Of Tiny Dancers and Warm Weather: Alberta SAS User Groups Wrap-Up

I’m sailing through clear skies at 33,000 feet with a clear mind… and about time, too! I’ve been fighting a nasty bug for about a week and a half now since I spent time in San Francisco for SAS Global Forum. I must admit that winging my way to Alberta was a daunting prospect given the poor state of my health. Fortunately, all worked out for the best.

I’m in a bit of a reflective mood as I stare out of the window. Below me is a massive, still-frozen lake. Behind me lies a province bathed in sunshine and warmth. Ahead of me, my hometown of Toronto… where I understand it’s 17 degrees Celsius and rainy. I find this all to be an elaborate metaphor for the user group meetings I just attended. The warm, happiness and camaraderie I experienced in Alberta were certainly magnified by my travelling companion and guest speaker Peter Eberhardt. The lake below represents this brief pause to collect my thoughts in the midst of what is an undeniably hectic section of my user group schedule. And ahead of me… well, I don’t know what that represents to tell you the truth. Perhaps I’ve stretched this (already thin) metaphor a little too far.

I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime on the road than Peter. He and I have become good friends over the years and he’s always at the top of my list for ‘sought after’ guest speakers. His versatility, affability and willingness to go the extra mile for SAS users carries a lot of weight in my book, to say nothing of his deep knowledge of SAS. We also had the opportunity to reminisce about my very first user group road trip over 5 years ago now. Peter was the guest speaker on that particular trip to Saskatoon and Winnipeg, and we had a good chuckle about how much had changed since those early days. Back then, I had checked my luggage: overpacking for a 4 day trip. Peter was kind enough to instruct me on the art of packing light and I wouldn't be caught dead checking anything anymore! I also recall his eyes bugging out of his skull as I paid for everything with the exception of our hotel rooms in cash. My bankroll made me seem like a Vegas high-roller… or a gangster. Either way, not good. I learned a lot from Peter on that trip and our friendship was born. But on to the meetings at hand: the Calgary SAS User Group and the Edmonton SAS User Group. First stop, Calgary.

It’s always such a great pleasure to travel to Calgary. As I told TASS President Art Tabachneck, it’s the home of my favourite hamburger of all time. There’s something about that Alberta beef, straight from the source. More than that, it’s great to catch up with good friends and colleagues. I had a lot of fun eating dinner on a patio bathed in 28 degree sunshine on the famed ‘red mile’ watching the tiny dancers go by… and trying to figure out what they were doing in Calgary! What are tiny dancers? Well, just what you’d imagine. Picture little miniature dolled-up girls with hair in tight buns, lots of eye makeup and lipstick and a variety of decorations for their hair. The game we played over dinner was to figure out what they were doing in town. After a series of agonizing clues – a snatched glimpse of a program here, a barely overheard conversation there – Peter had enough info to determine (with the help of Google) that it was in fact a cheerleading/team dancing convention in town. That blew my theory of why we had seen such increased attendance for the CSUG meeting out of the water… but it was a lot of fun figuring it out. It’s this type of conversation and good fun which really helps define why the user groups are so special. Where else can you bring together customers, vendors and thought leaders in such a fun way?

The meeting itself was a success as well. The agenda had strong representation from a variety of perspectives. Peter covered off on two very popular topics. The first, hash tables, was the talk that most attendees had come to see and Peter certainly didn’t disappoint. He was able to skillfully walk through a mammoth amount of material in very little time, demonstrating the massive performance difference between hash tables and other SAS techniques. He also discussed how to use SAS to create pivot tables in Excel. It’s an undeniable fact that Microsoft products are still prevalent throughout the business world, so this talk really resonated with most. Peter’s casual style and assertion that the techniques he taught would help any SAS user with their positive perception at work won smiles and nods from the room.

On the high performance analytics front, we had a pair of talks which ended up complimenting each other nicely. Ed Swain of Teradata walked through a variety of hardware options and specifications suitable for high performance environments. This flowed perfectly into my own talk and demonstration around SAS Visual Analytics. It’s always a challenge to demonstrate a product ‘live’ A few hiccups notwithstanding, my machine didn't explode and heckling was kept to a minimum… so I would call it a success.

A quick flight to Edmonton later and Peter and I were at it once again, this time for an enormous group of SAS users. As eSUG President Doug Dover and I both commented to the group, this was by far the largest registration and close to the most sizeable attendance the group had ever seen. Kudos to the executive committee for helping pull together an agenda which had everyone in the room interested and willing to come on out!

Edmonton has adopted a full day model for their meetings. The morning features SAS programming talks while the afternoon focuses more closely on interface-style applications such as Enterprise Guide, JMP and Visual Analytics. The afternoon session was a lot of fun as Peter and I conducted back-to-back interactive sessions around EG and VA respectively. Fun, certainly: lively, definitely: vocally exhausting… well, let’s just say that for someone who is certainly fond of his own voice, even I was getting sick of hearing me talk by the end. Having said that I was glad for the chance to showcase VA from both a retail and health perspective and the feedback and questions were great.

Of course, we can’t forget about the morning session. Chris Cullingham of ATCO Power delivered a great talk around billing rates and received almost as much attention for the manner he presented it as the content itself. He used a great alternative to PowerPoint called Prezi; a dynamic, web-based service which allows for really neat customization of talks. In fact, there were several requests for more talks about Presi: that gives you an idea of the impact it made.

George Zhu offered a talk around hash tables and having just seen Peter’s exhaustive dive the day before, it was great to see his thoughts validated through George’s work. Of course, Peter presented once again but this time of the topic of Perl regular expressions and dates. I’ve seen a few Perl talks over the past user group meetings and I’m really intrigued by this programming language. The room clearly was just as fascinated as I was.

One of the challenges facing all user group meetings across the country is finding local presenters willing to stand up and talk. Jared Prins addressed some of the reasons why in his talk which dispelled some of the barriers and laid out a framework for participation. It would seem his talk worked as we had around 10 people offer to give a talk at an upcoming meeting. Thanks for putting some fears to rest and offering some encouragement as well, Jared! Clearly your time as a livestream-featured presenter at SAS Global Forum has given you even more confidence… and the group will certainly benefit from your experience.

All in all, my trip to Alberta was a rousing success. We had great attendance at both meetings and fantastic talks too. You'll be able to find all the talks shortly at the CSUG and eSUG websites. Most importantly, SAS users from a wide range of backgrounds had the opportunity to meet, network and catch up with old friends. As my manager Wally Thiessen recently suggested, the user groups are about so much more than just the presentations: they’re about making new connections, sharing insight with users from other industries, and having some fun too. I would say that we succeeded in every respect over the past few days.

I’ll get home to Toronto today and I’m quickly off again to Burlington for the GHSUG meeting. This, too, promises to be a notable meeting with record registration and a new location to boot! I’ll have more on my experiences and perceptions of that meeting within the next few days. For now, let me sign off by saying thank-you to Alberta for the great meetings. Look forward to catching up with you all in the fall.

Until then…

Club SAS de Québec: un triomphe

I’m sitting in a fog and rain-shrouded airport in Québec City following the user group meeting…. and I can’t help but feel like the weather is in some way reflective of the world of SAS at times. It can be difficult to see the way through the mist: there can be surprises ahead which are unseen and unanticipated, and a clear mind and sharp vision are needed to help guide one through. However, through the fog of uncertainty burns the light of knowledge and collaboration, in this over-wrought metaphor, the Club SAS. Although a little contrived it’s certainly true that it does feel as if the presentations and networking act much like a sunbeam burning away the fog and lighting the way to understanding and the correct path. Today’s meeting certainly achieved this in spades.

The talks today principally revolved around traditional SAS programming concerns and tips/tricks. We had a great presentation on ODBC and how SAS accesses it as well as a very in-depth dive around hash objects and an open, frank discussion of the type of errors one might receive… and some solutions around solving them. Each of these talks offered some value to the attendees. Whether helping guide their way through a problematic SAS programming endeavour or helping them to optimize their time spent, each was well-received in its own right.

I should mention of course that the group almost topped out at 100 attendees today: no small feat to be sure! Québec consistently flirts with this milestone, one of only 4 groups across the country with attendance this strong. I feel that this is really one of the most powerful drawing points of the meeting; the ability to connect and collaborate with SAS professionals is a strong enough pull to entice nearly 100 individuals away from their desks early in the week… and in the pouring rain no less!

I’m keeping this entry short because I’m afraid I’m going to spill poutine all over my keyboard… and it’s much better served in my stomach than making a mess on my technology. Suffice it to say that once again Québec City has impressed.

Before signing off, I would like to thank a few of the Executive Committee members who are going to be stepping down. Patrice Bourdages has been a long-time, stalwart member of the group. His responsibilities have taken him elsewhere and his energy and passion will be sorely missed. The same can be said of Ismael Coulibaly, another phenomenal member of the committee. Thank you both for all of your tremendous work.

My next few weeks are going to be spent preparing and attending SAS Global Forum. Every year I promise myself that I will find time to blog about my experiences there… and every year, those same experiences keep me away from doing just that. So this year I’m going to promise nothing and we’ll see how it turns out!

The month of May will be an absolute cyclone of activity for me so you’ll certainly hear a lot from me as time moves forward.

Until then…

A Holistic View of SAS: Health User Group

Last Friday, the SAS Health User Group (HUG) took place in Toronto. I am consistently in awe of this amazing group of professionals… perhaps even over-awed to the point of intimidation, if I’m to be honest. It’s amazing for me to listen to talks which bely such a fundamentally strong grasp of statistics, health indicators and SAS programming… and a little daunting when I’m on the agenda as well. It feels a little bit like a young Luke Skywalker charging into battle with the wily Darth Vader before he was ready. I think we all know what the outcome of trying to play with the big boys before ones’ time can be. I was just hoping I would exit the meeting with both of my hands – and my pride – still attached.

Fortunately, this group is as magnanimous and forgiving as it is intelligent. I’ve always been received well despite my technical shortcomings. Perhaps that’s because the agendas are consistently filled with incredibly strong presenters who’s SAS skills easily compensate for mine. This past Friday was to be no exception to this rule.

I led off the meeting with an overview of the new SAS VisualAnalytics product and I did my best to contextualize it for the health practitioners in the room. The talk centered around fictional data of approximately 3 million individuals with multiple data points and around 150 variables. The purpose of the talk was to visually explore the data without excluding or sampling right away with the goal of finding some trends – so matter how obscure – which could be impactful upon the onset of renal disease in an older population of Type II diabetes sufferers. I mentioned to the executive committee over lunch that the topic was actually quite personal for me, as I recently lost a family member quite suddenly due to complications from renal failure. It’s fair to say I wanted to do the topic justice. I began my talk working with billions of correlations in a basic matrix and worked down to some geo-mapping functionality to show the ease and power of the product. Now I’m no expert – not even close! – but I’d like to think that given the amount of questions which followed the talk, there was enough interest generated to have make the topic worthwhile to bring forward. I’m certainly grateful for the patience of the group as I wrestled through some of the terminology and methodology behind the talk.

Our next presenters took the group in a totally new – and welcome – direction. Yuriy Chechulin and Amir Nazerian of the Ministry of Health detailed how they used advanced modeling techniques to identify highcost users of the healthcare system. The objective of this research was to identify ways to ease the burden on the health community in terms of financial investment and time, as well as to help identify triggers and potential solutions to preventing negative health outcomes in the early stages. I really loved this talk. Even as a non-statistician, I could understand the principles behind the modeling techniques used… and I’m always fascinated by the data which helps inform these decisions. Once again the audience proved to be more than engaged with the topic as they peppered both of the presenters with questions about other potential applications for the model and inquiries around some of the exclusions they had made. It was a shame to have to cut off the questions for our break!

Upon our return, we had three tremendous guest speakers. SAS Canada’s own Judy Orr Lawrence walked us through some data cleansing and validation techniques in SAS Enterprise Guide. While more of an ‘ad hoc’ approach to data cleansing, it remained a very intriguing talk… especially for this long-time EG user. I’ll be giving a few EG talks myself in the coming months and I certainly plan on stealing some of her material (with permission, of course) for the talks. I love the way Judy presents: accessible, thorough and with the ability to keep the topic very high-level or dive very deep. As a frequent student in her classes I can tell you with unbiased certainty that anyone would benefit from her tutelage.

Next up, Ellen Maki gave us a deep dive into how she used Bland-Altman bounds to work towards a new understanding of sleep apnea treatment. Utterly fascinating. As I mentioned at the meeting itself, I’ve had sleep consultations several times and I’ve received wildly different diagnoses on each occasion. Ellen’s talk about the potential of taking future tests at one’s home nearly made me weep with joy: those of you who may have had to experience an over-night visit at a sleep clinic can attest that it is not necessarily the most comfortable of experiences to say the least! Even more importantly, Ellen implied that her data indicated quite strong and clear results in her study which is certainly good news for the future diagnosis and treatment of this very harmful sleep disorder. Her presenting style was extremely relaxed and easy, and I do believe that everyone in the room benefitted from her understanding of how she worked through her tests… and hopefully were inspired for their own work as well.

Finally, the incomparable Ruth Croxford concluded the meeting – in a mournfully abbreviated fashion – with a talk on using Perl expressions within her SAS code. I don’t have enough positive things to say about Ruth. As the President of the Executive Committee, she consistently finds great guest speakers (including herself) and is just such a fantastic representative of the healthcare community. I felt horrible that her talk was truncated due to earlier extended question periods, in no small part because I’ve been fascinated by Perl expressions for a long time and wanted to learn as much as I could about them. In her brief time, Ruth did manage to convey a lot of information. She easily moved through an introduction to Perl and also made it very simple to understand just how they could be leveraged in SAS. She certainly had a few people excited to try the procedure which allows you to do so!

All in all, the meeting was extremely successful. We had a record number of registrations – nearly 120 people – and I’m willing to bet we achieved a record for attendance as well. I give all credit to the fantastic guest speakers and the compelling agenda. Thanks once again to all of our guest speakers and to the Executive Committee who made it all happen! If you weren’t able to attend, not to worry: you can always pick up the presentations on the HUG website or connect with us in the SAS Canada Community I do hope we’ll be able to deliver just as strong a meeting when the Health User Group next meets in person on November 15^th, 2013. In the meantime, I’ll be headed to Quebec City for their user group meeting and I’ll be enjoying a trip to San Francisco for SAS Global Forum at month’s end. I’m sure I’ll have lots to say about both meetings, so stay tuned.

Until then…

 

A Great Start to the 2013 User Group Season

The last two weeks have ushered in the 2013 user group season through the two oldest groups in Canada. Last week, the SAS Halifax Region User Group (SHRUG) held their kick-off meeting on the east coast. I myself wasn't there, so I can't write too much about it... other than to say how jealous I was of my colleague Mark Morreale who did get to attend. From him comments the meeting was as wonderfully typical as it gets for Halifax: a small but strong group which was punctuated by great conversation, strong local presentations and wonderful camaraderie. This past Friday, the Toronto Area SAS Society (TASS) had it's first meeting of the year, and I was most definitely in attendance. It was a great way to kick off the season here in Toronto; TASS has certainly thrown down the gauntlet to the Toronto Data Mining Forum and the Health User Group! I'm quietly confident that they'll give a very good run at matching the energy, enthusiasm and content of TASS.

Of course, it helps that TASS had some serious star power to help solidify a strong start to the season. No less of a SAS luminary than Susan Slaughter made the trip to Canada to serve as our keynote speaker. I must admit, I gushed like an Apple fanboy at the release of a new Apple-branded... well, anything. When I was completing my post-graduate work at George Brown College it was the last version of 'The Little SAS Book for Enterprise Guide 4.1' which included a working demo disk that became my temporary SAS bible. In fact, I actually had to get a second copy because of the extreme wear and tear throughout the years. I can directly credit Susan and her co-author Lora Delwiche for helping me develop my early SAS skills... or perhaps blame is a better word? At any rate Susan was wonderful and approachable in real life; she clearly loves SAS and was an inspiration to the many new and seasoned users who attended the TASS meeting.

Susan offered three separate talks. The first was one which had some appeal to everyone, an introduction to macro programming. Macros are phenomenal for efficiencies: as Susan said in her talk, 'think about it like writing a program that writes a program'. It really didn't matter if you were a new programmer or a savvy SAS veteran: the methodical nature of the talk ensured that everyone was introduced or reminded of the best practices to keep in mind when leveraging this powerful option. A side benefit: I learned that Susan is a passionate bicyclist! As a loud proponent of giving a personal as well as professional view of one's image, it was nice to be able to relate to Susan outside of the SAS framework.

After offering up a break-out session around how to become a SAS author - a session that had the break-out room overflowing - Susan would energize the afternoon session with her talk around summary tables in Enterprise Guide. I've given a talk or two which featured this particular task previously, but Susan's step-by-step approach was much better suited for the newer Enterprise Guide users in the audience... and to be honest, I learned a few things myself. For example, if you impose a condition on a variable through the wizard, that condition will remain on the variable even if it's removed. That could explain a lot of the strange results I've received from some of my pet projects. I'll be re-running them while bearing this in mind, to be sure!

Of course, Susan wasn't the only star of the agenda. In fact, the rest of the meeting was jam packed with SAS goodness.  In the morning session, Wayne Levin of JMP software fame navigated a few pitfalls (or pickle-falls, more appropriately) to successfully demonstrate some of the capabilities of JMP. The demo gods were not smiling on Wayne initially but his quick thinking and knowledge of his data allowed his to swiftly switch his presentation nearly seamlessly. TASS President Arthur Tabachneck also delivered his usual high-quality work, showcasing a talk which he will be delivering at the Midwest SAS User Group and potentially at SAS Global Forum as well. Art always blows me away with his talks: he seems to effortlessly find ways to make SAS work better, faster and more innovatively... and almost always through his collaborative work with his fellow SAS gurus from all over the world. His talk on transposing SAS data sets certainly continued this trend. In the afternoon, Chris Battiston really got under the hood of ODS and also bravely popped open a spontaneous live demo while really showcasing how a little curiosity and knowledge can go a very long way. Finally, the solution to the posed problem was a real hit. Not only did it fortuitously build on Susan's summary table talk, but we also had four separate contributors. Jim Burkhardt did a great job of MCing the solutions and each presenter gave a simple - but elegant - walkthrough of each. You can see all the solutions here: great job, guys!

Finally, I myself got into the spirit of the live demo by showcasing the new SAS Visual Analytics suite. It was a lot of fun to see a favourable reaction from the audience. I can understand why, as it's tremendously powerful and versatile, and the data I was working with was relative to all. Using over 169 million records with 60 variables, I was able to quickly run forecasting routines and drill into global variables to demonstrate how powerful visual analytics can be. I hope it was well-received, because it sure was fun to deliver. At the very least, I hope that the opportunity to demo the solution yourself - a SAS first! - was enough of a takeaway to make the session valuable. I encourage all readers to do so as well, whether by industry or job role. You can find out more on the official Visual Analytics site.

We're already building towards the June meeting, believe it or not... and we've also secured a very special guest speaker for September... but much more on that later down the road. In the interim you can check out the presentations from the last meeting here, and stay tuned for information about upcoming TASS sessions as well. You may also want to join us in the SAS Canada Community where discussion is ongoing, all the time. We hope to see you there!

Next for me: the eye of the hurricane, the calm before the storm... or perhaps the darkest night before the morning? I'm in a quiet state until mid-April with next to no travel or activites until then. But rest assured, when things get going they just won't stop! May and June will be hotbeds of activity. So stay tuned for more thoughts from the road.

Until then...

Breaking Through the Fog in Hamilton

Last week the Golden Horseshoe SAS User Group met in what can only be described as challenging weather conditions.  The fog rolled in thick and deep last Thursday morning which didn't bode well for having all of our attendees make it out to the meeting.  Fortunately, the agenda was well-rounded enough that many of the registrants screwed up their courage and made the trek to the ArcelorMittal offices as planned.

I was in a bit of a fog of my own having arrived late at night the previous evening from the tail-end of a 3 week long road swing. Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Montréal and Québec City were firmly in my rearview but the legacy of the successive trips certainly weighted upon me.  Fortunately, I had one of SAS Canada's best and brightest to keep me company - and help keep me awake - on the drive down the Queen Elizabeth Way highway and around the lake.  Tim Trussell would be delivering a talk on text analytics a little later in the morning but for the moment, he had the task of keeping me talking... and subsequently, keeping us both alive as I drove through the thick fog.  Above and beyond, Tim!

The topics were certainly compelling for those who attended.  Harry Droogendyk discussed using SAS to read Sharepoint list data.  The laughs which punctuated the presentation were representative of Harry's easy-going style rather than disregard for the topic.  I'll admit: I couldn't help but think of how my team leverages Sharepoint in our environment and I was putting our own data and documents in the context of Harry's talk.  I certainly learned a trick or two which I would like to consider implementing here at SAS Canada.

One of the most endearing features of the Hamilton user group meetings is the 'Proc du Jour' - every meeting, one particular procedure is explored and discussed in deep detail to get better understanding of its capabilities and strong points.  The pareto procedure was up this time as presented by Lesley Harschnitz.  I had no idea such a procedure even existed - I always think about the pareto principle in terms of the 80/20 rule... which still applied to this talk.  I really enjoyed Lesley's openess around her presentation as she managed to duplicate her graphing controls (well, almost) in both SAS code and Enterprise Guide.

I always like seeing new faces up in front of the audience offering their perspective and sharing their knowledge.  Amidu Raifu of Brock University shared a great talk from a health perspective around cervical cancer screening practices in the DR Congo.  I always learn a lot from health talks.  In my opinion, health SAS practitioners are some of the best out there.  Not only are their findings potentially life-changing, but the pressure and necessity for accuracy always impress me.  Amidu clearly knew his subject well as demonstrated by his ability to follow-up on the multitude of questions which followed.  I hope we'll see another presentation from him soon.

Finally, Tim Trussell took the stage. Tim is no stranger to the GHSUG group having presented many times and famously challenged ex-GHSUG executive committtee member to a programming vs. Enterprise Guide speed challenge (I'm not saying who won, so don't ask!)  A lot has changed since those days.  Tim has only grown in knowledge and experience and is now the Analytics Lead for all of SAS Canada.  One of his area's of expertise (and there are many) is text analytics.  He offered us a compelling talk around some of the reasons to leverage text analytics and the insights some organizations have derived.  It's nice to know that despite his brilliance,  Tim is still human.  For a brief moment I found some common ground as we both managed to spill coffee on ourselves.  Sigh.

All in all, it was a really good meeting.  I echo the words of GHSUG President Ron Kaine who said that he learned something from each talk which he could use, and that's always the goal at day's end.  I hope that the attendees feel the same way. Congratulations to the whole team for putting together a great meeting and a special nod to new executive committee members Kirby Sinclair who presented on the upcoming NESUG conference and Sueheir Saddik who MC'd the whole meeting. Fantastic job by all!

I have a bit of a respite here and then I'm off to Ottawa in mid-November... you'll certainly be hearing more from me soon.

Until then...

La Belle Province: Québec User Groups Provide Laughs and Learning

I’m trying to pull my thoughts together after a lightning quick tour through the province of Québec.  It truly was an epic voyage… but I’m fortunate I had a fantastic travelling companion with me for the duration: a man who needs no introduction (except occasionally to himself), Mr. Andrew T. Kuligowski of Florida.

Andy has been a stalwart supporter of the Canadian SAS user groups for many years.  In fact, we realized that there are only a few groups which Andy has not attended! Ottawa, you folks are next… and the last on Andy’s list.  From Vancouver to Halifax, from Edmonton to Hamilton and everywhere in between, last year’s SAS Global Forum Chair has brought his easy, comedy-filled, jaw-droppingly knowledgeable presentations to user groups across the country.  I’ve been fortunate enough to be his faithful travelling companion – and straight man, at times.  I have many fond memories of sharing beers and groans over live hockey (when there was such a thing), discussing the intricacies of SAS Global Forum and mapping out the best aquariums to visit at our various stops.  In short, it’s always a blast to travel with him… and I know our Canadian SAS users appreciate it as well.

First up for both of us: a stop in Montréal, the first time Andy had returned since SAS Global Forum was held there in 2004 and my first stop-in this fall.  I absolutely LOVE Montréal.  One of my closest friends at SAS Canada lives there and it’s always a hoot when I’m able to get together with Sylvain Tremblay – another user group road warrior like Andy and myself.  The Executive Committee is best defined as small but mighty. In fact, they don’t really get smaller!  Mathieu Gaouette and Eric Lacombe have held down co-leadership positions for many years now and have more than competently facilitated a steady stream of gifted local speakers and special guests from many a distant town.  In fact, Andy’s presence in Québec was entirely due to Eric’s dogged pursuit of lining him up for the agenda! In pursuit of this goal we changed dates, we moved venues, we did everything we could to get Andy in front of the Montréal audience.  Mission accomplished, Eric.

In Montréal, Andy truly was ‘the show’.  This was remarkable for several reasons. Firstly, Andy is a pure Anglophone… and the good folks in Montréal and Québec tend to prefer French speakers for obvious reasons. Andy’s content was deemed more than solid enough for the audience: in this case, Andy’s technical prowess more than made up for any perceived linguistic shortcomings.  Plus, as he would later demonstrate in Québec, Andy was MORE than willing to attempt a few French phrases to good effect!  Secondly, Eric and Mathieu were prepared to devote a significant amount of time on the agenda to Andy for the purpose of describing his involvement in SAS user groups, SAS Global Forum and the importance and benefit of volunteering.  This was new territory for any group to cover! 

I think it’s fair to say that Andy more than handily acquitted himself in both respects.  His humour, grace and willingness to engage the audience around their experiences – SAS and otherwise – instantly endeared himself to all.  His presentation schedule was ambitious to say the least. Andy attacked a few of his ‘greatest hits’:  Set, Merge & Update as well as Looking Beneath the Surface of the SASLOG.  We had hoped to fit in his Beneath the Surface of Sorting talk as well but we simply lacked the time.  Have no fear, MONSUG attendees: all of these presentations will be posted shortly in the MONSUG group in the SAS Canada Community as well as the MONSUG SAS Canadawebsite.  We left Montréal having received a very warm reception from the SAS community, which is ultimately the goal of the user groups regardless of language, culture, or any other point of difference. In fact, the user groups thrive the most in areas where differences in community can united through the binding thread of SAS usage.  In this respect, MONSUG was an overwhelming success.

After the extremely warm reception in Montréal – which I think may have calmed Andy’s nerves just a bit – we were off to historic Québec City.  I don’t know if I could have sold the virtues of this amazing city any more to Andy… as regular readers of this blog will know, I’ve previously sung the praises of Québec loudly and consistently. 

Of course no trip to la belle province is complete without food. In Montréal we introduced Andy to the MONSUG-burger.  I could tell you what it is, but I’d prefer you just found out for yourself. Give a brief SAS talk in Montréal and I’ll show you! ;) In Québec City I took Andy to one of my favourite restaurants, ‘Le Café du Monde’. Here we had a great time discussing all things SAS and dining on some of Québec’s finest potages, saumon, macarons et surtout du vin.  These are some of my favourite moments on the road with guest speakers; finding some quiet time to really sit, talk and pick each other’s brains.

After retiring at the Auberge Saint-Antoine – truly one of God’s gifts for travelers such as ourselves – we met up the following day for lunch with the Executive Committee and the user group meeting itself. Here, again, the SASuser community is blessed with a strong, vibrant and dedicated executive committee.  Louis-René Rheault and his team consistently pull together an outstanding agenda which represents both local SAS experts and guest speakers such as Andy.  The meeting itself was a very good one as well. Over 70 people attended to hear Patrice Bourdages give the most unique ‘SAS Global Forum Wrap-Up’ talk I’ve ever seen and our own Sylvain Tremblay delivering a talk around SAS programming techniques.  Of course, Andy was there to reprise his Set, Merge, Update talk once again.

Too soon, I found it was time to leave la ville de Québec.  A quick dinner at possibly the best steakhouse I’ve ever had the pleasure of patronizing and one very full, satisfied and happy Matt was en route to the airport.  Given the smiles, laughter and positive feedback on the evaluation forms, I can confidently say that I believe the SAS community in Québec City felt the same way.

I’m not being facetious when I say that this particular road trip brought together some of my favourite elements of the user group program.  I had the opportunity to work, converse, laugh and relax with two amazing executive committees.  I was also able to observe just how strong the SAS communities are in both of these cities and to take some notes for how to strengthen other groups across the country. Finally, it’s always a pleasure to see Sylvain Tremblay and of course Andy Kuligowski.  As ‘travel buddies’, you tend to become quite close with your fellow SAS presenters… to have 2 of them in one spot at once was truly a great experience. I was in guest speaker overload!

At the end of the day, Montréal and Québec are blessed to have such strong, committed and attentive executive committees working on their behalf and their efforts are truly appreciated.  Not just by me, of course: but by the community at large. There aren’t enough words in either English or French to thank them for their hard work!  I look forward to seeing them all again soon.

À la prochaine, Québec… et merci.

Winnipeg: of Pregnancies, Graphs & SAS Camaraderie

Last Friday I arrived late at night in a rainy, blustery Winnipeg twilight... a little delayed, but happy to be on the ground.  In no small part this was because I was eagerly anticipating seeing friends and colleagues in the friendly confines of the University of Manitoba for the Winnipeg SAS User Group meeting.  And much like the windy weather I arrived in, my short time in Winnipeg was to be as quick, sudden and tumultuous... if only because I was actually on the ground for a mere 18 hours!

I have to take a moment to remark upon something which I don't believe I've ever encountered before at a SAS user group meeting.  Arriving fairly early in order to set-up and say some hellos, I found my eyes wandering around the room.  It was hard to miss that there were 3 or 4 very visibly pregnant women in attendance including one of our guest speakers!  I wondered aloud in my opening address what they were putting in the water in Winnipeg.... it was really fantastic to see so much positive energy in the room, it's hard not to smile when you see so many glowing faces.

Our agenda was a great one once again.  Josée Ranger-Lacroix once again planted a flag in the ground as a rallying point around SAS macros.  Having seen her talk in Saskatoon the day before, I was ready for the audience to be 'wowed'...and I think they were.  The feedback on the evaluations was certainly very positive and I'll be sharing the overall results shortly in the Winnipeg SAS Users LinkedIn Group. 

Rachel McPherson from Manitoba Health followed up with a talk around Dynamic Data Exchange.  I always find these talks fascinating... it's an effective system for moving and restructuring data between Windows applications. Despite the power and flexibility of SAS, we all still live in a Microsoft-wrapped world, there's no denying that!  Rachel demonstrated how she used DDE to create and modify dynamic charts and graphs on the fly in both Excel and Word, and I think the audience appreciated it. As Rachel said, the objective was to learn how to work smarter, not harder... and I think she certainly succeeded in that respect.

Finally, Winnipeg user group President Craig Kasper delivered a fantastic talk around customizing graphs - in this case, pie charts - to adhere to internal specifications. Through a complex mix of code and macros, Craig was able to successfully automate updates on a consistent basis.  Great stuff, Craig!

All of these talks will be posted shortly on the Winnipeg SAS User Group website so that you can have a better idea of the great ideas shared between SAS users.  It's well worth your time!

A special thanks once again to the Executive Committee in Winnipeg: Kevin, Stella, Humaira and of course Craig have done a fantastic job of keeping the strong spirit of collaboration and community alive and well in Winnipeg. I'm already looking forward to my next trip back.

Next up for me: I'm headed to Montréal for the MONSUG user group meeting and Québec for the club d'utilisateurs SAS.  I'm travelling with last year's SAS Global Forum Chair Andy Kuligowski so you can be sure there will be tales to tell!

Until then...