Experience: The SAS community

Vijayakumar discusses interacting with the SAS community and representing ICON at National and International conferences.

For the last two years I’ve been to the Phuse SDE conferences, held in Hyderabad and Chennai respectively. These international conferences give me the chance to connect and communicate with higher level management, such as directors and vice presidents. It is designed to be an open forum for everyone, in which we can ask any questions we need to. I found it really useful to find out about achievements, expectations and to discuss new approaches in the SAS industry.

As well as learning I’ve also been given the chance to share my own knowledge. In 2013 I presented a talk on “Integrated Safety Summary” at Conspic, conducted by Indian Association of Statistics in Clinical Trials (IASCT). In September of this year I presented a talk on “Survival Analysis” at the same conference. I was proud to represent ICON at these events and it was also a very useful experience for me as I was able to learn about the technical and management aspects of being a global participant.

One of the main things I’ve taken away from the conferences I’ve attended is the importance of communication. I’ve been able to interact with a variety of people all of whom are very willing to share their different skills and talents,. By getting to know the international SAS community I have learnt a huge amount and also been able to pass on my knowledge. Every day there are advancements in the technical skills required in this industry and these conferences provide a very efficient way of sharing this.

On a personal level I have built up a fantastic network with a large global audience where I can share my experiences and learn their views. It has helped me to build up my skills set and my ability to think out of the box. It has also been of use to ICON as they utilise these opportunities to continue to build on their levels of competency in the global market. I’m grateful that the business have given me this chance to grow and develop and I’m looking forward to remaining part of the conference circuit for many years to come. 

We have a number of different SAS roles available internally so why not take a look at them here?