NOTE: Prepped and Ready for SAS Global Forum 2013 #sasgf13

As I write this, it's the afternoon of Sunday 21st April. In a week's time I shall be in sunny San Francisco, indulging in a cycling tour of the area with friends in anticipation of the SAS Global Forum opening mixer in the evening. I'll probably be a wee bit sleepy, having had a long day on the previous day.

I'm expecting Saturday to be an especially long day because I'll need to rise at 7am British Summer Time to catch the 12:20 Virgin Atlantic flight, and I'm planning to attend the Tweetup in the evening. But the Tweetup is at 8pm Pacific Time, and TimeAndDate tells me make that that is 4am Sunday in British Summer Time. As I said, a long day, and I may not stay long!

I didn't attend the Tweetup last year because of the long day plus the travel distance/time between my chosen hotel and the Tweetup location. This year, I have no such excuse because the Tweetup is in the same hotel as me. I look forward to meeting the organisers (Tricia Aanderud (@taanderud) from And Data, and Michelle Homes (@HomesatMetacoda) from Metacoda), plus lots of other fellow tweeters (tweeps?). It'll be an informal gathering, and non-tweeters are welcome (although, you might be under firm pressure to become a tweeter!).

Twitter is a great means of keeping up-to-date with SAS industry news and tips from some of the most knowledge people. And I'm there too: @aratcliffeuk. If you'd like to know more about Twitter and/or meet some of the most prolific SAS-related twitterers, come along and join us at 8pm Saturday (or 4am Sunday if you're from a similar time zone to me!)