SAS Global Forum is aptly named: SAS users are spread throughout the world, and many of those users are here this week. Nearly 25 percent of SAS Global Forum 2009 attendees are from outside the US.

Monday evening’s International Forum and Reception was hosted by the SAS Global Users Group Executive Board, and was attended by more than 40 users from around the globe who are either current or past SAS Users Group (SUG) leaders or were interested in establishing a SUG in their region.

The attendees were from nearby Canada and from distant locations including Brazil, Australia, France, Mexico and even Finland.

“It’s very rare for these groups to be able to get together in one place, so we wanted to provide a place where they could network, discuss best practices, and learn ideas about promoting member participation,” said board member Tony Ona.

The forum included a panel of eight guests (listed below) who spoke of best practices they’d learned and told of their users clubs and groups.

“Friends invited me to come to this reception because I’m interested in finding new ideas for the SAS Users Group in Finland (SUGIF) and giving the Finnish SAS Users more information about solving SAS related problems,” said Marja-Leena Sihvonen, President of SUGIF.

Panel speakers:
USA – Gerry Hobbs
Brazil – Carlos Andre Reis Pinheiro
Canada – Matthew Gaouette www.monsug.ca
France – Gilles Fontanini, Pascal Maurice
Mexico – Ramon Santoyo
UK – Phil Holland
SAS EMEA – Quentene Finnegan