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Showing posts with label Long Beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Long Beach. Show all posts

11 August 2011

My take on the most awesome conference, anywhere, ever, ban none

Yeah, I liked it

The one or two regular readers of this blog who aren’t my direct relation may have wondered why I’ve not written about my quaint and curious experiences at that most excellent of all Oracle conferences, KScope11.

In fact I did write about it, quite a bit actually, on the flight back from Long Beach.  As I am not in the President’s or Admiral’s Club (Naval rank for an airline’s frequent travelers lounge is something I’ve never understood unless the plane has one of these Fly Navy signs on the side.  Were it labeled the Air Commodore’s Club it would at least be the right Service.  Such are the mysteries of marketing to a moderately-logical geek.) I was in steerage and didn’t even try to take out my laptop in the cramped confines of an airline seat.  Once home, I was just too darn tired to type in what I wrote out on foolscap, other blog posts came up, and although I intended to get around to writing it up for this blog, I just procrastinated.  Why try to dissemble?

But I was called to task by Mike Riley, Oracle ACE, President of ODTUG and all around nice guy when he asked for a paragraph from each member of the board re their impressions of KScope.  As per usual, once started I was a perpetual motion machine.  Without any further preamble, read it and weep at the ODTUG blog right here

24 May 2011

What the heck is the Q?

Introduction

Well, what is it?

It’s not the name of an avant garde Broadway show.  

It isn’t used for playing snooker.  Or pretending you’re Paul Newman.  Actually, I’ve hung around with a lot of Essbase people – we’re more built like Jackie Gleason.

But I digress, yet again.  The Q in question is at the top of the Essbase forum, pinned to very tippy-top.

So what is it, anyway?

What can be seen


That seems mysterious.   And intriguing.  What do you suppose it does?  Will I ever end with the leading questions?  Yes, indeed, and I just gave you a clue.  


It’s a little different over on the Planning and Budgeting board.
What!?!  Those no-good Planning guys get the whole question!  Hmmph, bunch of second raters, if you ask me.  The cool guys got the puzzle but it had to be spelled out for Planning people.  As is typical.

NB – I have been implementing Planning since 2002.  Or was it 2001?  See, I told you Planning consultants were slow.

Essbase guys are way cooler – we (Did I mention I’ve worked with Essbase since 1993?  Or was it 1994?) just get a single letter and have to fall back on our innate intelligence, good looks, and better breeding to figure this out.  

Alternatively, you could skip all of this drivel and just click on the “Q” link.  I did.

First a tirade of praise

It’s that great big company asking you for help again.  I’m apologizing in advance of my mini-rant to all of the fine people who used to work at Hyperion and now work for Oracle.  Okay, apology over, and so the frothing at the mouth can begin.  Can anyone remember Hyperion Solutions asking us, the users and implementers of their products, for help?  Ever?  Publicly?  

Nope, thought not.

It continues to amaze me that a company Oracle’s size gets it.  But they do, and this is further proof of it.  And no, I don’t work for them nor do I own any stock.  But I do make a living off of their products and their success is my success.  I want, no, I need Oracle to succeed.  If you’re reading this blog, the same is true for you as well.

So what did I find?


Oracle’s asking us for help.  How can we not answer?

Click on the link

And you will find a five minute survey on documentation.  Fill it out, won’t you?  This is one of those moments where your self-interest and Oracle’s coincide.  Unless you like bad documentation.

How to go beyond the survey

Some of you may be familiar with this little conference I have been talking about of late:

Did you know that Oracle Support will have a lounge at KScope?

And that Oracle will be presenting at the conference?

And that this is your opportunity to engage in conversation with Oracle management?  

Yessir, it’s all true.

So what on earth are you waiting for?  

Take the survey and then show up at KScope – for the Geeks Who Matter.

See you there.

18 March 2011

My name isn’t Chicken Little

Nor is it Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey, Ducky Lucky, Drakey Lakey, Turkey Lurkey, or Goosey Loosey and it definitely isn’t Foxy Loxy.  And no, overwork hasn’t landed me in the looney gooney bin yet.  But there is a metaphorical sky, and it’s falling right down on your head if you haven’t signed up for KScope 2011.

But you better hurry up

Why?  The Early Bird registration ends in just a few short days, at the end of the 25th of March, to be exact.  Miss that date and you are forgoing a lot of savings.

How much money can you save?  

Early Bird Registration Rates-Ends March 25, 2011:
ODTUG Full Member Rate: $1,400
Non-Member Rate: $1,550

Advanced Registration Rates-March 26-June 9, 2011:
ODTUG Full Member Rate: $1,700
Non-Member Rate: $1,850

Standard Registration Rates-After June 9, 2011:
ODTUG Full Member Rate: $1,950
Non-Member Rate: $2,100

Let’s review the math

If you sign up before 26 March, you save:  $550.00.

If you sign up before 10 June, you save:  $250.00.

If you sign up after 10 June, you save:  zip, zero, zilch.  Bummer, but you did procrastinate, didn’t you?

Quit your lollygagging

You know (oh, if you’ve been reading my blog at all, you know) that KScope 2011 is the best conference for Oracle EPM content ever, so I will not reiterate the symposiums, panels, presentations, social events, exhibitors, and entertainment that make KScope 2011 the ne plus ultra of “Hyperion” conferences.

And, since you know that, I don’t doubt for one moment that you already have that credit card/P.O./check/fistful of dollars/bag full of sovereigns ready to plunk down on the barrelhead and save, save, save.  Here’s the link for registration.  Git goin’!

I can’t wait to see you there, with pockets a-flush with all the money you saved.  :)

13 March 2011

Why you should be at KScope11

If you’ve read this blog at all, you’ve heard me blather on and on about how wonderful ODTUG Kaleidoscope is and why you should go.  Yes, I am not shy about my enthusiasm for the conference.

I’m not the only one who likes KScope11.  How about hearing what other people have to say about this most excellent of Oracle conferences?  ODTUG’s President and author of the ODTUG Blog, Mike Riley, has been interviewing some Oracle community luminaries (and an exception – no points if you can guess who the 5 watt bulb might be) about:
  • The thing they like most about KScope.
  • What presentations they are looking forward to the most.
  • Have they ever been to Long Beach, California.
  • What their best ODTUG Kscope moment has been.

Who are these august few?  People just like you, that’s who.

Who do I mean?

Check out the responses to Mike’s questions.  The passion for Kscope11 runs deep and swift.  If you were on the fence re coming to KScope 2011, I’ll bet a read of one or two of the above ought to push you over onto the side of signing up right now, before the 25 March 2011 deadline for the Early Bird Registration.  

I know I’ll see you there this year.  :)

18 February 2011

Not Groundhog Day, but ODTUG Month

Not Groundhog day, but ODTUG month

The hits keep coming from ODTUG.  And why not?  We are talking about the very best Oracle EPM conference, ever.  Yep, even better than last year’s and that was pretty darn good.

What do I mean?  

Take a look at the hands on training.  

There’s going to be some amazing content:
DayTimePresenterContent
Monday11 am to 1 pmAdam Bloom, OracleUsing Actions to Integrate Oracle BI EE with External Systems

1:15 pm to 3:30 pm123OlapEPM Architect against Planning

4:00 pm to 6:00 pmRon Moore, MTGEssbase Studio:  The Basics and Beyond
Tuesday8:30 am to 10:45 am123OlapHFM Consolidation Rules

1:45 pm to 5:30 pmJohn Booth, Emerging SolutionsInstalling the 11.1.2 Release Efficiently
Wednesday8:30 am to 10:45 amRatan Vakil, interRel ConsultingOBIEE on Essbase:  The Future of Ad-hoc Analysis

1:45 pm to 5:15 pmRittman MeadOracle BI 11g Answers and Dashboards Hands-on Labs
Thursday10:30 am to 12:45 pm123OlapAn Intro to ODI in the Hyperion Environment
That is a tremendous amount of training.  Think about it – how much would that cost you if you went to each one of those classes separately at a training partner or Oracle?  Big, big, big bucks is how much.  A lot more money than the member (you are a member of ODTUG, aren’t you) Early Bird price of $1,400.

Running, not crawling

Did you read the bit about your lab server (and oh by the way, you are going to get your very own for the duration of the lab)?  No more woefully underpowered laptops.  You are going to be in the Cloud.  I hope you’re all a fan of Amazon, because it’s going to be Full360’s EPM Amazon Machine Image (and yes, OBIEE and ODI 11g will be in that cloud image as well) running on a nice big, fat, juicy 15 gigabyte server (Amazon is a little weird with the memory sizes) with four CPUs.  Feel the power.

Bring your laptop and even your Macintosh

You’re going to connect using Microsoft Terminal Services, aka Remote Desktop Connection, a standard part of Windows.  Just make sure you have it by going to Start->Run and typing in mstsc.exe.  If you see this you are good to go:

Macs need a download

Having owned a Macintosh since the 128k Thin Mac of 1984, I am thrilled to announce that Macs can also play in the Windows cloud.  Just make sure that you download and install Remote Desktop Connection Client 1.0.3 for Mac.

So what are you waiting for?

The registration page is right here.  Labs fill up quickly, as I have found to my sorrow when I dawdle.  Don’t be like me – sign up now and get that great value that is ODTUG Kscope 11.

18 December 2010

ODTUG Kscope 2011 abstract schedule

The best is yet to come

The best being KScope 2011, of course.

What do I mean by that?  Of course the very best place to see super cool (really, just keep reading on) content is going to happen.  What’s the big deal?

The big deal is that after much thought, consideration, and debate, the very best Oracle EPM and BI presentations you have ever seen have been selected.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the official schedule here and see the invited speakers.  Jump to the bottom of this post to get a more detailed view of the presentations.  Yep, this is going to be a great conference.

The pain and the agony

The ODTUG Hyperion SIG puts a huge (let me tell you, three hour Saturday afternoon conference calls are not fun, but for you, oh KScope 2011 attendee, we do it with a song in our heart) amount of effort into the abstract selection process.  We’re passionate, even obsessive, about quality, and I think you’ll agree that the sessions reflect that concern about the best of the best.

Each and every submitted abstract was individually reviewed and assigned a numerical rating by the content selection team.  We then met in multiple conference calls by track culminating in several overall Hyperion SIG meetings to evaluate every single one of those presentations (there were over 200 on the EPM side of it) and determine if it was in or out.

Many good abstracts were rejected because the level of competition was so high.  This may sadden or frustrate some who were rejected and I’m sorry that everyone who wanted to share knowledge didn’t have a chance to do so this year.  It’s commendable behavior and I hope you try again next time.  There are other opportunities other than the conference such as ODTUG Webinars.  Please contact us and see where you can contribute.

If everyone could agree that Kaleidoscope should be a two week long geek fest, then all of the deserving presentations could occur.  Sadly (?) I’m probably the only nut that would or could do it (realistically, two weeks away from work with hotel, travel, and lost income wouldn’t even work for me, but it’s a nice thought) so it isn’t really on but is humbling to realize that many people submitted quality abstracts.  Kaleidoscope is the place for quality, and the EPM and BI world knows it.

Not the square peg in the round hole

Oracle’s BI and EPM offerings are large and diverse, to put it mildly.

KScope 2011’s BI/EPM content chairwoman (and my good buddy), Natalie Delemar, had an inspired idea – instead of trying to be all things to all men by being the judge, jury, and executioner for presentations (I put that sentence into my patented Metaphor-O-Matic and out it came, unencumbered by the thought process), she instead reached out the Oracle BI and EPM community and got the experts in their respective areas to solicit and review abstracts before the Hyperion SIG, overall content chairman Monty Latiolais, and conference supremo Edward Roske put their final imprimatur on the schedule.  See, ODTUG is just full of good ideas.  And long sentences.

Below is that august group of geeks, by content review area.

BI


EPM


Hyperion SIG (and a few friends)
Joe Aultman

We owe them all a lot – many, many hours were spent on this, especially by Natalie who spent untold hours making the schedule work – 3 am emails asking my opinion on a abstract scare me, especially when we’re in the same time zone.  They did a tremendous service to us all by soliciting, reviewing, and selecting the best of the best.

How do you want to slice the pie?

There are four ways to view this conference:  track, not for just beginners, physical room, and business end users. 

The tracks are broken into:  case studies and panels, HFM, Essbase, Planning, Keeping It All Running, Reporting, OBIEE/DW, and of course Hands On Labs.

There’s also a beginner view – yes, Kaleidoscope isn’t going to leave those of us (like me, sometimes) starting out in a technology. 

Or you can view it by room, if you are of a sedentary nature.

And lastly, there’s even a map for business end users in case this all gets too geeky for you. 

If you want to just download the whole thing to geek out over during your free time, click here.

Whoever you are, whatever your interests, wherever your technical level lies, there’s a place for you at KScope 2011.

And the result is…

One awesome conference and in my opinion, the very best Kaleidoscope, and hence the very best “Hyperion” conference ever.  It’s that good.  Book those tickets, reserve that room, purchase that conference registrationYou won’t regret it.  See you in Long Beach.