What is useR!?
useR! is an international conference of R users. It is held biennially in the United States in even years and biennially at varying international locations in odd years.
Why Go?
This conference provides the chance to learn from some of the most knowledgeable people in the R community. The year’s line-up includes John Chambers, the creator of the precursor to R, S. In addition to increasing your R knowledge through the scheduled sessions, this conference creates an opportunity to discuss R with your fellow R users, see how other industries are using R, and engage in mutual learning.
My Personal Experience
I attended useR! at Vanderbilt University in 2012. Being fairly new to R, I was intimidated at first. But as I engaged others I found a vibrant community that was enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge and supporting each other. I also was able to ask questions and discuss R packages with the actual authors of the packages. One of the highlights was having a discussion at lunch with an internationally renowned statistician regarding the pros and cons of various tree based methods.
Location and Specifics
This year the conference is June 30 – July 3 at UCLA. Further information can be found at http://user2014.stat.ucla.edu/.