For excellence in its planning and execution: SAS Users Group Wins MPI Global Paragon Award

Business Wire, March 7, 1996

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 1996--The SAS(r) Users Group International (SUGI) will be presented Meeting Professionals International's 1995 Global Paragon Award during SUGI 21, which convenes March 10-13 in Chicago.

SUGI 20 is being recognized for its innovation and creativity by MPI, the world's largest association of meeting professionals with more than 13,500 members in 44 nations. The organization featured SUGI in the February edition of its monthly magazine, The Meeting Manager. During SUGI 21's opening session on Sunday, SUGI 20 Conference Chair Neil Howard of MCI Communications will accept MPI's Global Paragon Award on behalf of SUGI. She will be joined onstage by current Chair Paul Grant of Private Healthcare Systems Inc., of Waltham, Mass.

"SUGI is a unique conference experience, being both user- and vendor-driven," said Ms. Howard, who works in multimedia strategy and engineering at MCI. "Consequently, the scope exceeds expectations and the appeal is very broad. Managers and executives also appreciate the business perspective on issues applicable to all industries - the strategic planning, executive decision making in the face of all the emerging and advanced technologies currently available for information delivery.

"SAS users are the best advocates of the SAS System," Howard added. "You can see that in the level of participation and energy generated at the SUGI conferences. That enthusiasm is fueled by new ideas given and received, opportunities to teach and to learn. The creativity and excitement is contagious and has important implications to your job 'back home.'"

SUGI attendees rely on the conference to network and interact with users facing the same challenges. "A different perspective and a heated discussion can really open up the possibilities in approaching specific information delivery tasks and systems development," Howard noted.

"Because of all the informative presentations packed into this three-day users group conference, attending SUGI is the best way I know of to maximize your training dollar," Grant said. "The annual SUGI conference provides SAS users in diverse business and research environments a unique opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with other SAS software users from around the world. Most of the leading SAS programmers attend this conference each year. Attendees can see how they use SAS software, pick up tips and techniques from the experts on how to use it more effectively, and learn about the new features of the SAS System from SAS Institute developers."

The 21st annual meeting of SAS software users will be held at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Nearly 3,000 SAS software users from around the world will present papers, attend presentations and tutorials by SAS Institute staff, view demonstrations, and participate in roundtable forums and birds-of-a-feather (special interest) sessions. A major focus of their attention will be SAS Institute's development priorities and technology directions.

The Global Paragon award, sponsored by Opryland Hotel, supports MPI's goals of fostering professionalism and promoting meetings as a way to help groups meet goals. For the 1995 award, 37 entrants were rated on such things as how well they met goals and handled logistics. SUGI and Kinko's, Inc. shared the top prize.

SUGI is a nonprofit organization of users of the SAS Institute's software products: the SAS System, SYSTEM 2000(r) Data Management Software, the Institute's C compiler products and JMP software.

Now in its 20th anniversary year, SAS Institute is among the world's 10 largest independent software companies. SAS Institute's flagship product, the SAS System, is an integrated suite of information delivery software for business decision making.

For more information, contact SUGI Registration at SAS Institute Inc., SAS Campus Drive, Cary, NC 27513. Telephone: (919) 677-8000.

SAS is a registered trademark of SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA All other tradenames referenced are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: SAS Institute Inc., Cary

Beverly Brown or Les Hamashima, 919/677-8000 (Editorial)

or

The Weber Group

Patty Williams or Kathy Keating, 617/661-7900