Travle Blog Ascend & Kscope

 This blog post is just for me really. 

Several years ago I applied for Global Entry into the US and one of the questions was - which countries have you visited in the last 10 years? This Oracle blog, my dive log and stored photos was the only way I could attempt to complete the question. Luckily at the interview they didn't ask me to recite them, just asked me why I had entered a random selection of my answers.

So I need a travelog post for Ascend and Kscope 2026.

Ascend was partially funded by the ACE Program as I am an ACE ~Director and I am always so grateful for their continued support. This is my 18th year on the program.

I had a couple of sessions and wrote about my findings across the two events in two posts, one on EBS and one on Fusion.

It was good as aways to catch up with people and hear what others are doing as this is how I learn.

Ascend was in Orlando, Florida but I didn't have time to enjoy the sunshine as I had to fly straight out to Denver for Kscope and ODTUG board meetings.

Big Foot

The board meeting on the Friday was all day and we still didn't get everything covered. But all too soon it was time for Kscope and a big thankyou to Sara Beth Good our KEO who delivered an amazing event. 

Again I got to see any friends and made some more - Big Foot was a bit creepy until I learnt it was Roel Hartman my fellow board member. 

Saturday at Kscope traditionally was community service day sponsored by Dodeca and it was good to have it back. We went to a city farm that does so much amazing work and helped to weed the area. Tim Tow from Dodcca was the big star on the day. That man can dig like a machine.

I didn't have a normal session at Kscope but I did do my Introduction to Oracle session and one for volunteers. Then as I covered in my 2nd blog Dr Abi and I did a downhill for our communities.

The party was at Empower Field, home of the Denver Broncos, and our lifetime achievement winner Karen Cannell showed us why she is every bit ODTUG personified.

The event finished at lunchtime on the last day and Abi and I had a lazy afternoon in the sun before our long flight home.

Fusion Thoughts from Ascend and Kscope Conferences

Still catching up.

Ascend and Kscope confirmed for me that Fusion adoption is increasingly shaped by the technology ecosystem around it, particularly OCI, AI, analytics, integration, and the technical skills needed to support change.

 

At Ascend conference I was speaking in the EBS stream, which I blogged about earlier in the week.

There was a lot of HCM content for Fusion but not as much across the entire suite as I hoped for and possibly because this is my area expertise, I didn't attend many Fusion sessions but did talk to lots of users which teaches me far more.

I was on the panel for the AI Special Interest Group meeting, and it was good to see that organizations are dipping their toes into AI Agents and have embraced at least some of the Generative AI delivered in Fusion.

I also had the chance to talk about AI in Fusion with Connor MacDonald in an Uber which he shared online.

I am really interested in the technology that underpins our applications and I believe that the technical people in an organization that runs Fusion also have the same thirst for knowledge. For those reasons I have been a longtime supporter of ODTUG.

We talk about Fusion being sold to the business rather than IT but that doesn't mean the IT team have no role during the implementation. It's incredibly important that they are working with the integration, with the data migration and understanding how they move from where they are today which undoubtedly will have been an on premise and highly maintained by their team.  

It may be that SaaS once implemented requires less intervention but in the sales cycle I know that just natural curiosity means these teams want to know what's going on in Fusion and whilst they can't go under the covers to the application database, there is still the integration, the way it works with the rest of their estate, and how data is used before and after the application processes to worry about. Technology is still very important to this community. 

I have been on the board of ODTUG for 4 years and campaigned for an OCI community because I believe that that's where that technology lives and I was so happy when ODTUG launched OCI last year.

At the Kscope conference this year we had our first OCI tracks. I was very impressed at the number of technical people who were Fusion users, some were our traditional APEX or Visual Builder developers who are extending Fusion, some from our Analytics community who are using FDI or EPM practitioners who are running it with Fusion and some were net new people who were just coming for the OCI angle. 

Some new attendees were also E Business Suite, (EBS) admins assessing what a move to Fusion technically involved.

Feedback we got was they wanted more FDI content. We did had several amazing sessions that explained how AI works and how AI is exposed in Oracle, in OCI, in the applications, in EPM, in Analytics and in Integrations. The presentations really appealed to me as a Fusion practitioner who loves the technology.

What I learnt from the sessions I attended and some of the things that resonated with me in the conversations match what I see with our customers. 

For a while most financial users of Fusion have purchased the EPM modules at the same time and there is talk that that link between them will become even tighter.

One presentation I attended talked about implementing FDI at the same time as Fusion and not as a later phase, and especially when an organization is using Finance and Supply Chain, the value of having the analytics from day one drives even better adoption.

One session addressed the AI everywhere in Fusion and partners are delivering agents at pace. But how do organizations know where to start? At Inoapps, we are working with our customers, helping them choose the delivered AI Agents that are relevant for them from Oracle’s portfolio or from the marketplace of partner agents and then what ones do they need to alter or build themselves. Advice I give and echoed by every speaker at Kscope is start small, don't try and produce a massive list to tackle, look at the ones that make sense. 

As the board liaison for the OCI Community I also held a town hall jointly with Abi Giles-Haigh who is responsible for the AI Community and we looked at some common threads, starting with skills and the need to stay current.

A significant number of our audience were using or thinking of using Fusion and this validates having the OCI Community and I look forward to growing that in the future under the leadership of Roger Cressey.

Retirements are not a bad thing

 

I read on LinkedIn over the weekend that Steve Miranda had retired from Oracle. It wasn't news to me, I heard a rumour a few weeks ago, reached out to Steve and he confirmed it, although there had been no official announcement.

I have worked with Steve since he took on the challenge to build Fusion Apps. I was representing user groups world wide and Steve met regularly with us to share insights and progress. When Fusion was released I had the honour to introduce his Apps keynote at Oracle Open World.

Steve Miranda, OOW 2010

I'll miss Steve it has always been a great supporter but Chris Leone is now leading Applications and I am excited by that. Chris has been the leader in the AI adoption for oracle and I look forward to see that across all pillars. Working with Chris is always exciting.

Nadia, Cliff and I, Dubai 2009

Another recent retirement is Cliff Godwin who looked after EBS development. I have known Cliff most of my Oracle ecosystem career and my favourite memory is at an event in Dubai along with Nadia Bendjedou.

As I mentioned in my EBS updates from Ascend blog, Lisa Parekh will now lead EBS Development and I look forward to working with her.

Retirement is something to be celebrated and I still can't decide when to pull the plug on my career, I'm thinking about it, but still loving my job!

E Business Suite Messages from Ascend, June 2026

 New EBS development lead

Last year at AI World Inoapps sponsored a round table for EBS customers. Cliff Godwin was asked what happens to the community when he leaves and his answer was that he had a great team behind him that would step up. Since then, Cliff has retired and Lisa Parekh, who has been in that development team for longer than Cliff, has taken on the role of head of development. At Ascend, Nadia, who isn't in Development but Product Strategy, introduced Lisa to the community present at Lisa's keynote.

Lisa and Nadia at Ascend

Still no end in sight for EBS

The session started as ever with Oracle’s commitment to E-Business Suite.  I think most customers now understand that support is rolling, but Lisa added the nuance that when the time comes there will be 10 years’ notice, and that notice period has not yet started.

What’s new in EBS documentation?

In the latest release 12.2.15, there are again many new features, but what appealed to me was the What's New approach to the documentation led by Jeanne Lowell. This is similar to what we have in Fusion applications, which is searchable with your favorite search engine and its embedded AI. 

Currently 12.2.15 is in this new format and they have rewritten 12.2.14 and 12.2.13 the same way and are working on other versions in reverse order. Check them out. This is such an easy way of looking at what has been released—and remember there may be value for you in the intermediate releases, not just the last release.

Technology changes

EBS is about to have a technology upgrade, moving Middleware to 14c. Normally the uptake would be slow. Organizations have made big changes to their systems, and an upgrade means a lot of testing. However, this changes will mean technology and application are separated and the tech stack upgrade will be independent of the application.

This is currently in beta testing with a few customers, but you can follow the progress and understand the process by following Elke Phelps series on their EBS Technology blog.

Hosting of EBS

Often an upgrade has an impact on your hardware, and this is just one of the reasons customers move to a cloud hosting solution for EBS. Oracle state that over half of EBS customers are on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

Renewed interest in ECC

Enterprise Command Centers again has lots of new features and I am seeing a renewed interest in ECC. Some organizations who tried it in its early days and didn't feel it gave them enough additional value are looking again. The Oracle demos of ECC are showing much more functionality. My own point of view has been that many customers believe that they have solved these problems with their investment in 3rd party tools, but ECC is aimed at operational intelligence and there is so much they offer.

AI: Ask EBS

Part of the reason for the renewed interest in ECC is that this is the architecture of the data being used as the base for Ask EBS—the AI that’s been documented for the community. 

Just a reminder, as I see this as a myth: you do not need to implement or have ECC in order to use AI. It just uses the same views and you just run that part of the process to give you the basis for the AI.

Oracle does not deliver the AI or Ask EBS as a patch. There is a white paper see: Enabling Natural Language Query of Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Release 12.2, Leveraging Oracle Generative AI (MOS Article KB859326, Formerly MOS Note 3059877.1 ). This explains how you build it and includes all the steps. 

Each time this is presented, there is a caution given that you must, when starting your project, redownload the document as it is a living document and the one that you looked at a few weeks ago may not be the current version. At Ascend, two big changes were highlighted: previously you needed an autonomous version of the database and this is no longer true as you can use the 26 AI without autonomous. The second change is you can use your own favorite LLM.

Built on AI; made easier?

In my sessions and when I talk about Ask EBS, I finished by asking "is AI the tipping point for customers to move to Fusion?". The reasoning behind this is that you have to build the AI for any data source that is not an Oracle Cloud product. So for Apps Unlimited, you need to build the AI solution. 

Oracle Ask EBS is doing that using the Select AI Service that allows you to ask natural language queries and get a response from your EBS system. My belief is that for each challenge you have for each requirement, you are going to have to build the AI solution. I explained that getting information from the EBS database that has always been an issue since the beginning of time. 

In the Oracle ecosystem these difficulties or challenges are addressed by third party organizations—partners who build a solution that can be bolted on to your EBS. As with any applications conference, Ascend had a significant number of these third parties who are very successful in providing solutions to their community. I've always said that these ISV's see a gap and then bridge it, and it may be short term until Oracle catches up or it may be longer term. 

There are many very successful partners in this area, and at Ascend there were partners adding to their portfolio, and others dipping their toes into the market and coming up with solutions for AI in EBS.  My own employer, Inoapps, recently announced the acquisition of JDE partner KS2 who have built some incredible solutions for AI within JD Edwards—so this model of partners filling the gaps is natural. Expect more on AI for Apps Unlimited at AI World in October.

Modernizing is more than just AI

Most people are talking about Generative or agentic AI, but classic AI is also modernizing EBS, and I am seeing a lot going on here, from automation to document imaging. APEX is also an excellent tool for modernizing your EBS, alongside integrations through OCI, mobile web applications. 

Conclusion

EBS is certainly not dead, and the organizations using it are not standing still. They are moving forward at their pace in all areas.

Thank You UKOUG

Honoured to be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by UK Oracle User Group. I am on holiday so was not there in person but did send a video.

UKOUG has given me the opportunity to benefit from the Oracle community and volunteering was only natural.

I have won several awards from different organisations over the years but this rounds of a great career with Oracle technology.

Thank you to all who have supported me over the years.

OUGN 2026 - Back on the Boat

My first Norwegian User Group OUGN event was 2010. It was on a boat and just so different. I spoke again in 2014,2015,2016,2017. In 2020 I was all set to go but it was the first casualty in Covid. I spoke again in 2022, but on the first few years post Covid they stayed on land as they like all user groups had to rebuild their events.

Last year they took the brave step to go back on the boat and it was a great success, so I was glad to be joining them in 2026, my 7th OUGN event. Thank you to the Oracle ACE program for help with funding.

I spoke on Ai in EBS and AI Adoption in Fusion. I had suggested a panel session on AI in Apps and OUGN facilitated that, and we had a great discussion with the audience.

My belief here which is similar to what I see elsewhere is that on premise customers really want to know their options, happy perhaps with the applications but wondering how will they approach AI? This meant EBS delegates were attending both EBS and Fusion sessions.

They had a number of high profile Fusion customers speaking, including a bank and the post office which I found really interesting. Customer stories is my day job.

One of the highlights of the boat experience is traveling under the Great Belt Bridge (Denmark) and as sun sets on the way home, I love to be on deck and experience the impressive moment. However this year that clashed with the panel session. Obviously the boat also did this on the way out but it happens at 5m, so Kamil and I braced the cold and dark and were not disapointed. Had it not been so cold I would have stayed out another 30 minutes to witness the sunrise but I was frozen through.

Another great tradition is the dinners on the boat, in such a marvellous setting. One of my favourite events and destinations.

My Thoughts on AI World London 2026 for Fusion Applications

It used to be just at Oracle OpenWorld, their annual show, that big advances in technology and applications were made. But now, with application updates pushed out every three months, announcements come much quicker, and so it was not unexpected that there would be new announcements at the AI World roadshow in London last week.

Oracle announced the AI Agent Applications—the next level in this fast‑paced AI revolution.

In just a few years, we have gone from redefining what is meant by AI, to the introduction of generative AI to help us create content, AI agents to help us do repetitive tasks, AI Studio to build your own, adding workflow, and now applying those agents to making decisions based on the outcomes we define.

Watch this interview interview with Steve Miranda from Bob Evans of Cloud Wars: . Bob always peels away the hype and quickly gets to the point—a powerful source of technology truth. Many others have posted their précis on LinkedIn, but I thought I would concentrate on what it means for users.

It took a while for people to get their heads around what was meant by AI, and I’ve previously said that I’ve started many a presentation with an AI explanation. But that’s no different from where we were 15 years ago when we were explaining what was meant by “cloud.” Generative AI almost crept up on us. ChatGPT was a phenomenon that frightened us—we thought it was going to take away every brain cell from our children and allow cheating in every possible academic scenario. But now we see it used for good (and sometimes bad) in our everyday lives. In many instances, it has become the default, and if there is an option, it’s usually to turn it off. In our applications, that’s slightly different. For Fusion Applications, a prerequisite was the move to Redwood, but once that profile option is flipped, generative AI is everywhere. I have a presentation where I talk about us at Inoapps using Fusion, and one place where we introduced this was in our goal‑setting process. There is good research showing that organizations using goals are more effective in supporting their employees, and it certainly helped speed up the goal‑setting process in our organization, where individuals and managers had access to generative AI.

The introduction of AI agents is where most people are now thinking about how they could use them in their organization. Recent commentary says that we’ve moved beyond proof of concept into execution, but I know that many organizations are still hesitant and still not sure where the value is for them. I read a really good article over the weekend, which talked about the most effective people having the most to lose with AI. If their processes are effective today, the risk of AI reducing that effectiveness is a bigger concern than for an organization that has a long way to go. It’s worth a read—change management is still a big consideration for your AI strategy.

Oracle quoted that 64% of Fusion customers are using AI, but in my discussions, that's any type of AI, not just AI agents. They also mentioned that those using agents were using less than 5. I think that number is important. AI for AI’s sake is not what people should be looking for—AI should be used to smooth out some of their challenges.

I have one customer who attended AI World in London who is currently looking at how AI agents can help them in their monthly payroll processes. The manual checking they do each month—no one wants to get payroll wrong. After Oracle announced the applications, we had a conversation about what that meant. In my mind, and remember I’d only had one day’s notice of the announcement, I was thinking of “applications” as being: How do you apply AI to your organization? How do you take the agents that can do the work that needs to be done and make a difference? So instead of telling your agents to check things at the end of each cycle, why not have them check things all the time and tell you when there’s a need to alter course?

I use the analogy of the Ever Given boat in the Suez Canal. When it left port it was on the right course, and its failure—the reason it became stuck—was that it didn’t alter that course as tides, winds, and life in general got in the way. If you’re using an AI application, it is looking at the outcome you need, the destination, and it can help you make those small course corrections.

I really do believe that AI is changing the world in which we live, and I’m honored to work in the technology that allows us to adopt it quickly and safely. Our data is in our organization, so many of the components an AI application needs to understand the organization are already in the application. Oracle’s strategy, as I define it, is the facilitation of AI wherever you need it. That means that in the application—and to use their words—it’s “built in, not bolted on,” and that means they can deliver it to us quicker than we can adopt it. More importantly, we can adapt as these exciting phenomena hurtle on at pace. We don’t have to build everything from scratch each time there's something we want to do.

There was also small change in the charging: AI is free within Fusion Applications, but if you extend AI agents or applications beyond Fusion, there is a small charge after a base allowance.

I have only talked about the Fusion Applications, but remember the technology that makes this work is in the Oracle technology stack, so it is available to build for any data.

Renewed Interest in EBS

Whilst I have reduced the time I work, I am still really busy and when I look at my to do list, there is a lot of E Business Suite content. I think of myself as a Fusion person and so have been exploring why this might be so.

I've always loved presenting

E Business Suite isn't going anywhere, and I believe most organisations now understand support is a rolling rather than fixed date, in other words you will get 10 years notice of any finish for EBS and that count down has not yet started.

For organisations using EBS they are not standing still, they have plans. At Inoapps we are running a survey on EBS use and I will be sharing the trends we are seeing with UKOUG this week, and hopefully in other events through the year.

One area under consideration is customisations. EBS was designed to be easily customised and we have all taken advantage of that. I am talking to many who want to catalogue, assess and modernise where it makes sense. Not just the application functionality, but user experience, integrations, reporting.

APEX is a real powerhouse in modernisation and Oracle have made it even easier to use in EBS.

There is a new release of EBS to be assessed, more functionality voted on by customers, and technology considerations, 26ai available for some and more to come.

Security is also a hot topic, recent patching and vulnerabilities have people checking out their setup.

EBS is not exempt from AI, Oracle have detailed how you can use AI services to setup 'Ask EBS', Natural Language Queries against your system. 

'Ask EBS' utilises the objects behind Enterprise Command Centres and I am seeing a renewed interest here. Just to be clear you don't have to be using ECC or even implement ECC, to setup 'Ask EBS' - you just run a few of the early steps to generate the objects. But this has led to people exploring ECC, possibly not having looked at them since they were new and immature. The thinking is if ECC design works as the backbone for 'Ask EBS' they must have some value.

EBS can like any other data source make use of other AI services from Oracle, and that is also being explored too.

Those who want an easier path to AI, are joining those planning their move to Fusion, for new both functionality and technology. 

My roadmapping conversation around a simple flowchart is still really popular and lends itself to all these conversations, because all conversations need to be centred on the organisation needs rather than the application itself.

I have been involved in webinars and presentations on all these areas discussed here and it is keeping me busy. (all are available online). I am privileged to work with EBS and technology experts and helping them to share these pathways is what I love to do. I hope to see and talk to many more organisations as the conference season ramps up.

2025 Review and Looking Forward to 2026

As we look welcome 2026 and share our plans, I want to start by looking back at 2025.

My plans post for 2025 was a big bold plan to achieve my bucket list for scuba diving whilst not actually retiring. It required cutting right back at work to 18 weeks and careful planning, but that started back in 2022 when I made the decision.

So did I achieve my plans? Not quite, but back to that later.

I did 255 dives, over 6 trips, in 4 continents, and 10 countries. That is more than 25% of my dive count to date. I started the year with 791 dives in the log book and finished with 1045!

• Jan / Feb Thailand and Indonesia.
• Mar / Apr Phillipines and Micronesia
• May Lanzarote with my home buddy and daughter
• July dives at home in N Ireland
• August in Mexico
• September in Eygpt
• Nov / Dec Singapore and Australia including 3 weeks on the Great Barrier Reef

And what about work? We decided on 18 weeks and I delivered. I supported projects with content and advice, I planned and delivered at Oracle CloudWorld London, Ascend and Kscope, HR tech (a new conference for me), and AI World in Las Vegas. I supported our AI capability build and am currently running a major study on EBS customers which I will present on this Spring.

Whilst not technically working I also, with ACE funding support, joined the Latin America Oracle Tour, presenting in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala. I returned to South Africa for their event and then when in Australia for my last dive trip, I was also able to present at the AUSOUG event in Perth. All this enabled me to retain my ACE Director which was one of the goals.

My bucket list was about experiences rather than just places. And some of the highlights were amazing adventures with Whale Sharks, and learning to muck dive in Indonesia. Both of these I talked about in my 'Joel Kallman Day' post.

I dived Historic wrecks in Chuuk Lagoon in Micronesia and was memorised by how respectful it was to history.

The Great Barrier Reef was a must and I was not disappointed, I travelled to the far North of Australia and dived places that don't even have names, it is so rare people go there, and travelled over 3 weeks down the reef back to Cairns and then went further out to the Coral Sea. Yes I saw some damage but deliberately visited places that have recovered or avoided damage. 

As well as reaching my 1,000 dive milestone, I also dived with Dolphins which has alluded me in my dive career to date, that was so special.

I spent time diving with my daughter who is newer to diving, along with my local dive buddy who simply is the reason I keep going.

I have made plenty of new friends and will dive with many again I hope. I have also had more time and been able to catch up with many people throughout the year, including several in Australia. And virtually, my friends have followed my adventure on Facebook and given me advice and ideas, like the man who was part of my original dive training who told me how to find Weedy Sea Dragons in Sydney, which I managed to fit in, before going on the boat. 

So why did I say I hadn't quite achieved my goals? Well what I learnt in 2025 is that I am not too old for diving, I met many older than me, and actually feel fitter than at the start of the year. My bucket list is not complete and in fact I have added to it!

So with those two important lessons, and continued support from Inoapps, 2026 will follow the same pattern. Just 18 weeks work and a lot of diving. But first a period of time at home, working on some of the projects in the house and with my daughter that got put on hold in 2025. 

25 AUSOUG Perth

This was my fourth visit to Perth, having been with AUSOUG there in 2011, 2015, 2017 , but I also attended Australia Insync in 2009 and 2010 which didn't travel to Perth.

Whilst AUSOUG was the most important thing happening in Perth it was not the only event bringing in tourists as the Ashes cricket also happened to be on. Perth was buzzing.

I am travelling this year to scuba dive my bucket list and December has long been planned as the Great Barrier Reef. There were a few things I wanted to do in Australia first so I flew out late November and has a few days in Sydney. After this was planned AUSOUG published their event days I could manage Perth but Melbourne would mean I would miss my boat, so I only went to Perth.

One of the amazing things about speaking at global events and the ACE program is the number of people I have made friends with around the world. Whilst in Sydney I met up with Bambi Staverley. Bambi used to look after user groups in APAC for Oracle but left in 2012 and now runs an amazing hair products company. Meeting with her and her husband was a great opportunity not to be missed.

In Perth I stayed with Penny Cookson and her husband who used to be a local Oracle partner before retiring. I was lucky she hosted me as the cricket made finding an affordable hotel in Perth almost impossible. Many of the presenters flew overnight to Melbourne for the next leg as hotels were so unavailable. 

Anyone who has travelled with me knows but a terrible car passenger I am and taxis are included. Having had another issue in South Africa just 10 days before, Connor McDonald who does actually have a home between events, and is a local to Perth, offered to be my Uber driver and he brought along Bailey his famous dog for me to meet in person.

The night before the event there was a speakers dinner thanks to the committee. Before the dinner I met up with another long time usergroup friend Arnold Wong. He left the Oracle world many years ago but saw on Linkedin I was to be in Perth and reached out. I cannot tell you how much these friendships and connections mean to me.

The dinner was on the banks of the Swan river in South Perth and Penny and I travelled by train and ferry so I felt quite a tourist in Perth. As the sun set we had an amazing view over Perth and then apparently perhaps for the Cricket there were fireworks laid on. Perfect.

The event stated early on the Monday, a single day event and most people stayed the whole day. There were 3 streams with great content. The keynote was on AI and Oracle Apps so I did my EBS roadmapping session to a full room and they all came back later for the AI in EBS compared to Fusion. The keynote speaker joined my last session which gave me the opportunity to refer back to his content.

I was also honoured to be give an AUSOUG Master award presented by Penny. This means a lot to me because from way before the ACE Program came along and made it easier, I have always loved presenting at all user groups and sharing my experiences and supporting them. I may not have been in Perth for a while but have done a few webinars for them and happy to continue to. 

I left as the event wound down with a reception and went off to the airport to continue my journey. It may be just domestic travel in one country but Australia is a big country. I started in Sydney, flew to Perth for the conference, but then had to get to Horn Island for my boat, a bit of cross crossing and an extra 15 hours flying. My flight was delayed by an Ash Cloud over Africa. Not because I was being routed that way, but because Qantas had 2 flights to Europe and delayed them until it was clear what routing they needed and Perth being a little airport didn't have enough staff, so we had to wait till they had left. It didn't cause me any issues just a little stress for shortened connections.

So thank you to everyone in Perth, The ACE Program and all my old and new friends. I hope to be back again one day.

25 SAOUG Our Own ACE Adventure

In the main post I talked about the South Africa conference, but this is more the travelogue. Whilst not an official ACE Adventure I can say we all had a great time and it would never have happened if we were not part of the program.

As ever I had a layover in Heathrow before my flight and Dr Abi joined me as she flies in from Newcastle. We had a few hours to kill so enjoyed the First lounge which may be our last chance as under the new British Airways frequent flyer program I will never get elite status again :(

The flight was ok, went quite fast and we had good seats for economy. I slept well although am pleased you can't see the photo of me Abi took. We landed in Johannesburg early which was good as Connor was waiting for us, as was his taxi. we arrived at Misty Hills just before noon.

We had a little wait for our rooms but not too long and I had an upgrade to exactly the same room as last year. Thankyou SAOUG. Sarah, Lydia and their boss Marc arrived a couple of hours later and they were no sooner in their rooms then we were off on a game drive arranged by Marc. Two of their graduates Methembeni and Ed drove us in their own cars which was so nice of them. Local help is always appreciated to get the most out of a destination.

We went to Dinokeng Reserve and our guide was Olivia. Before getting in the trucks we saw a family of monkeys. First spotted were Rhinos and Wildebeest. Then as we drove around a bend we met a pride of lions, so exciting. 

So within 30 minutes along with various impala, Eland and Springbok we had seen more than most do on a single game drive. Olivia told us she could hear elephants but if we went looking for them there was no guarantee and we would potentially miss other things. We trusted her and went looking for the herd. Almost an hour later we were rewarded with so much elephant life. More than a dozen of all sizes. Pure Magic. As the sun set we had to leave the reserve. We had missed the drinks but no one cared, and twice we had to reverse as our path was blocked by rhinos lying on the path as it is warmer than the grass at night. Our final sightings were a few young Jackals. What a way to start the trip.

On the way back Marc took us to a steak restaurant he knew from growing up in South Africa and it was amazing. We almost missed out as we arrived within 5 minutes of the last orders due to our extended drive. We got back to Misty Hills about 10.30 all very very tired, remember the previous night had been spent on aircraft, but no one was complaining.

Sunday a few made breakfast but not everyone, and we had our ACE Dinner at midday, in the Carnivore restaurant. I had been before many years ago and remembered what an experience it was, so when so many ACEs were confirmed I asked if we could have an ACE Dinner there. Thankyou to them for saying yes. Carnivore does what it says on the tin, and we got to experience meat we would never otherwise have. We were joined by Ahmed Jassat the local and only SA ACE and then Ron Ekins who also came from the UK but a day later, he literally arrived and joined us.

Sunday evening there was a reception for the user group and the mandatory South African Braai. The final ACE Raja joined us and although we didn't eat a lot more meat (there is a limit) we loved it. 

Monday the event kicked off and after the sessions (which I covered in the last post) there was a party, with a dress code of African Sheik. 

I had managed to fashion a jacket from scarf fabric and was very pleased with the result. There was a live band and a great DJ and even I got up to dance once. However this old lady hit a wall about 11pm and went off to bed but some of the younger ones kept going till 1.30am when it stopped.

Tuesday sessions kept going till 6pm, but Abi, Ron and I had to leave at 5.30 to get to the airport for our overnight flight home. We had booked a taxi from the hotel, but it didn't turn up and when chased was going to be another 20 minutes. However since we had Ron with us we voted to get the unrecommended Uber option. Our driver was excellent, drove quickly but not too fast and obeyed most rules of the road (not all South African's do). We arrived at the airport with time to shop, which is always important. If you know Connor, ask him about his taxi back to airport, more exciting than ours! And ask Abi about her room mate!

Having shopped until there was no space in our hand luggage which probably didn't matter, Abi and I met a man buying a 4 foot tall wooden giraffe going on our flight in one shop. The flight wasn't actually that busy and again I managed a decent amount of sleep.

After a quick breakfast Abi and I had our flights home. 

South Africa delivered again and I hope I can manage again next year. Thank you again Penelope and Debs for all your help.

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 Methembeni . 

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.