2025 SAOUG Hello Africa

Last year my trip to SAOUG was a whirlwind, and my attendance doubled the ACE presence, with Ahmed Jassat being the only ACE in South Africa.

This year I was back with a few friends and an extra day – bit the travelogue is the next post.

 

SAOUG promoted the ACE team well, and Oracle sent Connor McDonald, ACE Alumni and Database Advocate. We were ready to add to this great event.

 

The conference was held at Misty Hills again and the main area was in a very large room known as the tent. The exhibition was opposite and below the tent and the breakout rooms located around the resort that is set on a hillside, so lots of steps and running between sessions.

 

There were a series of keynotes, first Demetris Skourides, an x oracle employee who is now Chief scientist of Research innovation and Technology of the Republic of Cyprus. He gave the government view, challenges and opportunities of AI.

Then the country lead  Sandhya Ramdhany and  Gomedi Makhongoanafrom Oracle South Africa talked about Oracle promises of AI and the local view.

 

I was meant to be next but as I was speaking about how AI technology is embedded in Fusion Applications and how people are adopting it,  I thought it would be better to swap with the last keynote of the day, Connor. It meant the messages flowed better but what an idiot to go after the world’s best speaker! I cant list how many speaker awards he has, and when I was runner up to him at UKOUG a few years back I was honoured.

 

Connor talked about data and AI, which I was able to refer back to both in my keynote and AI in EBS session.

So the morning flowed really well and the delegates were well educated.

Then after lunch it was into streams where I talked about AI in EBS and it was a great conversation. I also collected more submissions for my EBS survey so wil be doing a followup webinar for SAOUG.

Then I was interviewed for SAOUG YouTube.

The next day we had a recap and Deetris had another AI session followed by Abi who talked about story telling with data and captivated the audience. 

 

I then hosted the customer session on Digital Transformation in Africa. I had chatted to the 6 companies before hand and was able to weave a story across technology, apps, maturity and industries and amazing examples of oracle in Africa making a difference.

Back into streams and I did my All Y Need To Know for the student track. Actually they were interns many at Orace but some from other companies, Abi saved the day as I went from doing my panel to this session which was a long trek in zero time. Abi set the session up for me. I failed a bit in my execution of the quiz but it got everyone involved and talking. I also got to explain the Apprentcie ACE program level to them all.

My favourite session of the day was two graduate trainees from Brovanture talking about how they were learning EPM and being valuable to customers. The students were captivated, this was their people explaining their journey into our industry. Well done Edzisani Nematoka and Mthembeni Soganile. 

Finally it was back on stage for the ACE panel, SAOUG had me down to facilitate this too but I passed the baton to Connor who did an excellent job. Then all too soon it was time to leave.

Thanks to all at AOUG for an excellent conference, engaged delegates and an amazing agenda.