This year ODTUG has set yet another record! With more than 1,000 Kscope14 abstracts submitted, we are pleased to announce that this is the highest number of sessions ODTUG has ever seen! Every year the conference team is amazed at the growing number of folks who wish to share their knowledge with the world. It is a testament to the spirit of the Oracle user group community.
The following are the twevle tracks that make up Kscope14. A Track Lead has been assigned to each.
On the "traditional" side of the house we have the following tracks and Track Leads for Kscope14:
• ADF and Fusion Development – John King, King Training
• Application Express – Roel Hartman, APEX Evangelists
• Building Better Software – Amy Caldwell, Chick-fil-A
• The Database – Kellyn Pot’Vin, Enkitec
• Developer's Toolkit – Patrick Barel, AMIS Services
And on the EPM/BI side we have:
• BI and EPM Reporting – Courtney Foster, interRel
• Business Intelligence – Stewart Bryson, Rittman-Mead
• EPM Business Content –
• EPM Foundations & Data Management – Tony Scalese, Edgewater Ranzal
• Essbase – Tim German, Qubix
• Financial Close – Alice Lawrence, Wal-mart
• Planning – Deanna Sunde, The Hackett Group
Over the past two weeks the abstracts have been sorted into their appropriate areas and the frenzied madness of content selection has begun! (A note for you math wizards who are already calculating the odds in your head: 1000 abstracts / 12 tracks = an average of ~83 submitted abstracts for each track. When compared to the average number allotted for KScope14, ~20 per track, you can now understand the monumental effort taking place behind the scenes as you read this blog post.)
The Track Lead assigned to each of the above tracks is responsible for important duties, including: rallying their track team to select the best conference content possible, working with the Oracle product manager assigned to their track to come up with guidance on Oracle's technology direction, screening potential new speakers, and ensuring that the best speakers have submitted abstracts. In addition, Track Leads have input on other important planning tasks like conference scheduling, speaker panels, and the Sunday Symposium.
Each track also has a set of spirited volunteers called Content Reviewers who participate in the abstract selection process. These folks are asked to choose the highest quality content for the upcoming conference. They work together to go through each abstract, taking into account the purpose, intended audience, technology, speaker, past conference ratings, past attendance numbers, etc. Please understand that this is no easy task. Animated discussions are often held behind closed doors as each person vies for their choices.
Chet and I would like to acknowledge and thank the Track Leads and the Content Reviewers for the gigantic role that they play. These individuals give up two months of their year working on the important job of selecting the sessions, which is the biggest driver of the event. Countless hours go into this, and it is clear from their contributions that it is the passion of the user group community that fuels their determination. These volunteers do not receive any form of compensation for their efforts. It is a badge of honor and pride for them and we are thankful to have them as a part of our team.
Thank you Track Leads and Content Reviewers! We applaud your effort! :)
-Opal Alapat & Chet Justice
