Contributed by Angela Hall, Senior Technical Architect at SAS, (@angelahall1) The SAS Global Forum Technology Session included the technically funny comedian Don McMillan , who pulled out the #SASGF11 program and stated, very seriously, that there was plenty of comedy material within those pages. He then highlighted the long and
Last week I was a SAS consultant. Oh, not a real consultant, but for two hours in the Support and Demo room I stood under the "Analytics" sign and in front of rollshades about SAS/STAT, SAS/QC, and SAS/IML. Customers can walk up and ask any question they want. And ask
By analyzing and organizing taxonomies and tones within social media channels, organizations can better know how to directly market to online customers, says SAS Media Intelligence Director Mark Chaves at SAS Global Forum. Mark said the influence of social media on the consumer-buying process is stronger than ever. More than
I recently returned from a five-day conference in Las Vegas. On the way there, I finally had time to read a classic statistical paper: Bayer and Diaconis (1992) describes how many shuffles are needed to randomize a deck of cards. Their famous result that it takes seven shuffles to randomize
This morning I delivered a talk to visiting high school students at the SAS campus. The topic: using SAS to analyze Twitter content. Being teenagers, high school students are well familiar with Twitter. But this batch of students was also very familiar with SAS, as they all have taken SAS
Contributed by Sy Truong, co-founder of Meta-Xceed. SAS Global Forum has always been a chance for developers and managers at SAS to shine, and this year in Las Vegas was no exception. There are a couple of trends and development directions that I found interesting on the demo floor in
Besides experiencing a few Elvis sightings, hanging out with Venus poolside, and temporarily joining a Cirque group--I got a chance to meet some really grounded SAS superstars at SAS Global Forum 2011. And since today is my first day back in the office post-conference, I’m revealing a few marquee moments:
Unlike any other software vendor, SAS has one of the most vibrant and engaged user communities in the world. SAS User Groups (SUG), communities formed and managed by SAS users, are in place all over the world. In the US alone we have regional and local SUGs as well as
Social media was an undeniable common theme at this year's SAS Global Forum, infiltrating general sessions, paper presentations, posters and conference attendee engagement. Former editor of this blog, David Thomas, spoke at SAS Global Forum and told attendees that social media may be a phenomenon, but it’s not a fad.
Linking business analytics to economic value is a hard problem. Despite all the smarts that get poured into models, it's hard to tie them to financial measures such as profitability. And, because of that, it's hard to justify investment in analytics. Need headcount? Sorry, try again. Need tools? Sorry, can't
While the first day of the SAS Global Forum Executive Conference focused on the business application of analytics, the second day was dedicated to analytics and IT management. One of the keynote presenters was Erik Brynjolfsson, the Schussel Family Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Erik’s research and
"Convergence after 23 iterations to (1.23, 4.56)." That's the message that I want to print at the end of a program. The problem, of course, is that when I write the program, I don't know how many iterations an algorithm requires nor the value to which an algorithm converges. How
Like many SAS users, Bill Roehl uses SAS in some very clever ways that aren’t necessarily work-related. Roehl is a Research Analyst at Capella University and an outspoken community journalist. When he isn’t working for Capella University, he is hard at work blogging about community news for Dakota County, Minnesota
In this panel discussion, a diverse group of companies from different industries are finding profitable growth opportunities through analytics. We’re joined by: Jim Foreman, Director of Circulation Analytic, Staples Halina Karachuk, VP Innovation, AXA Equitable Life Barb Buettin, Director, CRM – Enterprise Information Management, Chico’s Nelle Schantz, Sr. Marketing Director,
At the beginning of 2011, I heard about the Dow Piano, which was created by CNNMoney.com. The Dow Piano visualizes the performance of the Dow Jones industrial average in 2010 with a line plot, but also adds an auditory component. As Bård Edlund, Art Director at CNNMoney.com, said, The daily
~Contributed by Becky Graebe, SAS Communications Manager~ If there was any doubt in the minds of SAS Global Forum attendees that the computing landscape has changed remarkably in recent years, Vice President of Platform R&D Paul Kent and Research Statistician Developer Oliver Schabenberger set that idea squarely off the grid
In getting ready for the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operation Research next week in Chicago, I caught up with Jodi Blomberg, a Technical Architect at SAS, to hear more about the paper she's presenting on April 11th. Here's a little preview of what Jodi has to share. For
The SAS Global Forum Executive Conference is a three-day conference held April 4-6 at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. The conference is international and invitation-only, designed to spark discussions about business problems and how to best solve them. On Tuesday, April 5, there were two breakout
A big thank you to EVERYONE for your contribution to the success of SAS Global Forum 2011. You all came together – presenters, volunteers, mentors, first-timers, repeat attendees and SAS – to help make this year’s conference a “don't miss” event! Special thanks go out to Debbie Buck, this year’s
In a previous blog post about computing confidence intervals for rankings, I inadvertently used the VAR function in SAS/IML 9.22, without providing equivalent functionality for those readers who are running an earlier version of SAS/IML software. (Thanks to Eric for pointing this out.) If you are using a version of
Now that I’m finally adjusted to the three-hour time difference from my home, it’s time to head back to SAS World Headquaters in Cary. What a terrific conference this has been! In case you didn’t catch it all, or were unable to make it to Vegas this year, be sure
~Contributed by Becky Graebe, SAS Communications Manager~ Did you know that you could save and export one, some or all of your keyboard macros/abbreviations in one simple operation? sasCommunity.org users do, thanks to today’s Tip of the Day, submitted by Arthur Tabachneck (better known as Art297 on the site). The
In her paper presentation "Using SAS® Enterprise Guide® to Provide Water and Conserve Electricity for SAS® Global Forum Attendees" Cecelia Adair, Senior Operations Support Manager for the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD), explained how the LVVWD uses SAS® software to manage and maintain water and energy usage in Clark
Contributed by Bill Roehl, Data Geek at Capella University (@garciasn) Analysts love raw data and end-users love to see that same data displayed in beautiful charts and pictures with exciting color. Dr. Danni Bayn, a Research Analyst at Capella University in Minneapolis, provides a drop-in method for SAS users to
~Contributed by Elizabeth Ceranowski~ Yesterday, I posted about the 23 papers being presented by students at SAS Global Forum. I am happy to report that 14 students presented yesterday, and all of them did a wonderful job! In addition to presenting, the students have been meeting other users, which has
~Contributed by Philip Busby, Applications Developer at SAS (@Philihp)~ My mind was blown just now at Paul Gorrell's talk on numeric values within SAS. The nice thing that hooks new programmers to SAS is how easy it is to do so many things, but what I find really makes a
Critical Information: 8:30 - 11:30 PM tonight SAS Global Forum Attendees and guests ONLY Drink tickets given at the door Tonight, ultralounge and Las Vegas behemoth, PURE Nightclub opens its doors to SAS Global Forum 2011...and guess what? THERE'S NO LINE! (Ok, maybe a small line). Join us for what
How can you find and act on information hidden in customer interactions? How can you use this information to create profitable results and create a consistent customer experience? It’s not just about sales and marketing teams interacting with the customers anymore. The entire organization must align drive a good, consistent
