COLLABORATE: IOUG Volunteers

by Alexis Kolak
I didn't have a whole lot of interaction with the IOUG staff (other than them giving me a hard time). I did meet a few of the volunteers.

Kudos to all the volunteers from every organization, thank you so much for giving your time to help make this event a success.

While IOUG's professional staff team play a big role in planning and managing COLLABORATE 10, it's really the volunteers who are the unsung heroes of supporting this volunteer driven event. These volunteers work tirelessly to provide their volunteer expertise and exhibit exemplary worth ethic to benefit their peers. These folks work all year round to develop content, determine session flow and provide the true community elements of what we know and love at COLLABORATE. Pictured from the conference committee include:



front row, left to right – Coleman Leviter, MaryKay Matelski, Michelle Malcher, Dan Vlamis, Peggy King, James Lui; back row - John King, Jon Wolfe, Tom Reddy, Craig Shallahamer, Dave Chaffee, Al Hoof

The "magic" that occurs is a combination of staff doing what they do best – providing the professional expertise and management for development, execution and operations with the partnership of the volunteer team. Although the staff team all have different roles, the most important part is that they work holistically onsite and in support of the community and their colleagues from OAUG and Quest. Not only do they work with their teammates, but their goal is to serve the entire community of attendees, whether they are OAUG, IOUG or Quest! We know the Oracle user community gets a lot of value out of COLLABORATE, and it makes all the time and effort involved worthwhile. Whatever role each person plays, we celebrate our successes together, and we're proud to have hosted a great 2010 conference. Here is a picture of IOUG staff and volunteers celebrating a successful COLLABORATE!



seated, left to right - Michelle Malcher, Judi Doolittle, Ian Abramson; standing - Todd Sheetz, Anne Waligora, Alexis Bauer Kolak, Carol McGury, Andy Flower, Dina Horwitz, Julie Ferry, Tom Reddy, James Lui, Coleman Leviter

COLLABORATE: OAUG Staff

by Allison Dixon
While I was in Vegas, the OAUG staff helped me out quite a bit. The IOUG staff mostly gave me a hard time. :)

I didn't run into the Quest staff at all (knowingly).

The staff for each one of these groups did an outstanding job in running COLLABORATE 10 and I just wanted to make sure they had their day in the sun as well. I asked Allison Dixon (who was my liaison with OAUG) to give me a picture and write up their staff. Yes, it's their job, but that shouldn't take away from all the hard work they put in. I would love to do the same for IOUG and Quest staff, so if you know who I should talk to, please let me know.

For five days, 5,500 Oracle users, developers, managers, analysts, database administrators, solutions providers and Oracle representatives gathered under one roof at COLLABORATE 10 – Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle Community at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The sense of community was certainly felt as a positive, collaborative energy charged through the convention center. Connections were made, experiences shared and questions asked and answered. For the second year, Chet Justice joined us to cover the event for oraclenerd. We chatted one day as his Blackberry charged in the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) staff office about how most attendees would be surprised to learn how an event of this scale is produced – and the idea for this guest blog post was born.

The OAUG Board of Directors took a moment during its 20th anniversary event on Sunday, April 18 to recognize its professional staff with an OAUG Service Award, a generous gesture that surprised us all. That award is engraved, "Presented to Meeting Expectations in Grateful Appreciation for Your 18 Years of Outstanding Service and Devotion to the Membership of the Oracle Applications Users Group, 1992 – 2010." (Meeting Expectations is an Atlanta-based, third-party meeting planning and association management firm that serves as the OAUG professional staff.)

Using this photo from the award presentation, I'll shed a little light on each staff member's contribution to COLLABORATE – diverse roles and responsibilities all coming together with the goal of creating a positive conference experience for attendees. This should give you an idea of the complexity of this year-round effort (which you can multiply times 3, as our counterparts at IOUG and Quest are equally invested!).



On stage, pictured with OAUG President Dave Ferguson (at microphone), from left to right:

• Jeff Rausch, chief operations officer of Meeting Expectations
• Brian Meyer, president of Meeting Expectations
• Jalene Bermudez, founder of Meeting Expectations

Jeff, Brian and Jalene, as Meeting Expectations' managing partners, provide executive leadership and high-level strategic guidance to OAUG. At the conference each year, they provide hands-on support wherever needed, usually working long hours on the registration desk or in other customer service capacities. Jeff also serves on the OAUG Technology Committee and works "under the hood" on the OAUG registration and paper submission systems to keep them running smoothly all year.

On floor, from Left to right:

• Micheal North - director of finance. With thousands of attendees, hundreds of companies engaging in customized exhibitor and sponsorship packages and hundreds of vendors hired to bring it the event to life, consider the dollars that flow through COLLABORATE. Micheal knows the exact whereabouts of every single one of them at any given moment during a show cycle. On site, you'll see him providing customer service at the registration desk all day. By night he is developing detailed financial reports for the Board of Directors.
  
• Allison Dixon - director of event marketing (me). How'd you hear about the conference? Chances are you received an email, a postcard, a brochure, a tweet, a telemarketing call (sorry about those 6 a.m. rings) or some sort of contact from me. I also work with my marketing counterparts at IOUG and Quest to maintain the umbrella brand of the conference and produce all shared materials, like the program guide and daily agenda books. On site, Jackie Dale and I maintain the conference Web portal, daily updates, daily emails, tweets, conference survey and new this year, the Tweet Nest. We’re also responsible for the post-conference survey.
• Joey Sirmons - manager of Internet communications. Known in certain circles as the Spam King, Joey's domain is the OAUG Forum Web presence and all e-mail communications. He codes, manages lists and keeps us meticulously compliant with anti-spam regulations. If you've noticed, we like to send quite a bit of e-mail about the conference. (Hint for COLLABORATE 11: register early and you’ll be removed from the list. How's that for an incentive?) Joey also helps oversee bag distribution, making sure all attendees get their bags of conference goodies after they check in at registration. In his (limited) spare time on-site, Joey can be seen around the conference with his camera, acting in his role of unofficial OAUG photographer. That same camera has been spotted at after-hours gatherings, often to the chagrin of volunteers and fellow staff.
• Jackie Dale - event marketing coordinator. Jackie works with Allison developing marketing strategy and delivering the creative behind all those brochures and emails. On site, she is corralling all the groups to obtain their schedule changes, keeps the conference Web portal up to date, helps to craft daily update emails, tweets and also extols the wonders of social networking from her base in the Tweet Nest. After the conference, she develops the survey results reports.
• Steven Hughes - executive director. What you may not realize is happening at COLLABORATE, in addition to the hundreds of sessions and networking events, is the jam-packed schedule of meetings between the Board of Directors, committees, task forces, councils and Oracle. Steven runs from meeting to meeting, working with these various stakeholders to set the OAUG agenda for the coming year and beyond. He is also busily greeting overseas delegations and exploring ways to continue to expand the OAUG global footprint in order to serve more users.
• Kay Eckstein - association manager. Kay's primary role is to manage the OAUG Board's schedules to ensure they are at the right place and time for all critical meetings without missing a beat (or a party). Remember the staircase in Harry Potter that keeps changing and moving without warning? This is a good representation of the 14 Board members' schedules during COLLABORATE. If it seemed that President Dave Ferguson was everywhere at once, it's because Kay waved her wand and made it so.
• James Hobbs - senior director of global programs. James' primary role is to ensure all the pieces and parts of the conference come together. Occasionally he'll find a missing piece -- and that either leads to a Martini or his staying up a bit later at night to be sure OAUG members receive the highest level of service, an experience that encourages greater success in their jobs and the opportunity to have some fun as well. Keeping the team and the entire COLLABORATE train on the tracks to bring the event to fruition is his goal and passion.
• Karl Kirsch, CAE - chief operating officer. Karl joins Steven Hughes as part of the executive management team and helps translate strategy into tactical plans that are specific and measurable. He shares responsibility to manage the daily operations of OAUG to ensure activities of the organization's staff are supporting established objectives, quality targets and cost-effectiveness goals. If you heard someone say "there is a process for that" or heard the whir of the propeller on his head, you probably ran into Karl at COLLABORATE.
• Katie Truex - membership coordinator. Katie holds down the OAUG membership booth, where she cheerfully answers members' questions and talks with prospects about the value of joining up. She is also director of swag – selecting, purchasing and handing out those Slinkys and handsome playing cards (she also doles out coveted OAUG Forum proceedings CDs). All year long, she provides member care to the OAUG community. During the 3-4 months before COLLABORATE, she deftly handles the crush of calls from companies that want to join or renew their memberships so they can save on conference registration (over 20%! Join today!).
• Kowana Ragland, CMP - tradeshow manager. In the run-up to the show, Kowana has a clipboard and a whistle –enthusiastically coaching exhibitors every step of the way on how to make the most of the show. Her monthly exhibitor newsletters are jammed with planning and marketing tips. On site, Kowana manages logistics for the OAUG tradeshow venues, including the Mini Theater, Star Partner Lounge, TweetNest and Relaxation Lounge. In addition, she provides assistance managing that "wheel of fortune," THEgame.
• Christine Hilgert, CMP - tradeshow lead. Christine has been a part of the OAUG for over 12 years and has participated in over 25 OAUG events. She continues to lend her expertise and provides support in a variety of areas, including overall history and relationship with the OAUG and its long-time members. Christine's most recent role is providing exhibitor and sponsorship management where she and her team sell exhibit booths on the tradeshow floor among various sponsorship opportunities taking place throughout COLLABORATE. She was also recognized at the 20th anniversary event for a milestone birthday of her very own.
• Alex O'Keefe - director of sites and contract services. Alex negotiates contracts with a vast network of hotel and convention centers to select the best venues and hotel rates for the OAUG and COLLABORATE attendees. In addition, Alex provides on-site support at registration, where she assists with the attendee check-in process and welcomes attendees to the conference. (Bienvenue, COLLABORATors. At last count, Alex speaks five languages: Swiss-German, French, English, German and Italian.)
• Jenny Freeman - senior sites coordinator. Jenny is a senior sites coordinator and supports the site selection team to find the perfect venue for meetings and events. At COLLABORATE, Jenny provides on-site registration support on behalf of the OAUG team, like Alex, assisting with registration and greeting attendees.
• Katie Miknis - speaker programs manager. Want to speak at COLLABORATE? You'll have to get through Katie first. She manages the speaker selection process, room build-out and assignment at COLLABORATE, leads speaker orientation and serves as the main point of contact for speakers on site. Katie is also the lead for the OAUG Wellness Program, which offers attendees a daily morning workout with a local area trainer.
• Regina Robuck - director, affiliate communities (promotion alert! now director of education). Regina provides resources and support services for the OAUG's Geographic (Geo) and Special Interest Groups (SIG). She is responsible for the implementation and expansion of the Oracle Community Integration Initiative, which means she works all year to inspire (beg) Geo and SIG leaders to bring their organizations into compliance so she can then make their days by providing a complimentary conference registration. At COLLABORATE, she facilitates all Geo and SIG meetings and manages the Certificates of Distinction awards program.
• Litika Coleman - senior registration specialist. Litika is the lead registration manager for the OAUG. She works with the other two users groups to ensure the attendee registration process leading up to COLLABORATE, as well as on site, runs smoothly. Litika provides customer support to attendees by answering phone calls and emails prior to their arrival to COLLABORATE.
• Cindy Force - communication manager. We call her Sponge: While supporting the events occurring on site, such as directing traffic to SIG meetings, recording minutes in committee meetings, handing out conference proceedings in the membership booth, etc., communications is listening, listening, listening. What information do members want and need to know? What is Oracle doing that our members need to hear about? Are these the hot topics for the next newsletter or OAUG Insight magazine? Who are the subject matter experts who can help develop these stories? Cindy is all ears!
• Amy Ford, CMP - tradeshow manager. Amy assists the tradeshow team to ensure all exhibitor and sponsorship deliverables are met. She provides customer care to exhibitors and sponsors pre event as well as on-site. She also handles the judging and awards for Best of Show. So be nice to her.

Not pictured (because she was out in the hall fielding a question from the Mandalay Bay security team):

• Darnette Holbert - senior conference manager. Darnette knows, with laser-like accuracy, the location of every electrical outlet in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center (and probably the greater Las Vegas metro area). She manages conference logistics on an often microscopic level, including hotel arrangements, food and beverage orders, signage, audio/visual, security, general contractor services, special events and receptions, tradeshow logistics, furniture and floorplan development. You didn't think chairs, tables and projection screens magically appeared in every session room? All of this is contracted and delivered according to Darnette’s orders.

That concludes our tour of the OAUG team. It’s quite the undertaking, but we absolutely love working with our colleagues at IOUG and Quest to produce COLLABORATE each year. The wheels are already in motion for Orlando in 2011 – we hope you’ll come, and say hello when you see us!

CMP (link to: http://www.meetingexpectations.com/ConfMgmt/CMPs.aspx)
CAE (link to: http://www.asaecenter.org/AboutUs/contentCAE.cfm?ItemNumber=16097&navItemNumber=16291)

COLLABORATE: "I Hate Toad"

Saying something like that really endears you to a vendor.

Thankfully, I know Jeff Smith of Toad from his recent trip down to Tampa.

At dinner later that evening, I told him as much. He finally got it out of me that it isn't really Toad's fault, but the developers that use it. I agreed.

Unfortunately when I said it at COLLABORATE (jokingly of course), one of his colleagues heard me. Uh oh. Anyway, I had to explain why it is I "hate" Toad and think he was mostly happy with my answer.

Ultimately, a tool that helps you increase your productivity is a good thing. I like and have used the DBA pack that comes with Toad. However, many "developers" I have worked with can't live without Toad...and that's where I have a problem.

So trying to be fair, I asked Mr. Smith to walk me through Quest Code Tester. I "like" testing and think it is one of the bigger problems in the database developer community; in that we don't do it very well. Java, .NET, and many others have it built in (mostly anyway) to what they do. How many times have you seen a database developer run through unit tests on his or her code? I've seen exactly 1 shop (where I learned it).


From that demo, I would say it has much, if not more, of the functionality in SQL Developer. I haven't had a chance yet to really use that one either.

But if you would like to try out it, there is a free trial version (registration required)

COLLABORATE: Day 5 Wrap Up

I covered everything conference related early today here.

My stay at the Excalibur was uneventful. I wouldn't stay there again, unless it was free and I had no money. I'd still have to think about it though.

The walk from there to Mandalay Bay however was...interesting. Not once did I navigate the maze without having to backtrack. I know/understand that is on purpose...but it's still annoying. Maybe that's taking marketing (or whatever it's called) just a bit too far. If people want to gamble, they'll gamble.

Last night I got lost in the Luxor for an hour. I could have gone outside, but I was determined to figure it out. I had help from beer too.

The other highlight of my day was eating lunch with Mr. Floyd Teter. No adjective is descriptive enough to describe him...I'll settle for Awesome though.

I did manage to get some shopping in today...I hate shopping, but the family deserves something. So I got them all "My dad/husband went to Las Vegas and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" t-shirts.

Since my flight didn't leave until 1 am (Friday morning), I had time to kill. So I parked myself in front of a slot machine and within minutes lost $10. I then played roulette, only to lose $20 in 3 minutes. I blame Mr. Mark Rittman...he paid me for the iPad I got him in cold, hard cash. It burned. It had to be spent. I think it was payback for my little stunt the other day.

So I left the hotel(s) and went to the airport so I wouldn't spend any more money. Though those stupid slot machines behind me are calling my name. I can't wait to get out of here if only for the silence.

COLLABORATE: OEM 11g and Podcast

It's about a wrap.

I'm...exhausted.

I finally managed to make it to the OEM 11g release session, which was just a satellite feed from New York that everyone else in the world could see. However, had some live Oracle people here to answer any questions after the presentation.

Unfortunately, I did not get their names as I was 40 minutes late.

I haven't used OEM in years so it was all new stuff to me. The additions did look pretty cool though especially the ability to drill down into specific applications to locate performance problems.

I stayed to listen to the questions people had as sometimes that's the most interesting stuff.

I then headed over for lunch with Mr. Floyd Teter and we were eventually joined by Dave Ferguson and his wife Paula. We ate at Burger Time which was quite good.

Mr. Teter's enthusiasm is infectious to say the least and his energy level is out of this world. It has been an absolute pleasure to get to know him in real life.

Somehow he talked me and about 10 others to join him in a podcast with Mr. Bob Rhubart of ArchBeat fame (and the best voice ever) to discuss our experiences at COLLABORATE 10.

In attendance:
- Elke Phelps
- John King
- Paul Jackson
- Mark Rittman
- Floyd Teter
- Dave Ferguson
- Gavin Whyte
- Srini Chavali
- John Nicholson
- me

Mr. Rhubart said that he would have it posted sometime next week. I'll link it up when it's released.

COLLABORATE: The Beach Party

It wasn't quite Universal, but I had fun.

Let's start with some of the IOUG crew



What was to eat? Scallops...mmmm...scallops.



Due to "inclimate" weather, it had to be moved inside. By "inclimate", I mean it was only 60 degrees outside.



Sadly I couldn't find the OAUG crew...the helped me out quite a bit this week (as well as getting me a pass). Allison Dixon was my laison and she was awesome.



After the lights were dimmed (remember that in kindergarten?), we sat outside the room and played...beach ball. Yeah, it was interesting. Then tiki statues somehow were incorporated into various dances. Interesting indeed.

COLLABORATE: Exadata SIG

From 4 to 5 today, I attended the Exadata SIG.

Why?

Because it's fun.

Dan Norris was supposed to be there, but he got caught by the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano.

Here's what I got from the meeting.

1. The database software that runs atop the hardware is 11gR2. Exactly the same software that I run on my OEL virtual machine. It is no different.
2. Exadata is a "game changer." The word I was thinking about was it represents a paradigm shift. What do I mean? Well...the consolidation of roles means that IT has to figure out how to deal with Exadata. Who's going to be the point person on support issues?

If you read that article I just linked to, it talks about the consolidation of roles...meaning that the DBA can (should?) handle all things Exadata. In other words, no system administrators, no storage administrators...just the DBA.

From my point of view, this is exactly what technology is supposed to do.

I'm hoping to volunteer for future endeavors with the group...you'll be duly notified.

COLLABORATE: OBIEE and JavaScript

I managed to attend a session today.

It was probably made possible by:
1. The presenter kept calling me and hassling me (joking)
2. The presenter had laptop issues and asked if he could use mine in case his disintegrated during the presentation. (true story)

How to Enrich OBIEE UI Using Custom JavaScripting
by Sunilkumar "Sunil" Ranka [ blog | twitter ]

The basic gist of his presentation was that if you can understand HTML and how a page is rendered, you can do just about anything you want with the page.

A couple of examples he walked through:

- How To disable hyperlink for Value Interaction column
- What-If Analysis needs JavaScript on OBIEE
- Using Breadcrumbs on drill down reports (unfortunately, no link)
- Way To Solve Multiselect Prompt Bug - Mr. Ranka did not actually get to this one, but it's definitely worth sharing.

Sadly I didn't write down the rest of the examples.

Not only was I the "AV geek", I was also the collector of names/business cards for prizes to be handed out at the end.

I did like the reminder that this is just HTML and if you know JavaScript (I don't...not well enough anyway), manipulating pages in OBIEE is relatively simple.

COLLABORATE: On The Web

I was shocked to find that other people were writing about COLLABORATE. (@nephentur & @rnm1978, that was sarcasm ;))

Pre-COLLABORATE
Roel Hartman - No Collaborate 2010 for me - thanks to the Icelandic (bank) e-ruption...
Peter Scott - Collaborate 10 – The Early Days
Eye on Oracle - Oracle Collaborate ‘10: More questions, more needs, less resources
Oracle BI Publisher Blog - BI Publisher at Collaborate 2010
Brent Lowe at The Lowe Down - Collaborate 2010 Preview
The JD Edwards Advisor by David Andrews - I Can’t Wait for Collaborate
ORACLE CERTIFIED PROFESSIONALS - COLLABORATE 2010 Begins Today
Shyam Varan Nath at BIWA SIG - Collaborate 2010 - Las Vegas, April 18-22
George Trujillo at A DBA's Journey in the Sun - Virtualization at Collaborate 2010 Oracle Users Conference

During COLLABORATE
Floyd Teter
- Highlights From The Bright Lights
- Highlights From The Bright Lights - Sunday
- Highlights From The Bright Lights - Monday
- Highlights From The Bright Lights - Tuesday
- Highlights From The Bright Lights - Wednesday
- Highlights From The Bright Lights - Thursday
Profit: Spare Change - Blogging is Hard
Oracle BI Publisher Blog
Collaborate 2010 Sunday Update
BI Publisher - Hottest Show in Vegas
Arup Nanda - My Sessions at IOUG Collaborate 2010
Oracle Federal Applications - Quick Collaborate ‘10 Update
Bex Huff - Bezzotech and IRA Merge Into One!
Brent Lowe at The Lowe Down
- Collaborate 10 Day 4
- DataZing Product Launch, BI Publisher Fun and More From Collaborate
The JD Edwards Advisor by David Andrews
- Live from Collaborate – Day One observations
- Collaborate Day Two
IOUG blogs by George Trujillo - Collaborate 2010 Conference – Las Vegas: Day 1

Post-COLLABORATE
The EPPM Blogspot - Thank you for joining us @ Collaborate!
RittmanMead
- Stewart Bryson - Wrapping up Collaborate 10
- Mark Rittman - What Happens at Collaborate...
The Data Warehouse Insider by Jean-Pierre Dijcks - Collaborate10 – THEconference
Billy Cripe - Fishbowl Solutions at Collaborate 2010
IOUG blogs by Unknown - COLLABORATE 10: Users Rule!
Bob Rhubart
- Podcast Show Notes: Collaborate 10 Wrap-Up - Part 1
- Podcast Show Notes: Collaborate 10 Wrap-Up - Conclusion
Ben Prusinski - Collaborate 10 Conference Experiences in Vegas
Sunil Ranka - Collaborate-10 : Round Up
Debra Lilley
- The Great Escape
- Collaborate 2010
- Collaborate 2010 Roundup

These were pulled mostly from the OraNA feed with a few coming from the Oracle Blog feed. If you know of any others, please let me know and I'll add them here.

COLLABORATE: Day 3 Wrap Up

Despite going to bed at around 4 am Vegas time (7 am my time), I managed to get up around 8 (Vegas time).

I headed down and visited with some of the vendors to get some information on what they do, what they provide, etc.

I found a spot in the main lobby and parked myself there to start writing.

Ten minutes in, this guy comes over and we started to chat. He had just given a presentation on the MODEL clause so we spoke about that for a few minutes. His name was John King, which is my mother's maiden name. Talked about some other stuff before he took off for his next session.

Shortly after he left, this woman sits down next to me and we start to chat. I notice she has an ODTUG shirt on and I ask her if she is a member. "I'm on the board of directors." How cool. I then told her about pestering Mike Riley (and then Mark Rittman) about getting a blogger pass to the event.

Then it hit me who she was...



If you've seen the site recently, specifically the "T-Shirts in the Wild" slide show at the top right of the page, you would have seen David Peake (APEX Product Manager) and this other woman. Turns out I was sitting next to the "other woman". Barbara Morris was her name...I quickly showed her that her picture was up on my blog (since replace by Superman, Brian "Bex" Huff). Small freaking world.

When I was rested up, I went back into the exhibition hall where I ran into Mr. King again. I asked him if he was stalking me. He denied any such behavior. The exhibition hall was closing so that could prepare the food (and beer) for the 5 o'clock rush. I had asked him if was leaving and he said, "No, I'm an Exhibitor"

"Really, where's your booth?"

"I'm with ODTUG"

"No shit?"

"I'm on the board"

LOL.

I then told him about pestering Mr. Riley (and Mr. Rittman) and told him I had met Mrs. Morris just after I first met him. I'm thinking that I was meant to attend ODTUG as a blogger...or at least that's what the universe was telling me.

Had my requisite beer(s) while perusing the exhibition hall finally ending up at the IOUG "booth"



I then followed these young ladies to the BIWA SIG event where many more IOUG workers were hanging out.



Met Stewart Bryson, who will be presenting at the Suncoast Oracle Users Group next month. Met these guys too...



This is also where I found out about Mark Rittman's "Person of the Year" award too...so I'm glad I attended.

After that it was off to the Fishbowl Solutions and (finally) an early night for me.

COLLABORATE: Best Party (so far)

Fishbowl solutions hosted a party at the Mix Lounge atop THEhotel this evening. While distracted by the "wives of fishbowl"



(not pictured the lovely Amanda who loves to email blast me throughout the year)

and also distracted by pretty blue drinks (that didn't glow, much to my consternation)



I eventually made it outside to the balcony where I was greeted with a fabulous view of Vegas



Now the voting isn't over...tomorrow night is the big "Beach Party" put on by the COLLABORATE team...but this one was pretty freaking cool.

COLLABORATE: FLOAUG

Also known as the OAUG for the state of Florida.

I was told about the event by Chad Johnson, a frequent attendee of the local Suncoast Oracle Users Group (SOUG) and someone who I have come to like and respect. Mr. Johnson found me falling asleep, I mean, writing, in the main hall.

Of course I was interested in a Florida specific group...anything I can do to get people involved I'm all for.

Unfortunately, it ran right up around beer time (5 pm), but as John Piwowar pointed out:



So I was patient and attended the meeting.

Fortunately for me, the director(s) live in Tampa which means most (quarterly) meetings will probably be close.

This group is mostly comprised of functional people as opposed to the nerdy types, just an FYI.

They began to talk of a "Tech" day somewhere in Florida concentrating on the application side (EBS --> Payroll, HR, etc). SOUG is thinking about doing a tech day later this year. (I raise my hand) What if we combined forces? They seem to like the idea so I stuck around after the meeting to discuss further (again...putting off my beer consumption; it's for the greater good right? can we move this meeting downstairs? please?)

So we have plans to get everyone together to see if it's feasible. I think it makes sense...kind of a mini-COLLABORATE if you will.

Oracle's Person of the Year

It's apparent my humor didn't come out in this writing. This was just a fun post. Mr. Rittman was at an Oracle Magazine event and anyone could get their picture on the cover as "Person of the Year." I will probably try to score one for myself. If you have one, send me a picture and I'll post your story. :)

In what appears to be, to this writer's knowledge anyway, the first "Person of the Year" has been awarded to Mr. Mark Rittman.



Mr. Rittman, a shy man by nature is an Oracle ACE Director in the BI/DW world. He's also one of the principal owners of RittmanMead consulting.

Mr. Rittman was given this high honor in a private ceremony in the Oracle Magazine party this evening. Sadly, this reporter was not invited to the event to cover this momentous occasion.

Congratulations to Mr. Rittman. His wife, Janet, was on hand (which tells this reporter that he knew about the award prior to coming to Las Vegas). The only comment I could get out of him was, "I am very humbled by this prestigious award" (spoken in a British accent of course).

COLLABORATE: The Vendor Edition

No conference would be complete without the vendors.

I don't have exact numbers, but there seem to be quite a few. If I had to guess, it would be around 100.

So far, I've mostly visited the ones where I know someone, but today I will try to get around and meet more of them so there is no bias in my reporting.

Some may dislike the vendors, and I may have said the same at one point in time, but I have come around (or turned to the darkside). Back in 2004 I raised 50K to start my own business and managed, somehow, to keep it going for almost 2.5 years. I understand that the marketing and sales part is very, very difficult.

If you are one of those vendor haters...I'll just say they give away cool stuff, mostly. There are a few iPads, Kindles and other such cool devices being raffled off. Just give them your contact information and your good to go.

Here's a list, and pictures, of the ones I have visited so far.

BEZZOTECH



Website

Bezzotech is a St. Paul-based software consulting and development firm, specializing in Oracle's Enterprise Content Management product suite, formerly Stellent.

The name Bezzotech is derived from the word Bezzo, which is a 17th century Italian coin. This name is a constant reminder that technology is worthless unless it can deliver genuine value to its users.

Originally implementRadvantage, The acquisition of Bezzotech Inc, has fused two of the most respected and experienced Oracle Enterprise Content Management solution providers in the industry into THE Premier Oracle ECM Solution Provider.

implementRadvantage was founded by Jason Clarkin, who has been a leader in delivering Oracle Enterprise Content Management Solutions to clients around the world over the past decade. An avid contributor to the ECM community, he is a moderator of the "intradoc user group" - a user group focused on Oracle Enterprise Content Management. He is also a speaker, sharing his knowledge of Content Management at such conferences as Crescendo & Collaborate. implementRadvantage has grown into a full service consulting company, attracting some of the most experienced and knowledgeable ECM talent in the industry.

Bezzotech Inc was founded by Brian "Bex" Huff, who was a senior software developer for Stellent, before it was acquired by Oracle. He is the author of The Definitive Guide To Stellent Content Server Development, and was awarded the title Oracle ACE Director by Oracle for his work in the developer community.

This combination of talent has created a ECM "Dream Team", that can be put to work for you today!

SEEBURGER
(Everyone seems to be going all caps huh?)



Website

I got to torture these guys for awhile, threatening them with the telling of one of my most favorite stories. I think I needed a few more beers though. When I initially read their press release and I saw mention of EDI, I about threw up...I had the wonderful experience of working with some of the healthcare 820 and 835 formats. Thankfully, their software would save me from such torture.

SEEBURGER is a leading provider of global business integration solutions designed to optimize transactions throughout the extended enterprise by automating trading relationships with all partners, regardless of their size and technical resources. Launched in 1986 to provide integration solutions to the automotive industry in Germany, the company today serves more than 7,800 customers in 50+ countries and more than 15 industries through its flagship B2B Gateway and related products and services. SEEBURGER has global offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.

fishbowl



This is where the famous Billy Cripe went to after leaving Oracle. Guess what he was wearing today?



There is no easy "About Us" section for me to copy and paste in here, check out their site for more information. I did receive a brief demo of their iPad application which was very cool.

I'll write about more in Part II and Part III.

COLLABORATE: In Pictures

COLLABORATE: Day 2 Wrap Up

Yes, it's 4 in the morning. Yes, I'm still on east coast time. Yes, I'm tired...but I'm having fun.

First, a special nod to Larry (@larry_slo) from Perceptive Software...he hooked me up with a USB charger for my blackberry. I can now maintain contact with the family without having to resort to extraordinary measures.

So where did I leave off?

Oh yeah, stupid phone.

So I asked the security desks at both the Excalibur and Mandalay...and they had a hundred different chargers, just no BB chargers.

So I tried the stupid $5 quick charge machine, which didn't work for sh...





I then wandered up to the OAUG Headquarters and asked them. Allison Dixon (@COLLAB_10_OAUG) came to my rescue again and helped me to get a temporary charge. Then Larry came through big time with the loan.

With phone ready, I was able to go through the exhibition hall with no worries. First stop, beer. Tecate. It was 5...and everyone else was doing it, so why not me? Besides, I was asked to deliver one to Jeff Smith (@hillbillytoad) and Todd Sheetz (@toddsheetz).

Almost forgot, I am no longer an Oracle employee (imagine that, me with a short stint somewhere).



That was Allison's doing. OAUG staff is awesome.

I also met Craig Shallahamer of OraPub fame, who presented at SOUG a couple of weeks ago (I missed it as I was out of town).



Somewhere, somehow, I made it to dinner where I wouldn't eat this guy:



He had eyes and legs...I don't eat shrimp like that.

Great day...I'm exhausted...going to bed. Start over again tomorrow.

COLLABORATE: Keynote

I attended the General Session Keynote this morning.

Thanks to my "press" pass, I got to sit in the first (second) row, right next to Floyd Teter. I even got to say hello to Jan Wagner, whom I interviewed last year.

Started off with the 3 presidents from IOUG, OAUG and Quest. That would be Ian Abramson, David Ferguson and Sue Shaw respectively.



They welcomed everyone to the event and introduced Charles Phillips.

Charles Phillips - Bio
Mr. Phillips must have been caught by the ash cloud too, as he spoke via satellite.



He talked quite a bit about the integration of all the Oracle products from the storage layer up to the application layer. (I actually attempted to record his presentation then my camera battery died on me...I'll put what I have up on YouTube as soon as humanly possible). The integration theme naturally took him into the acquisition of Sun and what the future holds in this regard.

With Sun now under Oracle's umbrella, the ability to tune the SPARC chip for specific purposes will allow them to do so much more. Apparently the engineers from both Oracle and Sun are chomping at the bit to be able to work together. Ideas for this "fusion" are plenty which means more goodness for many of us in the future.

I think the main point he tried to hammer home was Synchronization; the ability to build, test, configure and deploy a complete solution from the hardware to the software. Many customers are asking for this type of thing so that they don't spend as much time on integrating disparate products. Of course, this doesn't mean that it will be a closed system, the ability remains to plug and play your desired components.

Thomas Kurian
I've heard Mr. Kurian's name before but I hadn't actually seen him. According to his Oracle Bio, he is the Executive Vice President of Oracle Product Development and reports directly to Larry Ellison.

COMPLETE.

OPEN.

INTEGRATED.

That's the main theme Mr. Kurian followed.

He echoed many of Mr. Phillips' talking points and provided a couple of pretty cool demos. One in particular was a...a business process thingy (outside my scope of knowledge). Basically he used Outlook and Excel on top of the Universal Content Management in a very seemless way. Drag an email from the Inbox to the UCM folder for a given customer and you can then see the presentation that you gave to the customer and any other relevant materials. Very cool stuff.

He also talked about their upgrade to EBS 12.2, back in August (has this even been released yet?). I love it when companys use their own products. Even better, there is supposedly a single EBS Global instance. That's impressive (but should be expected from Oracle). Back in 2002 Mr. Ellison mentioned that Oracle had over 500 database instances throughout the organization and his goal was to get that down to a single instance. I followed up a short 7 years later here.

I know there was more to his talk, but that's what I got out of it. If I find any others that summarize the keynote, I'll link them up here.

COLLABORATE: Oracle ACE Dinner

Twitter to the rescue again.



I was at the OAUG 20th Anniversary Party where I consumed my usual 2 beers (albeit larger than normal beers), when I noticed this tweet by Brian "Bex" Huff.



With the help of a couple of very nice conference attendees, I was able to locate the establishment. They warned me that the restaurant might not allow me in as I was in my travel attire (flip flops), but they did. Pretty casual everywhere around here.

Anyway, this was my very first Oracle ACE gathering. I got to meet, among others, Iggy Fernandez, Sunil Ranka and Bex. I also met Vicki who is the Oracle representative who runs the program. She actually went to high school near me in Denver.

Although I may or may not have had too much to drink, I had a good time. Floyd Teter has introduced me to just about everyone in the world and I'm struggling to remember everyone's name. If my phone or camera would work, I could probably take a picture and quickly tag it with their name. I need a system.

Anyway, I had the steak which was delicious.



Looking at that picture though...the presentation doesn't look too appealing...I can't think of a couple of disgusting things that it looks like. But I was plyed with beer and didn't care much. Like I said, it was delicious.



I also got to meet Arup Nanda, who's New Features guides/tutorials I've used a million times to learn something new. Not really sure I belong with that crowd...but I'll take full advantage of the opportunity. :)

COLLABORATE: So Many Problems

Just a detailed list of FAILs on my part. Maybe some WINs too.

1. Left cell phone charger at home. Consequently borrowed one from a nice hotel staffer (even if she looks over every 2 minutes to make sure I haven't absconded with it).
2. Tried to record all of Charles Phillips presentation on camera. Battery died. Charger left in room.
3. Unable to get a decent wifi (I keep typing "wife" there for some reason, like wifeless...) connection anywhere. You'd think they would be abundant in a city like this (or I would have thought them abundant). No go.
4. Organizers are working diligently to add wireless access recently adding it to Level II. The official wireless SSID is COLLABORATE. Use others at your own peril.
5. My room, while decent in appearance, sucks. Holes in the sheets. Bathroom lights don't work. Cables strewn (including ethernet) behind television. I would name the hotel but fear the negative attention would bring La Cosa Nostra into my world. :)
6. I am apparently an Oracle employee. At least that's what my badge says.



7. They still don't know what to do with me. I am on the press lists of course...but I think they're still trying to figure out how to handle me.
8. Did an interview with Billy Cripe and gave a shout out to my Ash friends...I'm pretty sure I looked and sounded stupid, but what can you do?
9. Oracle ACE Dinner was cool. I'm never one to turn down free food...but I thought I had my limit of beers at the OAUG event last night. Ooops.
10. Woke up at 7:15. Love that I'm still on EST.
11. While looking for a phone charger at 7:20, saw people stumbling around from last night. Very amusing. Hopefully I'll get pictures tomorrow. I do remember what that was like, but those memories are fading.

COLLABORATE: Exadata

During the keynote my camera died...which meant that I had absolutely no way to take pictures because it joined my phone which died last night. Naturally I left the charger in the room...id10t.

Anyway, I ran to the Press Room in the hopes that I would find someone who could charge the phone, the camera and I could get a decent wifi connection. On my way there one of the session signs caught my eye, "Exadata" something.

Parked everything in the Press Room (Reef A) and went old school bringing a pen and a notebook to the presentation.

How Exadata Will Dramatically Change the Role of DBAs and Developers
by Juan Loaiza

I would put a picture of him in here...

He talked about the use of Flash technology and how the implementation of it has moved the bottleneck to everything else. Basically, none of the other hardware components can keep up.

(Please remember, I don't even resemble a hardware dude...so if I misspeak or something, don't yell).

Also, the Flash technology has been implemented as PCI cards, not as "fake" disks so that they can be closer to the processor.

The other point he tried to drive home is Role Consolidation, which is where the real savings will come in from a resource perspective.

Let's see if I can do this justice.

Competency	Tradtional Role
External Networking	Network Admin
Hardware	Sys Admin
Infiniband Network	Storage/Net Admin
Linux	OS/Sys Admin
ASM/External Storage	Storage Admin
Oracle DB/RAC	DBA

Mr. Loaiza arguing that much of this stuff can now be managed by a DBA thus consolidating resources and saving you money.

I did miss the part about how it affects a Developers life...but I should be able to figure that out on my own.