How Many SGF or SUGIs Have You Been To and What's Your Most Memorable Moment?

[MaryR]

The first SGF/SUGI was in 1976.  How many have you been to and what is your most memorable moment?

I've been going every year since 2009, and have two moments that are very special to me:

1. Bidding on and winning all of the proceedings from the SUGIs, including a printed copy of the 1976 conference, signed by Jim Goodnight
2. Presenting a paper while very pregnant with my twin sons, and starting by telling the audience that I had two co-presenters, but that they weren't going to be saying much.

Now it's your turn!

[mbuchecker]

My first was 1991 in New Orleans. SAS Global Forum 2016 will be my 11th SUGI/SGF.

Most memorable moment was SUGI 21 in Chicago. I was giving a presentation on a macro to pass in a libref and data set name and it would create a flatfile using the SQL dictionary tables. The large ballroom was standing room only. During the Q&A session at one point someone asked me if there was an option to control the size of the macro symbol table, and for the life of me I could not remember the name of the option. I knew it, just couldn't retrieve it. So I finally said "yes, there is an option but I can't recall it, so go look it up."  It got a huge laugh, but I was still a little embarrassed. BTW, it's MSYMTABMAX. 

[MetteHenriksen]

This will be my first GF, so i'm realy looking foreward to this huge event.

[MichelleHomes]

Hi @MetteHenriksen,

Thanks for sharing this will be your first SAS Global Forum. Feel free to get social beforehand and also join us at the #SASGF #TweetUp.

To get the most out of the conference, I highly suggest attending the First Timers' Session.

I look forward to meeting you in person soon!

Kind Regards,

Michelle

[MaryR]

We are glad you will be attending! You might want to check out the first timer's session -- it is a lot of help!

[data_null__]

1983

This: http://www.sascommunity.org/sugi/SUGI83/Sugi-83-171%20Henderson.pdf

[Peter_C]

Stunning how little of that should change to present in AprilMaybe the font;-)

[jklaverstijn]

This will be my 15th SGF/SUGI. My first one was New York 1993. I left a gap between 99 and 07 but attended ever since.

I recall two memorable events:

1) SUGI 18, 1993, New York. the NESUG party. It was across the SUGI hotel in a hotel that had a flooding in the original hall. So the hotel offered alternative location and free drinks to make amends. This helped turning it into quite a wild happening that I understand to be the precursor to the SGF kickback party.

2) Same SUGI 18. I was still a SAS employee. There was a request for SAS/AF games to be put on display in a corner of the demo hall. I sent in a slot machine simulator I built to get acquainted with the new HP Apollo workstation. Arriving in the New York Hilton I was asked to have a chat with Dr. Goodnight. In that conversation he announced that he would demo that application in the opening session. And yes, I am still proud today. Next year in Dallas he even repeated that demo. And it ended up in SAS/Assist.

Don't jump to the conclusion that the post-1993 conferences were uneventful. The opposite is the case, although I think the modern kickback parties are just a weak echo of those untamed dancing events when the band was still made up of SAS people and partners. But that's just an old fart talking.

Looking forward to another good one,

- Jan.

[jwaller]

I have been attending RUG events since 2000 (you can all do the math) and my first SASGF/SUGI was in 2006, SUGI 31, with @KimLeBouton as conference chair.  It has been one of my most memorable because I was on crutches (stress fracture) in San Francisco and hauling myself around.  I had the best arm muscles ever that year!   I declined the offer of a scooter from @DDBaggett while standing in line to do the conference survey in the Demo Room, and later wished I hadn't been so hasty to decline.  And I will always remember David Johnson, such a wonderful soul and who is greatly missed, who "danced" with me during the kickback party by literally holding me up so I wouldn't put pressure on the leg.  For me it isn't the presentations that I remember so much, although I do get those papers and reference them repeatedly.  Rather it is the people I remember and the great friendships that have been created over the years through this great event.  

@jklaverstijn I loved having the SAS band play at the Kickback Party!  Especially when they invited the conference chair up on the stage to sing.  I think it was "Mustang Sally" that Kim LeBouton joined in singing at SUGI 31.

Jenn

[MMMIIIIKKKKEEEE]

SAS Programming Professionals,

Uh, uh!

I know what you're thinking:  "Did he attend 20 SUGI's/SGF's or 21."

Well, to tell you the truth, in all of the excitement, I kinda lost track myself.  But, being this is SUGI/SGF, the most powerful SAS Users Group conference in the world, packed with enough information to blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question:  Do I feel lucky?  Well, do you, People?

[ShelleySessoms]

This will be my 10th SAS Global Forum. I've only missed one since 2005 and that was last year due to a job change. My most memorable conference was my first, 2005. I wrote the very first SUGI Daily News. It was in print format and we wrote, designed and printed them each day. Greg Nelson @gregorysnelson that year's chair, would come by several times a day and approve the content and then we'd lay it all out in a newspaper format. We'd stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning printing them on printers shipped there by SAS. And then be back at it by 7:00 the next morning. Very long, very tiring days, but so worth it!

This year, I'll be back working the Communities area of the Connect space in the Quad.

[louisehadden]

My first SUGI was SUGI 22 in San Diego in 1997.  Not only was it my first SUGI, it was my first SAS User Group conference and my first time every presenting a poster / writing a paper, first time on a cross country plane trip (I was terrified but mesmerized by going over the Grand Canyon), and first time in California.  I was surprised and delighted that my poster got honorable mention.  I've been to many SUGIs, SGFs, RUGs, and LUGs since then - too many to count!  Along with SUGI 22, winning best contributed paper awards (along with my co-authors Mike Zdeb, Robert Allison and Christianna Williams) at SUGI 31, SGF 2009 and SGF 2012 was particularly memorable.  Probably the most striking memory though is my paper/poster/presentation on publishing in Klingon with SAS.  Along with great information and inspiration from every conference I've been to, the opportunity to see new cities (even from the vantage point of a convention center) is great, as is meeting people from all over the world at the conference.  I am always humbled when I walk through the doors to a new conference and new opportunities.  My children (now parents themselves) call me "such a nerd".  I guess it is true!

[SASwork]

This will be my third.  Second in Vegas. 

[LoriGoldman]

I've been to 10 SUGI/SGF's so far.  I thought it was more because I've been to NESUG (may it rest in peace) so many times as well.  Looking back, it's all a bit of a blur.  I think my favorite location was the Grand Old Opry.  I loved that location.  I'd never really seen trees growing inside like that before.  I was jealous of the folks who had rooms looking out over the inside greenery. 

For post-con fun, I'd have to say that Disney has been my favorite location.  A few years ago after the con, a friend and I drove over to Universal and stayed for a few days.  I love it.

I have to agree with one of the other posts that the Kick-back party has just not been the same of late.  I don't know whether it's because we felt so close to the NESUG/Sugi band. Sometimes I felt like a groupie.  It's not like they can't be replaced, but it seems that they haven't been replaced by bands who can really belt out "Mustang Sally". <sigh>

[jimw]

Last year was the first time I attended SGF.  Looking forward to SGF in Las Vegas.  Last year's presentation by Jeff Ma was very interesting.  Perhaps I'll be able to apply some of his "math" during my free time at the casino!