Saturday 30 October 2010

Danish Oracle User Group - Great Timing


I have a special affection for the Danish Oracle User Group and I was very honoured to be invited back by Helene to their event in October post OOW. This is a mixed group were the traditional technology users have been joined by the BAUG which is very business focused. Their agenda gave something for everyone.

This event was very well structured and the timing was perfect just 2 weeks after Oracle Open World; it started by a ‘What did you miss at OOW’ time slot with 4 ACE Directors giving their take on OOW. Part of our ACE Director duties is to try and provide content at User Groups that there may not be enough locals to do so, either independently or Oracle themselves. Denmark has 2 ACE Directors which for its population is excellent. Mogens Nørgaard covered the Database, Sten Vesterli Fusion MiddleWare, Mark Rittman also from UK was invited to cover BI/EPM and I covered applications.  I really liked this approach, and it was very well received by the delegates.

We knew it was going to be a big success before it even started as Oracle had to hire in extra chairs!

I also want to take time to tell you other things about the event; it was advertised as being 9 till 9, yes 12 hours for an Oracle conference. It started with coffee and then the OOW sessions, more traditional sessions interrupted only by more coffee (and cake) and then a great buffet lunch. There was a 'Ask the ACES' session and then in the afternoon coffee break there was also Miracle Beer on offer. Then the last session was a kind of forced networking session. Everyone was allocated a group where people had indicated like interests. My group was great and we had a good conversation, I think poor Mark faired less well as the group didn’t speak English in their discussion and he felt left out. It was however another tactic the group used to make the day very successful. This last session finished about 6pm and then there was a sit down 3 course dinner with wine provided by Oracle. Now that is how it should be done.

I gave a presentation on Fusion Apps and it was so great to have all the launch material from development. This was my first post OOW proper presentation.
Thank you Denmark and I hope to be invited back soon, and hope to see many of them at UKOUG in November.

1 comment:

Helene Jerichau Balsløw said...

Dear Debra
It's always a pleasure to have you speaking at our events in BAUG/DOUG.
I know you don't like the fact but, I must agree with René. You are the best saleman(woman) of Oracle Fusion - You do the presentations very well, with a fine balance between enthusiasm towards the applications and propper amount of skepticism towards Oracle as an institution.
And you thank us? No, it's the other way around ;-)
BR Helene Jerichau Balsloew