KSCOPE 25 - Now I have finally recovered!

 

I love KSCOPE, but you would expect me to say that, I am a current board director for ODTUG, looking for re-election.

But I do love it, I am an applications person, but its success is the technology it is based on and how we can use technology to extend them. KSCOPE is where I come to learn about that. I attended my first KSCOPE in 2007 and have only missed one since.

This year KSCOPE was in Dallas, and although it started on the Sunday, the board arrived the Thursday before, for a full day of meetings on the Friday. 

The meeting started with a quick update on the conference but the rest was about ODTUG, we published a strategy earlier in the year and we each have areas to deliver on. Kurt Mayer and I are responsible for communities, and one area we have worked on is the OCI Community that was announced at conference. This is especially important to me as this is where we extend the Apps. Where we use APEX there is a vibrant community, but Visual Builder, Integration and other OCI services do not have a clear home. We have had content but they have been streams and more recently tags in the Database Track. So we pitched for and had approved by the board an OCI Community. I hope this will not only deliver for OCI but give more focus and clarity to the Database Community. We asked Basheer Khan if he would be interested in leading the community and he stepped up, and in the run up to the launch, organised a series of webcasts.

Monty Latiolas was the KEO for KSCOPE 24 & 25 but has handed the batten over to Sara Beth Good for KSCOPE26 and planning has started for that already.

After a very full day, Saturday started with a session to determine what we need in our mobile app, creating a purchasing document when the team is so technical means we often run down solutioning rabbit holes but as ever Jackie McIlroy our President kept us in order. However I did get up even earlier to take an Oracle AI Studio Exam! There was a welcome reception for volunteers in the afternoon.

Sunday is our Symposiums, where Oracle Product Managers who support KSCOPE in force. Many delegates come in early especially for these, I floated between a few and welcomed people to the event.

Then we had welcomes for speakers and newcomers in the exhibition hall before the first networking session. Conferences would be unaffordable for delegates if we didn't have sponsors and exhibitors. This year the exhibition was fun and lively and in no small way thanks to Elizabeth Ferrell who unfortunately had to miss the conference due to a virus. 

The theme of a state fair worked well with lots of fairground attractions, and money was raised for a local charity Cook Childrens including a very generous contribution from our top sponsor AppliedOLAP . One of those stalls was a dunk the board tank. I volunteered ahead of time, but when I saw it I almost pulled out, but my favourite quote is "Commitment is doing the thing you said you would do, long after the mood in which you said it has gone" - so I had a sneaky go when no one was looking to make sure I could actually get back out again. 

Some people enjoyed this just a little bit too much - you know who you are! Thank you Connor McDonald for the video.

Monday started early with rehearsal for the general session, and then I facilitated a panel session on Visual Builder v APEX. This is my bailiwick, and the discussion was really interesting. Both products are strategic to Oracle and the APEX team shared how they are working even closer with the SaaS development teams.

At lunch time it was the Women In IT event and I was a table facilitator, There was a good sprinkling of men in the room which I love and my table had a great discussion on how they saw themselves in the work place.

The general session was excellent and started with an opening video the board were very proud off. We recorded our parts individually (mine from a hotel room when travelling) and the team at YCC our management company did the magic with a sprinkling of AI and came up with the final clip. I loved it.

There was information, a thank you to Monty, a lifetime achievement award for Edward Roske who has finished his time on the board and stepping away a bit from the Oracle world (but I don't believe that). Videos for both of these are on our youtube channel.

I made the announcement of the OCI Community here with Basheer. So pleased we have delivered. We made the plea for more volunteers and if you are interested sign up here.

Each year there are two awards, one for volunteer which for the first time was a repeat recipient, Karen Cannell. In the last year amongst many things she has done for ODTUG she took over from me as lead for the Innovation Incubator Committee (new ideas), and was the leading light for both the ACE Alliance launched just before conference but in full swing in the ACE lounge, and the APEX Boot camp initiatives. Her partner in crime on the boot camps, Product Manager Jayson Hanes was awarded the Oracle Volunteer Award. Both so well deserved.

Then there was a magician, or rather Keelan Leyser is a World-leading Tech Magician, Mentalist, Digital Illusionist and Optical Illusion Expert. I was a bit sceptical as I don't like magic as I need to know how things work, but I actually really enjoyed his show. 

Back to sessions and then the evening there was more networking (and dunking for me), the ACE Dinner (more about ACE activities here) and then community events such as Open Mike and the very popular Silent Disco. Obviously there was also the traditional Werewolf games played into each night.

Tuesday and Wednesday plenty of education content starting very early, I don't get the opportunity to attend as much as I would like as the board try and meet with each Product Management group whilst they are on site and look at what they can improve and work on together over the next year. This is so important as these relationships are key to our success. I truly believe that improving what we do between the conferences in the communities will make the annual KSCOPE even better.

The special event Wednesday evening is something everyone looks forward to. This year the theme was Stars over Texas and there were many interpretations from celestial goddesses to 4th of July. I went for the later. Love this picture from the official photographer of myself with Wayne Van Sluys.

My board task for the evening was to get everyone who wanted to go back to the resort on the buses. Easier said then done when everyone had had such a great time. The venue was inspired, food and drink flowed and the drone show was magic. 

Thursday morning, had yet more sessions but more community focused and then we had a final session where top presenters were acknowledged. A tradition from KSCOPEs before that had been missing for a while. Back by popular demand. Monty, you and your team delivered a great event.

Now, if I can just get elected again for next year......

If you want to know more about KSCOPE this is the video for you.