Fall 2015 forecasting education opportunities

You may not be in London on October 7 to take advantage of the Lancaster Centre for Forecasting's free workshop on promotional forecasting. However, there are still plenty of forecasting educational opportunities coming up this fall:

SAS Business Knowledge Series

Best Practices in Demand-Driven Forecasting (Chicago, September 24-25)

My colleague Charlie Chase (author of Demand-Driven Forecasting), delivers this new course over two full days at the SAS offices in downtown Chicago. Use the code BDDF-CHI for a 25% discount on the registration fee.

Forecast Value Added Analysis (Live Web, September 28-29)

My colleague Chip Wells is teaching this online course, held on the afternoons (1:00-4:30pm ET) of September 28-29. Chip expanded my original half day course with lots of new examples and exercises. This is a great chance to get up to speed on FVA analysis, from the convenience of your own office.

IBF Business Planning & Forecasting Conference (Orlando, October 18-21)

IBF's biggest event of the year includes a free Forecasting & Planning Tutorial for IBF members on October 18, and a Leadership Forum with VIP Dinner Reception on the 19th. The conference continues October 20-21, with Sara Park, Group Director of Sales & Operations Planning at Coca-Cola, delivering the Keynote address.

Among the over two dozen sessions, I hope you'll join me and Erin Marchant, Demand Planning and Analytical Systems Power user at Moen, for a look at "Applying Forecast Value Added at Moen." And check out Erin's interview on the IBF blog.

Analytics 2015 - Las Vegas (October 26-27)

The SAS Analytics events cover the full range of advanced analytics, including statistical analysis, data mining, text analytics, optimization and simulation, and forecasting. Hot topics like machine learning, cybersecurity, and the internet of things will also be covered.

Forecasters will be particularly interested in the session by Len Tashman, editor-in-chief of Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, on the "Do's and Don'ts of Measuring Forecast Accuracy."

Also check out the SAS Talks Keynote by Udo Sglavo, Senior Director of the data mining and forecasting R&D teams at SAS, for the latest news on SAS forecasting software.

Here are the top 3 reasons to attend Analytics 2015 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Analytics 2015 - Rome (November 9-11)

Regardless of your role – whether data scientist, industry expert, analyst, statistician, business professional, leading researcher or academic – Analytics 2015 in Rome will give you practical and strategic insights on all emerging analytics technologies and approaches.

In addition, there is a dedicated path for executives and C-levels who want to enhance their company analytics culture learning from international best practices.

Among the forecasting topics, Udo Sglavo will present "A New Face for SAS Forecast Server" -- demonstrating the SAS Forecast Server Client web interface, and Snurre Jensen will show how "The World's Best Large-Scale Forecasting Product Gets Even Better." Olivier Gleron, AVP of Demand & Supply Planning at Nestlé, will deliver a success story.