Courses

M2008. SAS 11^th annual data mining conference, offers actionable innovation through education

Nearly 50 revolutionary speakers and 10 ground-breaking courses (including two that will debut at the conference) highlight a week of learning unmatched in the industry

As the largest data mining conference of its kind, SAS� upcoming M2008 data mining conference has a lot to offer: access to the world�s most respected analytical experts, an opportunity to network with more than 800 data mining practitioners from all over the world, and insight into the latest trends, research and best practices in analytics, just to name a few.

What makes SAS data mining conferences so successful, many attendees agree, is its balance between theory and practice. Conference keynote speakers share the latest research and data mining methodology, while breakout sessions focus on the more practical, offering best practices, case studies and advice on how to begin implementing or expanding data mining within an organization.

In addition to the intense learning offered during the two-day conference, October 27-28 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, M2008 also provides the data mining community several unique opportunities for professional development. On the Sunday afternoon prior to the start of the conference, data mining practitioners will be able to sit for SAS� newest certification, the SAS Certified Predictive Modeler exam, or take one of two pre-conference workshops. The first, Introduction to Data Mining and SAS Enterprise Miner, provides an introduction to data mining and SAS Enterprise Miner for the Desktop software. A second, Classification Issues and Diagnostics, focuses on issues related to selecting a cut-off when doing classification modeling.

After the conference, attendees can choose from a number or post-conference training opportunities that highlight the latest data mining technology. Two courses, Customer Segmentation using SAS Enterprise Miner and Advanced Analytics for Customer Intelligence Using SAS, debut for the first time at the conference.

Customer Segmentation using SAS Enterprise Miner is a 2-day course offered Wednesday-Thursday, October 29-30. The course is taught by M2007 co-chair Goutam Chakraborty, currently a professor of marketing at Oklahoma State University. The course is designed for business analysts, managers, marketers and programmers who are interested in understanding and applying both attitudinal and behavioral segmentation tools and techniques on their customer databases. Course topics include the theory of segmentation, as well as four main analytic tools for segmentation: hierarchical clustering, K-means clustering, RFM cell method, and SOM/Kohonen method.

Advanced Analytics for Customer Intelligence Using SAS is a 3-day course offered Wednesday-Friday, October 29-31. The course will examine the effect recent trends such as mass customization, personalization, the Web, one-to-one marketing, risk management, and fraud detection has had on the need to extract, understand and exploit analytical patterns of customer behavior and intelligence. The course, taught by one of the conference's keynote speakers Bart Baesens, will clarify how recently proposed advanced data mining techniques can be successfully adopted for advanced customer intelligence applications. Baesens is a professor at the Faculty of Applied Economic Sciences at the K.U.Leuven (Belgium) and the School of Management of the University of Southampton (United Kingdom) and has done extensive research on data mining, credit scoring, and Web mining.

About� M2008

M2008 is SAS� 11^th annual data mining conference. Hosted by the Education Division at SAS, M2008 is the largest data mining conference in the world, providing a unique forum for attendees to exchange ideas and learn the latest best practices in the industry. Attendance for M2008 is running ahead of last year�s, where more than 800 attendees from nearly 350 different organizations participated.

The conference takes place October 27-28 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, with pre-conference workshops Oct. 26 and post-conference training Oct. 29-31. Learn More

Early Bird Discount to Expire September 19

Attendees who register prior to Sept. 19 save $200 on regular conference fees.
Register Now!

Vice President of SAS Education Herbert Kirk said M2008�s educational opportunities (before, during, and after the conference) are what make the conference so valuable to attendees. "SAS is the world leader in analytics and by leveraging our knowledge and the relationships we�ve developed with top experts in the field, we�re able to bring the data mining community a top-notch learning opportunity." Kirk says the data mining community does its part too, though, by actively participating in all the conference has to offer.

"Data miners are clearly dedicated to their profession." Kirk marveled. "Every year I�ll talk with attendees who participate in our pre-conference training on Sunday afternoon, take the certification exam on Sunday evening, attend the conference on Monday and Tuesday, and then stay the remainder of the week to take post-conference training. Some of these individuals put in a 60 hour week just attending the events we have planned for them."

Kirk said many attendees make it a point to tell him its well worth the time investment and some even claim the conference is the highlight of their year. "After I thank them," Kirk said, "I simply reply 'for me too!� "

M2008.