Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global Forum – Make the Agenda Builder work for you

Sara started it, and I like the idea - the Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global Forum.  My contribution to this unofficial guide is “The Agenda Builder and why it matters to me."  In case you're wondering,  I use it to:

  • Convince my boss that I should attend.  Sure the Dumbo ride at Disney is great, but my boss isn’t really sending me to Orlando for the theme parks.   Use the Agenda Builder to search on the topics that can help your productivity, then print the abstracts and share with your boss as an example of all that you can learn.
  • Figure out how to get around at the conference smoothly.  I simply create and print my agenda in advance and take it with me.  Then when I arrive, I use my printed agenda, which includes the room locations and facility maps to easily locate the presentations that I'd planned to see.  The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort is a beautiful facility – but it’s big, and you don’t want to waste your time wandering around.
  • Create personal events, such as “Meet Sue at Code Doctors at 2 p.m.” If you’ve attended SAS Global Forum before, you're sure to have made friends that you'll want to spend time with again.  Create your own unique, personal events and make the most of your time at the conference.

One last word of advice: The functionality of the Agenda Builder gets better once you've actually registered for the conference.  Anyone can use it to create an agenda that can be built and printed during a single Web browsing session, but only those who are registered for the conference can actually save their agenda for future revisions.  Just another reason to go ahead and register now!

How are you going to use the Agenda Builder to make the most of your conference experience?

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Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global Forum – Ticket Prices

Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global ForumEveryone is looking for a bargain, especially those traveling with their families to Orlando for SAS Global Forum. Orlando is the land of theme parks and attractions, many with hefty ticket prices.

Since I am heading to Orlando in April myself, I have been doing quite a lot of research.

Here are some tips I have found to be helpful: Read More »

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Friday's Innovation Inspiration - Surface complexation modeling

What is surface complexation? Everyday I have to look something up on Google or in the dictionary. For example, do you know what a Cthulhu is? I had to search for that term after I tweeted that I thought a SAS surface plot graph was beautiful. Mike Nemecek from SAS said that I was delusional and compared its beauty to the fictional Cthulhu. Read More »

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Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global Forum

Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global ForumSAS Global Forum 2012 is just around the corner, and even those who have attended for the past 36 years need guidance in what to do and see. I thought it might be good to create a little users guide for the event: A blog series that will showcase some insider tips for the event. It’s called the Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global Forum.

Odd I know, why isn’t it the Official Guide to SAS Global Forum you ask. Well, SAS Global Forum is an event that is run by SAS users. Users who volunteer their time to create an event where you can meet your peers, exchange ideas, hob knob with SAS experts and learn new skills.

So, while I work at SAS and have attended many of the conferences, I am not an official organizer of the event. I do know people, and those people know things, thus the title, Unofficial Official Guide to SAS Global Forum. We are going to bring what we know to this series, and then ask you to add what you know. In that way, you'll find entries with money saving tips, what to expect once you arrive, and perhaps some little known facts about the event and about SAS. I encourage you to share your “insider tips” here as well.

I look forward to seeing you at SAS Global Forum 2012.

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Friday's Innovation Inspiration - Data miners slow churn

Churn is a huge concern for insurers, credit card providers and telecommunications companies - even utilities. This Post-It Note author says that his company has found a way to reduce customer turnover - churn - by 10 percent using SAS Data Miner. Read More »

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It’s YOU not me!

Sadly, SAS did not three-peat as the No. 1 Best Company  to Work For on Fortune’s famous list, but from my point of view, SAS will always be No. 1.

It’s not the Healthcare Center or the Pharmacy on campus. It’s not the daycare or the four cafés, also on campus.  It’s definitely not the M&M’s on Wednesdays, although many of my fellow colleagues might disagree. I don’t even think it’s the fact that I have my own office – yes an office with a door. All of those things will be talked about endlessly in the news this week. Read More »

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SAS users collaborating, improving SAS®

As many of you know, I'm also the Editor of the SAS Tech Report.  For those who don't know what that is, the  SAS Tech Report is a free newsletter published once a month and sent straight to your email inbox. I gather SAS papers, tips and practical information about SAS software and cram it in the newsletter. I also hunt for places where SAS users are gathering to talk about SAS or answer SAS questions. You can subscribe online. Today, I published the first edition of the newsletter for 2012.

In every newsletter, I begin with an Editor's note with information that I consider special. In today's newsletter, I included emails that I'd received in response to the December SAS Tech Report. These emails included ideas or tips from SAS users about ways to improve SAS software. I've gotten another email since the January newsletter mailed (mailed today!!), so I decided to post my Editor's note here so that we could have a broader conversation. Read More »

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Happy New Year!

No, I’m not late posting this - early, actually. The Chinese New Year begins January 23. The 15-day celebration is a time to spend with friends and family and welcome longevity, good fortune, wealth and happiness.

My husband visits China often for work, and some dear friends of ours just moved there a few days ago. Raleigh, North Carolina, where I live, is not necessarily known for its Chinatown, so I am trying to figure out a way to get a taste of the beauty and tradition that China has to offer without flying 20 or more hours. The flight would not be a problem if I didn’t have a 2-year-old, a 6-year-old and, if you put him on a plane for 20 hours, a 35-year-old husband (who would act like my 2-year-old). Read More »

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IFSUG Summit registration now open!

Are you a SAS professional working in the insurance or financial services industry? Are you looking for a place where you can talk with others who work in the those industries? Would you like to get together and network, face-to-face, or share ideas and best practices for using SAS? There is now a SAS Users Group just for you; it's called the Insurance and Finance SAS Users Group (IFSUG). Read More »

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Friday's Innovation Inspiration - Feeling lucky?

It's Friday the 13. That can conjure up all kinds of scary thoughts, or you might consider it a lucky day. Which is it for you? This SAS user doesn't rely on luck or chance with his or her important projects. SAS is used to predict failures and outages! Read More »

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