Pete Lund has been an active leader with SAS Global Forum for many, many years. This year he is the Section Chair for the brand new Social Media & Networking Section (being a Social Media Specialist, I personally cannot wait for this track). Pete provided us with some feedback about what you can look forward to with this section in Las Vegas…

What do Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and SAS Global Forum all have in common? They’re all methods that we can use to stay connected. I’m excited to be the chair of the new Social Media and Networking section at this year’s conference and provide the opportunity for you to look at the possibilities of using SAS to interact with those social media tools. I’m so used to thinking of these things as for “personal use only.” It’s been a lot of fun to see the ways that folks are doing things like using SAS to access the information that’s contained in Twitter streams and Facebook profiles, post Tweets from a SAS session and use social media to learn about SAS. These presentations and more await, plus a great keynote address from Dave Thomas of New Marketing Labs, Social Media: What SAS Pros Need to Know. As Dave’s keynote notes, “Social media may be a phenomenon, but it’s not a fad.” Drop by on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning to see what the phenomenon is all about!

And speaking of staying connected – how about being able to listen to conference presentations after the conference is over? The SAS Global Forum Take-out section will offer, free of charge, the slides and audio of ten selected presentations via the web. You can listen to presentations about ODS, Enterprise Guide, stats, programming tips and a lot more. It’s a great way to hear something you missed at the conference or to refresh your memory about something you already heard. Stay tuned to the Conference web site for details on specific presentations and how to get connected to the Take-out section.

Questions? Email Pete Lund