Re: Opinions on OpenWorld

Hello all;

I'm glad to see that opinions are being solicited in regards to openworld. Here are a few of mine.

Michael Abbey wrote:
>
> I have been reading feedback about OpenWorld and IOUW for the past few
> days in the news groups. It is important that attendees get their
> feedback to Oracle about what they liked, and what they did not like.
> Recurring themes are:
>
> 1) Frustration with not having paper copies of proceedings

Yes, that was frustrating. I think SHARE (the IBM user type conference) had the right idea when it came to handouts. Each presenter was *expected* to provide handouts for their session. Of course with the size of some of the sessions at openworld, this would have been difficult. I perceive handouts and proceedings as seperate entities. Lugging the proceedings around Phili last year so that I would have them to make notes on at sessions was a pain, as they were quite large.

> 2) Disappointment in some of the room sizes

Well, given the fact that there were *so* many people there, I don't see how this could be avoided unless pre-registration was done at the session level and rooms sized accordingly. IMHO the problem is that this conference has gotten way to big, and the number of "technical" sessions is far to few to spread the masses out over several sessions at the same time. Hence, you end up with 500 people all wanting to attend the same session in a room that can't handle it.

> 3) Unhappiness with the general sessions and the lack of "alternative"
> activities while they are going on

General sessions are, IMHO, for Monday mornings. The fact that there were keynotes on Tues, Wed, and Thurday mornings was fine, however, the fact that there were no technical sessions going on at the same time was a MAJOR blunder!

> We have also heard differing opinions on whether people think it wise to
> have IOUW 1997 separate from Oracle. Please keep the feedback coming in.
> The IOUG-A and Oracle are working together on IOUW 1997 in Dallas, with
> the event being run 100% by the IOUG-A similar to the Philadelphia event
> in 1995.

Perhaps this will help, although, I learned quickly in Phili, and the same was true in San Fransisco that if wanted any chance of getting a seat and a handout (given that there was one) at most sessions, you left when one ended and headed immediately to the next and sat and waited for a half hour for it to start.

Also, I find it funny that the absolute *best* Oracle session i've ever been to was at DECUS (The Digital Equipment Company User Symposium) last week in Anaheim. It was delivered by Saar Maoz of Oracle. Where were the Oracle engineers with all the technical info at openworld? Was there a list of events that I didn't get? For the most part, I felt that I could have presented the majority of sessions that I attended at openworld. I should state that i'm a DBA, so I wasn't off attending the sessions about all the great new tools that Oracle is providing that will revolutionize how we do our jobs. Perhaps those sessions were fantastic, but the presence of down and dirty, technical type sessions presented by Oracle techies left alot to be desired.

> Remember, IOUW 1996 was under the OOW umbrella, and some of the
> frustration with the event was totally out of the user group's control,
> whereas some of the administrative decisions we took (that is the
> IOUG-A) may have contributed to frustration.

Bottom line is that I could not care less what umbrella any of it is under. It seems like there is more concern with who runs what etc than there is in providing a great learning opportunity for Oracle users, and that is a shame.

I did get some very useful stuff from openworld, despite my overall disappointment. Spending an hour and a half with several of the Oracle senior VP's for support at the "Meet Oracle's Senior support management" session was great. It gave us the chance to discuss the serious concerns that the University of Alaska has with the level of support we receive from Oracle. And there were some sessions that were quite usefull as well.

-- 

David J. DeWolfe
Systems Programmer III
Statewide Office of Information Services
University of Alaska
907.474.7399
sxdjd_at_orca.alaska.edu

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