Oracle OpenWord (OOW) 2013 is just around the corner, so things are starting to heat up… My flights and hotel are booked, so I’ve just got to get myself to the airport at 02:00 next Saturday and I’m laughing, or snoring…
I thought I would just take time out to say a few things about my plans for the conference and make a few apologies in advance.
ACED Briefing
Unfortunately I’m not going to make it to the ACED briefing this year. It will be the first one I’ve missed since I joined the program. There seems to be a bit of confusion about why I’m not going to be there. I’m not getting married. I’m not going to a wedding. My colleague just got married and is on honeymoon, so I’m not allowed to take any time off the week before the conference. It’s a pity, bit this stuff happens. It will definitely not happen next year though!!!
I’ll be like everyone else this year, watching ACEDs tweet about stuff they are hearing about, without actually saying what it is because of NDAs… 🙂
Presenting
I’ve been invited to join in on a panel session on Sunday. Panel sessions are both exciting and scary in equal measures. If you can make it along to this session it would be great to see you there!
Session ID: UGF9801
Session Title: What I wish I knew before I became a DBA (formerly listed as DBA Expert Panel)
Venue / Room: Moscone West – 3014
Date and Time: 9/22/13, 13:00 – 14:00
RAC Attack
After all those years of Karate, I’m now finally a Ninja. Well, a RAC Attack Ninja at least… 🙂
If you are interested in learning more about RAC, maybe installing it on your laptop, or just chatting to link minded people about geeky tech stuff, then you really need to make it along to the RAC Attack sessions during OOW. I love hanging out in the OTN Lounge and speaking to people about this stuff, so RAC Attack is the perfect place to hang out for me. There is a Facebook page for each of the two days.
There is also a Google+ page here.
If you are coming to install RAC, you might want to get a heads-up before you arrive by flicking through this. Hope to see you there!
Demo Grounds
I spent ages on the demo grounds last year. Often you are talking to developers and product managers, so you get some really cool info. Personally I would say you will get more from this than from presentations in many cases. Don’t be shy. Just walk up and ask what you want to know. They will often recommend specific sessions that cover features you are discussing, so that can help .
Conference Sessions
Last year I struggled to find time to make it to any actual sessions. I’ll try to make as many as I can, but I’ve seen so many sessions about 12c, EM12c and PL/SQL over the last couple of years that it might be a struggle to find something I’ve not already seen several times. 🙂
Things I always look out for are:
- Anything by the Oracle Real World Performance group. I’ve seen some of the stuff a number of times, but it’s quire reassuring to know that you are (still) on the right path, at least some of the time. 🙂
- Anything by the Oak Table members. It sounds a bit like a mutual appreciation society, but the content is usually spot on and I always come away having learned something!
- Anything else that catches my eye in a time slot I’ve got free. An OOW lesson I learned very quickly was that plans are made to be broken. Have an idea of what you want to see, but be flexible. When someone makes a recommendation, follow it.
Social
I’ve been invited to a myriad of social events during the week. To turn up to everything I’ve been invited to would require a time machine, so needless to say I’m not going to get to everything. I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been kind enough to invite me to events and I’m sorry if I can’t make it to yours.
I’m at OOW because of Oracle Technology Network (OTN) and the Oracle ACE program. They’ve been very good to me over the last 8 years and this is my opportunity to pay something back by supporting their events. As a result, they come top of my list. If they have an event I will be there supporting it in preference to anything else.
As a close second comes the Oak Table. I’m an Oracle geek, so hanging around listening to some of these uber-geeks talking about Oracle makes me as happy as a pig in sh*t. The fact they are really down to earth and fun is a bonus. If an OTN/ACE event clashes with an Oak Table event, and it has in the past, then sadly I have to give the Oak Table event a miss, but I’m going to do my best to get to anything the Oak Table organise. There are no such clashes this year, so I’ll be there. 🙂
After that, my priority will be people I get on well with. For some people OOW is all about business, but I’m not a business minded person. It’s all about the technology and the people for me. If you’ve invited me for a working breakfast to discuss a possible new business venture, I’m not going to be there. I’ll be hanging around talking geek with my friends, other bloggers and conference attendees. 🙂 There are some companies, like DBVisit, that I do go out of my way to hook up with because they are nice people and I like what they do. It’s not about business for me. It’s purely about the people and the tech.
See you there!
Cheers
Tim…