Even though I’ve worked at SAS for nearly 30 years, I still get excited when great things come together for our customers! This year we are hosting the very first hackathon at our Analytics Experience conference in San Diego - the AnalyticsX Hackathon.

Analytics Experience is in its third year (under this name) and it's taking place in two cities, San Diego and Milan. It is a great place to catch up on the latest and greatest in analytic techniques from the industry’s finest. I always come back with my brain hurting from overload.

I have also attended several hackathons, aka DataDives, from an awesome company called DataKind. DataKind hosts data hacking events for nonprofits and others, and I’ve spent several weekends analyzing data for good, with amazing results.

What is the AnalyticsX Hackathon?

At this year’s Analytics Experience, teams of attendees will get the opportunity to hack away at data, while trying to do some good. We are combining the best of both worlds by challenging those who sign up to analyze wildfire data. While California wildfires are now expected as part of the season, we still want to better understand the conditions and causes in the hope of prevention. It is significant to note that as I write this, the Mendocino fire in California is now the largest fire in modern state history.

During two four-hour sessions, you and your colleagues will use SAS Viya (and other tools) to crunch through historical data. You will eat snacks, drink lots of coffee, and work late into the night as you gain insight into the reasons for wildfires. If your team is chosen to move into the final round, you will present your findings during the Welcome Reception on Monday, September 17th.

But that’s not all... there are great prizes too! Prizes that even *I* would like! I could tell you what they are, but this link will send you to the Hackathon Registration site and you can read about the prizes at the bottom of the page.

Are you looking for your next hackathon adventure?

Before we head to San Diego, we're hosting a #SASChat to explore hackathons a little deeper! Join us on August 31st (3pm CET | 2pm UK | 9am ET) to explore agile options available to innovators today! Here are the questions we'll be asking:

1. What is your favorite hackathon experience or story, and why?
2. What are the advantages of hackathons over innovation labs or incubators?
3. How have streaming (IoT) data, games and machine learning changed the scope of hackathons?
4. What is the ideal profile of hackathon participants?
5. How could hackathons help schools prepare students for the analytics economy?
6 What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone participating in their first hackathon?

Well that’s our time here. I hope to see you at the conference. I’ll be at the AnalyticsX Hackathon. I’m also teaching a pre-conference course and giving two hands-on workshops on SAS Visual Statistics. Drop by, come #HackInSAS and say hello!

By the way, if you would like to learn about how SAS turns data into good, check out GatherIQ.