12 February 2007

A Conference I am Not Attending

The months roll by! I should have told you about the release of SQL Developer 1.1 and then didn't and now Patch 1 is out. If you're still on SQL Developer 1.0, then do download the Patch release. It's a full install, and well worth the update. I'll start writing again and telling you more about what we're doing and about the product.

RMOUG
I should be packing today to be flying out to Denver for the RMOUG Training Days this week. This was the first conference I attended as a fledgling PM many years ago and so it's really strange not to be attending it this week. Denver is the kind of city where you'll be walking in warm sunshine one day and playing in the snow on the sidewalks the next. With RMOUG in February, that has certainly happened to us.

I really like the RMOUG event. I think it's a serious conference with folk attending who are serious about learning and sharing what they know. I always think it's a "no fluff, just stuff" event.
I have also always been struck at how few Oracle folk go, compared to other events, and I like the low key approach. (As a product manager, perhaps I shouldn't admit that!)
This year 2 of my team will be there, so there's an added regret not to be able to make it. Mike Hichwa, VP of the Database Tools Group, and Kris Rice, architect for SQL Developer, will both be doing quite a bit of work there. Mike and Kris are both doing a bit of training on Tuesday in the pre-event training session and then Mike kicks off with the keynote on Wednesday morning.
Kris is doing 2 SQL Developer talks on Wednesday, so if you have any questions, he's the man to catch.
If you are still prevaricating about whether to go, I'm sure there is still time to change your mind and dash along. Great city, great event, a worthwhile gathering.

How's this for a list of big names, taken straight from the RMOUG presentations page...

Adams | Aldridge | Arseneau | Ault | Baker | Baxter | Beresniewicz | Blake | Briggs | Brooks | Brown B | Brown T | Burleson D | Burleson J | Carlson | Caviness | Closson | Cunningham | Dacko | de Visser | Deshpande | Dijcks | Dorsey | Engel |Fink | Fons | Freeman | Fuston | Garmany | Haastrup |
Hailey | Haisley | Hall | Hay | Hichwa | Hotka | Ioan | Jackson | Jenne | Jeunnette | Karam| Katsaris | King | Koletzke | Koopmann | Kurtz | Kutrovsky | Leal | Lemme | Likarish | Looney | Marx | Millsap | Mishek | Moore | Moskovitz | Munsinger | Nanda | Ostrowski | Pal | Peters | Phillips | Presser | Pystynen | Reading | Rice | Richards | Scheerer | Schrag | Senegacnik | Still | Sutton | Sweeney |Swing | Than | Thater | Tierstein | Turner-Underwood | Vaidyanatha | Vallath | Weaver | Wille | Wimsatt | Wood |


Other things...
As for me, I'll just have to think about all the different people I have met, and friends I have made over the years at RMOUG and hope they have a very fine time.

I am packing later this week. It's not work related, so my suitcase will not hold my "Oracle uniform". I'm heading East, with a small team, to Delhi. We're going to do a little work in one of the Delhi slums, called Zakhira. So I will be blogging again, but for a while, it might be here, on the delhiminimission instead.