My OOW16 - User Groups

I always feel guilty at OOW, that I don't have the time to man the EOUC (covers all uaergroups within EMEA) stand. In fact this year I spent more time finding it than actually talking to people on it, which is a shame, it was quite hidden away on the exhibition floor.

I did however pull together the third annual #EMEADBAs session which Tim Hall captured in a quick video. Tim didn't include me in the video, but I promise I was there. It was another success, I was disappointed with changes at the last minute from two people, it is small changed for them but I have worked for many hours over several weeks to pull it all together and despite not actually presenting myself it is still a challenge.

Screen shot from Oracle-Base

I had my own problems, I had forgotten to change the plug on my projector and had no UK convertor, luckily, AskTom's Chris Saxon leant me one and actually the nicest AV team ever put the clock on the main screen, so there was noise for speakers to see their slides and the clock at the same time. Of 22 DBAs only 2 overran the 5 minutes which shows how much preparation each speaker had put into this session.

We had a great audience and finished with 3 minutes to spare, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so I guess we will be back again next year.

Ralf my faithful timekeeper

There was also a user group leaders' lunch on the Monday. I knew I couldn't stay as another appointment clashed but I intended to pop in, say hallo to everyone and leave, but I couldn't find it; not sure if I was at the wrong restaurant.

Thank you to EOUC who also had Lonneke Dikmans and I as a reserve user group session which when someone had to drop out in the last week meant we had our session on #PaaS4SaaS and our Immunisation Application.

I hope I managed to see most leaders through the week.

As for UKOUG Linda, Fiona and I were joined by Kerry Stuart our Head of Sales. I didn't see much of them either, although Fiona and I did cycle the bridge Saturday, before the Partner Reception we both attend. I saw Linda once on the EOUC stand and Kerry at a Partner Specialisation Appreciation event later in the week.

Linda was very busy attending feedback and executive round tables and her blog is well worth a read.

Lots of the UKOUG conferences will be the new messages from OOW, plus presentations from ACEs, overseas speakers and our own members that were first given at OOW. If you missed OOW, UKOUG 2016 will be a great way to catch up and if you did make OOW it will give you and the speakers a few weeks to consider the messages and make sense of it all. And if you are overseas take advantage of our awful exchange rate to come enjoy UKOUG.

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