SAS Global Forum 2011 (#SASGF11)
SAS Global Forum is the yearly event during which more than 3000 SAS users gather in one location to discuss their experience with the SAS software, learn about new features, discuss about upcoming features... . This time, the event took place in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas (NV). Hence, it was very fitting that Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman (Harrah’s is the company that operates Caesars Palace) gave the opening address. He gave some nice examples how they deploy “Analytics” in their business. They really are at the forefront of putting business analytics to good use in the gaming business (see picture below: how they target gamers from remote areas in the US to fly them (with their own chartered airplanes) to any of their gaming properties.
Thursday 7 April 2011
The Kick Back party took place at the PURE nightclub, another highlight. If you still want to have a look at some of the presentations of SASGF11 you can still do so: click here.
We are already looking forward to next year’s event: April 22-25, 2012 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
The sessions were interesting (click here for a complete list of papers), but possibly even more important are the networking opportunities (see picture on the right during the opening reception). My personal favorite item on my SASGF11 agenda is the interaction with the SAS experts and technical people in the show floor area (Demo Area see picture below). These are no sales people staffing the booths, but rather technical specialists. It’s great to resolve any open technical issues.
Let’s now turn to what we learned at this event:
1. Integration of R & Weka in the SAS software. It has now become easy to call R/Weka packages from within SAS (or SAS/IML studio).
2. Anything ‘social’ is still hot: e.g., analyzing the buzz in social media about a brand. SAS has a rock-solid offering in this space.
3. Mobile BI with SAS: solutions: SAS Mobile, Roambi, special UI task force.
4. Dedicated OR (Operations Research) track with interesting papers (see the list here)
5. The new HPC capabilities of SAS!
We are all anxiously awaiting the release of SAS version 9.3...
Moreover, we also had two Belgians presenting at the event: Ragna Préal and Tonio Di Zinno, (IMA-AIM) with their talk titled: “From a Doctor’s Certificate to a National Health Service Database with SAS” (See picture to the right).
