Recognition

I am British and we are not very good at standing up and speaking about ourselves, it isn't about being shy, if you know me the last attribute you would use to describe me is shy, but I am typically British.

So by writing this you will be able to see just how excited and proud I am to say I am now an Oracle ACE Director.



The ACE Program is very sucessful and you may have seen my previous blog were I nominated the program for a Saatchi & Saatchi Lovemark accreditation, 'beyond brand' and it was granted the award.

It is managed by OTN and naturally was for technical evangelists, but technology is there to underpin the Applications so last year at Oracle Open World they extended the program to include Applications, and now 10 months later the first 4 Oracle ACE Directors for Applications and Applications Technology have been appointed.

My great friends Floyd Teter, Steve Romeo and Ron Batar who I dont know yet but hope to soon along with myself have had this honour bestowed on us.

What I love about the program is that we are nominated by our peers in recognition of our knowledge and evangelism around the Applications and this is what motivates me.

I want to thank UKOUG (the best user group in the world) for their sponsoring the work I do globally, for my employer Fujitsu for allowing me to and for the IOUC (where user groups come together) for electing me to lead the Product Development Committee, the single channel between Users Groups and Oracle for Fusion.

Getting excited about Oracle Open World

In about 6 weeks Oracle Open World begins and I am getting excited.

You can see at the top left of this page that there is a link to oracle.mix which is buzzing with OOW chats.


I am attending with a whole suitcase of hats - The master hat is UKOUG (the best user group in the world), but also other hats such as IOUC, as an Oracle ACE and an ACE Blogger, as a speaker and as Fujitsu! So when you are talking to me check which one I am wearing.

My presentations are:

* S301045, IOUC Updates as part of the EMEA User group Stream EOUC
Sunday 21-Sep-08 10:30-11:30 Moscone West Rm 2012

* S299953, Extending Oracle E-Business Suite with the Hyperion Acquisition,
Andy Seferta (Fujitsu) and Debra Lilley (Fujitsu)
Monday 22-Sep-08 14:30-15:30 Intercontinental Hotel Telegraph Hill

* S298374, 10 Things You Can Do Today to Prepare for Oracle Fusion Applications,
Nadia Bendjedou (Oracle) and Debra Lilley (United Kingdom Oracle User Group)
Monday 22-Sep-08 16:00-17:00 Moscone West Rm 2024


You can see that there is only 30 minutes between these last two presentations and they are not in the same building, so if you see me running (highly unlikely) through the streets of San Francisco - get out of the way!

I enjoy the whole experience of Open World but I warn you, spend time BEFORE planning what you will attend otherwise you will get caught up in the crowd and miss out.

The entertainment this year simply makes me feel old. I remember Red Red Wine being #1 from UB40 and it was played at my wedding disco!

I look forward to meeting up with lots of friends and with making new friends. Hope to see you there!

Oracle Excellence Award Nominations - Act Now!

The deadline for Oracle Excellence Award Nominations is approaching, Friday, August 8th. Awards will be presented during a special gathering at Oracle OpenWorld.

Are you an Oracle Applications user who has exploited Oracle Fusion Middleware or BEA Middleware? Oracle is holding their second annual Excellence Awards where innovation in this area will be rewarded.

UKOUG Oracle Scene

Many of you will remember Philippa Clifford-Davies who worked for UKOUG for many years, now she works for Oracle Alliances and a few weeks ago I ran into her at the Oracle city office in London.

What I love about Oracle offices in UK is the way Oracle Scene is always available. This is one of the member benefits I love most in UKOUG, the magazine is glossy, looks good and full of interesting articles about Oracle. It is something tangible that you can touch and refer back to when an article you read is actually more relevant to you.

Anyway back to Philippa, she picked up a copy of the latest magazine, which if you are a member you can read online, and she showed me an article by Satnam Barr about the value of training. What Philippa wanted to point out was that UKOUG had missed a trick, we should have followed the article with a reminder that as a UKOUG member you are entitled to a 10% discount on Oracle Training. So I am putting that right, if you are a UKOUG member you are entitled to a 10% discount on Oracle Training.

And while we are talking about Oracle Scene, we are now looking for articles for the conference edition. Bridget Wells, our communications executive say ‘I'm looking for articles on the following topic areas:


 Server Technology
 E-Business Suite
 Design and Development
 Business and Strategy
 Business Intelligence
 Middleware
 Fusion
 JD Edwards
 PeopleSoft
 Siebel
 Stellent
 Hyperion

and would especially welcome content aimed at a technical audience. However, if you have an article that relates to any of these topics we want to hear from you.’

All articles are required by Monday 8th September latest and guidelines can be found here.