The day after the night before
I’m
going to try to do this in sequential order with some description of
the many pictures. It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s just that I’m so tired
it’s not (actually it is) funny.
And with that…
Day 5, Wednesday, June 24 June
AppMan lives!
Proof
that a tight integration with Windows cannot be beat. I don’t think
given Oracle’s announcement of Essbase as a Service (Eaas) we’re going
to see a return to the Windows development world, but a man can hope.
Really, I miss this thing, and so do many others. My Ride or Die Girl, Kscope15 conference chairwoman, @EssbaseLady, also known as Natalie Delemar said, “What? I want that!” It’s like the Soviet samisdat only for software.
Women In Technology luncheon
Also
put together by Natalie as part of her commitment to ODTUG. (Question:
How does she get by with being a mother, an E&Y Senior Manager,
and ODTUG superstar all at the same time? Discuss.) it was a lot of fun
and I didn’t feel the least bit intimidated in being one of the few
men. I never quite understand why my fellow male geeks tread so
carefully around subjects like this. It wasn’t a hanging party for men,
it was a chance to discuss what it’s like for women to work and lead in
technology. The reason men were invited to this session was for both
to hear a woman’s perspective on work and life and to return the favor
with our thoughts. I think it was a smashing success.
Dudes, time to man up and come next year, it’ll add so much more to your machismo
(and we know of course no one can hear you over your present level of
awesomeness; imagine the heights you will achive next year through this meeting
alone), grow hair on your chest, and make you even more of a manly man with
massive rippling muscles. And yes, that
was a pretty awful attempt at humor, but my fellow X and Y chromosone humans
ought to sign up for this at Kscope16 . The world is composed of both men and women,
we both have perspectives to share, and I found it instructive; you would too.
Here’s Natalie in her element kicking the event off:
William Hodges presenting on Groovy
Fellow Developing Essbase Applications: Hybrid Techniques and Practices William
Hodges is on stage, Tim German is watching with rapt attention which is
more than I can say he did when I was copresenting with him, cf. my
last blog post. TimG, I kid, I kid; you were merely waiting for the
awfulness that was my part of the prsentation to finish.
The Wednesday night entertainment
The madness, the madness. It really was pretty good.
Waiting to greet Kscope attendees to the White Party
The madness begins with fellow board members Dave Schliess, Tim Tow, and Monty Latiolais.
Mia Urman, my Thought Leader and her husband
Mia
and I seemingly disagreed with just about everything (well, not
everything, but an awful lot of subjects) in her first year on the
board. I have seen the light and now (mostly) agree with her. I think I
just had to catch up to her Awesomeness. Really, she is pretty awesome
and is full of fantastic ideas.
Did I mention that she really knows how to party? Oh yes she does.
He lives, he lives, he really lives
Can you guess That Man? No, not the idiot on the right, the one on the left. He turns out to not be an army of autonomous robots. More’s the pity as now my OTN humiliation is complete.
The party is about to begin
OMG, it’s so cool.
Can geeks party? Oh yes they can
Wait, wait, who is that I see?
Amazingly, it’s my friend and fellow presenter, Tim German. Tim, we never thought we’d live to see the day.
Was there an after party? Yup
On the way to South Beach’s Mansion. We owned that club. Yes, we ODTUGers did just that. I’m not sure the club staff will ever get over it.
Opal Alapat dancing on top of a couch
Opal is like Spock’s human counterpart: so serious, so logical, so smart. If she could do the Vulcan neck pinch, I’d know she
did come from a planet with two suns. And then you get her dancing and
she loses all control. Awesome, but that preculdes her Vulcanness.
Somewhere on the Twitterverse there is a picture of yr. obt. svt. dancing on top of a table. Yes, really. And with only three drinks in me I’m not sure there’s any excuse.
Did someone order drinks?
Or a fire?
Are we not awesome?
It is just possible.
Jessica Cordova getting down
Does that term date me? Quite likely.
Update
-- I just had a text conversation with Jessica and the comment on my
part is completely incomprehensible to her. Unfortunately, this means
it isn't a joke at all so for those of you who did not have older
siblings in the 1970s, the definition is here and it means to dance. The inimitable James Brown said it best. 
Thursday, 25 June
Does
anyone look like they are a wee bit tired? Thursday was the first day I
could eat breakfast. No, not because of a Technicolor Yawn on yr. obt. svt.’s
part but because this was the first day I wasn’t 100% booked. I like
Mojo Bars best both for insanely-stupid levels of busyness as well as
hiking. Peanut protein and lots of sugar – what’s not to like?
I cannot exactly remember what I ate as I was a little tired having gone to bed at 3 am and up at 6:30.
Essbase Deep Dive
Here’s 2/3 of the room filling up. I guesstimate we had about 150 people.
And the distinguished panel
In
order from left to right: Steve Liebermensch, Gabby Rubin, and MMIC aka
Glenn Schwartzberg. These Thursday events are an unprecedented
opportunity to ask anything, I mean anything, of the product managers
that drive the tools we love.
They
didn’t make too much fun of me when I called this the
Eeeeeessssssbaaaassssseeee Deep Dive session. Lack of sleep/profound
stupidity made me do it. All sort of kidding aside, I had a pretty
difficult time speaking and definitely a large dollop of difficulty in
thinking coherent thoughts, let alone moderating the session.
The closing session
A full house; I believe that is the back of Joe Aultman’s head.
Natalie and ODTUG President and Monty Latiolais winding up the conference
Unfortunately this is the end of what is really the best conference I have ever been to, bar none.
Some thougts on Kscope15
Kscope
is the yearly highlight of my professinoal life as it is for many
others. I agonize over content from the selection process through my
own sessions; hopefully some of what I and many others do helps make
that happen for all of the attendees.
Kscope
has no counterpart in the Oracle world. The passion, the knowledge,
the people all make Kscope a unique event and one that I love.
ODTUG
is responsible in many ways for what I am today professionally and even
a large component of who I am as a person. The spirit of generosity in
sharing knowledge, the passion in our work, the people who I call
friends who I would never have met otherwise, the investment in and
giving back to the community that ODTUG fosters; all of it has
profoundly touched many others and me.
I’m really and for true getting misty eyed over writing the above.
Be seeing you.
