Learning. Sharing knowledge. Catching up with colleagues. My favorite part of attending SAS Global Forum is connecting with other SAS users from around the globe. SAS Global Forum 2014 is run for SAS users, by SAS users and all of the content presented at the event is from users like you. That’s unique! More remarkable is that SAS users have been meeting like this since 1976.

Over the years, SAS users found ways to continue to share, collaborate---even maintain lasting friendships—long after the event was over. That being said, you don’t want to miss the Online Communities Meet-Up on Tuesday night. This convergence of six different but important online groups includes multiple international communities, SAS Support Communities, SAS-L listserve and sasCommunity.org. sasCommunity.org in particular will be sharing new plans, including a call for motivated volunteers to help with developing and enhancing the site.

Like SAS Global Forum, sasCommunity.org is run for SAS users, by SAS users. It also contains over five years’ worth of technically rich, SAS-user-contributed content. Just browse the site’s longstanding Sasopedia to see what I mean. And if you want a glimpse into the history of SAS user content, check out their catalog of historical conference papers from 1976 to 1996. Conversely, you can subscribe to the sasCommunity.org Planet, a collection of progressive blog entries from the SAS user community. Other new features make it even easier to be involved and stay connected.

sasCommunity.org recently announced a way for presenters to create a presentations index page for their work. This new feature makes it easier to create articles about your presentations, share your presentation materials and continue the discussion online after the conference has ended.

Whether we are talking about online communities, SAS users groups or SAS Global Forum, one thing is clear:  the fact that for so many years SAS users self-organize to connect, share and create value for themselves and others speaks to the rich history and bright future of SAS users worldwide.

See you soon at SAS Global Forum 2014!