Rittman Mead - Delivered Intelligence

Niall and
Doug have done theirs, so I thought it’s about time I put my UKOUG
Conference diary up on the blog. My time over the three main days of the
conference will be divided between doing things around the conference (speaking,
on one of the panels, chairing a couple of talks and trying to get to one or two
other ones) and being on the SolStonePlus
stand – this is our major conference of the year and we’re one of the Platinum
Sponsors for the event.

I’m going up on Saturday (here’s
the reason why, if you didn’t read my earlier posting) and so I’ll be there
bright and early for the Oaktable day on the Sunday. I’m hoping to catch up with
Doug Burns and Pete Scott who I think will be there, and there’s a couple of
events (UKOUG drinks and something the Oaktable are organizing for after the
presentations) later on in the evening. Anyway, here’s my agenda for the rest of
the three days:

Monday 31st October

11.05 – 11.55 :
The
Performance Dangers of Database Independent Applications – Gary Goodman,
Hotsos

I’m not involved in this one, but I’ve seen Gary speak before at Open
World and the issue of database independent applications is of course an
interesting one. Hopefully I can get along to this one after the stand is
set up.

14.55 – 15.05 :
How to
Survive as a PL/SQL Programmer – Sten Vesterli

This is the second year I’m going to chair one of Sten’s talks, and I
always like to get along to his ones as I still do a bit of PL/SQL work here
and there. I first came across this speaker when I bought his "Oracle Web
Applications 101" book a few years ago, a very good and concise guide to all
the various ways to build an Oracle-backed web application. Hopefully Sten
will have forgotten that I chaired his talk last year as I coughed and
sniffed all the way through it.

15:55 – 16:55 : 10g -
The G
Stands for Goodies – Connor McDonald

Another one I’m hoping to get to. I’m waiting to see if Connor hammers
some nails into a squirrel again (I think this is what he does during
presentations?) and more seriously, I’m keen to go along to see how
presenting should be done. This one all depends on whether it’s quiet on the
exhibition grounds.

19:15 – 21:00 : SIG Focus Pubs

I’ve never been to these before, and I’ve heard two stories about
previous ones – the first is that you could have held it in a phone box, the
second was that it got so rowdy with the free bar that the UKOUG refused to
run it again for several years afterwards. I’ll be there anyway, along with
Andy and Jagdev from the BIRT SIG committee, so come along but don’t tell
anyone else and that way we’ll get all the free drinks vouchers. If you’re
coming to the blogger dinner afterwards, we’re meeting here before going
across to Tin Tin’s.

21:15 – ? : Blogger
Dinner

The second ever meeting up of the Oracle blogger community. The latest
guest list is myself,
Niall Litchfield, Pete Finnigan,
Doug Burns,
Peter Scott,
Tom Kyte,
Tim Hall,
Jeff Moss,
Nick Goodman,
Richard Byrom,
Connor McDonald,
Lisa Dobson,
Jonathan Lewis,
Mogens N rgaard,
Peter Robson,
Andrew Clarke,
Steve Muench,
Duncan Mills
and Anthony Reynolds. And
it’s all sponsored by the UKOUG, so it’s champagne and lobsters all round
(only joking James…)

Tuesday 1st November

10.30 – 11.15 :

Advanced OLAP Analysis with OracleBI Discoverer and the Oracle 10gR2 OLAP
Option

This is the first of my two talks and looks at the way in which the OLAP
Option can extend the functionality of Oracle Discoverer. If you’ve ever
wondered what a multi-dimensional cube is, how you "slice and dice" or what
this Analytic Workspace Manager is all about, come along and I’ll try and
answer your questions. The aim with this talk is to do about 20 minutes of
slides, then spend the rest of the time doing a demo and answering
questions. I’ve written a paper and some slides to go with the talk, which
you can download from here:

• 
  Advanced OLAP Analysis with OracleBI Discoverer and the Oracle 10gR2
  OLAP Option (paper)
• 
  Advanced OLAP Analysis with OracleBI Discoverer and the Oracle 10gR2
  OLAP Option (powerpoint slides)

11.25 – 12.25 :

Business Intelligence & Reporting Tools Panel Session

I’ll be on this, along with Nick Goodman, Lilian Hobbs, Ian Hayman and
Martin Cooper. Come along and ask us such questions as "Why can’t I get
Business Objects to do a demonstration for us" and "Would the panel
implement EPB now it’s at version two"…

13.25 – 14.10 :
Query
Rewrite : The Database Query Turbo Charger – Pete Smith

Pete Smith, whom I worked with on an "interesting" project a while ago is
doing his first conference talk, but I’m going to have to leave five minutes
early because I’m chairing…

14.05 – 14.50 :
Web
Cache Enable Your Application in 60 Minutes – Anthony Reynolds

And then, it’s the one I’ve been looking forward to…

16.35 – 17.20 :

End-To-End Metadata Reporting with OWB 10gR2 – Nick Goodman

Nick’s the other person who writes about Oracle Warehouse Builder and
he’s really looking forward to his first trip over to the UK. I’m
particularly looking forward to this one, especially as like me he’s had to
quickly redo his presentation due to the non-arrival of the production
release of OWB "Paris" (you’re not allowed to demonstrate beta software, so
he’s had to create a screenshot demo instead). Come along to Nick’s talk,
it’s going to be good and he’s one of the only guys I know with real project
experience of Paris (and probably the grey hair to show for it)

17.30 – 18.15 : Tom Kyte Keynote

Obviously. Followed straight after by the mystery guest speaker (I wonder
why it’s a mystery one this year?)

Wednesday 2nd November

09.55 – 10.55 :
Oracle
Business Intelligence 10g – The Complete Picture

My other presentation. This one’s an end-to-end look at at the complete
BI10g technology stack, about 20 minutes of slides and then a long
demonstration that goes from OWB through to an operational data store,
reporting using Discoverer and Reports, then sucking some data into an
analytic layer and reporting using the OLAP Option and Discoverer for OLAP.
Wish me luck as it’ll be live demonstration, and you can download the papers
and slides here:

• 
  Oracle Business Intelligence 10g – The Complete Picture (paper)
• 
  Oracle Business Intelligence 10g – The Complete Picture (slides)

11.25 – 12.10 :
EPB or
OFA – Leading Edge or Safety In Numbers – Ian Hayman

Every year, I do a talk on "Oracle OLAP – it really works now" and Ian
does one on "EPB – it’s almost ready to migrate to". I’m chairing this one,
so come along and get the latest on EPB version 2 and whether this year is
the one to migrate from OFA (but of course
do it with us, not InGroup…)

13.20 – 14.05 :
Hints
and How To Use Them – Jonathan Lewis

And how about this for the final presentation. A new one from Jonathan I
think (at least to me, anyway) and one on a very interesting subject.

On the time off between the various talks, I’ll be on the SolStonePlus stand,
so come along and say hello if you see me. You’ll probably hear my voice if
nothing else, as we’ve recorded four demos of the various BI&W tools with myself
narrating them, and make sure you leave a business card and enter the draw for a
Sat Nav unit. Other than that, see you there…

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