COLLABORATE 10 - IOUG Forum Wins Big in Vegas
"This was my first COLLABORATE conference and certainly won't be my last," said Kirk Robinson, co-CEO, Thoughtcorp, "...I found it to be well organized, intimate and comprehensive in its training choices. It also presented a robust environment for peer networking.
Returning to Las Vegas for the first time since 2007, COLLABORATE 10 - IOUG Forum was a blend of the past, present and future.
Attendees benefited from the same valuable, user-driven content that people have come to expect from a COLLABORATE conference, while taking advantage of new offerings like IOUG Bootcamps, which provided intense training on a particular subject, including security, virtualization and RAC, for one or two full-days of the conference. Additional new offerings like Get Analytical with BIWA Training Days, brain-powered by the IOUG BIWA SIG, allowed attendees to experience a "conference within a conference" on warehousing, analytics and OBIEE.
IOUG also welcomed a new group of community members to the conference as part of the Sun acquisition; the MySQL sessions offered as part of COLLABORATE 10 were a great opportunity for Oracle database users, MySQL community members and technologists running heterogeneous environments, to begin what should be a great partnership for best practices-sharing.
"[COLLABORATE] was by far, the single most important investment I made in Oracle technology this year, and it was great that the IOUG was able to include sessions that focused on the newly acquired Sun technologies," said John Matelski, CIO, Gwinnett County Government. "My attendance is already paying dividends with new tools, new colleagues and new ideas for growing and sustaining our Oracle ecosystem."
In addition to the customer presentations at COLLABORATE 10, Oracle executive keynotes provided a glimpse of what is in store for community members, including how the acquisition of Sun will impact the technology stack. With Oracle President Charles Phillips joining via satellite, and Vice President Thomas Kurian speaking in person, the Monday Opening General Session was full of exciting announcements: Sun Sparc Solaris as the flagship OS, OEM integration coming soon and the use of GoldenGate to integrate OLTP reporting.
Of course, one of the major benefits to an event like COLLABORATE is the networking opportunities, and IOUG Forum attendees had plenty of them. Whether it was meeting new people at the IOUG Welcome Event charity project ‘PaintFest,' discussing business challenges with solution providers, hardware and software vendors or IOUG Alliance Members in the Exhibitor Showcase or one-on-one networking with peers, there was always someone to learn from at COLLABORATE.
"Not only are the technical sessions, panels and hands-on labs crammed full of practical technical material, but the opportunity to network with other IT professionals is invaluable," said Maria Anderson, Database Lead, Encana. "The content at COLLABORATE is presented by users of the technology, so attendees learn by participating in the sessions and speaking one-on-one with presenters, as well as product managers, at a variety of events. At a time when training allowances are closely guarded, COLLABORATE definitely adds value by providing more diverse and meaningful learning opportunities than standard classroom-type education."
Our Twitter fanatics also used the #c10 hashtag to provide conference updates and to set up meetings with friends; in fact; there were so many people tweeting that the feed limits were exceeded!
While Twitter provided a great opportunity for those who couldn't attend in-person to follow the onsite events, IOUG also provided virtual education for the second year in a row through "Plug-in to Vegas." Whether people were stranded by the Icelandic volcano eruption or just restricted by a slim travel budget, virtual attendees still got to take advantage of more than 40 hours of the best COLLABORATE educational sessions.
COLLABORATE 10 - IOUG Forum continued the great tradition of success from previous COLLABORATE conferences, and took the next step forward with some great additions to the educational and networking opportunities provided. Just imagine what will be new in 2011!