On the first or second year after I became a DBA (somewhere in the year 2000, give or take), I heard about this magical event that is taking place in the Oracle realm. All the top Oracle DBAs and professionals in the world (and maybe a couple of unicorns, I’m not sure) are gathering in a small but beautiful village by the name of San Francisco – and talk about databases. I found this story unbelievable – but I knew I must go there.

I was about 20 at the time, so going around the world for a conference was out of the question – but the idea of a big convention sounded awesome to me. When I went to my first local Oracle event, I was so amazed and knew that no matter what – I will someday go to the Oracle Open World (OOW).

Years gone by and I evolved – from a programmer and DBA to a senior DBA, team leader, senior consultant, service director, and even CTO for a consultancy company – but I never had the chance to go to that Open World event.

All of that was true until 3 years ago.

3 years ago, after dreaming about that moment for so long, my beloved manager told me that since I’ve been good that year – I will be joining him to the conference. We went together (and beside a minor car accident that was completely my fault, and my peers can’t seem to forget about and remind me every time they see me standing next to my car) it was amazing. I had so much fun that I couldn’t even start to describe. As a full-blown Oracle geek, it was latterly my dream coming true. There were 2000 sessions to choose from, a demo grounds with about a thousand presenters to see, and so much giveaways I had to buy a second bag-pack to take them all back…

Oracle Open World 2016

In a previous post, I talked about how I changed my perception and start speaking in public. When I wrote that post, I knew I wasn’t accepted to the OOW conference as a speaker. It wasn’t official but the catalog was starting to fill and I knew that the user group sessions (which I hoped to appear on) were selected. I congratulated couple of friends that were accepted but that was it for me.

Then, something incredible happened: I got the email that I was accepted after all – and I will be talking in this year’s conference.

So, save the date: Sunday, September 18 at 9:15am – at Moscone Center South (room 306) – I will be talking about advanced SQL in my session “Exploring Advanced SQL Techniques Using Analytic Functions” [UGF1269]. Feel free to drop by and say hello…

What Do I Plan to Do in OOW 2016

Okay, so we talked about the “duties” of going to the OOW – what else did I learn from my 2013 experience?

First, sessions aren’t everything. Yes, the sessions are a big part of the event, and we can learn a lot from them – but even though the sessions fill most of the days, the main event happens outside – in between and after the sessions. This time I plan to go to a few sessions, but not as many as I did back in 2013 (planned 25, attended 19 sessions, and can’t remember a thing from them).

Here are few things I hope to do while there.

• Demo ground – the demo ground are where Oracle product manages and developers are talking about their babies (well, not their actual babies – their products). These guys who are not available for questions and inquires during most of the year come out from beyond their screen and meet their users.
  Last time I was there, I was too afraid to go talk to them – but this year I think it will be different.
• Partners’ Exhibition – unlike the demo grounds, the partner exhibition is where business is made. This is the place to hear about new products, new approaches, and the trends. This is the place to see what everybody else is doing and make some new networking and new connections. Last time, I wasn’t focused – I was too busy taking swag to listen to the people. This time – I hope to achieve more from that.
• Networking at the OTN activities – I’m not sure how, but last time I missed the OTN area all together. I discovered it on my last day and didn’t had the chance to enjoy it. This time I hope to spend more time at those activates. There is a welcome event on Sunday (1-5pm); there is a community meetup on Monday, and there is a Blogger meetup on Wednesday.
• The ACE dinner – I heard so much about this event and the connections that are formed there, that I can hardly wait.
• Appreciation event – this year it’s Billy Joel. Not really my taste a show is a show…
• I must go shopping or else my wife won’t let me back in the house.

What Do I Hope to Gain from OOW?

Eventually, the biggest thing I hope to achieve from this event is the same thing I wish to achieve in all user group events: networking. I wish to meet new people, make more connections, to get familiar with some of the biggest names in my industry. In the last few user group events, I made huge progress with that – and I hope the OOW expectations will not fail me.

It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be intensive – I don’t have time to travel around so I’ll have to be focused. I really hope to blog from the events – but if not, I’d probably tweet from them so you can follow me there if you’d like (@realmgic).