For the past few years SAS Forum Nederland has been held in Nieuwegein, a town not far from Utrecht. In Utrecht there is a museum, Museum Speelklok that I’ve been longing to visit and with a free Saturday afternoon following SAS Forum Nederland, I gleefully did.
The Museum Speelklok website states “Museum Speelklok will take you through the wonderful world of self-playing musical instruments, surprising its visitors every day with the cheerful tunes sounding from all corners of the museum.” And it sure was wonderful. I was mesmerised by the musical tones and in awe of the history and amazing engineering these 16th century instruments possessed. From musical clocks, musical boxes, orchestrions and traditional Dutch organs it was a delight. The enchanting experience not only was a musical fulfilment, it was engineering adventure as I watched the pins, pulleys and drums move in perfect harmony.
Being inspired
I was spellbound with one instrument on display, A Magical Marble Machine. This instrument was created and donated to the museum after the creator, Martin Molin, member of the Swedish musicband Wintergatan become inspired while visiting the Museum Speelklok in 2014. After 14 months he created a magical music machine of packs of plywood, 3000 screws and no less than 2000 marbles. I urge you to watch the viral (almost 50 million views) YouTube video below of his creation that includes a virbraphone, kickdrum, snare-drum, cymbals and an electric bass.
Did you also find the engineering and magical music inspiring and fascinating? It’s motivating to learn how Martin’s inspiration lead to his innovation where he experienced his new possible.
Experience Your New Possible
Last month I was at a few European SAS Forums where each had the theme “Experience Your New Possible”. The events shared through engaging keynote speakers, customer stories and discussions with attendees their experiences and ideas to a world of new possibilities. It’s always exciting to hear the inspiration attendees gain in attending SAS forums and how it enriches their analytics journeys. To see our recap of the forums, see the post “Experience Your new Possible – What’s Your Journey?”
European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Another theme that was prominent at the events was the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that comes into effect on the 25th May 2018. While GDPR is a European regulation it has global reach and impact. As efforts are being undertaken for compliance purposes, it’s also beneficial to consider the investment as an opportunity to be inspired to improve processes and data governance. SAS have a number of GDPR related blog posts that explain the regulation in various industries and there is also a SAS solution to help you build your analytics platform and be GDPR compliant. To find out how we at Metacoda can also help with your GDPR data security governance requirements with your SAS platform, see the following presentation I gave at a Brisbane SAS user group meeting: How will the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) impact you? Keep your SAS data assets and platform secure.
Join the #GDPR #SASchat
With the GDPR 25th May 2018 deadline approaching, it’s time for organisations and individuals to be prepared. There is a Twitter #GDPR #SASchat on Thursday 6th July at 14:00CET, 13:00 GMT, 08:00EST and 22:00 AEST (for us Australians). For details on GDPR and the #SASchat, see the SAS blog, More than 70% of organizations expect their Data Governance will improve with GDPR.
I hope to see you on the #SASchat and until we meet in person, be inspired by the musical magic in your life to experience your new possible!
