OOW Planning

I think this is something like my 14th consecutive Oracle Open World coming up and yes, it will be busy but also very different.

Change is good, but there is a lot of change this year and I'm a little nervous and yet also excited.

The ACE program has changed over the last 12 months, but they are still sponsoring those speaking at OOW. Thank you OTN or should I say Developer Community for your continued support.

I fly out to HQ on the Tuesday and even the hotel has changed it name! The Sofitel has been renamed the Pullman. Same chain just a reclassification.

Wednesday is the User Experience Strategy Day, one I always look forward to, learning what they are up to next.

The ACE program has had 2 days of briefings, traditionally the Thursday and Friday but this year it is split into the Dev Champions on Thursday and ACE on Friday. That means I have Thursday free but lots of people to catch up with in development for my day job.

We all move into the city Friday night and the main event kicks off.

I haven't got plans for Saturday yet, I love to cycle the bridge but not sure if i will this year, but there is still time.

Saturday evening there is the Partner Network (OPN) first reception and there is a new partner program this year that rewards implementations rather than sales, which is much more what we do at Certus, so an important program for us.

Sunday is traditionally User Group Day, (after a quick run over the bridge) and we are still there although Oracle have brought in competition in the form of journey to cloud sessions.The EOUC, or EMEA usergroups have a great program  and this includes my traditional short talks from the EMEA ACEs and the new EMEA Dev Champions.

Then I have to run over to the OPN keynote, some partner hospitality and then off to the ACE Dinner.

Monday kicks off with the bay swim. The OAUX Exchange is the highlight for UX at OOW and a User Group Lunch and then the Oracle Womens' Leadership event which I am very privileged to be invited to. This VIP event is very thought provoking. I also hope to make it across to Oak table World but that may need to be Tuesday.

Monday evening is either the world's biggest pub crawl or simply the night when everybody has a reception. I have many invites and will make a decision closer to the time. I tend to accept most invites to receptions and not worry if I don't attend, unless it specifically said limited numbers. For a dinner I am more careful and will let the hosts know if things change. That is only good manners.

Tuesday is a quieter but still very busy day. It kicks off very early with an Analyst dinner then a number of meetings. At the moment I have nothing planned for the evening but know that will change!

Wednesday I have a UX Lunch and a usergroup focus group on how partners work for customers and then the Certus Presentation with DHL. Delivering People Excellence for DHL Moscone South 206 at 17:30 the last session of the day, just before the appreciation party. Normally Thursday morning would be the hardest session at OOW but this year there are mainly learning sessions Thursday, no case studies so I think this is the worst session time! Please come along and support us, it is a great story. I am so proud that every year we have a customer come with us to share their implementation project.

Quick visit to the bloggers meetup, and it's off to the party.

Thursday I hope to catch up with a few meetings and then its time to wind down. I would have planned to fly home Thursday if I had known it was to be such a quiet conference day, another change to the traditional but hopefully all these changes will make it even more exciting.

Oh, and I have selected a few sessions in the catalogue, well actually more than just a few but whether I have time to actually attend any is another thing. I do have a tip here though. The session catalogue will populate your diary with those you registered for, but it won't let you schedule overlaps. It does however let you mark others as favourites. When you have done that print out the session numbers and use this clever little apex app from Connor McDonald and using those numbers populate your calendar with your backup sessions. Then if the session is cancelled or not what you expected your next choice is to hand. But if you are foreign like me, set your PC / Mac to PST time first.

Lots of friends to catch up with, customers to host, meetings to attend. Sessions to deliver and if I'm lucky to attend. Just writing this blog has me exhausted but I know it will be fun.