Oracle OpenWorld 2014 EPM/BI meetup

It’s coming

What is it?  It is nothing less than Oracle OpenWorld 2014.  OOW is an interesting kind of conference, especially compared to a very focused one like Kscope.

What oh what oh what is on the horizon?

OOW caters to all levels of participant, be he technical, functional, executive, or just (allegedly) there for the many parties.  There are sessions, lots and lots of sessions, in many, many, many buildings all over San Francisco.  There are meetings, at Oracle, in hotel conference rooms (if you haven’t already booked a place to sleep, good luck to you), in bars, wherever.  There are vendors in many, many, many exhibition halls (Ione half of Moscone, and that is just a fraction of the exhibition space at OOW,  is bigger than every single session room and the exhibitor expo at Kscope combined).  There are client events, many, many, many of them where consulting companies of every stripe wine and dine their clients or potential clients.  There are sales events, many, many, many of them by Oracle sales reps and executives.  And then there is the humongous blowout on Treasure Island Wednesday night.

While all of this activity is great, it is all a bit exhausting for the average geek.  And can lead to strange personality changes.  

Transformations, the bad kind

Do you want to look like this?  I have, or at least felt like it.

And sound like this?  

Transformations, the good kind

Or look like this?

Ol’ Blue Eyes had it right – nice ‘n’ easy does it every time.

I cannot promise a transformative event that will make you look like Frankie Sinatra, but I can suggest an OOW event that will at the least, relax.

Oracle Open World EPM/BI meetup

This is the (in)famous Tim and Cameron Essbase/EPM meetup rebranded for a new and expanded role:  EPM and BI.  Haven’t been?  For shame, it has been a lot of fun as documented here and here over the past two years.  I expect it will be the same again this year, but better.

Why better?

2014’s Most Excellent Tim and Cameron EPM/BI meetup will be better than years past simply because this meetup will now cater to both EPM and BI practitioners.  We’re practically the same on many levels except for a perfectly understandable love of Essbase on one side and a bizarre reliance on SQL on the other.  :)  I kid, I kid.

The important outcome from this audience expansion is that two separate Oracle communities are coming together as one.  Yes, that is exciting.  And besides, it isn’t as though the two product lines aren’t converging.  Now we can hang out together.  Let the cross-pollination begin!

Why is it special?

Speaking of Oracle, I hope (but of course cannot guarantee) that we will again attract Oracle product and development management employees.  Everyone (by that I mean non-Oracle attendees) has been very cool about not cornering them and whining (not that I could ever be accused of that) about whatever the latest pain point in an implementation might be and instead have used this event as a chance to socially meet the people that control our technological destinies.  There is a lot of geek talk, a lot of gossip, and a lot of fun, and all in an informal, relaxed, and low key way.  See, you can look like the Chairman Of The Board, too.   

The food is pretty good, too

There’s lots of good food in San Francisco, and the location of this meetup is at one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in that city.  For those of you who remember Specchio from years past, it has been renamed to Piattini, changed its menu, and in general been spruced up.  Gino Assaf is still in charge and based on the reviews here and here I expect the same good level of food.  Venetian + Northern Italian cuisine + a tapas menu = yum.

When is it, where is it, and how do you sign up?

Tim and I are holding the meetup on Tuesday, 30 September 2014, at 7 pm.  Closing time is whenever Gino can’t take any more of the geekiness and tosses us out the door.  Thinking back, that was pretty darn late but no one wanted to leave.

Piattini is located at 2331 Mission St. (between 19th St & 20th St), San Francisco, CA 94110.

If you haven’t figured out how to sign up via meetup.com you must be ignoring all of the links I’ve sprinkled through the text.  Just click on meetup.com's Oracle Open World EPM/BI meetup and off you go.

See you at the meetup!