MWSUG - Midwest SAS User Group Scholar

I was fortunate enough to be selected as a student scholar in the recent midwest SAS user group conference held at Mariott Hotel, Indianapolis. This scholarship included a free registration and accomodation during the conference. It was a unique opportunity to mingle with SAS/JMP users from industry & academia and lean from the experts. The presentations were in the following categories

Application Development
Data Visualization
Pharmaceutical Applications
SAS Presents
Statistics and Data Analysis
Tutorials
JMP

Being a midwest user's conference, I think MWSUG 2008 had around 400-500 attendees and was a small one when compared to AAPS with approximately 10,000 attendees. Dr. John Sall, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of SAS Institute and leader of the JMP business division was the key note speaker. He talked about the journey of JMP since late 1980s to the current version of JMP7.0. I especially enjoyed the talk on Mixed Effect Models and Bayesian analysis using SAS. I am not a SAS/JMP expert, but am comfortable using them for some of the statistical analysis.

In addition to the various presentations and hands on SAS workshop, MWSUG included a Las Vegas Casino Night with games like Craps, Blackjack, Roulette, 3-Card Poker, Money Wheel and Texas Hold’em Poker area. Each of us received a $500 fake money to play the games. This was the second time I was ever gambling in my life (can you believe that?) and in a Mariott turned Las Vegas Casino. The first time was when I visited Las Vegas and was trying my hand at the slot machines. Anyways, I did have fun on the casino night.

Did you have an experience similar to this? I would be happy to hear and learn from you!