LAS VEGAS, September 4, 2007 -- Hosted by SAS for the 10th year, M2007 is the world's largest data mining conference of its kind. It will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Oct. 1-2, with training offered Oct. 3-5 on SAS’ award-winning analytical products. Post-conference training will feature courses on SAS® Enterprise Miner™ and a brand new course on SAS Model Manager.

M2007 conference co-chairs are Goutam Chakraborty, Professor of Marketing at Oklahoma State University, and SAS' Jerry Oglesby.

“With data mining, today’s decision makers can tackle business challenges with greater confidence in expected outcomes,” said Jerry Oglesby, Director of Higher Education Consulting and Global Certification at SAS. “In some organizations, vast data stores still lie dormant. At M2007, we are exploring the best ways for data selection, exploration and model building to uncover hidden patterns. This conference will help many to jump-start or revive their projects.”

Known for breaking news on innovative real-world applications, attendees from business, academia, education and government have made M2007 the top choice in data mining professional networking. M2006 drew more than 700 attendees from 361 companies in 24 countries.

“This year’s lineup of presentations is compelling,” said Mary Crissey, Analytics Product Marketing Manager at SAS. “A growing variety of industries reaps huge returns from data mining. Even while networking, M2007 attendees will gain new ideas for applying predictive analytics. Those ideas are bound to spark the kind of creativity that fuels innovation.”

Keynote speakers share the latest advances in data mining methodology, with breakout sessions focusing on the more practical side – offering best practices, case studies and advice on implementing or expanding data mining initiatives within organizations.

M2007 keynote speakers include:

Sambuddha Deb, Chief Quality Officer of Wipro.

David Hand, Head of the Mathematics in Banking and Finance program of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Imperial College London.

V. Kumar, Executive Director, ING Center for Financial Services in the School of Business, University of Connecticut.

Gordon Linoff, a founder and Principal of Data Miners Inc.

The conference will also offer a keynote panel presentation featuring panelists from ACG Solutions, Farmers Insurance, Kimberly-Clark and Safeway Inc. They and others will discuss new applications and their lessons learned so attendees can advance data mining skills and knowledge. This year's program includes nearly 40 sessions with titles such as Audio Analysis, Forecasting Box Office Success of Movies, Identifying Fall-Related Injuries, Optimizing Marketing and Risk Strategies, Artificial Intelligence with a Neural Network Implementation, Determining Which Delinquent Accounts Are Worth Pursuing, and Credit Risk Model Monitoring Studies.

Rounding out the M2007 program are poster sessions, educational workshops, a certification testing event and exhibits. A M2007 demo theater in the exhibit hall will allow expert consultants from SAS to offer short tutorials illustrating successful data mining implementations. For more information on M2007, call the conference registrar at 800-333-7660 or simply register online.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services. Customers at 43,000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight from data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products and processes. Only SAS offers leading data integration, storage, analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®. www.sas.com

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2007 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

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Faye.Merrideth@sas.com
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