Kscope15 South Florida Meetup

Why attend or start a local EPM meetup?

Sadly, few of us have the opportunity to ask, “If there were a little more time in the day, the week, the month, the year, could I attend or maybe even start a local meetup?” Why? Simply because we are crazily busy, thanks to the seemingly endless march of technology and even more seemingly endless demands placed on us by work. Perhaps the question should be, “How can I improve or achieve a work/life balance while performing miracles at work and keeping abreast of the Oracle ecosystem?” It feels as if we are in this never-ending cycle of deployments, followed by an upgrade, testing, and another deployment while some or most haven’t had the opportunity to master the initial environment. All of a sudden, I feel as if I’m in an episode of The Twilight Zone:

(“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ... The Twilight Zone.” - Rod Sterling)

Well, now you know how I spent my Fourth of July weekend.

The answer to those questions can be found in another question: “How do my peers successfully run their EPM environment?” This question is important because our Oracle community is the source of some of our questions. One answer to all of these questions is a meetup of like-minded peers. A meetup is the beginning of a journey, a journey that you will not venture alone. None of us have all of the answers, but together we know an awful lot of them; collectively, we can figure out the rest. This community is why we should make an effort to reach out to others in our technology community and stay connected. And how do we make this connection outside of Kscope? Meetups.

Meetups are informal meetings (hence the name) of clusters of communities established to serve a common interest or purpose – in our case, Oracle technology. I would be lying to you if I said you will find your answers in your first meetup. Some may not feel comfortable sharing their challenges and choose to listen at first; the fact that they attended is a great start. Invest in a meetup, and it will grow its wings and morph to something greater one might have imagined.

The Kscope15 South Florida Meetup was our third meetup. This was a perfect opportunity for ODTUGers from all over the world to experience a local EPM meetup. From our backyard to our neighbors across the pond, it turned out to be A Blended ODTUGer EPM Meetup – no language barriers here; EPM is a unique language in itself.

As I observed from the sidelines, it was rewarding to witness firsthand the power of connection. One group was discussing Planning Cloud and Budgeting Service, another group discussed the new features in 11.1.2.4 and how they need to begin planning their migration process in a couple of years, and others discussed their current environments and challenges. This interaction showed me the seed of local EPM meetups spreading globally. On a personal level, the investment of our time was worth the sacrifice. It was a value-added experience for us all, and that is something you cannot put a price tag on.

Truth: Sometimes we need to make sacrifices to see the impossible.

To learn how you can start your local meetup, contact Erin at erin@odtug.com.

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