Oracle Open World : Day 5 : Back to London

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.