Today I'm in San Diego at the 2010 meeting of the Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS).

I am giving several presentations on SAS/IML and SAS/IML Studio:

• A tutorial workshop on SAS/IML Studio for the SAS/STAT User. The material in this tutorial is a small sampling of Chapters 4–11 of my book Statistical Programming with SAS/IML Software. (If you're in my workshop, see me for a 35% off coupon!)
• A presentation on my 2010 SAS Global Forum paper "Rediscovering SAS/IML Software: Modern Data Analysis for the Practicing Statistician."
• Several Super Demos (scheduled 20-minute demos) on the SAS Interface to R, which is available in SAS/IML Studio.

I am also spending many hours in the demo room, answering questions about SAS/STAT procedures, PROC IML, and SAS/IML Studio.

As usual, the SAS regional conference has many other talks, tutorials, and opportunities for SAS statistical programmers to expand their skills. This conference features a workshop for new SAS programmers. From the WUSS Web site:

New programmers can sharpen their skills in the day and a half long SAS Essentials Workshop. The section begins on Thursday morning with the fundamentals of the DATA STEP, debugging your programs and finding SAS resources, and concludes on Friday morning with guided hands-on PC instruction. The workshop is included in your registration and you are welcome to attend any or all sessions.

Wow! Did you read the last sentence? The workshop is included as part of the conference! This seems like a great idea to attract and welcome new programmers to the regional SAS users group conferences.

If you have never been to a SAS users group conference, check to see if there is one in your area.