Monday, July 05, 2004

Upcoming Oracle Conferences and Events July 2004 - December 2004

This post contains details of various Oracle Applications Conferences and Events taking place in the next 6 months.

Oracle OpenWorld

I spoke at Appsworld both this year and last year and have to say that as a speaker it’s one of the best conferences to attend - they treat you really well (you have your own speaker lounge) and the numbers attending the presentations are high (+/-150, depending on the topic). Oracle has decided to merge AppsWorld (which has more of a functional focus) and OracleWorld (which has previously had a rather technical orientation) in to an event called Oracle OpenWorld. This means that Oracle OpenWorld should be the ideal IT conference to attend for any prospective or existing Oracle users, be they technical or functional. If you don’t manage to attend the events in person you can always visit OpenWorld Online to take a look at keynotes, sessions, photo galleries and online demos. Details of the individual events are as follows: -

Melbourne 7th - 9th July 2004, Melbourne Convention Centre

According to Oracle: -

“Oracle OpenWorld, Melbourne 2004, is Australasia’s premier conference and exhibition for business decision-makers, IT management, line of business managers and Oracle users. Designed for Oracle customers and partners, and for all leading organisations in Australia and New Zealand with enterprise information management needs”.

Shanghai 19th - 22nd July 2004, Shanghai International Convention Centre

According to Oracle: -

“Oracle OpenWorld is the premier Oracle conference and exhibition for business decision-makers, IT management, and line of business managers and users. OpenWorld is a unique program that allows you to gain insights from Oracle management, product development, Oracle customers, and industry experts all during one week this July in Shanghai, China”.

Seoul 1st - 2nd September 2004, Coex Convention Centre

London 6th - 8th September 2004, Excel Conference Centre

The site states: -

“Join us this September as Oracle launches the Oracle OpenWorld European conference series in London, England. The Oracle OpenWorld conference and exhibitions are designed for both business and IT professionals and will provide you with key information and strategies to help you improve processes and manage your most critical information assets”.

Amsterdam 22nd - 24th September 2004, Amsterdam RAI

Milan 28th - 30th September 2004, Fiera Milano Congressi

Munich 5th - 7th October 2004, ICM - Internationales Congress Centre Munchen

Sao Paolo 26th - 28th October 2004, Transamerica Expo Centre

Mumbai 1st - 3rd November 2004, The Hilton Towers

San Fransisco 5th - 9th December 2004, Moscone Centre

According to the site: -

“OracleWorld, the world’s largest conference and exhibition dedicated to Oracle technology and Oracle AppsWorld, the world’s largest conference dedicated to Oracle E-Business Suite applications are joining together in San Francisco this December to create a new conference called Oracle OpenWorld.

By joining the two conferences Oracle will be able to present the complete Oracle story - Oracle’s Information Architecture. Oracle Information Architecture provides secure access to your most critical information assets and allows for you to know more about your customers so you can make the right business decisions at the right time”.

Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG)

Connection Point 2004 - The point of contact September 12 - 15, 2004 Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel Orlando, Florida, USA

According to the site: -

“OAUG Connection Point 2004 — The Point of Contact will provide you with an unparalleled educational and networking environment and will be attended by users of Oracle applications who are seeking to maximize their knowledge, experience and understanding of the applications that they use to run their businesses.

OAUG Connection Point 2004 will feature multiple tracks and more than 200 sessions that will provide the latest information on how to:

• Increase your quality of service.
• Strengthen your architecture for maximum performance.
• Minimize IT cost”.

You can also “Optimize your Oracle Applications with OAUG eLearning - efficient, effective education in an onsite environment.”

I spoke at Connection Point 2003 and have to say that this was certainly one of the best Oracle Conferences I’ve been to. From a user perspective there are a vast number of presentations and training sessions to attend. From a speaker perspective it’s nice to have a large audience to speak to - had 250 people at my training session.

United Kingdom Oracle User Group (UKOUG)

Birmingham 1st - 3rd November 2004, International Convention Centre (ICC)

The theme of the conference this year is this year is “Striking the right note with Oracle”. According to their site: -

“This year UKOUG 2004 will be having a musical theme. A harmonious group is really only the sum of its constituent parts. The ability of the players and the instruments they use, along with the coordination of a conductor combine to make a product that others desire. A company cannot survive without the knowledge and skills of it’s staff, who come together to create a greater understanding Oracle”.

I spoke at this conference in 2002. It’s a really good conference to attend but the orientation of the conference is more technical than functional - they have 1 day functional and 2 day technical. Hopefully as E-Business Suite gains momentum there will be more functional content.

South African Oracle User Group (SAOUG)

Sun City 17th - 19th October 2004

The theme of the conference this year is “Delivering to the CIO’s agenda”.

I spoke at this conference in 2003, like the UKOUG it is very technically orientated. Living right next door to South Africa I’ve come to know the market there a bit and have to say that the conferences technical orientation is related to the market being that way. There’s not very much going on with Oracle Apps in South Africa - that is when compared to the database/technical side. Decided to give the conference a miss this year as I’m intending to move to the UK in September.

In Closing…..

As far as I know the call for papers is closed for all of these conferences. I submitted papers for Oracle Openworld London, Amsterdam and Milan as well as for Connection Point 2004 and the UKOUG in Birmingham. All my papers were rejected for Connection Point 2004 so I guess it wasn’t meant to be :-(

I would be interested in getting conference “evaluations” from any attendess or speakers so please make any useful comments or assessments on this post. In addition to this, if you happen to be attending any one of these conferences and would like to blog about your daily experiences at a conference then let me know.