Rittman Mead - Delivered Intelligence

Well my bags are packed, and I’m off to SFO shortly to fly back to London.
It’s certainly been a memorable Open World for me, not so much in terms of new
products or things learnt, more to do with the people I’ve met whilst over here.
Here’s a look back at what the highlights were for me.

• Getting to meet up with and chat to people like Tom Kyte (what a nice
  guy), Arup Nanda (ditto), Bryn Llewellyn, Andrew Clarke, Brian Duff, Steve
  Muench, Joel Garry, Tim Dexter, Sushil Kumar, Kent Graziano, Jean-Pierre Djicks and Paul
  Narth, Allison McGee, John Haydu, Anthony Waite, Keith Laker, Tony Davis,
  Justin Kestlyn, Laurent Schneider, Wilfred van der Deijl and everyone I’ve
  forgotten to mention. The social and networking side is not something you
  think about when you book up for Open World, but for me it was the best
  things. In a similar vein…
• The blogger dinner and the Oracle Magazine Editor’s Choice dinner. The
  blogger dinner in particular for me was a worry to set up as you don’t know
  if it will work, whether people will talk and so on, but it worked out
  really well and I’d like to think we’d do it again next year. With the
  Oracle Magazine dinner, it’s not often you get to meet people like Ken
  Jacobs, all excellent stuff and very very interesting.
• Not a highlight as such, but the size of the event was overwhelming.
  Andrew Clarke mentioned elsewhere the queues, I ended up missing quite a few
  sessions because I hadn’t preregistered and the queues were enormous, it
  certainly was worth getting the club oracle pass although I think maybe next
  year I might end up watching the keynotes on the TVs in the lounges -
  probably more comfortable and I can have a bit of a lie-in as well.
• San Francisco. I had a good look around on Sunday, having breakfast in a
  cafe up by Haight, walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, not bad really. I
  just managed to catch the last of the sunny days, on Sunday it was warm
  enough to just wear a t-shirt, today it’s sweaters and coats.
• The area of SF I stayed in was quite interesting. A typical walk home
  involved more mentalists than back home at London Road (and they’re armed
  here, as well), enough sex shops to put Amsterdam to shame and a set of
  "cash until payday" shops complete with people pushing their possessions
  along in shopping trolleys. I think next time I’ll stump up and stay in the
  Marriott…
• Getting to hear about new products such as Report Center, XML Publisher
  and Raptor and then getting the chance to talk them through with the
  relevant product managers. Not something you’d get from just downloading the
  presentations.

Well, that’s it for me. I’m off to buy a Mickey Mouse watch for my son Scott,
then it’s off on the SuperShuttle and back to London.

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