Wow, it’s already June and ODTUG Kscope19 is less than TWO WEEKS AWAY. Can you believe it? Are you ready? This will be my final update before the grand event. In this post, I’d like to bring your attention to a handful of things that you will not want to miss at the conference!
If You Announce It, They Will Come
ODTUG is proud to have strong relationships with Oracle—so much so that Oracle often chooses ODTUG Kscope as the conference to reveal important product and organizational announcements (plus, it doesn’t hurt that our conference occurs in the first month of Oracle’s fiscal year). Some of the details have taken a little longer than expected to reveal from our side, but we are ready to share who will be impacted by these. We have a couple of very special Oracle announcements happening this year.
Analytics Community: The first one, as you all may have heard about by now is the Oracle Analytics announcement. Oracle is hosting an event parallel to ODTUG Kscope in Northern California at Skywalker Ranch to reveal their announcement live to a select set of partners and customers. ODTUG is partnering with them on this and we have shifted our schedule slightly on Tuesday to accommodate broadcasting their livestream from our conference. Oracle Analytics team members will be standing by during and after the broadcast in a special session to answer your questions.
Database & APEX Communities: In addition, a big announcement will occur for the Database and APEX communities. We don’t have as many details on this one right now, but you should definitely expect to hear a teaser during the Sunday Symposium. More details to come.
Oracle Test Fest
Thanks to the ODTUG Board, new this year to ODTUG Kscope: free Oracle certification testing! This was announced a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully you have already started studying. Registrations are limited and advance sign-up is required. Certification exam options span Oracle’s full certification catalog. These tests will occur at various times from Monday through Wednesday and will be proctored.
Geeks Unite!
And of course, who could forget the amazing technical content?
If you’re arriving on Sunday, step into the Oracle Sunday Symposiums or the Dodeca Sunday Symposium to hear your favorite product updates and roadmaps. You’ll be able to interact directly with the software team members, and they never disappoint!
Monday through Wednesday, if you’d like some hands-on training with products, check out the Hands-On Lab schedules. Hands-on training is free—just remember to bring your own laptop. We have a stellar list of technologies that you can get direct experience with.
If you’d prefer an Oracle product demo on your own time, head over to the demo grounds at Oracle’s booth in the exhibit hall. They will have demo stations and reps standing by to dazzle you with cool new products and to answer your questions. While you’re in the exhibit hall, don’t forget to check out our amazing exhibitors, who often show product demos in their own booths.
Monday through Wednesday you’ll also find sessions, sessions, and more sessions! To build your schedule, I highly recommend that you use the ODTUG Kscope19 mobile app (available for use by attendees, hopefully, on Friday of this week). You can filter the sessions by track or pre-specified tags like “Cloud” and “On-prem.” In addition, if you need a quick answer about the conference, locations, and/or schedules use KBot—the chat bot built directly into our mobile app! She is built upon the Oracle Digital Assistant technology and is there to help you!
On Tuesday, the super geeks get together and offer up their geeky wisdom. These are called the ACE Lunch and Learns, and experts from the esteemed Oracle ACE and Groundbreaker programs serve as panelists. These panels take place during lunch. You’ll grab a boxed lunch, find the room for your community, and ask away!
Finally, on Thursday before you leave, you can round out your educational week by checking out the Thursday Deep Dives before the conference closing session. The deep dives provide one last chance to learn something new about a technology of your choice. Note that we start them late to let everyone recuperate from the Special Event the night before!
Don't Miss the Fun!
Beyond all of the awesome learning, there are fun events to keep everyone balanced. These are designed to show the deep, rich culture of the ODTUG community, help everyone network, and keep us sane between the madness. I’d recommend checking out the following super entertaining events:
All Happy Hour Receptions: Starting with Sunday’s Welcome Reception in the exhibit hall. There are also happy hours on Monday and Tuesday night in the exhibit hall, and then the final happy hour takes place amongst a larger, celebratory Special Event on Wednesday night at MoPOP. Happy hour events generally follow the last session of the day. Each reception is an opportunity to network, check out ODTUG vendors, munch on some snacks, and socialize with your ODTUG family.
Sunday Night’s Geek Game Night: Started just a few years ago (by me—I’m not biased at all!), this event is a testament to the pure goofiness of the ODTUG organization. Each year, I’ve attempted to bring in a new type of game to entertain and delight the audience. This year we’re changing things up and including volunteer audience members with Kscope’s own unique version of Minute to Win It! Bring your game faces—this event will occur in the Sheraton hotel directly after the Sunday night Welcome Reception and it is going to be HILARIOUS.
Monday Night Community Events: These community-focused events start later on Monday night, but they are great networking receptions where you can meet and hang out with your own ODTUG community. You will find one event per community, and they are run by the community groups (not by the ODTUG Kscope conference committee). These events are unique every year and are sure to please!
Wednesday’s Women in Technology Luncheon: The signup just went out, so be sure to pre-register! Seating is always limited. Each year we get together and talk about diversity issues in a meaningful way, in smaller conversations over lunch. Everyone is welcome, and a plethora of perspectives is encouraged—just don’t forget to register!
The Wednesday Night Special Event: Don’t forget to bring your costume to one of the most fabulous conference events all year. The Wednesday night special event is always looked forward to, and we will not disappoint! We’ve rented out the MoPOP museum and this year’s costume theme is to come dressed up as your favorite pop culture icon (human, not human, dead, living, whatever). We look forward to celebrating the week with you at our super special party. We’ll see you on the dance floor!
Werewolf: A unique party game that was originally started at ODTUG Kscope by Edward Roske. It’s a social game and involves deceit and intrigue. Do you have what it takes to survive? This game is played late several times during the week and is open to all levels of experience.
Newcomer Fast Track
If you’re brand new to ODTUG Kscope this year, I have a few tips for you. The best way to network and get up to speed is to participate in the following events:
Sunday Night’s Ambassador Orientation: Want to get to know the speakers at ODTUG Kscope19 while also networking quickly and earning a chance to win a free registration to ODTUG Kscope20? Then I’d highly recommend that you volunteer to be an ODTUG Kscope ambassador. An orientation is being held on Sunday from 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. for new ambassadors to learn the ropes and get in on one of ODTUG Kscope’s best networking secrets.
Sunday Night’s Newcomers’ Orientation: Is this your first time at ODTUG Kscope or has it been several years since you’ve attended? The ODTUG Board is hosting a newcomers’ orientation on Sunday night from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., where they’ll give you their best practice advice for getting the most out of this conference! I’m triple-booked at this time but hope to catch the tail end of this orientation (and I will be dressed in my full Titanium sponsor costume for Sunday night’s Welcome Reception)!
Monday’s General Session: Want to know more about ODTUG as an organization, catch some cool ODTUG announcements, and be wowed by the magical opening event? Catch the general session, which will be Monday morning from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.
Thursday’s Closing Session: Die-hard ODTUG Kscope fans stay until Thursday afternoon (and don’t want to miss a thing!). If you’re going to stay for the entire week, catch the Thursday closing session at 11:15 a.m. Here we announce the speaker awards and bid everyone a formal farewell.
Other Cool Stuff to Know
Seattle City Perks: Seattle is a super friendly tourist town! They are offering special perks at designated attractions and all you have to do is show your ODTUG Kscope19 badge! See the full list of offers. Also, Lyft is giving all conference goers 20% off of two rides (valid June 21–29, 2019), applicable to and from the airport. You don’t need your badge for this one, but you have to sign up in advance with your mobile number in order to claim this discount.
Saturday Volunteer Events: If you happen to be coming in on Saturday morning, there are a couple of events you may want to be a part of. First is the bag stuffing! Full conference attendees receive a bag filled with lots of great information and goodies. But how do those bags get stuffed? Due to the wonderful volunteers for the bag stuffing event, we knock out ~1,000 bags in about an hour. Come join us! This will occur at 10:00 a.m. in the Convention Center, Room 4A, Level 4. Next up on Saturday is the Kathleen McCasland Community Service Day. This year we’ll be helping out the local food bank. This event will start with a lunch at the Convention Center and then we’ll walk to the Pike Market Food Bank together, which is beyond the Pike Place Market. Expect this event to take up your entire afternoon.
Stickers, Stickers, and More Stickers! Each year, we have covert sticker fairies who like to share their community love by passing out stickers, which can be used as flair to decorate laptops, tablets, and more. Some folks pay money out of their own pocket to partake in this geeky tradition! I managed to unmask a few of the sticker fairies this year. Take a look! Find your sticker fairy to share your community love!
APEX Community
The APEX community is super awesome and they generally have the most sticker fairies. I only managed to unveil one of their sticker fairies, so keep your eyes peeled for more than what’s listed here.
InSum likes to dress APEX up in Green. They will be carrying around the following:
Database Community
Jeff Smith has told me that he will be bringing extra stickers this year. Look at what he has in store!
EPM Community
Gary Adashek, EPM content chair, loves to play the sticker fairy role. He has a couple of goodies for EPM this year!
Justin Biard, EPM community leader, also likes to appeal to the EPM coder community:
Other Communities
This year, I’ve gotten into the sticker craze myself! If you are a passionate supporter of diversity and inclusion in tech, I have both women in tech and diversity in tech stickers to hand out (supplies limited). In addition, if you’re a member of the Dallas-Ft. Worth North Texas Hyperion User Group (NTxHUG), please come find me so you can get your new emblem!
Finally…What to Pack?
Finally, I leave you with the answer to the age old question of what (in the world) to pack? Because of my conference chair role, I have to start packing weeks in advance. It’s…complicated—I have multiple costumes (yes, I said multiple), multiple outfit changes, a Geek Game Night to plan and supply, and other events to organize. I start my list about a month in advance and add to it over time. Amazon makes deliveries to my house several times a week. Right now is crazy time.
Not sure what to pack? Here is a sample list based upon my own packing list. Good luck, and know that if you forget anything, the city is very walkable and I’m sure you can find a place to supply any missing items! I’m taking the “big” bag, FYI.
Recommendations of What to Pack:
- Casual and comfortable clothes for every day you’ll be there + one extra outfit (just in case)
- Casual and comfortable shoes—the Convention Center is a block away from the main Sheraton hotel. The Convention Center is also expansive on its own, so expect to get your 10,000 steps in every day.
- If you get cold easily, bring a cardigan or light jacket for the conference rooms and events
- Umbrella or light rain jacket (Seattle has unpredictable weather during the summer). Plus, the walk from the hotel to the Convention Center is outside.
- Sunglasses
- Any medication and vitamins that you might require
- Your amazing costume for the Wednesday night Special Event
- Laptop for work and/or hands-on labs
- Notepad and pen (or tablet/laptop if you prefer the digital route) for taking notes
- Business cards for networking and social events
- Chargers for everything (phones, laptop, other important devices)
- Planning to workout? Pack some gym clothes and gym shoes!
Also, leave some extra room in your suitcase for all the “goodies” that you’ll take back! We supply bags to paid attendees, and the vendors have giveaways and special fun items that you’ll need to pack for the trip back.
~ ~ ~ ~
ODTUG Kscope19 is just around the corner now! Can’t wait to see you all there!!!
Sincerely,
Opal Alapat, Oracle ACE Director
ODTUG Kscope19 Conference Chair
