We are really counting down to the conference now. Less than four weeks to go until the best Oracle technical conference of the year! Are you ready?
In this conference update, I want to give a special shout out to our sponsors and explain how we’re always looking for better ways to partner with them.
Innovative Exhibit Hall Ideas
We love our sponsors. They support our conference, help drive attendance, and subsidize the conference expenses for attendees. Some vendors have been with us for over a decade and they continue to support us. Therefore, we’ve been strategizing new ways to bring attendees to them in the exhibit hall.
Last year we tried a few new tactics. One was elongating the hours by having breakfast in the exhibit hall. #fail. Asking people to be in their booths at 7 a.m. was not a popular request. We have adjusted the strategy this year.
We also added a puppy lounge. #win. We’re excited to be repeating that success this year. Look for the Fondue & Puppies Too event on Tuesday night . . . with even more puppies this year!
We’ll also try at least one new thing this year, but I’ll keep that under wraps for now . . .
Expanding Sponsorship Offerings
Each year we also strive to find creative ways to expand our existing sponsorship offerings. Vendors have different preferences (some prefer booths as part of their sponsorship, some don’t) and we want to find the best fit, so they stay relevant and are able to sponsor us in a way that fits their budget and style.
What We Didn’t Do
Kevin McGinley, our awesome vendor chair on the ODTUG Kscope18 Conference Committee, has a regular forum with ODTUG Kscope sponsors. In this bimonthly meeting, we run ideas by our vendors to get their feedback. There are some ideas we didn’t implement because of pushback. I won’t detail them out here since they failed the vendor test, but it’s important to acknowledge the goings-on behind the scenes that you don’t see. Thank you to the vendors for hearing us out and giving us candid feedback!
As you explore the exhibit hall at ODTUG Kscope18 this year, please take a moment to thank our sponsors. They take the time to build enticing booths, offer free giveaways, and help subsidize the cost of your ticket. They’d appreciate the love!
See you all very soon!
