KDnuggets : News : 2006 : n12 : item20 < PREVIOUS | NEXT >

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Subject: SAS F2006 is World's Largest Forecasting Conference

Whether you're making automobiles, selling swimwear or recruiting college students, the ability to accurately predict demand for products or services represents an increasingly valuable tool for businesses, schools and government organizations. Issues facing practitioners in the rapidly expanding field of forecasting were the subject of SAS' inaugural F2006 Business Forecasting Conference, held June 5 and 6 at SAS world headquarters in Cary, NC.

The gathering brought together some of the most respected forecasting experts in the world with 334 registered attendees from 35 states, five countries and 120 different business, government, and academic organizations. SAS hosted this event - the world's largest forecasting conference of the year - to help organizations analyze and streamline their forecasting processes, and improve forecasting results.

Forecasting experts led discussions of the latest software and statistical techniques, although many sessions were geared to people who work in non-technical areas and focused on the forecasting process.

Among the outstanding presentations, Paul Goodwin, Ph.D., from the University of Bath (UK) delivered a keynote address on "Combining Management Judgment with Statistical Forecasts for Improved Accuracy." He described how statistical methods and expert management judgment can bring complementary benefits to the forecasting process. However, such judgment can be subject to both inconsistencies and biases. He then demonstrated a range of methods designed to allow judgment to play an effective role when used in combination with statistical forecasts.

Sven Crone, Lancaster University (UK) spoke about the best ways to incorporate the effects of external events into demand forecasts. He noted that management judgment must play a major role when the event history has not been properly recorded or the expected future event is not thought to be similar to those seen in the past. He concluded with a discussion of software enhancements that could help company forecasters improve their estimates of the impact of events.

Many took advantage of the on-site forecasting training sessions following the conference. SAS is already planning its second annual business forecasting conference, F2007, to be held June 25-26, 2007, in Cary.

SAS has been the recognized leader in forecasting software for more than a quarter-century, with more than 4,000 unique customers licensing SAS forecasting products worldwide. In November 2005, SAS released SAS Forecast Server, which added the new SAS Forecast Studio GUI to the SAS High-Performance Forecasting engine. SAS Forecast Server automatically chooses the best forecasting model, optimizes the model parameters, and produces the forecasts, even accounting for seasonality and intermittent data, both of which are common in many industries. For example, graphical displays offer retailers an understanding of the effects of holidays, marketing events, sales promotions, and unexpected events such as weather, improving the ability to plan effective sales promotions and marketing events. Already a favorite with users, SAS Forecast Server was named one of the "Trend-Setting Products of the Year for 2005" by KMWorld magazine, and also the "2005 Communications Solutions Product of the Year" awarded by editors of Technology Marketing Corporation's Communications Solutions magazine for excellence in technological advancement.


KDnuggets : News : 2006 : n12 : item20 < PREVIOUS | NEXT >

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