BGOUG and OGh just around the corner!

Just a quick heads-up about a couple of events happening in the near future.

First we have the BGOUG Spring event in Pravets, Bulgaria. Having missed a couple of years before the last event, I’m trying to make up by doing two events in six months. 🙂

About a week after I get back from Bulgaria I’m off to the Netherlands for the OGh Tech Experience 2017 at Rijtuigenloods. This should be like the best bits of the AMIS and OGh events from last year rolled into one!

If you are coming to one (or both) of the events, I’ll see you there. If not, why not? 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Presentation Feedback and Future Direction

I recently had some feedback from UKOUG Tech 16 and OUG Ireland. I was pleased with the evaluation numbers, but if I’m honest I find it hard to judge a lot by them. I typically get a lower score for “quality of slides” compared to the other areas, but I can’t really argue about that. The number of evaluations that include comments is a small fraction of the total evaluations returned, but it’s the first thing my eyes are drawn to. This is what I got, exactly as I was sent it, including punctuation, or lack of. 🙂

UKOUG Tech16

  • Excellent hype-free common-sense
  • Excellent presentation, clearly explained the topic.
  • Very good reminder and encouragement to do things better when it comes to security.
  • Useful info and worth highlighting regularly And was highlighted during the talk that database security is important but is part of a bigger security picture There are tasks the DBA can do but the design and configuration of the App is paramount Useful

OUG Ireland 2017

  • Excellent Presenter
  • I want him to present Dev stuff
  • Excellent! Needs more sessions
  • Excellent Presentations Very informative Thank you Tim.
  • Tim Hall is a great presenter. Give him more slots!

The “more slots” comments made me laugh. I think I get plenty of slots at conferences. Some would say more than my fair share. Maybe they were being sarcastic? 🙂

Once the head swelling had subsided, I noticed myself focusing on the, “I want him to present Dev stuff”, comment. I’ve always considered myself a DBA/Developer and most of my early presentations were on PL/SQL development. At some point over the last couple of years I’ve been doing a bit less of that and more DBA and/or infrastructure related presentations. I don’t think that was intentional, so I’m not sure how that happened. I guess the influence of my current job had something to do with that.

My intention is to get back to doing some development presentations, and there’s certainly a lot to talk about with regards to what’s been happening on the database and surrounding technologies recently.

So thank you to everyone that filled in evaluations, especially those that took the time to write a comment. I am listening to your feedback. I agree my slides are a bit crappy and I will try to do more development stuff again.

See you soon!

Cheers

Tim…

PS. I’m surprised nobody has said, “He always has a problem with his clicker/pointer!”, because I do. 🙂

SANGAM15 – See you there!

I mentioned my Oracle OpenWorld 2015 trip in a previous post. Yesterday evening I picked up my passport with my lovely new India visa in it!

The talks are written. The flights are booked. The hotel is booked. I have a visa. So that’s me sorted for SANGAM15 in November! 🙂

It’s going to be a rather hectic few days. I fly out, do the 2 day conference, then fly straight home. It looks like I will be in aeroplanes and airports longer than I will actually be in India. 🙂

If you are coming along to the conference, be sure to come and say hello. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

UKOUG Operating System and Storage Event – 28th May

Just a quick note to say the call for papers is open for the UKOUG Operating System and Storage Event in Birmingham on the 28th May. To quote the website,

“This event will cover Linux and Solaris Administration, Storage and Network Administration, Virtualisation and Engineered Systems.

UKOUG Operating Systems & Storage Event takes place in Birmingham on 28th May and will become a key event for DBAs, OS, Network and Storage Administrators who support an Oracle Infrastructure.”

Hope to see you there!

Cheers

Tim…

 

OUG Ireland 2014 : I’m going to be there. Are you?

Earlier in the week I got confirmation I have two papers selected for OUG Ireland 2014.

  • PL/SQL : Stop Making The Same Performance Mistakes
  • An Oracle DBA’s Guide to WebLogic Server

You can see the full agenda here.

I got on the net to check flight prices and Ryanair were doing a round trip for £13. The booking fee on the travel site I used was more then the flight costs, so the total flight costs came to £30. 🙂 Needless to say I booked them straight away, so I will be there representing OTN and the Oracle ACE Program.

In addition to presenting, myself and some of the other ninjas have been speaking with the conference organisers to get RAC Attack included in the event. That’s sorted now. At last count there were 6 RAC Attack Ninjas coming to the event, but others may be lurking around in stealth mode. 🙂 If you are interested in RAC, come and speak to us. We are happy to help people do a full RAC installation on their laptop, but if you don’t want to commit that much time, you can just do part of the installation, like the Grid Infrastructure, and finish it off at home. A lot of people just want to come and ask questions about RAC. That’s fine too! 🙂

As if that wasn’t enough, there are Master Classes with Tom Kyte, Joel Goodman and Uwe Hesse!

Registration is now open, so get yourself sorted. See you there! 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

APAC OTN Tour 2013

Just a quick plug for an upcoming OTN tour, that I’m not on this year.

  • Auckland, New Zealand : 8th November (agenda)
  • Perth, Australia : 12th-13th November (agenda)
  • Tokyo, Japan : 13th-15th November
  • Beijing, China : 17th-18th November
  • Guangzou, China : 19th November

I attended the OTN Asia Pacific Tour in 2011, which included some of these locations. Hopefully I will get to do it again in the near future. 🙂

Like any conferences, these events are all about the attendees, so the more people that turn up and the more vocal the attendees, the better the events are.

I’ve seen the agendas for the Auckland and Perth events and they look cool. I hope everyone has a good time!

Cheers

Tim…

BGOUG: I’m on my way…

I’m at the airport waiting for my flight to Sofia (via Munich), on my way to the BGOUG conference in Hissarya.

It’s early and I’m totally knackered. I had a killer tabata-style circuits class last night and a nightmare tabata-style kettlebell class the night before. I still have bruises from the latter. If only I could stop eating rubbish I would look quite buff. 🙂

This is my last overseas event of the year and I’m glad it is the BGOUG event. Anything else and I think I would be looking for an excuse not to go. It will be great to get back amongst my Bulgarian buddies again.

Cheers

Tim…

InSync11 : 16-17 August 2011…

A few weeks ago one of the AUSOUG committee asked me to submit some abstracts for InSync11. I got the official acceptance through today, so travel approval permitting, I’ll be in Sydney on August 16-17 to speak at the conference.

I’m not looking forward to the flights, but it will be really cool to see the Aussies again. I was teaching some Oracle University courses in Australia last year, but it’s a couple of years since I’ve spoken at a conference down there.

Cheers

Tim…