Student News: SAS Global Forum
By Diana Shealy
This last April, Alex Herrington and I received scholarships to attend SAS Global Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada. While I cannot speak for Alex, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed my week at the conference. Throughout my stay at Cal Poly, I have taken the opportunity to attend a variety of conferences and out of all of those conferences, SAS Global Forum was the most exciting and educational.
SAS Global Forum is grandiose; no other conference I've been to can compare to the scale of the SAS Global Forum. The opening session, which concluded with a 30-minute Cirque du Soleil preview, is almost pure entertainment and lived up to Vegas standards. I believe one of the best points of the conference was the many opportunities to relax, socialize and network at one of the many mixers and kickbacks. One of the main reasons I attend conferences is to network and solidify new friendships, and I enjoyed being able to do so without missing conference talks.
As for the presentations, SAS Global Forum had talks at every skill level. As most here at Cal Poly know, I am minoring in Computer Science, and I am interested in topics that combine both disciplines. At SAS Global Forum, I was able to find presentations that leaned toward computer science more than statistics, including a talk about hash tables in SAS. Before the conference, I had just finished my Data Structures class, which covered hash tables, so it was reassuring that the education I'm getting now will actually be useful in the future.
One phrase that I can think of to sum up the SAS Global Forum is "Southern hospitality." The conference organizers and SAS really wanted to make sure that their employees, clients, and users had a good time and enjoyed themselves. The student scholars were treated with respect and not looked down on. The trip was so positive that it has encouraged me to submit an abstract to WUSS for a travel student scholarship. Who knows? If that experience goes well, I may try for the SGF Travel Student Scholarship for SAS Global Forum 2012 in Orlando, Fla.
