Fall is nearly upon us here in Cary, but not according to the thermometer. I hope it is somewhat cooler where you are.
We had a fantastic time in Denver at JSM. Denver is a wonderful place for a convention, and I hope many of you had a chance to attend. The SAS booth on the Expo floor saw quite a bit of activity. Causal analysis is a hot topic. The new CAUSALMED, CAUSALTRT, and CAUSALGRAPH procedures garnered more than their fair share of questions, as did our latest foray into all things Bayesian—PROC BGLIMM. Randy Tobias, R&D Director for SAS/STAT®, tells me that there were dozens of sessions devoted to the topic of causal analysis this year. Most, if not all, of these sessions were packed—standing room only! SAS was right in the mix of things with popular Continuing Education courses and Computer Technology Workshops in both of these exciting areas of statistics.
Fall brings with it our regional SAS® users group meetings. If you are not familiar with the regionals, you can find out more information at SAS Users Groups. This page also highlights local users groups in the United States. Click the box for your region of the country to see if there is a local users group in your area. I will be traveling to Phoenix for the Valley of the Sun users group meeting and to Denver for the Denver users group meeting at the end of October. If you are not in the US, fear not! Check out Meetup or LinkedIn to find a local group in your city or country.
Phil Gibbs
Manager, Advanced Analytics Technical Support