we come to the star of the show: Mr. Laki Kourakis, SAS Canada's Education Manager. The MONSUG executive committee and I have been trying for what feels like years to bring Laki to Montréal from Ottawa to present at MONSUG. Scheduling issues, SAS emergencies and life itself have all conspired to get in the way... until now. It was great to see Laki re-connecting with many SAS users who he himself had taught in the Montréal community (including executive members Eric and Mathieu). His talk was truly the glue which bound the meeting together. The hour-long presentation offered a deep dive into efficiencies in SAS particular with respect to macros and stored processes. Using actual resources from SAS courses, Laki was comfortable and relaxed in his talk. He gave off the air of someone who was a true master of the subject. The talk itself was layered in levels of complexity; from the traditional macro to the flexibility offered by the more contemporary stored processes, I believe everyone in the room picked up a trick or two: I know I did! I know have a much better idea of how and when to use 'when' statements, for one thing. I do believe I speak for everyone when I say 'thank-you, Laki'! Though it was years in the making, the material in the talk certainly made it well worth the wait.
Of course, MONSUG isn't MONSUG until I've had a chance to share some good conversation, some great laughs and some serious introspection (OK, maybe not this last one so much) over le fameux MONSUG-burger with the executive committee and guest speakers. It's always a bittersweet moment for me as I generally won't see my colleagues in Montréal for a while... however, as I mentioned, I'm fortunate enough to be returning in a few weeks time!
For those of you wishing to view the presentations to either see what you missed or refresh your memories from earlier today, the talks will all be posted shortly at the MONSUG website. In the meantime, I have positive things to look forward to: Eric and Mathieu broached the subject of taping a video interview such as those found on the SAS Canada Community (which I dearly love producing). Looks like I'll have yet another chance to practice my French, which is great news! I truly do feel as if the Montréal SAS community has embraced (or at least, tolerated) me... and it's great to see such strong support amongst the MONSUG group and beyond.
I'm off to le ville de Québec now for their user group meeting. With over 100 registered, it promises to be a great one as well. I hope to have more on it tomorrow evening...
Until then...
In terms of leadership, Montréal is fortunate to have two very strong individuals working well together to ensure that each MONSUG meeting meets the diverse expectations of the knowledgeable membership. Primarily a group focused on programming topics, Eric Lacombe & Mathieu Gaouette elected to look outside the group's comfort zone for this most recent meeting. No, they didn't wear their Maple Leafs jerseys (come on guys, let the world know your dark secret: it's liberating to love the Leafs! ;)). Rather, they chose to feature an 'all-SAS staff' agenda at the meeting... and not only that, to showcase several topics which had not been as favourably received as programming-heavy topics in meetings past.
First-time MONSUG presenter (and new SAS employee) Seng Tang was the catalyst for this risk... and perhaps didn't realize it at the time, which may have been best for all. With a relaxed, approachable demeanour and wonderful self-deprecating sense of humour, Seng walked the audience through an unfamiliar element of SAS which they embraced with the fervour they tend to reserve for programming-based talks. His presentation focused on data mining: more specifically, decision trees, the rationale behind their use and their strengths and weaknesses. This was done from within the context of the Enterprise Miner environment which was certainly unfamiliar to many attendees. I think it's fair to say that Seng knocked it out of the park. Questions flew fast and furious as he concluded, and the room seemed to really gravitate towards the subject matter. Their questions were relevant and belied a curiosity about the power of data mining which was certainly most pleasant to hear! My colleague Sylvain Tremblay, a data mining expert and SAS instructor, was able to lend his expertise to the conversation which helped ensure that all inquiries were addressed appropriately.
Not to be outdone, SAS' own André Lafreniere stepped up to offer another forward-looking topic: that of the 'strategie mobile BI de SAS'. I've seen André give a version of this talk a few times previously and while I knew the quality of his talk, I was curious to see how - or if - the audience would appreciate a presentation which featured very little in the way of code. André painted a picture of the wave of the future: remote access of SAS business analytics processes, analysis and reports. I'm always amazed to see how dramatically far business has come in terms of this mobile presence. There's an expression which I picked up off of Twitter which I think captures how far mobile technology has come in recent years. In the 1960's, we launched mankind to the moon with less power than can be found in today's mobile phones. Somewhat tongue in cheek, the poster also commented that today, using more computing power, we launch birds at pigs a la Angry Birds. That being as it may, André did a great job of demonstrating how the complexities of an analytical environment can now be found on a tablet or smartphone... and gave us all a small peek as to what's to come. As an unrepentant social media junkie, I was enthralled... especially by the prospect of accessing the power of SAS' social media analytics software over mobile. Drool.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention our third of four presenters; leading by example, Mathieu Gaouette of the MONSUG executive 'dynamic duo' offered a succinct - yet revealing - book review. His walkthrough gave just enough information to intrigue the audience about the book. As Mathieu noted, Amazon had actually sold out of the Pocket SAS Reference Guide at the time of his talk, so I suppose the MONSUG audience weren't the only ones! Magnanimously, Mathieu donated a copy for the prize draw at the end of the meeting: truly a hallmark of leadership if I ever saw one. Mathieu, you're a gentleman and a scholar; may your shadow never grow dim.
Finally, we come to the star of the show: Mr. Laki Kourakis, SAS Canada's Education Manager. The MONSUG executive committee and I have been trying for what feels like years to bring Laki to Montréal from Ottawa to present at MONSUG. Scheduling issues, SAS emergencies and life itself have all conspired to get in the way... until now. It was great to see Laki re-connecting with many SAS users who he himself had taught in the Montréal community (including executive members Eric and Mathieu). His talk was truly the glue which bound the meeting together. The hour-long presentation offered a deep dive into efficiencies in SAS particular with respect to macros and stored processes. Using actual resources from SAS courses, Laki was comfortable and relaxed in his talk. He gave off the air of someone who was a true master of the subject. The talk itself was layered in levels of complexity; from the traditional macro to the flexibility offered by the more contemporary stored processes, I believe everyone in the room picked up a trick or two: I know I did! I know have a much better idea of how and when to use 'when' statements, for one thing. I do believe I speak for everyone when I say 'thank-you, Laki'! Though it was years in the making, the material in the talk certainly made it well worth the wait.
Of course, MONSUG isn't MONSUG until I've had a chance to share some good conversation, some great laughs and some serious introspection (OK, maybe not this last one so much) over le fameux MONSUG-burger with the executive committee and guest speakers. It's always a bittersweet moment for me as I generally won't see my colleagues in Montréal for a while... however, as I mentioned, I'm fortunate enough to be returning in a few weeks time!
For those of you wishing to view the presentations to either see what you missed or refresh your memories from earlier today, the talks will all be posted shortly at the MONSUG website. In the meantime, I have positive things to look forward to: Eric and Mathieu broached the subject of taping a video interview such as those found on the SAS Canada Community (which I dearly love producing). Looks like I'll have yet another chance to practice my French, which is great news! I truly do feel as if the Montréal SAS community has embraced (or at least, tolerated) me... and it's great to see such strong support amongst the MONSUG group and beyond.
I'm off to le ville de Québec now for their user group meeting. With over 100 registered, it promises to be a great one as well. I hope to have more on it tomorrow evening...
Until then...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
A Full House in the City That Gretzky Helped Build
Perhaps you’ve realized through my blog postings that I’m a little hockey-obsessed. I usually have a reference around this most Canadian of pastimes somewhere in my ramblings. In Edmonton, however, I had a true partner in crime: SAS Global Forum 2012 Chair Andrew Kuligowski, possibly the greatest admirer of the frozen game south of the 49th parallel. Such is our passion that we had attempted a month in advance of our trip to secure tickets to the Oilers/Canucks game fortuitously taking place during our brief time in Edmonton. How stupid of us. The ticket costs were through the roof: as a lifetime Leafs fan, the prices were much more in line with a typical game at the Air Canada Centre in my home city than what I had expected to pay in northern Alberta. I suppose it’s because the Oilers were playing their greatest rivals after the cross-province Calgary Flames in the boys from mainland BC. Nevertheless, Andy and I enjoyed watching the match and chatting over dinner as well as a beer or two. Edmonton’s looking good: their young guns are firing and it surely won’t be long before the city celebrates a dynasty the likes of Gretzky and Co. in the 1980s.
But on to matters of greater interest to those reading this blog; the eSUG SAS users group meeting. Edmonton has quickly established itself as a large, vocal and ever-growing community of SAS users. There is a well-rounded roster of attendees for our meetings in this northern city. Financial institutions, government – especially ministries and agencies with a health focus – as well as consultants and academia form a mélange of types of SAS usage and degrees of expertise. Under the leadership of Doug Dover, the executive committee is extremely engaged and well-respected within the community. Always willing to step up and offer a talk if necessary as individuals, the team is notable for how well they work together as a group as well. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t give a nod to an important element that they bring to the table: fun. Laughs are plentiful and conversations are punctuated by puns, self-deprecating jabs and humour.
As a SAS employee, I also found this to be a remarkable meeting. The western groups are always well-attended by SAS staff from a variety of departments, but this one was particularly impressive. Teammates of mine from Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg were all there. Including myself, we managed to cover 4 time zones worth of SAS offices! I’m always grateful for the support they offer, and the eSUG meeting was no exception. It was nice to see users connecting with people I work with daily and get to see only rarely in person.
In terms of the meeting itself, again, Edmonton distinguished itself as a class above in many respects. As Doug Dover mentioned as meeting’s end, we actually had to turn away a local presenter for the fall meeting! This is a wonderful problem to have and it demonstrates the willingness of the community to support each other through sharing their SAS knowledge with each other. I’m hoping this collaborative nature will carry on until the next meeting, perhaps through the SAS Canada Community.
The meeting agenda was extremely varied as well. Talks around parsing unusual formats, scraping information from the internet using SAS, logistic regression and arrays were all offered for the eSUG attendees consumption. I haven’t had a chance to go through the evaluation forms yet, but judging from the buzz in the room, they were certainly appreciated. I think the variety of topics suited the audience quite well: each presenter had questions asked of them either publicly or offline which is always a good sign that an agenda has been thought-provoking. You can judge for yourself by having a look at the presentations which were offered within the presentation archive on the eSUG website; they'll be posted there shortly. At the end of the day, these meetings are designed to support SAS users and help them to grow in their knowledge; I would say this meeting achieved that goal with ease. I hope that the 70+ attendees feel the same way.
A personal highlight was that almost every single guest speaker and executive member joined us for lunch afterwards. The conversation at the table was certainly stimulating: I learned about acupuncture and that some meats were considered ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ and should be eaten when the opposite temperature was predominant. I chatted about the merits of vacationing in Corsica, the prevalence of live crabs on flights around China, and further cemented the bonds of friendship and collaboration which make this group so special. It was a real pleasure to enjoy the hospitality of Edmonton once again. I'm wistfully aware that I won’t be winging my way westwards for another year: I suppose the anticipation of my next visit will have to hold me over until the spring. I’m glad I was able to renew acquaintances with many people I haven’t seen in a while as well as chat face-to-face with folks I’ve only been able to recently liaise with in an online capacity. This was the final road trip which necessitated changing my watch for the fall/winter user group season, so it’s with bittersweet feelings that I sign off on this particular blog. It's always nice to be home, but I do enjoy connecting with SAS users and experiencing other parts of the country and seeing how SAS is used by friends and strangers alike.
Andy Kuligowski is soldiering on to Halifax for their user group meeting this Friday – Andy, when do you sleep? And I’m sure he’ll have a fabulous time. Next up for me: la belle province, as I visit Montreal and la ville de Quebec in mid-November. I’ll be sure to be back with updates and stories from what promise to be some great meetings.
Until then…
But on to matters of greater interest to those reading this blog; the eSUG SAS users group meeting. Edmonton has quickly established itself as a large, vocal and ever-growing community of SAS users. There is a well-rounded roster of attendees for our meetings in this northern city. Financial institutions, government – especially ministries and agencies with a health focus – as well as consultants and academia form a mélange of types of SAS usage and degrees of expertise. Under the leadership of Doug Dover, the executive committee is extremely engaged and well-respected within the community. Always willing to step up and offer a talk if necessary as individuals, the team is notable for how well they work together as a group as well. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t give a nod to an important element that they bring to the table: fun. Laughs are plentiful and conversations are punctuated by puns, self-deprecating jabs and humour.
As a SAS employee, I also found this to be a remarkable meeting. The western groups are always well-attended by SAS staff from a variety of departments, but this one was particularly impressive. Teammates of mine from Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg were all there. Including myself, we managed to cover 4 time zones worth of SAS offices! I’m always grateful for the support they offer, and the eSUG meeting was no exception. It was nice to see users connecting with people I work with daily and get to see only rarely in person.
In terms of the meeting itself, again, Edmonton distinguished itself as a class above in many respects. As Doug Dover mentioned as meeting’s end, we actually had to turn away a local presenter for the fall meeting! This is a wonderful problem to have and it demonstrates the willingness of the community to support each other through sharing their SAS knowledge with each other. I’m hoping this collaborative nature will carry on until the next meeting, perhaps through the SAS Canada Community.
The meeting agenda was extremely varied as well. Talks around parsing unusual formats, scraping information from the internet using SAS, logistic regression and arrays were all offered for the eSUG attendees consumption. I haven’t had a chance to go through the evaluation forms yet, but judging from the buzz in the room, they were certainly appreciated. I think the variety of topics suited the audience quite well: each presenter had questions asked of them either publicly or offline which is always a good sign that an agenda has been thought-provoking. You can judge for yourself by having a look at the presentations which were offered within the presentation archive on the eSUG website; they'll be posted there shortly. At the end of the day, these meetings are designed to support SAS users and help them to grow in their knowledge; I would say this meeting achieved that goal with ease. I hope that the 70+ attendees feel the same way.
A personal highlight was that almost every single guest speaker and executive member joined us for lunch afterwards. The conversation at the table was certainly stimulating: I learned about acupuncture and that some meats were considered ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ and should be eaten when the opposite temperature was predominant. I chatted about the merits of vacationing in Corsica, the prevalence of live crabs on flights around China, and further cemented the bonds of friendship and collaboration which make this group so special. It was a real pleasure to enjoy the hospitality of Edmonton once again. I'm wistfully aware that I won’t be winging my way westwards for another year: I suppose the anticipation of my next visit will have to hold me over until the spring. I’m glad I was able to renew acquaintances with many people I haven’t seen in a while as well as chat face-to-face with folks I’ve only been able to recently liaise with in an online capacity. This was the final road trip which necessitated changing my watch for the fall/winter user group season, so it’s with bittersweet feelings that I sign off on this particular blog. It's always nice to be home, but I do enjoy connecting with SAS users and experiencing other parts of the country and seeing how SAS is used by friends and strangers alike.
Andy Kuligowski is soldiering on to Halifax for their user group meeting this Friday – Andy, when do you sleep? And I’m sure he’ll have a fabulous time. Next up for me: la belle province, as I visit Montreal and la ville de Quebec in mid-November. I’ll be sure to be back with updates and stories from what promise to be some great meetings.
Until then…
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Blue Skies in Calgary
Today was a wonderful day in Calgary for many reasons. The air was crisp, cool and clean... wait a minute, that sounds uncomfortably close to a 7Up ad from the 80s. Unlike the ad, my day was certainly full of caffeine: liquid adrenaline fuel for an early morning meeting and greeting SAS users in the first of two Alberta meetings. More on that in a minute.
I arrived Monday afternoon and was very happy to spend some time with Mr. Andrew Kuligowski, the Chair of SAS Global Forum 2012. It's always a pleasure to spend time with such a knowledgeable SAS user... and a hockey fan to boot! I think it's fair to say that perhaps the only thing Andy knows better than SAS is hockey. Coming from the depths of sunny Florida, this is truly impressive... as is the fact that he's a season-ticket holder for his beloved Tampa Bay Lightning. I wish my Leafs were as exciting a team as his boys, but hey: it's a long season, no? I suppose Andy comes by his love and passion honestly as he spent his formative years cheering on the Sabres in chilly Buffalo. Just don't mention Brett Hull or his infamous Twitter picture to him, whatever you do.
Beyond catching up, Andy and I did quite a bit of talking about the SGF conference taking place at the end of April in his home state of Florida. I can't let anything out of the bag, but I can tell you that he's revealing some exciting announcements at the user group meetings this week. He's already divulged the identity of one of the keynote speakers, with more to come. Andy has promised me that he'll be trying to capture all of the sentiments in a blog on the SAS Canada Community shortly, so stay tuned there for more.
Tuesday morning I awoke bright and early - OK, early, at any rate - for a 5:00am wake-up call to prep for CSUG. Personally, I find this to be a wonderful group of folks. I've remarked several times before that I have great relationships through social media channels with a few individuals. Interestingly enough, many of them are in western Canada and 3 of them in particular are in Calgary. It was great to connect face-to-face with some folks who I know through sporadic bursts of 140 characters. The rest of the group is engaged, inquisitive and thoughtful. It was great to see a whole new segment of users attend the meeting; perhaps drawn by the talks to be offered or perhaps the proximity of the meeting. Regardless, it was wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces.
After my own SAS 9.3 and support options talk, Andy Kuligowski was unleashed on the audience. I say unleashed as it's the only word which can adequately describe the massive amount of SAS knowledge which he tries to convey to an unsuspecting group on a regular basis... and this was no exception. I wager that Andy has forgotten more SAS techniques than I've ever learned, and over the years, I've picked up quite a few! The whole room vacillated between grins, guffaws and groans as he led us on a rollercoaster ride through parsing unusual data formats with the help of SAS. I gathered that his talk intrigued or inspired enough folks in the room to want to know more as he was surrounded at the break and peppered with questions from a few CSUG members.
Our second presentation was from CSUG President Malcolm Macrae. Malcolm is a great guy and a fascinating individual. He's a great leader for the Calgary group posessing equal parts dedication, inspiration and vision. Having just returned from a risk management event in Banff, he had plenty to offer in terms of insight and observations not only on the event itself but the SAS world in general. His talk on SVG from SAS prompted a few questions from the audience as well - always a sign that a talk has been well-received. It recalled to mind the talk given by Vicki Tagore in Saskatoon a few weeks ago on PROC GCHART. While the methodology was different, Malcolm's talk offered a practical, SAS code-based method for surfacing dynamic and visual results in an .html environment as a method of sharing insight with the statistically challenged (no need to name names, especially when that name is my own!). I think everyone walked away with a little more insight into how SAS could surface data visually in a way they had not thought of previously. Malcolm was also good enough to provide the code he used, and I'll be posting that Friday on the CSUG website.
Finally, Marc Smith of SAS Canada wrapped up the presentations with a great overview of how an organization could move from data quality to a true master data management environment. Marc was a brave soul as well, actually demo-ing the DataFlux Management Console at the meeting... and flawlessly, I might add! I'm a big fan of clean data (OK, some might say I'm borderline obsessed) so I always enjoy seeing DataFlux-related material. Marc's expertise in this area truly shone through: it was clear to everyone that he was speaking from a perspective punctuated by experience. I for one really enjoyed the talk, and I think the group did as well.
In terms of community, I learned a few new things about the CSUG group and the executive in particular. 2 of the 3 members of the existing team mentioned how they currently or recently volunteered in the Calgary community, and shared some interesting stories around their experiences. I always like to hear about people getting involved to help others: perhaps it has to do with my own outlook, my upbringing... and in no small way, the role I play within SAS Canada. It was also gratifying to me that several of the attendees of the meeting went out of their way to share how they were working to support SAS within their environments and beyond: to me, Calgary boasts a few frontrunners for the SAS Customer Value Award! I heard stories around efforts being made to increase SAS' exposure in academic institutions and beyond, and it wasn't SAS Canada sales representatives doing the talking. It was CSUG members who loved and believed in the power of SAS, which honestly made me swell with happiness and pride.
I also came to appreciate how dedicated the group is to supporting each other outside the confines of a CSUG meeting. Emails were exchanged, LinkedIn contacts shared, and business cards were flying. In fact, some of the most genuine networking I've seen in quite some time took place within the meeting, and I'm thrilled that so many folks found value in connecting with each other. I hope the conversations will continue until the next meeting in the spring and beyond.
As I sit here in Edmonton preparing for tomorrow's user group meeting, I find my thoughts going back to the Executive Committee of CSUG and all the amazing work they've put in. Malcolm, Mussie, Chenchen: thank you all for your wonderful efforts. The real benefactors of your dedication and commitment to the SAS user community are your fellow Calgarians. I can't wait to see you all again and enjoy the wonderful hospitality of your city in the spring of 2012.
Until then...
I arrived Monday afternoon and was very happy to spend some time with Mr. Andrew Kuligowski, the Chair of SAS Global Forum 2012. It's always a pleasure to spend time with such a knowledgeable SAS user... and a hockey fan to boot! I think it's fair to say that perhaps the only thing Andy knows better than SAS is hockey. Coming from the depths of sunny Florida, this is truly impressive... as is the fact that he's a season-ticket holder for his beloved Tampa Bay Lightning. I wish my Leafs were as exciting a team as his boys, but hey: it's a long season, no? I suppose Andy comes by his love and passion honestly as he spent his formative years cheering on the Sabres in chilly Buffalo. Just don't mention Brett Hull or his infamous Twitter picture to him, whatever you do.
Beyond catching up, Andy and I did quite a bit of talking about the SGF conference taking place at the end of April in his home state of Florida. I can't let anything out of the bag, but I can tell you that he's revealing some exciting announcements at the user group meetings this week. He's already divulged the identity of one of the keynote speakers, with more to come. Andy has promised me that he'll be trying to capture all of the sentiments in a blog on the SAS Canada Community shortly, so stay tuned there for more.
Tuesday morning I awoke bright and early - OK, early, at any rate - for a 5:00am wake-up call to prep for CSUG. Personally, I find this to be a wonderful group of folks. I've remarked several times before that I have great relationships through social media channels with a few individuals. Interestingly enough, many of them are in western Canada and 3 of them in particular are in Calgary. It was great to connect face-to-face with some folks who I know through sporadic bursts of 140 characters. The rest of the group is engaged, inquisitive and thoughtful. It was great to see a whole new segment of users attend the meeting; perhaps drawn by the talks to be offered or perhaps the proximity of the meeting. Regardless, it was wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces.
After my own SAS 9.3 and support options talk, Andy Kuligowski was unleashed on the audience. I say unleashed as it's the only word which can adequately describe the massive amount of SAS knowledge which he tries to convey to an unsuspecting group on a regular basis... and this was no exception. I wager that Andy has forgotten more SAS techniques than I've ever learned, and over the years, I've picked up quite a few! The whole room vacillated between grins, guffaws and groans as he led us on a rollercoaster ride through parsing unusual data formats with the help of SAS. I gathered that his talk intrigued or inspired enough folks in the room to want to know more as he was surrounded at the break and peppered with questions from a few CSUG members.
Our second presentation was from CSUG President Malcolm Macrae. Malcolm is a great guy and a fascinating individual. He's a great leader for the Calgary group posessing equal parts dedication, inspiration and vision. Having just returned from a risk management event in Banff, he had plenty to offer in terms of insight and observations not only on the event itself but the SAS world in general. His talk on SVG from SAS prompted a few questions from the audience as well - always a sign that a talk has been well-received. It recalled to mind the talk given by Vicki Tagore in Saskatoon a few weeks ago on PROC GCHART. While the methodology was different, Malcolm's talk offered a practical, SAS code-based method for surfacing dynamic and visual results in an .html environment as a method of sharing insight with the statistically challenged (no need to name names, especially when that name is my own!). I think everyone walked away with a little more insight into how SAS could surface data visually in a way they had not thought of previously. Malcolm was also good enough to provide the code he used, and I'll be posting that Friday on the CSUG website.
Finally, Marc Smith of SAS Canada wrapped up the presentations with a great overview of how an organization could move from data quality to a true master data management environment. Marc was a brave soul as well, actually demo-ing the DataFlux Management Console at the meeting... and flawlessly, I might add! I'm a big fan of clean data (OK, some might say I'm borderline obsessed) so I always enjoy seeing DataFlux-related material. Marc's expertise in this area truly shone through: it was clear to everyone that he was speaking from a perspective punctuated by experience. I for one really enjoyed the talk, and I think the group did as well.
In terms of community, I learned a few new things about the CSUG group and the executive in particular. 2 of the 3 members of the existing team mentioned how they currently or recently volunteered in the Calgary community, and shared some interesting stories around their experiences. I always like to hear about people getting involved to help others: perhaps it has to do with my own outlook, my upbringing... and in no small way, the role I play within SAS Canada. It was also gratifying to me that several of the attendees of the meeting went out of their way to share how they were working to support SAS within their environments and beyond: to me, Calgary boasts a few frontrunners for the SAS Customer Value Award! I heard stories around efforts being made to increase SAS' exposure in academic institutions and beyond, and it wasn't SAS Canada sales representatives doing the talking. It was CSUG members who loved and believed in the power of SAS, which honestly made me swell with happiness and pride.
I also came to appreciate how dedicated the group is to supporting each other outside the confines of a CSUG meeting. Emails were exchanged, LinkedIn contacts shared, and business cards were flying. In fact, some of the most genuine networking I've seen in quite some time took place within the meeting, and I'm thrilled that so many folks found value in connecting with each other. I hope the conversations will continue until the next meeting in the spring and beyond.
As I sit here in Edmonton preparing for tomorrow's user group meeting, I find my thoughts going back to the Executive Committee of CSUG and all the amazing work they've put in. Malcolm, Mussie, Chenchen: thank you all for your wonderful efforts. The real benefactors of your dedication and commitment to the SAS user community are your fellow Calgarians. I can't wait to see you all again and enjoy the wonderful hospitality of your city in the spring of 2012.
Until then...
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Data Mining Meeting Sets the Bar High
We're in the midst of a cold streak here in Toronto, with the Fall season undeniably upon us in spades. Yesterday was a drizzly, wet affair... even more reason to be incredibly pleased with the 130-odd SAS users and data miners who braved the elements to attend the Toronto Data Mining Forum. This group has grown rapidly over the past few years. The increase in interest can be attributed both to the increasing importance of analytics and data management within the dynamic business environment and the tireless efforts of the executive committee to fill the needs of the regular attendees. A big thank-you has to go to Dina Duhon and her whole team for their consistent efforts to deliver high-value presentations for the group.
I can honestly say that yesterday's meeting delivered on this goal. We were fortunate to have incredibly strong presenters. In addition to my 'SAS 9.3 and SAS Support Options' overview, there were 3 compelling talks from some well-known members of the data mining community.
Leading off was long-time SAS supporter Daymond Ling of CIBC. Daymond has offered many talks at user groups and conventions. In fact, I learned over lunch that he has worked with our head office to test SAS products and releases while in development! He has a unique set of skills: as a Senior Manager in Marketing, Daymond offers a keen grasp of business processes and requirements. At the same time, he comes out of a risk management background with a strong technical skill-set at his disposal. In addition, he's a wonderful speaker: his words are well-considered and meaningful with a humerous and relaxed feel. In many ways, he's an ideal speaker! Daymond's talk around 'Segmentation Do's & Don'ts' was amazingly well-received. I myself certainly got a lot out of the talk and from conversations I had with attendees, all of whom found something relevant to their own business in the talk. Questions from the audience were so numerous that we had to hold them in order to ensure we were able to enjoy a networking break.
Our next presenter was Alex Salvas of National Bank. Alex's presence speaks to my earlier comment around how the executive committee was always on the lookout for speakers. Dina had heard a presentation by his group at a risk management conference and approached them to speak at our meeting here in Toronto. Fortunately for us, Alex was happy to represent his group and deliver a thorough and thought-provoking talk. Case studies are often compelling as they lend weight to theory. In sharing National Bank's approach to Practical Data Governance, Alex was able to speak with some authority on a complex and common business need. Confident and collected - meme s'il avait parler en anglais - his talk was also a hit with the group. As a self-confessed data nerd, I found the insight into pulling data from numerous sources in timely fashion for analysis and reporting to be absolutely fascinating. Merci, Alex!
Our final talk of the day was delivered by Derek de Montrichard of CIBC. Following the trend established by the two previous presenters, Derek's talk entitled 'The Curious Complications of Confounding Covariates' was humous and enlightening. It made statistics and the many ways of interpreting them accessible to a broad audience in a down-to-earth, practical way. Through examples and anecdotes Derek successfully demonstrated that data can be tricky to interpret. I think it raised enough questions to give pause to many in the room regarding their own data interpretation practices.
As always, I do like to focus on SAS users coming together within this blog. As I've watched the SAS Canada Community continue to grow, it's a real pleasure to observe how SAS users are supporting each other through the user groups and beyond. The data mining group in particular is one of the best at supporting each other outside the semi-annual meetings which bring everyone together. Alex Salvas' talk was particularly demonstrative of this fact. Not only did he reference a talk on KS previously given by Mark An at the 2010 spring data mining forum, but he in fact credited the talk with prompting internal discussion and change within his own organization. Even better: Mark was on hand to receive very public thanks for his talk! It's this kind of support and collaboration which makes the user groups particularly gratifying as both a SAS user and a program manager.
I can also offer up that the networking activities of this group have continued to result in amazing connections. I heard from many attendees that in addition to the great talks, the networking itself proved to be very valuable as former colleagues caught up and new connections were made. I would be remiss if I didn't indicate that we all had a lot of fun as well.
I'll be on the road next week for the Calgary and Edmonton user groups and I'm sure I'll have great stories to tell when I return.
Until then...
I can honestly say that yesterday's meeting delivered on this goal. We were fortunate to have incredibly strong presenters. In addition to my 'SAS 9.3 and SAS Support Options' overview, there were 3 compelling talks from some well-known members of the data mining community.
Leading off was long-time SAS supporter Daymond Ling of CIBC. Daymond has offered many talks at user groups and conventions. In fact, I learned over lunch that he has worked with our head office to test SAS products and releases while in development! He has a unique set of skills: as a Senior Manager in Marketing, Daymond offers a keen grasp of business processes and requirements. At the same time, he comes out of a risk management background with a strong technical skill-set at his disposal. In addition, he's a wonderful speaker: his words are well-considered and meaningful with a humerous and relaxed feel. In many ways, he's an ideal speaker! Daymond's talk around 'Segmentation Do's & Don'ts' was amazingly well-received. I myself certainly got a lot out of the talk and from conversations I had with attendees, all of whom found something relevant to their own business in the talk. Questions from the audience were so numerous that we had to hold them in order to ensure we were able to enjoy a networking break.
Our next presenter was Alex Salvas of National Bank. Alex's presence speaks to my earlier comment around how the executive committee was always on the lookout for speakers. Dina had heard a presentation by his group at a risk management conference and approached them to speak at our meeting here in Toronto. Fortunately for us, Alex was happy to represent his group and deliver a thorough and thought-provoking talk. Case studies are often compelling as they lend weight to theory. In sharing National Bank's approach to Practical Data Governance, Alex was able to speak with some authority on a complex and common business need. Confident and collected - meme s'il avait parler en anglais - his talk was also a hit with the group. As a self-confessed data nerd, I found the insight into pulling data from numerous sources in timely fashion for analysis and reporting to be absolutely fascinating. Merci, Alex!
Our final talk of the day was delivered by Derek de Montrichard of CIBC. Following the trend established by the two previous presenters, Derek's talk entitled 'The Curious Complications of Confounding Covariates' was humous and enlightening. It made statistics and the many ways of interpreting them accessible to a broad audience in a down-to-earth, practical way. Through examples and anecdotes Derek successfully demonstrated that data can be tricky to interpret. I think it raised enough questions to give pause to many in the room regarding their own data interpretation practices.
As always, I do like to focus on SAS users coming together within this blog. As I've watched the SAS Canada Community continue to grow, it's a real pleasure to observe how SAS users are supporting each other through the user groups and beyond. The data mining group in particular is one of the best at supporting each other outside the semi-annual meetings which bring everyone together. Alex Salvas' talk was particularly demonstrative of this fact. Not only did he reference a talk on KS previously given by Mark An at the 2010 spring data mining forum, but he in fact credited the talk with prompting internal discussion and change within his own organization. Even better: Mark was on hand to receive very public thanks for his talk! It's this kind of support and collaboration which makes the user groups particularly gratifying as both a SAS user and a program manager.
I can also offer up that the networking activities of this group have continued to result in amazing connections. I heard from many attendees that in addition to the great talks, the networking itself proved to be very valuable as former colleagues caught up and new connections were made. I would be remiss if I didn't indicate that we all had a lot of fun as well.
I'll be on the road next week for the Calgary and Edmonton user groups and I'm sure I'll have great stories to tell when I return.
Until then...
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