Back to reality …

… and in surprisingly good shape. OK, it was a bit of an insane weekend sleep-wise, but the flight back wasn’t too traumatic, neither was Scotland failing to reach Euro 2008 (well done, lads – great effort) and I tumbled into work only a little bit late today.

So, what to make of Openworld? Well, every time I read APC’s views, I find myself nodding in agreement. (But only about the conference. That man issues so many clarifications, he should become a politician or a spin doctor.)

I thought the conference was stunningly well organised, given the number of attendees. I expected to be hanging around in queues for everything and missing out on sessions, but that wasn’t the case at all. Well done.

The presentations by the Real World Performance group were top-notch and, surprisingly, as good or better than presentations I’ve attended at some of the more purist small-scale conferences. In fact, the presentations I attended were all pretty good and contained genune technical value for me. I returned to work with a book full of notes and was able to send out an email containing several hopefully useful points. In the past, I would avoid Oracle employee presentations like the plague, but they were my favourites this year.

Meeting old friends and new ones is always a big part of any conference. If it wasn’t, I could just pick up the presentations online after the event. However, I think this is a little trickier when the conference is so big, you’re meeting so many new people and maybe you don’t always see eye-to-eye with everyone 😉 Jet-lag doesn’t help of course! LOL …. In retrospect, I wish I’d spent a bit more time with old chums, but I tend to steer clear of insularity. However, looking back on the week, my happiest hour or two might have been spent listening to some very smart Oak Table guys talking performance.

Despite my jokes about the new Oracle ACE fleece, I can’t fault Justin, Emily and Vikki for their organisational skills and making a disparate bunch feel at home. I feel the Unconference was more than worthwhile, too. I mentioned to a few people that the only reason I didn’t offer to present was that I felt it should encourage new blood, rather than the same old clique. In retrospect, it was a good idea for the ACEs to contribute heavily to get the thing off the ground, but I hope future Unconferences feature a wider range of speakers, including more people I’ve never heard of.

I did find myself walking around pointlessly quite often. 30 minute breaks between sessions are almost essential to give you a breather and switch buildings if necessary and I wouldn’t want the gap reduced. At the same time, it was just an excuse for me to wonder the streets, smoking my little head off, and I was thoroughly shattered by early afternoon. I must learn to crash in a bean bag if I go back again.

Dimitri and John have the best business cards in history!

I’m really looking forward to the smaller, more focussed UKOUG conference in a couple of weeks, but OOW was certainly an experience and I recommend you give it a try one year.