Last week, I attended the SAS Data and Analytics Forum and was accompanied by a number of other elected officials from across Wake County, including Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones and Cary Mayor Pro Tem, Gale Adcock to name a few.

The conference began with opening remarks from Dr. Jim Goodnight, who discussed how analytics and data are helping local governments operate more efficiently and get more visibility into the operations of the Town, also enabling them to make better predictive analysis of future trends, which may affect growth, and costs.    SAS has launched a new analytics lab, which local governments can use to help them in their open data initiatives.

Presentations from Wake County EMS, and the Town of Cary all presented examples on how local governemnts are saving more lives, enhancing energy efficiency and sustainability, and also making better planning and development decisions, all through the use of analytics and open data initiatives.

The most common theme I heard was how local governments can better execute budgets to meet mission statements and goals through more transparent data, with the end result being increasing accountability, producing more efficiencies, reducing costs, and making better informed decisions on a daily basis.

Thanks to Paula Henderson, Jennifer Nibcholson, and the SAS Sales and Marketing team for hosting this conference and I will post the audio of the conference on the site in the next few days.