Lucas Jellema talks about ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010

lucas-jellemaNext in my series of interviews for ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010, I had the opportunity to interview Lucas Jellema.

Lucas has been very busy as of late, but still took some valuable time to provide some answers to the questions that I gave him. Lucas apologized for not responding to my request immediately. He wrote “I am currently writing a book (SOA Suite 11g Handbook, with Oracle Press) and I find it very hard to find time for anything besides the book.” Lucas, I’m grateful that you took the time to answer my questions!

MR: Which presentation of yours is a “can’t miss” session that Kaleidoscope attendees should plan on attending, and why?

LJ: “I am doing three presentations and they are quite different: one on SOA (It’s Happening! On-Event Driven SOA), one on ADF and SOA (So-ADF) and one on the killer feature of the Oracle Database 11g release 2: Edition Based Redefinition. It is very difficult to say which of these is the real can’t miss presentation. If you force me to pick one, it should probably be “Introducing and Demonstrating Oracle Database 11gR2′s Killer Feature – Edition- Based Redefinition for Developers and DBAs“. It applies to virtually every attendant of the conference, as the Oracle Database is the one thing that unites us all. It is also a paradigm shift – the first time in many database releases that new database object types are added, well in truth a whole new dimension is added, to be compared with parallel universes. And it is useful to almost every organization developing against the Oracle Database.

However, my other two sessions are quite interesting too – with live demos, as always!”

MR: Who else should Kaleidoscope attendees plan on seeing a session from, and why?

LJ: “Another difficult question. Most presenters are experts in their fields – many of them recognized through awards or titles like ACE and ACE Director – and good presenters too. My colleague, Alex Nuijten, is
presenting “Analytical Functions Revisited” – always a great topic and undoubtedly presented by Alex in a truly inspiring way. Last year he did a very original presentation: “SQL Holmes – The case of the missing performance” and that was probably the best presentation I have ever witnessed at ODTUG conferences (and I have been attending them since 1997). Other presentations that you should try to attend are probably those byJonathan Lewis (for a deep dive into the database), Dimitri Gielis who is the most enthusiastic and ferocious APEX evangelist I know and Mark Simpson who is a very experienced SOA consultant and knows how to explain it very well. However, my naming these presenters so explicitly, I am doing injustice to many more who are also well worth your time. That is perhaps one of the major challenges for me at Kaleidoscope: it is too hard to select the sessions to attend because you there is always so much you will miss out on as a result.”

MR: What differentiates Kaleidoscope as a conference from other conferences out there?

LJ: “Its size for one. ODTUG is very intimate – in a few days you will recognize every face in the conference and name many names as well. If you ever wanted to talk to the people whose names you know from OTN articles, books on your own shelves, blogs that Google keeps dishing up to you, then this is the best chance you have got. The crème de la crème that also presents at Oracle Open World, and less than 5% of the number of people to share them with. ODTUG has allowed me to make several friends over the year – because of the spirit and intensity of the conference as well as its very informal nature. When it was still a beach oriented conference, I used to present in shorts and on bare feet. While that is no longer the case, it is still very open, informal, good natured, pleasant, sharing etc. The community service day has further added to that emotion. It is also almost non-commercial. It is technical experts presenting to technical experts!”

MR: If you’ve been to Washington before, can you recommend one thing that a first time visitor should take advantage of while visiting during Kaleidoscope?

LJ: “I would not consider myself a Washington expert. I do remember from the 2006 conference that I liked the city much better than I had thought I would. Walking the area around the White House and the Lincoln Memorial is amazing. It is so familiar from television and movies and it is quite incredible to be walking there yourself.”

MR: Can you tell us what your best memory is from a Kaleidoscope conference that you’ve attended previously?

LJ: “In terms of entertainment: the show by the Capitol Steps in 2006; that was just hilarious. I used to enjoy the kayak races (which the Dutch squad used to win as well). The community service day last year was very good. In 2001 my erstwhile colleague (Steven Davelaar) and myself did an impromptu presentation, prepared in a few hours time and presented to an audience of 150 or more (SRO). That was an exhilarating session: there we were showing the absolute latest – taking a considerable risk with unstable software – and experiencing tremendous appreciation from the audience. Perhaps that is the thing that sums it up: I have presented on many different conferences and I think that nowhere the appreciation is as great as at ODTUG Kaleidoscope; you present to your peers and they know how to appreciate that. One of the reasons I will also show live demos at ODTUG – you know the audience enjoys that – and will bare with you when a demo does not work”

Lucas then gave me a couple of new slogans to use for ODTUG Kaleidoscope “Where gurus become your peers” or “The most intimate, in-depth Oracle developer get-together in town”. I like them both.

Registration for ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 is open, and to get the best rate possible, register now through March 24th. Tell them you heard about it on the ODTUG Blog.  I’ll see you there!

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