Kscope16 in snaps, part 2

Trying to do this in a different fashion, part 2 of I don’t know

This is Monday, 27th June, aka Day 2 of the conference.  The madness was just beginning…

The photographers will snap us, and you'll find that you're in the rotogravure

PBCS session filling up

My woefully deluded because he presents with me wonderful co-presenter Jason Jones’ view from our PBCS session dais

1st slide

Carnival time with Gary Adashek, Jessica Cordova, and Chris Rothermel

I’ve gone to community night events since Kaleidoscope 2008 and this was by far the best ever right down to the unbelievably expensive but actually quite tasty popcorn.  The scavenger hunt was a brilliant idea (it surely wasn’t mine) that acted as an effective ice breaker.  Many thanks to subject experts Chris Barbieri (financial close), Gary Crisci (business content), Steve Davis (infrastructure), Al Marciante (reporting), and Glenn Schwartzberg (Essbase) who graciously quizzed attendees.  

The prize was this:  

Pretty cool, eh?

The success of the night was of course yours, Gentle Kscope16 Attendee, but the vision and hard operational work was a team effort that wouldn’t have happened without:

• Jill Colsh from ODTUG’s management company Your Conference Connection (YCC)
• EPM community volunteers Jennifer Anderson, Janice D'Aloia, Jessica Cordova (shanghaied into this at the last minute), Chris Rothermel, and the EPM community leader Gary Adashek
• Greg Beaton, Alex Leung, and Valantus Philip (as well as a few others whose names flew by me at 160 kph, sorry but I least I metricated the speed) from The Goal Getters

Sometimes a group of disparate people come together for a project and it’s magic.  This was one of those times and I was privileged to be on the sidelines cheering our volunteers on.

My time with ODTUG is coming rapidly to a close.  Jennifer, Janice, Jessica, Chris, and Gary are the future.  Mark their names for one day they will be our board of directors.

The crowd, very early, and honestly there were over 100 there

Oh my goodness

No one gets credit (or blame) for this but me.  Perhaps it’s my Easter Bonnet?  Perhaps the >100 community night attendees went to my head?  Perhaps both?  Who can tell.

OMG #2

OMG #3, with Jennifer Anderson, Natalie Delemar, Gabby Rubin, and Richard Philipson

I’m not totally sure what the theme is wrt the lit up headpiece, only that it exists and that’s enough for me.

Not even halfway there

I’ve brought you so far through Monday night.  It got late.  It’ll get later.  My sleep patterns will become more erratic.  Fun, I think.

Be seeing you.

Kscope16 in snaps, part 1

Trying to do this in a different fashion, part 1 of I don’t know

I promised, and failed, to update my live blogging of Kscope16 but it’s not hard to see that didn’t happen.  Sorry.  Having said that, if you follow me on Twitter on @CameronLackpour you will have had a geekseye view of just the most amazing conference.  It’s not that I don’t love blogging, because I do, but I’ve moved towards Twitter because it’s so immediate and thus gives you, Best & Brightest, a chance to almost be there.  I’ve taken picture after picture and even livestreamed via Periscope. I am like a Tweener with a social media addiction.  Except I’m older.

With that in mind, and because I am soooo tired, I’m going to try to tell my story via snapshots.  I hope you’re on a fast connection because there a many, many, many pictures.  As I wrote above, a social media junkie.

As noted in the title, I’m not going to know just now how many posts this is going to take.  I have a lot of pictures.

NB -- Some, but only some, of these pictures are repeats from my previous posts.  As I wrote, I'm trying to give you a comprehensive feel for the conference.  I've also stolen conference pictures off of Twitter.  I'll do my very best to give attribution.

If one picture is worth a thousand words, then this post is valued at 10,000

Boarding at beautiful PHL

  

A room with a view

Tim German rehearsing our EssCS presentation on Saturday, o’dark 30

My partner Jessica Cordova at the Kscope16 volunteer day breakfast

Jennifer Anderson and Opal Alapat laughing at Yet Another Dan Pressman Joke

Moderately Completely insane fellow volunteer gardeners

Tim German and Opal Alapat kicking off the Sunday Symposium

My heart rate at the beginning of the conference

It’s already started its uptick and will get far, far, far worse.  Stress or fun?  When I get enough sleep and am not too tightly wound up (65 heart rate = major project deliverable) my resting rate is around 60.  See, working out is good for you.  Kscope on the other hand...

Jason Jones rehearsing our PBCS presentation Saturday afternoon

Sunday night Chicago meetup

The end for now

I’ve taken you through Sunday night.  Are you tired yet?  I was.

Kscope16, day 1

Yes, it’s another Kscope, another round of incredibly busy madness, and another round of learning and fun.  I’ve bored many (all?) of you with my love and advocacy of this great organization and what it’s done for me and so many others.  

I’m going to try to again make the case with up to date, almost live, posts on Kscope16, assuming of course that my laptop batter makes it.  Failing that, it may be an update on a nightly basis.  We’ll see.

If you don’t follow me on Twitter, now would be a good time to do so on @CameronLackpour as I’m going to be actively Tweeting as well as using Periscope to live stream events.  If you have a Twitter account, you’ll see these videos go out as Tweets – I believe you can view the video for 24 hours.  If you have an account (100% free), you’ll be able to watch it all in perpetuity or whatever passes for such in social media.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

To give you a flavor of Kscope, yesterday was the volunteer day.  We helped with some cleanup and beautification at Cornerstone Community Outreach, a really fantastic place that tries so very hard to help the less fortunate.  It was humbling to see the need of their homeless clients and the incredible dedication of the staff to help them.  Making a difference, however small, by a bunch of people who have been extraordinarily fortunate, is what this day is all about.  

I wouldn’t miss the chance to do this for the world.

Volunteers were given the chance to self-select their area of work.  Yr. Obt. Svt. chose gardening, not because I hate plants and wanted to give my black thumb a chance to kill plants with neglect and ineptitude but because I knew the rest of this conference will almost certainly be indoors.

To give you an idea of what we did, have a look at the below.

Here are my copresenters Tim German and Jason Jones commiserating over the fact that I’ve suckered convinced them into working with me.  I believe Tim’s laughing because to not to do so would be to cry.  I rehearsed with both of them last night.  You see gallows humor at play.

On a happier note, here we are beginning to weed, plant, and water.

And lastly, here’s an example of the derring-do that Kscope volunteers evince:

Standing on a gas main to help weed Morning Glories.  Dedication or madness?  Probably the latter but in a good way.

Brekkers

There’s Natalie Delemar, Dan Pressman, and Celvin Kattookaran breaking bread.  It was pretty good grub.

EPM Sunday Symposium

This, alas, is the part of the conference that I can’t show much or share.  I can show the kickoff.   Want to see this stuff for real and for true, come to Kscope17.

The room – it was pretty croweded.

Tim German and Opal Alapat kicking off the Symposium.

Speaker reception

ODTUG telling us not to forget to prep for our sessions.

Chicago area meetup

We held a meetup in my suite (it’s my last year as an ODTUG board member and I thought it would be a good to use my space to host a meetup) for local Chicago Kscope16 and attendees.  It was quite the party.  I think I’ve almost recovered.

At its peak, we had 35+ people in the room.  Security only came once to tell us we had noise complaints.  EPM geeks party, but not too hard.

That’s all for now

For Day 1, I’m done.  

As I said, keep checking back.  I’ll tweet out today’s conference.

Be seeing you.

Kscope15 day 1 & 2 as it happens

An important note about tonight if you are from South Florida

If you’re from South Florida, they are having a meetup in my suite tonight from 8:00 pm till ???.

For details, see Jessica Cordova’s booth at the Welcome Reception – ARC EPM – for a flyer providing the room number and all details.  You can also contact Jessica on @JCordovaEPM.

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Late again

I know, I know, I said that I would do this live, and here I am a day tardy.  I will try harder today.

Volunteer day

Saturday is always Kscope’s volunteer day.  This year was actually focused on technology so the typical unskilled-labor-is-best-for-Cameron-as-he-is-hopeless event didn’t happen.  

Brekkers

Here’s the kickoff to the day.  Yes, ODTUG feeds you, just the first of the very best extant Oracle conference.

Dear Leader

Monty is hard to miss:  the cowboy hat, the cowboy boots, the Texas accent, the larger than life personality, and did I mention he’s a really great ODTUG president?  This is the kickoff where the geeks get their direction.

And the geeks breaking off to their STEM stations.

Riding that bike

I was the part of the team that used muscle power to generate electricity and then to the really important thing – smoothies.  Yes, they taste better when you make the blender spin.  It’s also good to be at least moderately fit.  I wish I had my heart monitor on.

Here’s my good buddy Joe Aultman about to take up the mantle of a riding a bike that might not be totally suited to his height.

Presentations

Yes, yr. obt. svt. is presenting with Tim German aka @CubeCoderDotCom.   Here we are rehearsing, with @henry_robin providing a critique.

And that’s it for Saturday

OMG, I am already exhausted.  We’ll see if I can manage to get a wee bit of sleep before the rest of the week wipes me out.

Today, 21 June

The Sunday Symposiums are one of the greatest parts of Kscope.  Oracle Product Management part the curtains and talk about the product roadmaps.  This session is safe harbored and we are not allowed to blog or tweet about the session so you will see some people pictures but no product details.  More’s the pity if you aren’t here.

The EPM content Big Wig

Here’s Opal Alapat, aka @opal_EPM about to kick off the sessions that I am not allowed to talk about.  Did I mention that you should be here?  To those of you who have twigged onto the value of the Sunday Symposiums, huzzah.  For those of you have not…tsk, tsk, tsk.

That’s all for now

What I can write about, I will, but as noted my hands are somewhat tied.

Be seeing you.

Kscope13, day -1

Introduction

For the last two years at Kscope I have live-blogged during the conference; Kscope13 will be no different.  This is both a fun and difficult task/duty.  Sometimes I am really, really, really busy and cannot blog during the day – I will do my best, but no promises.  And with that slightly deflating disclaimer, off we go.

Where oh where am I?

Why on the 31st floor of the Sheraton New Orleans.  Yes, that’s the Mississippi.  The view is pretty spectacular at night.

Volunteer day kickoff

The EPM (Essbase only, actually) started its relationship with ODTUG at Kaleidoscope 2008.  2008 was also the first volunteer event at the then Kaleidoscope and was in fact in a school.  We were back at a school, this time the Charles Easton Charter High School, in the Mid City/Bayou St. John districts of New Orleans.  

We did the usual back breaking (but welcome) work:  moving, painting, sanding, cleaning, etc.  Here we are in the cafeteria about to split up to our respective tasks.

Like a fool (I think I mentioned this in my last post), and yes, with me that is redundancy, I “knew” that indoors was hot, and outdoors was…less hot.  Hmm, I did not count on the working airconditioning but as I ignored my way out of the work I should have done and instead went to the outdoors work, you can guess it was hot, really hot.  And what did I do?  Sanded wood to make it available for picnic tables and benches.  Here’s William Booth hard at work.  Hot work, indeed.

Here’s a view of the painting.  We were busy, busy, busy.

You can see the lumber pile to the right – it’s just a fraction of what we sanded by hand.  

There was a bit of a spanner thrown into the works because of a rainstorm that happened in the middle of the outdoors work but we simply covered up and jumped back outside the moment the rain stopped.

The payoff and a warning

The school was really very nice about thanking we ODTUGers (not the official name but one I like) for the hard work we did.  It really is a pleasure and one of the things that differentiates Kscope from every other conference.

Back at the hotel, as I made my way up to my room, wet, smelly, and utterly wringed out, two women asked, “What’s an Od-Tug”.  I explained that we are an Oracle software conference (I passed by the whole the user conference marketing moment although perhaps I shouldn’t have) and that we always kick off with a volunteer day.  They were pretty surprised and said that it was really awesome we gave back to whatever town hosts our conference.  

It is really awesome and as I wrote, it makes Kscope unlike any other conference.

And now the warning

Hey, when the NOPD tells you not to bring a gun onto school property, they really mean it.  Hey, it’s only up to five years of hard labor in a chain gang; think how well you’ll be able to hone your Cool Hand Luke impersonation.  Happily I was only armed with my rapier wit.

There’s still the Welcome Reception to come later tonight.  

I hope to be seeing you all at Kscope13.