Contributed by Chuck London, SAS Publishing Sales Representative

I just returned from attending the 2010 ENAR Spring Meeting hosted at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, home of the 2010 Super Bowl Champion Saints. From the moment I got on my connecting flight in Atlanta, you could tell that the locals are extremely proud of their World Champions. There were Saints jerseys and memorabilia everywhere you looked from the airport to the hotel and throughout the city.

I arrived in New Orleans on Sunday for my first trip to the bayou looking forward to all the sights, sounds and tastes of everything New Orleans. My trip didn’t disappoint as I got a good taste of much of the local fare the city has to offer including Jambalaya, Cajun Pasta, Po-Boys, and last but not least a Beignet from Café Du Monde. My favorite lunch was a “Famous Ferdi Special” from Mother's Restaurant, a local eatery a couple of blocks away from our hotel. My favorite evening was the last night we were there when several colleagues and I made the trip to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter for dinner, some live Jazz, and the aforementioned Beignet to top the evening off.

While in New Orleans I managed to get some work in staffing the SAS Publishing booth at the ENAR Spring Meeting. There were approximately a thousand attendees with many people coming from the academic market including students and professors. I got a chance to tell several professors about SAS Academic Evaluation Copy Program which allows professor’s up to two free copies of our SAS Press titles to evaluate for use in their classrooms. The folks I spoke with were very glad to hear about this offer.

At this particular conference, our best seller was Analysis of Observational Health Care Data Using SAS. Attendees also expressed interest in several other titles. Some of our customers were excited to meet one or more of the SAS Press authors who were on hand as well. It was cool to see how excited some of our customers are to meet the folks who produce some of our products.

All in all ENAR was a very successful show for SAS Publishing and for me personally. I enjoyed seeing the sights and sounds of New Orleans and look forward to coming back in the future. It was great meeting all of our wonderful customers and other colleagues and I look forward to doing it all again in two weeks at SAS Global Forum in Seattle.