July 16, 2007

One hundred eighteen days to go. We ended up getting loads of great abstracts -- more than ever before, in fact. But why is it nearly everyone waits till the bitter end?? More than half of the total number of abstracts came in during the last week – more than one-quarter came in on the last day! This happens every year, but every year the newbie conference chairs (that would be Rick and me this year) are chewing their cuticles for fear that there will be no papers. One of those rites of passage, I guess. We joke that we should just have the Call for Papers open for one week – that we'd get just as many abstracts, but I certainly wouldn't have the nerve to risk that.

And now, we wait for people to register for our conference! The same nerve-wracking, cliffhanging phenomenon happens here – about two-thirds of the registrations last year were during the last week of early registration! (Rick sure doesn't need to be reminded about this – he probably fielded questions from half of those people that week!)

What else is going on? Rick and I are doing fun stuff like choosing what kinds of foods we want to have at the receptions and breaks – and gagging at the costs. That breakfast bagel literally ends up costing NESUG about 6 bucks, and the little 10 oz Diet Coke is around four dollars. The catering prices are staggering to begin with but then a 22% gratuity is added, and sales tax (including on the gratuity) on top of that. We are the proverbial captive customers. Still, it's fun to make the choices – we hope there'll be something everyone likes!

So...register for our conference...you don't have to wait 66 days till the last day of early registration!!

See a pdf version of this page...easier to view the images Image:NESUG07Blog1.1.pdf

NESUG 2007 Blog V1.1

What are those Crabs Doing? And can I have some?

Today, April 25, 2007, is exactly 200 days until our conference starts. WOW! (I figured that out using SAS®, by the way.) It seems that it was only last week that Rick and I were calmly reassuring each other, "It's ok, we're in good shape, the conference is more than a year away." Now we are saying – a tad more nervously, "It's ok, we're in good shape, the conference is more than six months away." …I wonder what we'll be saying to each other (and in what tone of voice!) in about 190 days…

"Our Conference", of course, is the NorthEast SAS Users Group Annual Conference – NESUG 2007 – which will be held in Baltimore, November 11-14. This city – in fact the same beautiful hotel in the same beautiful Inner Harbor – is the location of four previous NESUG conferences (1992; 1997 –the first conference at which I presented a paper; 2001, and 2004). We've had more conferences there than any other city, so it seems quite fitting that Baltimore is the host city for this, the 20th NESUG! And there's a reason NESUG keeps returning there – it’s a fabulous location for a conference. Baltimore is easy to get to, the hotel is within walking distance of many interesting sights and great places to eat, and shoot…there's a mall attached to the hotel, if one needs some retail therapy as a break for the brain! Plus, the "events" staff at the hotel have been great to work with over the years.

One of the first tasks for newly minted conference chairs (that would be Rick and me) is to design (or rather work with a graphic artist to design) a conference logo. Typically, this is done a few months before the prior year's conference so it can be unveiled with much fanfare and hoopla at Closing Session, the official start of the next conference year (and when organization begins in earnest). Usually, the logo is somehow evocative of the city where the conference will be, and an unexpected challenge to chairing a conference in a city where NESUG has been several times before is to come up with something original that symbolizes the city. Luckily, Baltimore has a lot to choose from. The first three all had some flavor of maritime theme. In '92 it was the harbor area skyline, including a stylized image of the Renaissance hotel. The '97 logo features a sailboat and seagulls; in 2001, nautical icons gambol through the word (?) "NESUG". The 2004 logo went from sea to sky, showing an Oriole. (FYI, The Oriole is the state bird of Maryland, my home state, but I suspect the logo was more a nod to a certain baseball team that plays home games within shouting distance of the harbor). So, what was left? What else is Baltimore known and loved for? The foodie in me shrieked, "CRABS!" and Rick replied, "Mmmm….good with beer!" Because we are both geeks enough to truly believe that NESUG is fun – and not just the social activities – we wanted happy crabs. Being a bio major (many, many moons ago), I'm pretty sure those tennies are not anatomically correct, but they are appropriate for Rick who is not just a marathoner but an ULTRA-marathoner. The crabs look like they're dancing, and anyone who's been to a NESUG Attendee party in the last decade knows I love to dance…so there you have it folks!

The next installment will be more serious…gotta go review some abstracts. Oh yeah, check out our website, submit an abstract, sign up for our E-newletter, all at www.nesug.org