2019 Kscope - Seattle and the Event

Sometimes I worry that my event posts are very 'samey', however from the start this Kscope was different.

First the travel was without issue - worthy of a post on its own! Unfortunately others were not so lucky and I sympathise, but for me, this time it was excellent.

I had been to Seattle with Kscope before so it felt very familiar. Sadly I wasn't able to travel earlier and so missed the Community Day which to me is something that makes ODTUG stand out.

The event kicks off with symposiums and I was a bit cautious about this. The content at Kscope is very EPM heavy which on its own is not a bad thing, ODTUG embraced this community when Hyperion was acquired by Oracle and they certainly have the community support. However development tools have lost their way. Some content has gone into the database track and some into emerging technologies. I don't count APEX in this, that is an amazing community and somewhat of an enigma, and isn't going anywhere. Anyway more about dev tools later, I spent the day moving between tracks and found myself looking at data visualisation and know it is something I will need to investigate further.

I loved the keynote presentation from Jason Latimer, which is a big thing for me as I hate magic, although here the presenter was using 'magic' to encourage us to ask questions, wonder and look for answers.

As well as my sessions I also took part in a panel session that Helen Sanders organised Changing Landscapes: Staying Relevant in the Database—Relational, Big Data, and Beyond! It was very interesting and does demonstrate the changing face of our world.

ODTUG have ambassadors to look after speakers and sessions. I like to do this, if I sign up I will be in the session so I pick subjects that look useful to me. I volunteered for a couple of Analytics roadmap sessions and a fellow VBCS session

I was also the ambassador for the 'fight' of the event. Oracle SQL v ANSI. This session was the brainchild of Alex Nuijten and Chris Saxon which started to take shape at the end of last year. The session takes on the shape of an actual boxing bout and the audience determines the winner. The first bout was in Germany at DOAG last November and again in Dublin this March. Here at Kscope Chris was not there and Connor McDonald, his 'Ask Tom' colleague took up the gauntlet.

Did they take it seriously! watch the videos. Connor first then Alex.

On this occasion ANSI won, and Alex got to wear the belt. (I made this after the first match, since the original one they had was a bit plastic).

I helped at the Women in Technology lunch and the table I facilitated had great ideas to encourage women and embrace success.

Somewhere in the event there was a quick ACE Briefing - so much information in so little time! And a great ACE Dinner. Thankyou Oracle and congratulations to all those who joined the program or were promoted at the event. 

Bob Rhubart captured me for a 2 minute tech tip at the Groundbreakers lounge - I spoke about Digital Assistant Governance.

There was a great party at the MoPop, the ODTUG Board all went way out in their costumes. I loved Opal and Natalie were my favourites (I'd like to add Roel in the list but found him a little unnerving).

And to finish off Kscope I had another look at the Data Visualisation

It was great Kscope and thanks to Opal and the rest of the team. Read Opal's blog here. See you in Boston!




Related Posts:
Development Tools at Kscope
My sessions at Kscope