Last week we had out OUG Ireland annual conference. Traditionally it has been a 1 day conference and in the past few years we have had an extra day where we had the likes of Tom Kyte (we miss you), Maria Colgan, etc give a full day seminar.
But over the past few years a few of the committee have been constantly asked about when we would have a second day of presentations (just like we have for the one day event).
After lots of discussions and looking at budgets and relooking at budgets, then looking at possible alternative venues we worked out a way to have a 2 day conference.
So last week we had our new 2 day conference in the Gresham hotel in the centre of Dublin. Check out the agenda here.
The day before the conference (on the Wednesday) I had arranged for a speakers drinks meet-up. There was lots of people travelling in from all across Europe to present, so this was a good way to get everyone together over a few beers. We met in a micro brewery in Dublin. It was a fun evening with people coming and going throughout the evening and some people stayed for the entire evening. (Oh my poor credit card!)
On Thursday we all got together with all the 275+ attendees at in the Gresham Hotel.
We had 4 tracks that covered DBA, Developer, Business Analytics and Apps. The rooms were just the right size for these tracks, with most of the rooms being full for each of the presentations. With some presentations there was people standing around the sides and down the back. All of this helped to add to the atmosphere. The exhibitors were only there for the first day. This is something we need to look at for next year to get them to attend the 2 days.
On the Wednesday evening we had an Oracle ACE Dinner that was sponsored by OTN (THANK YOU) and they also provided the ACEs with conference ribbons. Also thank you to the OTN ACE programme for providing some travel support to the various ACE Directors.
On the second day (Friday) we kind of got of a slow start for the first sessions of the day, but this must have been due to the snow we had in Dublin that morning. But from the second sessions onwards we were back to packed rooms. Because of this great turn out on the second day, helps us justify having a 2 day conference next years.
I got a chance to talk to lots and lots of people over the course of the 2 days and every single person was talking about the conference being 2 days and Please doing this next year and the year after and the year after, etc.
One of the highlights from the end of the second day was the Q&A panel discussion on the Oracle Optimiser. On this panel we had Jonathan Lewis, Joze Senegacnik and Martin Widlake. I managed to rope in a friend Alan Kelly to be the quiz master for the session. The Q&A Panel session was scheduled for 45minutes. But despite the best efforts to encourage the attendees to finished up, they kept on asking questions and the panel kept on answering. This session ran for an additional 45 minutes. Yes that was a 90 minute session.
All in all the 2 day OUG Conference was a roaring success and I would like to thank all the speakers, the attendees and the various sponsors for making this event happen.
Check out Debra's blog post about the conference.
Check out Martin Widlake's blog post about the conference.
Oh and there was a Yeast and Sourdough Bread Making symposium during OUG Ireland where a number of the peoples got to talk about and share their experiences on making bread.
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