OUG Scotland - In Glasgow -- In Person - Invaluable

Want proof I was right about the value of in person events? Last week I attended OUG Scotland in Glasgow and it was a great day.

The keynote was Chris Boyland, from Scottish Government. It was a very interesting interview with OUG volunteer (and my colleague) Dermot Murray. Not being a resident of Scotland the initiatives were not personal to me but for the main audience it was. I love keynotes that are wider than just Oracle.

He talked about minecraft being an ideal way to interest children in technology. My question to him was 'who was educating parents that a 'video game' was a good thing for their children to be doing?'

I presented on Building on Oracle excellence - #PaaS4SaaS extensions on an industrial scale, which is about how Inoapps have created a range of SaaS applications to be used in co-existence with Oracle SaaS. Now I have always suggested VBCS and this is still a real option but my colleagues have shown me just what amazing things they can do with APEX. My presentation isn't so much about the code, but the approach to creating industrial SaaS that needs its own roadmap, release document, support and certifying against Oracle SaaS. I had a good audience and also some outside conversations, one of which was I needed to add APEX to the session title as people who knew me assumed it may not be. Lesson Learnt.

Then I attended an EBS Roadmap session with Nadia Bendjedou. In the early days of Fusion being announced Nadia and I worked and spoke together through usergroups worldwide. In my last two roles I have only taken people from EBS to Fusion and not worked with those who have chosen to stay, although my 'Should I go to Cloud' presentation that looks at both options is still the one most asked for! At Inoapps we have a number of EBS customers in our Managed Service portfolio, so it is great to be` working with Nadia again.

Nadia's session was standing room only, as was her second session on hosting EBS on Oracle Cloud. Some of the technology enhancements are yet again simplifying and cost reducing for EBS maintenance. If you are EBS and didn't get to Scotland then register for this event next week. 

I also went to a great session from the City of Edinburgh who talked about their EBS upgrade project that is in flight. I love customers who share openly throughout projects, it is so valuable not only to those that hear the story, but also to those who are part of it. If you don't take time during, and certainly at the end of a project to look back and celebrate what you have achieved, you will only remember the challenges, and those who have worked so hard to get you there may feel unappreciated. City of Edinburgh also celebrated with all their partners, which again is uncommon.

It wasn't my first in person event post pandemic but it was so great to see people, interact and to discuss.

Congratulations to OUG Scotland volunteers, you pulled off a great day.