Date:         Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:25:38 -0400
Reply-To:     "F. J. Kelley" <jkelley@UGA.EDU>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "F. J. Kelley" <jkelley@UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: First Time SUGI in Montreal
In-Reply-To:  <OFF0AA8837.E2E7F827-ON88256E83.00616F21@epamail.epa.gov>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

... what he said ...

ok, seriously, go to
  http://support.sas.com/usergroups/sugi/sugi29/index.html

you can get overviews of each day as well as listings of presenters and
the abstracts.  SAS also has a "Personal Agenda Builder" at
  http://support.sas.com/usergroups/sugi/sugi29/pagenda.html

You really will be exhausted if you try to attend sessions every moment,
but there are a lot of new folks as well as old pros presenting here
(you'll recognize a number of SAS-L contributors), so having some sort of
plan doesn't hurt.  In the old days the proceedings were mailed about 3
months after the conference, later they were handed out at the conference,
now you'll receive the proceedings on a CD when you collect your
registration materials.  A laptop is handy if you want to look over this.
be sure to look over all the _stuff_ you pick up at registration.  it
includes tickets (of all sorts) - you may need some of them Sunday
evening.  Attend the First Timers Session on Sunday afternoon.   There are
also BOFs Monday and Tuesday evening.  I always try to attend Futures
Forum (Tuesday afternoon this year).  The SAS Demo room will have new
stuff in development (at _my_ first SUGI they had "SAS on a 64-bit
machine" - a CDC Cyber running NOS/VE) as well as developers, tech
support, sales reps, a lot of folks.  lots of good stuff.
--Joe


On Tue, 27 Apr 2004, David L. Cassell wrote:

> Craig Lake <theNOOOlakerSPAMMM@ACDDOOT.NET> wrote:
> > My company is sending me to my first SUGI this year.  Unfortunately
> since
> > it's a small company, I'm going alone.  So if you see someone sitting
> by
> > themselves...
>
> Hey, don't do that!  Look for the special info for first-timers, and
> take advantage of all that.  Look for people you sort of know from SAS-L
> and introduce yourself.  Talk to people who are interested in the same
> papers you are.
>
> Above all, be sure to come to the SAS-L BOF and introduce yourself.
> It's
> your chance to see just how peculiar we really are.  :-)  It doesn't
> matter
> if you're a lurker or a once-a-year poster, you'll still be welcome.
>
> > Anyway, can someone tell me what the dress code is like?  It looks
> like this
> > question came up in the newsgroup in years past, but I wanted to know
> what
> > the latest word is.  My company is pretty casual, so I'm used to just
> > wearing tennis shoes, jeans, and either a button down oxford or polo
> shirt.
>
> Considering that you just described *dressed up* for Curt, you're in
> good
> shape.  :-)  There will be tons of people dressed far more casually than
> you,
> and tons dressed far more formally.  You'll fit in just fine.  A sturdy
> polo
> shirt may also be heavy enough to overcome the vicissitudes of
> out-of-control
> air conditioning that seem to occur in every conference ever.  But
> having a
> windbreaker along can be helpful on occasion.  Expect to see a lot of
> people
> wearing SUGI t-shirts and such.
>
> > Anything else that people typically bring (laptops, SAS reference
> manuals,
> > source code)?
>
> Don't bother with source code unless you want Code Doctors or SAS
> experts to
> take a look at it.  Don't bother with SAS reference manuals.  A laptop
> is handy
> for reading the proceedings off the CD, but you don't need to cart it
> around
> with you to the talks.  You'll get some sort of notepad and carry-all at
> the
> conference as part of your registration package.  (In Seattle we even
> got free
> umbrellas.)  So travel light.  You may want to have a few business cards
> to
> exchange.
>
> David
> --
> David Cassell, CSC
> Cassell.David@epa.gov
> Senior computing specialist
> mathematical statistician
>