There is more to BI/EPM conference life than Kscope. I know, hard to believe, but it’s true, I promise you. Don’t believe me? Read on, Gentle Reader, and all will be revealed.
Sometimes a chance remark makes things happen
Over on the Network54 Essbase page, there was a thread about regional user conferences in the days of Hyperion and how there really isn’t anything today to take their place. Never one to pass up stealing other people’s ideas miss an inspiring thought, I took this comment from the mysterious “RIM” to ODTUG, ODTUG did their usual hard work, and the result of their effort is this regional Chicago ramp-up to Kscope14.
The speakers below are all Kscope veterans – think of this as a preview to Kscope and all the more reason why you should be in Seattle as well.
When, where, what, and how to sign up
When
21 February 2014, 12:45 to 5 pm
Where
Oracle’s regional Chicago office, 233 South Wacker Drive, 45th floor, rooms 45014/45015/45016
What
- Shared Services API – Oracle ACE Celvin Kattookaran
- Exalytics Performance – Oracle ACE John Booth and Tim German
- BI Solutions with Oracle Analytics – Dave Collins
- Financial Close Management – Jim Springer
These are fantastic speakers and content and the cost is absolutely zero, zilch, nada, you get the idea – FREE. It is rather difficult to argue with that price.
How
If you are interested, and I cannot imagine how any Chicago area BI/EPM practitioner would not be, sign up here.
Thanks to all of the speakers for taking time to do this, ODTUG for organizing it, and of course Oracle for providing the meeting venue.
I wish, wish, wish I could be at the meeting but alas I cannot. It will be that good and it is a regional user conference not to be missed.
What’s Round on the Ends and High in the Middle?
Sorry, that joke has been bouncing around my head since I saw the film Third Finger, Left Hand and heard Melvyn Douglas sing that particular ditty. Lest you roll your eyes at yet another old movie reference, take a good look at Myrna Loy. Phwoar. It's also a pretty funny movie.
Why the reference to the Buckeye State? That’s where the Northeast Ohio Oracle Users Group (NEOOUG) is holding their annual Great Lakes Oracle Conference (GLOC). If you are an Oracle practitioner in the Midwest, this conference is right up your alley, as is the user group itself.
When, where, what, and how to sign up
When
The Great Lakes Oracle User Conference is 13 to 14 May, 2014. The pre-conference seminars (of which more anon) are 12 May.
Where
Student Center 3rd floor ballroom foyer at Cleveland State University
What
GLOC is not primarily a BI/EPM user conference. Yes, for Essbase hackers aka the Best and Brightest aka whoever reads this blog, it is sometimes difficult to realize how small a part of Oracle’s universe we are but it is The Awful Truth. Don’t view that as a bad thing, but instead see it as an opportunity to broaden your horizons. You may have noted that this blog actually covers a whole bunch of technologies, Essbase included. I do that not because I am sort of wonderful renaissance man, but because that is simply what it takes to succeed in IT. I expect you do the same.
With that broad technology interest in mind, take a look at what NEOOUG have on offer.
Keynote speakers
- Tom Kyte – Sharpening your Memory: A look at the Oracle in Memory Database
- Steven Feuerstein – Coding Therapy for Software Developers aka How Does This Code Make You Feel?
I saw Tom present at NZOUG 2013 and he was not half bad. :) All kidding aside, Tom is a bit legendary as is Steve. Both sessions will be beyond interesting.
Session Tracks
As I wrote, this conference (just like Kscope) is all things to all men, or at least tries very hard to speak to much of the world that defines Oracle:
- Application Development
- DBA
- Data Warehousing/BI (see, I lied, there is BI/EPM content here)
- System Architecture/Administration
That’s 30 sessions in total over two days and these look like really geeky sessions based on their titles. Click here to Read The Whole Thing.
Still accepting abstracts
Despite the above agenda, the deadline for abstracts is still open, and will be till 16 February 2014.
Workshops
So far, the workshops consist of:
- Oracle Performance Tuning 101 – Carlos Sierra and Mauro Pagano
- From Relational to Hadoop – Migrating Your Data Pipeline – Alex Gorbachev
- APEX Hands-On Crash Course – Scott Spendolini
Speaking of which…
GLOC’s workshops will also have (assuming of course that NEOOUG accepts my summary and abstract, so maybe yes, maybe no) a three hour Introduction to Essbase seminar given by yr. obdnt. srvnt. to be given on 12 May 2014.
You say that you don’t see the workshop on the link (at least at the time of the writing of this post)? That is because I have (ahem) yet to submit the summary and abstract. All I can plead is that I am a tad over committed. Sometimes I even get to sleep – really, if I could just remove that trifle of biological function, I’d be set from a do-all-the-cool-stuff-I-do-outside-of-work. Thomas Edison claimed that sleep was a waste of time. A man can dream. Or not.
Putting aside unrealistic dreams (ahem yet again), I did just suffer a two day power outage complete with downed power lines trapping me on my street. I viewed this as a gift as it allowed me time away from an awful lot of distractions (you know, like paying work) and I have now written, on paper (hey, no power = no typing it up) a seven page outline of what I want to cover. Ambitious? Yes, but I think it will be a killer intro to Essbase.
Here’s the summary
To relational people, Essbase is a strange creature. It’s not a relational database, but it’s owned by Oracle. Essbase can speak SQL, but you cannot run a SQL query against it. Financial users love it, IT departments are puzzled by it. What is Essbase and why should you care? This three hour seminar will give you a firm grounding on what Essbase is, how it works, and what it’s like to develop in Essbase.
I've got fingers crossed on the abstract getting accepted.
How
Signing up couldn’t be easier. Simply click right here and sign up. You’ll (hopefully) soon see my workshop there. I’ll be submitting the abstract just after this blog post goes up, I promise you.
Wrapping it up
The first regional Kickoff to Kscope user group meeting (may it be one of many that ODTUG will put on in future) is in Chicago and is focused on BI/EPM. If you are in the area, it is a do-not-miss event. It’s coming up soon, 21 February 2104, and you can sign up right here.
The second, rather larger, Great Lakes Oracle Conference is also chock full of awesomeness. Maybe it will even include me and my ever so slightly awkward love of all things Essbase. Don’t forget that it isn’t too late for you to submit your own abstract for a session and have the conference fee waived.
Be seeing you.
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