PDF of Daily Presentation Schedule

[ArtC]

A printable version of the daily presentation schedule for SAS Global Forum is now available for download on sasCommunity.org.http://sascommunity.org/wiki/File:SASGFDailySchedule2017.zip Printed versions will be available at the conference this year, but you may wish to print your own version now.  Watch this page for schedule updates as they become available.

[Davanden]

Printed programs are back? Were there complaints about last year's paperless schedule?

[ArtC]

The printable PDFs were available last year as well.  The thought was that rather than print bunches of copies that might go to waste, we would let those users who wanted copies print them themselves.  At the conference quite a few folks who had not printed anything at home, realized that they wanted a printed copy afterall.

This year the decision was made to have copies available for those who want them.  However they will be printed now and any changes to the schedule between now and the conference will not be reflected in the schedule.  I will try to update these PDFs as schedule change data becomes available.

At the very least building them has been a fun macro/REPORT exercise.

[whileman]

A million thanks!!!!

[jmhorstman]

Thanks, Art!  This is much appreciated!

@Davanden The reason I like this format is that I find it much easier to navigate the conference when all of the papers can be viewed in a grid format.  It doesn't matter whether it's on paper or a PDF.  What matters to me is that it's really easy to see what all of my options are at the moment, or at any point in time during the conference.  All the same information is there in the mobile app, but it's not laid out in the same way.

I hope I don't sound like a Luddite.  Mobile devices are great, but you just can't visualize the same information on a 5" phone screen that you can on a larger screen, or even a piece of paper!

[louisehadden]

Thanks, Art!  I may be a dinosaur, but I use the printed page to make notes on sessions and it is helpful to be able to flag papers I want to look up if I can't see the presentation due to time conflicts.  It also sounds like an interesting programming challenge!

[ArtC]

I also like the grid layout for helping with my navigation.  Pleistocene anyone?

[MMMIIIIKKKKEEEE]

Art,

I like the grid format too because I am especially adept at reading between the lines.

[ArtC]

Mike, I do worry about you sometimes

I also worry that this type of schedule will contribute to gridlock.  Fortunately we are not meeting in Washington this year.

[Davanden]

I should make it clear that I wasn't criticizing anyone. I'm pretty retro myself. It's just that, given the strong push to go paperless in 2016, I was surprised that there was going to be a printed schedule this year. I wondered what caused the change.

--Dav

[ArtC]

@Davanden I doubt that you offended anyone.  My understanding is that the paperless objective is still one that the conference is working towards, but what we discovered last year, and has been repeated by several folks on this thread, was that the available technology does not yet satisfy the need for a scheduling tool for a lot of the attendees.  In the mean time i get to play with macros and PROC REPORT.

[Cynthia_sas]

Thanks Art! I appreciate the handout.
cynthia

[ArtC]

I have just uploaded a new copy of the schedules.  There will continue to be adjustments to the schedule over the next couple of weeks.  If you would like to be notified each time there is an updated version, place a "watch" on the sasCommunity page.   To prevent overloading your inbaskets, I will not announce any more updates on this thread.  http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/File:SASGFDailySchedule2017.zip