Will I be in Las Vegas for for SAS Global Forum 2011? "You can bet on it!"

In fact, I will be there and be square, since I am one of the statisticians who will represent SAS Research and Development.

This year, I'm focused on three main activities:

• Presenting a statistical tutorial
• Taking part in activities related to the release of my new book, Statistical Programming with SAS/IML Software
• Talking with and learning from customers who use SAS/IML and SAS/STAT software

For me, the conference starts a day early when I present a pre-conference tutorial:

"Data Simulation for Evaluating Statistical Methods in SAS." The course is chock-full of tips and code snippets that show you how to use SAS software to efficiently sample and simulate. You can use the techniques in my course for simulations of fun topics—such as testing the effectiveness of your Las Vegas betting strategy!—or for practical, work-related simulations, such as determining whether a t test is valid for heavily skewed data.

Although this is my seventh SAS Global Forum conference, it is the first conference for my new book. The book was born out of interactions with customers at previous conferences who asked me "Where can I find a good book about how to program in the SAS/IML language?"
SAS Press will be giving away books during the mixer in the SAS Support and Demo Area on Tuesday, April 5, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

One of the highlights of attending a SAS conference is meeting SAS customers. I'll be spending several hours each day in the SAS Support and Demo Area. I will present several Super Demos (scheduled 15-minute demonstrations) on the topic of calling SAS procedures from within a SAS/IML program. Before and after my scheduled demos, I'll be available for informal discussions about statistical programming with SAS. I'll have my laptop booted up and ready, so bring your data and look for me under the sign that says "Analytics."

This year, several readers of my data analysis and SAS/IML blog have told me they will drop by to discuss statistical programming, including one who is coming to the conference all the way from China. If you are a statistical programmer,
don't be embarrassed to introduce yourself and tell me how you use SAS.

At SAS Global Forum, it's hip to be square.