I am a blessed person who is fortunate enough to be constantly humbled by those around me.
I chose to use the Oracle OpenWorld hashtag as my title of this blog because it sums up this past week. I went to my very first OOW this week and thought I knew what I was getting into, but I was wrong. This. Is. HUGE. I arrived on Friday as I LOVE San Francisco. I figured I would get there early and enjoy the city and the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building on Saturday morning. Not only did I do that, but I was blessed with beautiful weather that morning, so I ran along Fisherman’s Wharf and the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building, got my goods for the week then ran back…a beautiful 5 miles.
Sunday started the actual OOW festivities. Jeff Smith and the SQL Developer team from Oracle hosted a Golden Gate Bridge Run (5k) that ran south to north across the bridge and back again. Because it was a beautiful morning and I’m a runner, I decided to run from my hotel to the run (4 miles) then do the run. I have run this route on the San Francisco Marathon before and believed the first 4 miles to be flat. However, I forgot about the 4th mile of hills that nearly did me in given I have been running flat races recently. I needed the kick in the rear…but I was smiling from ear to ear. I love running. I love SF. I love running in SF even more! After that, it was off to the races at OOW.
I will not go into the day to day sessions of OOW because I feel Cameron Lackpour did a more than fine job. No need for him to show me up on this…I will let you read his fantastic summaries.
On Monday, some big news in my world was publicly announced – I will be joining interRel Consulting this coming Monday (Oct 6th). You can read their press release here. To say that I felt honored by this release is an understatement. I feel I am soon to be surrounded by people that I professionally respect and can learn so much from regarding EPM and BI. Hopefully I can reciprocate my knowledge with soon-to-be coworkers. I even learned something about myself in that release! I did not realize that I was the first female Oracle ACE Associate. How about that!
The evenings seemed to be centered around one theme – and I blogged about it last week. Support. Each night I spent networking and connecting with people from user groups around the world, including the ones I belong to. To say that these relationships are invaluable is an understatement. Being able to meet up with people I communicate with regularly from around the world in person is a true joy. Many (most!) of the people I communicate with on Twitter are from the more traditional side of the Oracle house (non-EPM/BI people) and we truly enjoy each other’s company for the pure Oracle geekiness that we all have. I would not have these relationships had it not been for user groups. I have said it before and I will say it again – if you are not part of a user group, get in one now. It would be impossible for me to tell you the impact they have had on my career and life. I have met people that truly want to help others selflessly. I have also had opportunities that 2 years ago seemed unattainable. Get involved!
I also have a desire to write at least 1, if not 2 or 3 books. Because of OOW, I see the path to making my dream come true. It’s going to be hard work, but I see the path now that just last week was not illuminated. I also had the opportunity to speak with some people from Oracle Magazine about some opportunities for EPM/BI and really hope this comes to fruition. What a fantastic edition we could produce! No details now…but hopefully I will have something soon!
All in all, OOW was bigger than I expected but so many good business contacts came from it and virtual friends became real friends. I had a blast and thanks to the Oracle ACE program, I was able to go. This is also where I need to thank Pythian for the awesome Beats headphones that I won at their Blogger’s Meetup. GREAT tool to get blogger geeks to meet each other! I had a blast and congratulate you on a job well done.
Would love to hear other’s comments regarding #OOW14!!
RealTriGeek 