Oracle OpenWorld, October 23
As I mentioned previously, I probably won't be blogging a ton of profound observations from Oracle OpenWorld - primarily because I'm only here for 1 1/2 days. But I'll drop a few things here and there.
I was scheduled to arrive in San Francisco (from Ontario) before 11:00 Monday morning. However, it turned out that I was just *taking off* from Ontario at that time. We were held on the ground for more than an hour because of "air traffic" conditions (presumably fog) at SFO.
Finally got here a little after noon, BARTed in, and headed toward registration at Moscone West. Last week, I got an email from the folks at MegaCorp warning all of us MegaCorpians to get to registration really really early, because it could take an hour to register, bla bla bla. Turns out that I was registered within five minutes, which gave me time to check into my hotel. (Since I was running late, I didn't know if I'd have time to do this.)
Aside - I had stayed in this same hotel in 1999, when a co-worker and myself came to San Francisco for a training session. Because of a booking mixup, they did not have non-smoking rooms for us. We were finally able to obtain one non-smoking room, which I gave to my co-worker - I took one of the rooms that they spray to make wonderful, and it actually turned out OK.
On this trip, I am happy to say that I got a non-smoking room.
Back to Oracle OpenWorld. I spent the late afternoon in several meetings that I'm not going to tell YOU about, and then attended an evening "thank you" event. I figured that this would just be a small wingding with 20-30 people or so - I was wrong. We took over the entire Gordon Biersch on the Embarcadero for the evening. I ended up sitting with a couple of other customers, and we had a good time and enjoyed good food. (Oracle is profitable, and it shows.)
The task of the Oracle folks at this event was to make sure that the customers got face time with the bigwigs at the event, and the other customers and I spent some time talking to Jeff Henley, Chairman and former CFO of Oracle. (For the record, Larry Ellison is Oracle's CEO.) I'm more knowledgeable on the technology end of the business than the other portions, so I wasn't really involved with the conversation, which focused on Oracle's recent acquisitions over the last few years. I enjoyed his insights, however. And it wasn't all business - we also talked about the Grateful Dead (this is California, after all), the Stones, and various other musical topics.
Speaking of music, I will not be attending the Cow Palace event tonight with Elton John, Joan Jett, Devo, et al. By the time Devo dons their energy domes (I still call them flowerpots), I should be on the way to Ontario - unless, of course, my flight is delayed again. I'll attend one session this morning, then more meetings, and possibly other stuff. If you're at Oracle OpenWorld, I hope that things are going well for you.
I was scheduled to arrive in San Francisco (from Ontario) before 11:00 Monday morning. However, it turned out that I was just *taking off* from Ontario at that time. We were held on the ground for more than an hour because of "air traffic" conditions (presumably fog) at SFO.
Finally got here a little after noon, BARTed in, and headed toward registration at Moscone West. Last week, I got an email from the folks at MegaCorp warning all of us MegaCorpians to get to registration really really early, because it could take an hour to register, bla bla bla. Turns out that I was registered within five minutes, which gave me time to check into my hotel. (Since I was running late, I didn't know if I'd have time to do this.)
Aside - I had stayed in this same hotel in 1999, when a co-worker and myself came to San Francisco for a training session. Because of a booking mixup, they did not have non-smoking rooms for us. We were finally able to obtain one non-smoking room, which I gave to my co-worker - I took one of the rooms that they spray to make wonderful, and it actually turned out OK.
On this trip, I am happy to say that I got a non-smoking room.
Back to Oracle OpenWorld. I spent the late afternoon in several meetings that I'm not going to tell YOU about, and then attended an evening "thank you" event. I figured that this would just be a small wingding with 20-30 people or so - I was wrong. We took over the entire Gordon Biersch on the Embarcadero for the evening. I ended up sitting with a couple of other customers, and we had a good time and enjoyed good food. (Oracle is profitable, and it shows.)
The task of the Oracle folks at this event was to make sure that the customers got face time with the bigwigs at the event, and the other customers and I spent some time talking to Jeff Henley, Chairman and former CFO of Oracle. (For the record, Larry Ellison is Oracle's CEO.) I'm more knowledgeable on the technology end of the business than the other portions, so I wasn't really involved with the conversation, which focused on Oracle's recent acquisitions over the last few years. I enjoyed his insights, however. And it wasn't all business - we also talked about the Grateful Dead (this is California, after all), the Stones, and various other musical topics.
Speaking of music, I will not be attending the Cow Palace event tonight with Elton John, Joan Jett, Devo, et al. By the time Devo dons their energy domes (I still call them flowerpots), I should be on the way to Ontario - unless, of course, my flight is delayed again. I'll attend one session this morning, then more meetings, and possibly other stuff. If you're at Oracle OpenWorld, I hope that things are going well for you.
posted by Ontario Emperor | 09:07
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