Oracle OpenWorld Blog

Oracle OpenWorld exists to help you learn, network, and share information. And we appreciate all the information you share with us to help us improve the conference and enable us to better meet your needs.

Through our most recent surveys and polls, we've learned that you like having more sessions to choose from, you like extended Oracle Exhibition Hall hours, and you love all the networking opportunities. But we've also heard that this vast array of interaction opportunities can get confusing--so this year we've streamlined the event format to make your experience more connected, and ultimately more beneficial.

When we say streamlined, we're not kidding. This year's content is literally divided into four "streams": Applications, Industries, Middleware, and Database.

All the sessions for any given stream will be located in the same area, so you can easily get from one session to the next. Every stream will have its own lounge area, to make it convenient to meet and network with experts and peers who share your interests. And each stream will host a General Session where top Oracle executives and Partner executives will share their product road maps and the latest strategy in their area of expertise.

We always want to hear more about what you think, what you want, what's working, and where we can still improve. Join Oracle Mix and make yourself heard. Or chime in right here, right now by adding a comment to the blog. Ready to dive in? Then register now to get the early bird rates and get the conversation started.

And be sure to come back soon and often for discussions on how you can suggest and vote on Oracle OpenWorld session topics, who our Conference Partners are this year and what they have to share, and a whole lot more.

Tania Weidick
Vice President, Events Marketing

Become an Oracle OpenWorld Superdelegate

Had enough of the U.S. primaries? Ready to vote and make it count? Then you've come to the right place. Today I'm going to show you how you can tell us what sessions you would like to attend at Oracle OpenWorld, or even propose a session to present yourself.

We recently went live with a new Oracle Mix feature that allows you to suggest and vote on sessions. The top vote-getters will be presented live at Oracle OpenWorld and we've already received more than 100 great ideas.

To get involved, go to the Vote for a Session page to see what ideas your colleagues have already proposed. Click the Latest Sessions tab to see their most recent suggestions. Click the Greatest Sessions tab to find out which proposals are most popular so far.

Don't see your favorite topic on the list? Then it's time to nominate a new session. Simply go to the Oracle Mix Suggest a Session page and follow the instructions there. Tell us whom you want to present the session you or someone else. Describe your topic in as much detail as necessary to make your vision come to life. And assign tags, so others can easily find and vote on your session.

Our current frontrunner is Doing 2.0 in the Enterprise: Lessons Learned, Tips, and Tricks. Other leading candidates to date are sessions on BEA AquaLogic and Oracle Fusion Middleware, getting back to basics with database Web services, and becoming an Oracle Ace. Don't hesitate to vote or throw your hat in the ring. The deadline to submit ideas is June 30, and voting closes on July 13.

Of course, the only way to enjoy all the great new sessions is to join us at the conference, so register now to get the best early bird rates. In the meantime, be sure to check back often for new posts on attendee feedback from 2007, staying connected at Oracle OpenWorld 2008 with Twitter, and how this year's event is going green.

[Post updated 06.13.08 with extended dates for submissions and voting]

Tania Weidick
Vice President, Events Marketing

Awesome Widget for Oracle Mix Makes It Even Easier to Vote

Matt Topper, a technical manager for Oracle in Reston, VA, has just made your life a little easier. And he's helped us make Oracle OpenWorld even better. Check out his blog for an incredible little widget that lets you stream the full list of Suggest a Session ideas right to your desktop. There couldn't be a more convenient way to check in on the latest session ideas and vote for your favorites.

For details on what the voting is all about, read my earlier blog entry Every Vote Counts, and check out the Oracle OpenWorld page on Oracle Mix. We've also extended the deadline to submit session ideas to June 30, and voting closes on July 13.

Thanks Matt for this great tool—see you at Oracle OpenWorld!

Tania Weidick
Vice President, Events Marketing

Submissions Are Closed—Voting Is Still Open

Thanks to everyone who's participated in this year's new suggest a session program ... but it's not over yet! We've got 422 sessions submitted for you to choose from. Voting wraps up on July 1315, so review the sessions now and let your voice be heard. Not sure what this is all about? Then check out our previous posts about the program, and about a widget that lets you vote right from your desktop.

We'll announce the winners here on July 21, so be sure to check back then.

In the meantime, we'd love to hear your feedback: Did you submit a session? Did you vote? Were you pleased with the session choices? Were you satisfied with the process for submitting, reviewing, and voting?

Keynotes, Sessions, Oracle Develop Content, and More—On Demand

Oracle OpenWorld offers 1,700+ sessions—and so much more. So how can you possibly take in the entire experience? With Oracle OpenWorld On Demand of course.

Oracle OpenWorld On Demand provides access to all keynotes and breakout sessions from an online streaming rich media portal—presentations are available within 24 hours after they are made. Keynotes come with synchronized video, slides, scrolling transcripts, and downloadable MP3s and MP4s. You can blog, network, rate presentations, add your own content, and more.

Looking to take it up another notch? Then upgrade to Information Overload Deluxe. More than you need? Then the Oracle OpenWorld 2008 DVD kit may be your perfect pick. Click here to check out these and the rest of this year's official Add Ons. But don't forget, you need to register before you can add.

Winners to Be Announced Here July 21

While the final votes are being tallied, we'll take this opportunity to extend a great big Thank You! to everyone who submitted session ideas and voted. We couldn't be happier with the outstanding submissions and enthusiastic voter turnout. Sessions are now being carefully evaluated and winners will be announced on July 21. Mark your calendar—then get ready to make your schedule.

And the Winners Are ...

Once again we'd like to offer a great big Thank You to everyone who submitted ideas and voted on sessions for Oracle OpenWorld 2008. Go to Oracle Mix for more details about the winning submissions (the top 25 will be presented). These sessions will also be listed in the Content Catalog when titles and content are finalized. Oracle's Lisa Stuart has already begun contacting the winners to make it official and work out the details—so if you're a winner, be sure to make her your friend on Oracle Mix when she extends the invitation.

You've waited long enough, so without further ado, here are the winners of the first ever Oracle OpenWorld Suggest a Session:

Rank: 1 (113 votes)
Security: Writing Custom Authentication Schemes for Oracle Application Express (Oracle APEX)
Submitted by: Raj Mattamal

Rank: 2 (111 votes)
BEA Aqualogic Versus Oracle Fusion Middleware Shootout
Submitted by: Lonneke Dikmans

Rank: 3 (96 votes)
Implement Pro Card Functionality for Immediate ROI
Submitted by: Don Wynn

Rank: 4 (95 votes)
Visual Dashboard Design
Submitted by: Steve Stein

Rank: 5 (90 votes)
How to Hack an Oracle Application Express Application
Submitted by: Anton Nielsen

Rank: 6 (87 votes)
Successfully Developing and Integrating Applications in Oracle APEX Within Oracle E-Business Suite
Submitted by: Haseeb M

Rank: 7 (84 votes)
Indexing Secrets with Richard Foote
Submitted by: Richard Foote

Rank: 8 (81 votes)
How to Look Like a Star DBA: Shell Scripting Tips and Techniques for Junior DBAs
Submitted by: Sreekanth Chintala

Rank: 9 (77 votes)
The Next Generation of Business Integration: Making the Right Choice!
Submitted by: Nathalie Roman

Rank: 10 (76 votes)
Do You Have the S.W.A.T. to Get Your Highest ROI (On Your Next Upgrade)?
Submitted by: Christina Caporale

Rank: 11-12 (75 votes)
Use These Simple Tips to Quickly Find Answers to Your Oracle-Related Questions and Keep Your Oracle Skills Up-to-Date
Submitted by: Eddie Awad

(Re)Developing a Logistic Application in Oracle APEX in the Real World
Submitted by: Roel Hartman

Rank: 13 (74 votes)
Oracle's PeopleSoft Time And Labor—Getting it Right the Second Time at a School District
Submitted by: Andrew Beck

Rank: 14 (72 votes)
Real-World Best Practices for DBAs
Submitted by: Arup Nanda

Rank: 15 (69 votes)
Oracle's PeopleSoft Treasury—ROI Through Automation and Improved Cash Management
Submitted by: Jeannine Berman

Rank: 16 (68 votes)
Oracle APEX Team Development: Best Practices, Collaboration, and Application Deployment
Submitted by: Priya Lapham

Rank: 17 (67 votes)
How to Effectively Use Web 2.0 Technologies Within a Portal
Submitted by: Howard Block

Rank: 18 (66 votes)
Rapid Development and Validation of Oracle APEX Applications at an FDA-Regulated Medical Device Company
Submitted by: Deb Groskreutz
Rank: 19 (65 votes)
So, You Want to Be an Oracle ACE?
Submitted by: Dan Norris

Rank: 20 (62 votes)
Back to Basics: Simple Database Web Services Without an Application Server
Submitted by: Chris Muir

Rank: 21 (61 votes)
Using Oracle APEX to Analyze Your PL/SQL Source Code
Submitted by: Flavio Casetta

Rank: 22-23 (60 votes)
Oracle Portal, Oracle WebCenter, and Stellent—Which One Should You Use?
Submitted by: Eric Marcoux

Undocumented Oracle DBA Utilities: Black Magic for the Oracle Expert!
Submitted by: Ben Prusinski

Rank: 24 (59 votes)
Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE)—Custom Versus Prepackaged
Submitted by: Adam Getz

Rank: 25 (58 votes)
Oracle Database 11g: New Features for DBAs
Submitted by: Arup Nanda

How Your Opinions Shaped This Year's Conference

As part of Oracle OpenWorld 2007, we conducted extensive surveys of attendees. Your feedback provided valuable insight and greatly influenced how we designed Oracle OpenWorld 2008.

Here's a sampling of what we learned, and how it's making the difference for 2008.

71% of respondents expressed a preference for fewer keynotes as part of the overall formal agenda. We've reduced the number of keynotes and mapped them to focused content streams to help you spend your time where it means the most. See our post on Oracle OpenWorld Streams.

49% of respondents requested dedicated time in the formal agenda to visit the Exhibition Halls. This year we're providing greater access to the Exhibition Halls in two ways. First, we've extended the overall hours for the halls, so that they're open a total of 29 ½ hours during the conference. Second, we've set aside 3 hours of dedicated time—Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

37% of respondents asked us to ensure that abstracts and information provided for the breakout sessions are accurate. This year we're streamlining our titles and abstracts to reduce the opportunities for error. We've also assigned two experienced editors to edit all first round materials and to vet any additions or changes.

57% of respondents asked for more emphasis on practical training and on tips and tricks within breakout sessions. This request has been submitted to the Oracle OpenWorld 2008 content committee to be addressed at this year's conference. We also gave you more control over session content in 2008 via submissions and voting in the Submit a Session program on Oracle Mix.

72% of respondents asked that we repeat breakout sessions that "sell out" due to popular demand. In response, we've set aside slots for this purpose. It's tricky to schedule sessions on the fly, but when we see a session filling up, we'll do our best to arrange a repeat performance.

As you can see, we take your feedback seriously, and it really does influence the conference. So be sure to participate in this year's survey—and of course, leave your comments and suggestions right here on the blog.

Open Space Discussions Let You Choose the Topic

Follow a few Oracle OpenWorld enthusiasts around on any given day and they’ll likely lead you to an Oracle OpenWorld Unconference session. In high-tech parlance, an unconference is an informal open space meeting in which attendees determine their own topics for discussion. Typically, there’s no agenda—participants write a list of subjects on posters and whiteboards on a first-come, first-served basis—and the location is usually sparse and accessible, like a lobby, lounge, or outdoor patio.

Here’s what to expect: each presenter gets a modest block of time to address the group and is discouraged from using elaborate diagrams or tedious PowerPoint slides to illustrate their concepts. Let the power of ideas shine through, goes the mantra.

If you’ve attended a previous unconference session and have thoughts or advice for people presenting or attending, leave your comments below this post. If you have a technique, opinion, approach, or theory that you’re eager to share, sign up to speak or get to the OTN room before the Unconferences begin. Bring your laptop and your passion; we'll provide the space, the whiteboard, and the projector.

The Unconferences will be held at the Moscone West 3rd Floor Overlooks on Monday through Thursday (September 22–25) between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Update 08.13.08: Here are a couple more great blogs that will help prepare you for Oracle OpenWorld 2008—and for the Unconference.

OTN TechBlog
AppsLab

Get to Know Them with a Quick Q&A

Our first annual Suggest a Session program not only produced more than 20 outstanding sessions for Oracle OpenWorld, it also provided fodder for some of our most popular posts. (See the Sessions & Content category.) In the spirit of "give the people what they want," we've tracked down the program winners in order to keep the spotlight shining.

We asked our winners three questions that gave them the opportunity to describe their sessions and share their advice for getting the most out of Oracle OpenWorld:

Q. If you were going to Twitter a friend about your presentation, how would you describe it in 140 characters or fewer?
Q. What's the one session you're not going to miss (other than your own, of course), and why?
Q. What are your top three tips or tricks for attendees?

We'll post the answers as we get them. Find them easily by looking for the "Suggest a Session Winner" medallion at the top of the post. Or check the Session Winners category to view the collected wisdom in one place.

With Our New Search Engine, You'll Be Surprised What You Find

We've just gone live with a juiced-up search engine that's great for helping you explore and plan for Oracle OpenWorld 2008.

Here's how to use it. First, go to the home page, registration page, or any other page on the Oracle OpenWorld Web site. Enter your search term in the search tool at the top-right of the page. Now use the "Group by" and "Sort by" dropdowns to arrange your search results by relevance, type, title, venue, and time. It's the perfect way to see what sessions are available in a particular stream, at a specific venue, or at a time that fits your schedule. (The screengrab on the left shows the first four results for a search on the term "grid computing" grouped and sorted by type and venue.)

You can also start your search by entering your search term on oracle.com. When you get your results, use the "In the section" dropdown to select "OpenWorld SF 2008." This will display your results with the useful "Group by" and "Sort by" options.

Happy hunting!

You Can Be More Demanding Than You Think

I just had a sneak preview of the Oracle OpenWorld On Demand portal, and I have to say it's pretty cool. I found the most unique and impressive feature to be the integrated transcript available for each and every keynote. The transcripts are synched to the videos, allowing you to use a quick and simple word search to immediately hone in to a specific point in the video.

Let's say you want to view the exact moment when Larry Ellison makes a surprise announcement about ... the America's Cup. Simply choose the display option "Topics & Transcripts" and do a keyword search on "America's Cup." Your results will allow you to skip right to the very second of video you're looking for.

The portal will provide 28 hours of keynotes with synchronized video, slides, scrolling transcripts, and downloadable MP3s and MP4s. All 1,700 hours of general sessions will be available in audio along with PDFs of the presentation slides. For your convenience, all audio, video, and supporting materials can be streamed or accessed right on the site, or downloaded for later. Presentations are posted within 24 hours of the live sessions.

You'll also get news and announcements updated continually throughout Oracle OpenWorld and beyond. Blogs and communities will allow you to rate presentations, ask questions, network, and more. Prepopulated content is scheduled to be available Tuesday, September 16.

Click here to check out Oracle OpenWorld On Demand and the rest of this year's official Add Ons. But don't forget, you need to register before you can add.

Get a Whole Lot More for a Little Bit More

Oracle Develop is the premier developer conference, and it's running concurrently with Oracle OpenWorld. It's the best place to hear Keynotes and join networking events geared specifically to developers, and there's no better event for in-depth technical sessions and hands-on labs that cover everything you need to know to do your job even better. And you can leave your hiking shoes at home—it's at the Marriott Hotel, less than a block from the main conference. Plus, all the Oracle OpenWorld Keynotes will be piped in live, so you won't miss a thing.

Here are some of the Oracle Develop highlights:

• Ted Farrell, SVP and Chief Architect, Developer Tools, Oracle. Come early on Monday, September 22 to watch streaming video of the Charles Phillips and Chuck Rozwat Keynotes. Then stay put for Ted's live Keynote, Breaking Enterprise Application Platform Barriers, at 10:15 a.m. Learn how Web and mobile technologies are setting the bar for enterprise applications and redefining the enterprise developer role.
• Tom Kyte, Senior Database Architect, Oracle. Tom has two sessions: All About Encryption on Sunday, September 21 at 11:45 a.m., and Efficient Schema Design on Sunday, September 21 at 2:30 p.m. Find out which encryption techniques should be used and when, and dig into the fundamentals of physical schema design.
• Middleware Executive Panel for BEA customers. Bring your burning questions about BEA. Thomas Kurian, Hasan Rizvi, Ted Farrell, and Anthony Fernicola will be there to answer them.
• Scores of sessions on Oracle Fusion Development, Java (including BEA content), rich internet applications, embedded technology, .NET, database, and SOA.
• Dozens of Sunday Hands-on Labs, including Oracle Application Express, Oracle's BEA WebLogic, Java, SOA, Oracle JDeveloper, and grid.

If you're already registered for Oracle OpenWorld, the best bargain in town is to add Oracle Develop for only $100 more than the price of a Full Conference Pass. Want to attend Oracle Develop only? Then register now and save $200 (preregistration savings end on September 20).

Oracle Develop runs Sunday, September 21 through Tuesday, September 23. The keynote lineup is set now, so be sure to reserve your seats using Schedule Builder.

Survival Guide for Former BEA Customers

Are you a former BEA customer heading to Oracle OpenWorld? Haven't really planned your activities for next week? Not to worry. Check out this critical survival guide podcast that's tailored specifically to your needs. Listen before you go, or download it to your favorite device and bring it along.

What are the keynotes, sessions, demos, and other activities you don't want to miss if you have products from BEA in production in your IT environment? Listen to this podcast with Rick Schultz, Product Marketing Vice President, and find out the best way to navigate Oracle OpenWorld with an eye toward BEA-focused content. You'll find many of your favorite BEAWorld speakers and sessions along with new talks, multiple themed lounges, and other special conference offerings. We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco.

Mary Matalin and James Carville Address a Packed Oracle OpenWorld

By Stephen Fox.

At the event’s first keynote, political strategists Mary Matalin and James Carville talked about the upcoming election, the current financial turmoil, and how the couple stays married in a politically divided house.

Matalin and Carville took the Moscone North stage following welcoming remarks by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome and an introduction by Oracle President and CFO Safra Catz.

Matalin, who served as assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, told the crowd that strategists are looking at structural change in this election season. “The short and long of it is a shift.”

These changes, she pointed out, are being mirrored in today’s business climate. “Control what you can, but be prepared for the things that you can’t,” Matalin said.

Matalin also had some insight for both the McCain and Obama campaigns. “Quit listening to us, and go back to being yourself.” Insisting that the upcoming election is the most important in years, she pleaded, “Don’t run out the clock. Run like you mean it.”

Then, it was Carville’s turn. The Ragin’ Cajun’s remarks were repeatedly funny, and often informative. “There has never been a presidential cycle like this one,” Carville said. “History is being made right in front of us.”

He pointed out the enormous numbers of Americans registering to vote, watching the debates, and following the party conventions. But in his mind, this election season, like Oracle OpenWorld, is just getting started.

“I think that this cycle, this time that we’re living in … that things are going to keep coming,” Carville said, adding that he thought the upcoming debates were going to matter again.

As one of the brains behind Senator Hillary Clinton’s “3 a.m.” primary campaign TV ad, Carville had some wisdom to share with the crowd. “I’m going to be 64 in a month, and I know damn good and well what John McCain is doing at three in the morning… He’s looking for the bathroom!”

Why Moscone North Was Buzzing
This morning Oracle President Charles Phillips set the tone for Oracle OpenWorld by calling this "the Year of Innovation." He then backed up his statement over the next hour by demonstrating just what Oracle has accomplished since we last met at Oracle OpenWorld.

First he rolled through some numbers for perspective: Oracle has made 50 acquisitions in 44 months. We now offer 3,000 products. Our number of employees has grown from 40,000 to 85,000 since the acquisition strategy began, and one-third of these new employees joined us through acquisitions. We have 20,000 developers working across 30,000 servers. And we will invest about $3 billion this year in pure research and development.

Our overall product strategy, Phillips said, remains the same. To provide products that are complete, open, and integrated. They are complete so we can control all the components and add value. They're open to create standard communication between Oracle components, and with third-party components. They're preintegrated to reduce the amount of integration the customer has to do and to reduce the growing complexity of IT systems.

Next Phillips talked about Oracle Applications, concentrating mostly on the industry category. Oracle Telco customer KPN made a guest appearance and explained how Oracle's out-of-the-box communications solution helped KPN speed new products to market faster and outpace its competition in running fiber optics to the homes of every customer.

Executive Vice President Chuck Rozwat helped Phillips demonstrate Oracle Beehive, our brand new, built-from-scratch "collaboration server, that Phillips dubbed the cure for "communication fragmentation." Oracle Beehive not only integrates e-mail, voicemail, IM, chat rooms, conferences, calendars, blogs, tags, wikis, document sharing, and more communication and content tools—it also integrates with Oracle Database, across Oracle Fusion Middleware, and with Oracle Applications.

The big announcements today for Oracle Database were the shipping of the new Oracle Database 11g Release 11.1.07. and the ongoing enhancements for Oracle VM.

Also news was the replacement of Oracle Metalink with the new and improved support service, My Oracle Support.

Ironically, for a company that built its name on database, there were so many other exciting innovations to talk about that the database brought up the tail end of the conversation. As Phillips noted, there's no other company in the world that could cover the ground that he did this morning.

The complete keynote, and tons more conference content is available through Oracle OpenWorld On Demand, which is now available to the general public.

Exerpt from the official daily newspaper from Oracle Magazine and Profit. By Monica Mehta.

Oracle Senior Vice President of Fusion Middleware Thomas Kurian showcased how Oracle’s middleware stack can help companies gain a competitive edge during his keynote at Oracle OpenWorld on Tuesday afternoon.

Kurian focused on how Oracle’s data integration, business intelligence, and enterprise performance management products help companies clean up information, analyze it, and use it to make management decisions. He showcased Oracle products that help businesses share information, including solutions for content management, collaboration, portals, and identity management.

Kurian introduced Oracle EPM Architect, a new product that unifies and aligns processes across EPM systems. “[Oracle] EPM Architect allows you to define the facts, dimensions, and calculations you use to do your planning and financial management processes in a consistent way,” said Kurian.

Kurian also introduced Oracle Profitability Management, a solution focusing on an area that is important for companies as they go through the budgeting cycle.

In the second part of his keynote, Kurian focused on Oracle’s Enterprise 2.0 space. He showcased the integration between Oracle WebCenter, Oracle Universal Content Management, and Oracle Beehive.

He then discussed how Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Beehive allow people to work together more effectively using the information they have, and how Oracle Identity Management ensures that that information is secure.

Get the full story in the Oracle OpenWorld Daily.

Exerpt from the official daily newspaper from Oracle Magazine and Profit. By Bobbie Hartman.

“Time plays a very, very critical role in the running of Intel,” declared Intel President and CEO Paul S. Otellini during his Tuesday keynote. Otellini’s lively presentation combined a historical perspective on business productivity with a review of Intel’s latest technological achievements.

Otellini reviewed the role that time has played for Intel customers from several industries: finance, medicine, shipping, and even movie animation. In all of these, new Intel product innovations recently made the difference by enabling these organizations to gather and analyze
data faster.

Customers can expect a new level of performance from Intel products every single year, Otellini promised. He reviewed several new Intel products, including a microprocessor platform called Dunnington, a member of the Xeon family. “It’s only been out a week, and it’s already breaking benchmarks,” he added.

“Time is a very scarce and precious commodity,” Otellini concluded. “Intel technology can actually help you turn it into money for your businesses. Independent of any businesses that you’re in, optimizing in the three areas of performance, software optimization, and energy efficiency has an immediate and tangible payback for your business.”

Get the full story in the Oracle OpenWorld Daily.

Streamlined UI Based on User Input

By Richard Levitt.

The popular Oracle CRM On Demand Mobile Sales Assistant app is now available for iPhone users and was highlighted at one of yesterday's sessions. "Both the iPhone and BlackBerry versions are streamlined to feature the tools users say are most important," said Hody Crouch, Oracle product sales manager, "primarily contacts and account status." Salespeople will recognize the familiar tabs from their CRM On Demand start screen. They can then work through their daily sales routine while on the road. The most important information presented in large, clear buttons. Complete detail is available just by drilling down through the intuitive interface.

Salespeople can further customize their homescreens and menus so that the tools they use most are available first.

"Oracle is staying current with the kinds of devices our customers are using," said Crouch. "And our customers are excited about it."

Oracle OpenWorld On Demand Is Available to All

If you missed any of the conference sessions—or didn't even make it to San Francisco this year—you can still take a peek at hundreds of presentations, breakouts, and keynotes (like yesterday's Keynote pictured here) on Oracle's online streaming media portal.

Oracle recently made this On Demand content available to all Visitor Plus attendees and the general public for just $700 (still only $400 if you have a Full Conference Pass). Plus, you can rate presentations, post comments in community forums, and network with your peers. Register here and start today!

(You can also view this video at http://vimeo.com/1805601?pg=embed&sec=1805601)

This video will give you a feel for some of the latest and greatest innovations in Oracle Fusion Middleware that Kurian covered in Tuesday's Keynote address. Check our earlier post from the daily for more details. Better yet, watch the entire Keynote at your leisure (and with a full searchable transcript) with Oracle OpenWorld On Demand, now available to everyone.

Larry Ellison Announces the World’s Fastest Database Machine

(You can also view this video at http://vimeo.com/1808185)

Here’s a quick peek at Ellison’s Oracle OpenWorld keynote from yesterday. The big announcement: Oracle’s first-ever hardware product, the HP Oracle Database Machine—it’s the world’s fastest and runs with a grid of new Oracle Exadata Storage Servers. Mark Hurd, HP’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer, joined the keynote via videoconferene, and the first customers raved about the new product across the 6 massive screens of the Keynote Hall. Watch for yourself with Oracle OpenWorld On Demand, and read about it in the show’s daily newspaper (excerpt to be posted shortly).

Exerpt from the official daily newspaper from Oracle Magazine and Profit. By Rich Schwerin.

In his much-anticipated keynote address, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced Oracle’s first-ever hardware product, the HP Oracle Database Machine. Introduced as the world’s fastest database machine, the HP Oracle Database Machine improves data warehouse query performance by a factor of 10 or more. The machine is a combination of smart storage software from Oracle and industry standard hardware from HP; it consists of a grid of Oracle Database servers and a grid of new Oracle Exadata Storage Servers packaged in a single rack along with the required InfiniBand infrastructure and related hardware.

“Talk about extreme performance—you’re looking at the world’s fastest database machine,” said Ellison, as the HP Oracle Database Machine rose from beneath the stage next to him. “For the first time, customers can get smart performance storage designed for Oracle data warehouses that is 10 times faster. And this is 1,400 times larger than Apple’s largest iPod,” he added.

Designed for high-performance data warehouses and benefiting from Oracle’s and HP’s long-time engineering relationship, the HP Oracle Database Machine breaks the performance bottleneck between database servers and conventional storage by shipping less data through larger pipes.

The machine includes a grid of eight database servers featuring 64 Intel processor cores, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and a grid of 14 Oracle Exadata Storage Servers that include up to 168TB of raw storage and 14GB per-second data bandwidth to the database servers.

Get the full story in the Oracle OpenWorld Daily.

Exerpt from the official daily newspaper from Oracle Magazine and Profit. By Fred Sandsmark.

Leading off Wednesday afternoon’s keynotes, HP Technology Solutions Group Executive Vice President Ann Livermore talked about HP’s server, storage, software, and services offerings—the nearly US$38 billion global business that she leads—and her company’s relationship with Oracle. She also outlined HP’s initiatives in two hot areas: cloud computing and green IT.

Livermore began her 30-minute presentation by describing how HP relies on Oracle technology for its own operations. But HP hardware is what she came to talk about.

One-third of CIOs and CEOs know that their data centers won’t meet their demands by 2010, she said, and more than half acknowledge an urgent need to transform and modernize their data centers today.

HP is in an ideal position today to provide that next-generation data center. One of every three servers shipping today (and every other blade) is an HP server; the company ships a server every 13 seconds, and a Linux server every minute.

Livermore said that with the acquisition of EDS, HP is now the world’s second-largest IT services organization. Meanwhile, HP’s software business makes it the world’s sixth-largest enterprise software company. Finally, Livermore discussed how HP is developing hardware for cloud computing and green IT. She described HP’s Performance-Optimized Data Center (the HP POD), a 40-foot shipping container holding a self-contained, scalable, flexible computing environment with up to 22 racks.

Get the full story in the Oracle OpenWorld Daily.

The conference may be over, but the learning opportunities are not. Here are three excellent ways to review your favorite keynotes and sessions—or see them for the first time. There's an offer for every budget, including free PDFs for Full Conference attendees.

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 On Demand Offering

Available here for US$400 to Oracle OpenWorld Full Conference attendees. Available here for US$700 to anyone who was not a Full Conference attendee or who did not attend the event.

• Find all keynotes and breakout sessions (more than 1,700 presentations) in an online streaming rich media portal.
• Search all breakouts in one central repository.
• Search keynotes by attributes including the spoken word. Keynotes are available with synchronized video, slides, scrolling transcripts, and downloadable MP3s and MP4s.
• Comment on and rate presentations online, and post your own user-generated content.
• Blog, participate in communities, and network with your peers.

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 DVD Kit

All attendees may purchase the complete presentations and keynotes for US$200. The DVD kit is available here.

• A complete set of conference presentations and keynotes (PDF only).
• DVDs will be mailed to your mailing address three to four weeks after the conference.
• Available only while supplies last.

Full Conference Attendees—Access to Presentations Through Content Catalog

All Oracle OpenWorld 2008 Full Conference attendees, including customer speakers, have free access to the following:

• Presentations in PDF format. (Audio is not available with this option.)

Access to the presentations is available through the Content Catalog on the Oracle OpenWorld 2008 Web site. Please note:

• You must have your registration ID or username and password.
• When downloading presentations, you will be prompted to enter a username and password. This username and password are listed on the Content Catalog page in red.

Special Access for Oracle Employees

In a dynamic company like Oracle, there’s always something new for employees to learn—and there’s nobody better to learn it from than our top execs, our product experts, our partners, industry leaders … and, of course, our customers. That means there’s no better place to learn than at Oracle OpenWorld.

Unfortunately not all of us could make the trip—and most who did were so busy helping to run the show that they didn’t have a chance to take it all in. Never fear, we can see and hear it all with Oracle OpenWorld On Demand at the special employee rate of $100 per user.

Here’s how to do it.

If you attended the conference:

• Go to the Oracle OpenWorld home page
• Under ORACLE OPENWORLD TOOLS click on My Oracle OpenWorld Reg
• Enter your username and password
• Add the Oracle OpenWorld On Demand package

If you did not attend the conference:

• Go to the Oracle OpenWorld page on MyOracle (Oracle intranet access only)
• Click on Registration for Oracle OpenWorld On Demand
• Follow the instructions

Check it out. Then come back here and let your fellow employees know what you found.

Paulistas Welcome the Largest Oracle Event in Latin America

While Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco is almost nine months away, our Latin America event is just around the corner. With less than eight weeks to go, are you ready?

This year’s agenda includes in-depth, industry-specific keynotes, sessions, and exhibitions. In order to help you network and learn from the right folks, Oracle OpenWorld Latin America is aligned into four categories: Applications, Database, Industries, and Middleware.

Oracle experts, customers, and partners will provide the most up-to-date information on how to make the most of Oracle products and services. We’ll show you innovative ways to streamline your data management, and introduce you to developments that will transform your business intelligence. You’ll learn about new solutions for CRM, collaboration, and information security. In the Oracle DEMOgrounds, Oracle sponsors and exhibitors will guide you through the latest developments in content management, EPM, and middle market solutions. And, you’ll learn how our product road map has been expanded to include solutions from recent acquisitions.

One of the new features this year is the ability to schedule one-on-one sessions with Oracle experts at the Customer Visitor Centre. You can take advantage of one of these meetings to get personalized solutions to your specific business challenges.

Also at the show, you’ll be able to witness the speed of the new HP Oracle Database Machine with the HP Oracle Exadata Storage Server. And don’t miss the Oracle User Groups, where you can participate, share, and discover the best practices of your peers.

Discounted registration packages expire in a few hours, so take advantage of them now if you haven’t already. If you’re already registered, take some time to tell us what you’re looking forward to by leaving us a comment.

(Photo by André Deak, available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.)

Oracle OpenWorld Speaks Portuguese

With less than a month to go, we hope you have already finalized your plans for Oracle OpenWorld Latin America. But, if you’re still on the fence about going, here’s some additional info to get you excited about the show.

First, this year’s keynote will be delivered by Oracle President, Safra Catz. She will present Oracle’s strategy to deliver the greatest value to your organization with our complete, open, and integrated product portfolio.

Second, the schedule for this year will address many diverse topics, including CRM, EPM, and SOA. We’ll even cover some topics without abbreviations, like data warehouses, identity management, and supply chain management. You can check out the rest of the agenda, or visit the online Content Catalog, to find the right combination of sessions for you.

Lastly, do we need to remind you that the show takes place in São Paulo this year? There are a ton of fantastic diversions in the area, and we’ve picked out some hotels that will help you maximize your show time as well as your sightseeing time. If you haven’t registered yet, time is running out. What a great excuse to visit Brazil, right? Leave us a comment and let us know why you’re headed to Oracle OpenWorld Latin America. Até lá!

Coming Soon: Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Call for Papers

Even with thousands of sessions and tens of thousands of attendees, you want more out of Oracle OpenWorld. And we’re here to give it to you.

You asked for more input from customers, partners, and developers. So, in a few weeks, we will be expanding our call for papers by inviting them to play a greater role in the world's largest conference for Oracle customers and technologists.

Look for a more formal announcement—on this blog and on the Oracle OpenWorld page—towards the end of March, when we’ll start detailing the process, schedule, and guidelines. Until then, get your submissions ready so you can be part of Oracle OpenWorld 2009.

Call for Papers is Open Now

Oracle OpenWorld 2009 is your opportunity to be a part of the conversation. And this year, based on your feedback, we’re inviting customers, partners, and developers to play an even larger role in the show.

Starting today, you can add to the rich content of Oracle OpenWorld by submitting your best ideas, recent findings, or success stories to the Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Call for Papers. We can’t wait to hear what innovations the Oracle community has been discovering since the 2008 event.

If you’re not quite ready to get your paper in today, don’t fret. You have until April 19 to submit your contribution. The Oracle OpenWorld content team will review every submission, picking their favorites to add to the Content Catalog. Some select sessions not picked for the show will be up for public voting via Oracle Mix starting in early June. Voting will last for 3 weeks, and we’ll announce the winners shortly after that.

Here are some hints to help your paper get noticed:
• Give your paper a clear and concise title.
• Create an abstract that describes your presentation’s value for attendees.
• Make sure you can categorize your submission with relevant tracks.
• Include tags to help classify your paper.
• Tell us the type of session.
• Pick an appropriate Session Category.

Remember, you have until April 19 to get in your papers. We’ll notify selected speakers June 9. After you’ve submitted your paper, let us know how the process went.

The preparations for the show are coming at such a fast pace, it won’t be long before we’re dancing in the streets—Howard Street, in particular.

Update: The Call for Papers deadline has been extended until 11:59 p.m. PT on Sunday, April 26.

Oracle OpenWorld Call for Papers Deadline Extended

The Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Call for Papers deadline has been extended by one week. So, if you’ve been procrastinating—or distracted by other important things—you’ve received a reprieve. You now have until 11:59 p.m. PT on Sunday, April 26, to submit your proposal.

We’re looking forward to presenting the recent innovations and success stories from our partners and customers at Oracle OpenWorld 2009. Don’t wait until the last minute to get your best ideas in front of the Oracle OpenWorld content team. And while we’re encouraging you to conquer procrastination, take advantage of the Early Bird registration rates for the show. These windows of opportunity are only open for a limited time. Remember, well begun is half done.

Public Voting for Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Sessions Opens Next Week

Last year’s Suggest a Session feature was such a hit, we expanded it this year. For Oracle OpenWorld 2009, we invited our customers, partners, and developers to play a larger role in the content presented by submitting their best ideas, recent findings, or success stories for inclusion in the schedule. Our Call for Papers ended in late April, and our content team has been busy poring over the submissions, adding their favorites to the show’s agenda. Now it’s your chance to weigh in.

We’re gearing up for the session voting to begin Tuesday, June 16, on Oracle Mix. You can browse all the proposed sessions, pick your favorites, and elevate the cream of the crop right into the show’s schedule.

If you submitted a topic during our Call for Papers, start lobbying for it now. Let people in your network know that voting opens soon. Share you topic on Oracle Mix. Update your Twitter status. Mention it on your blog. Post a link to your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. You might even want to leave a comment on this post. Make sure that everyone you know is ready to select your session for the show.

And, just in case you need another reminder, don’t forget to register for the conference before the Early Bird rates end in August. We’re only four months away from the start of the world's largest event dedicated to helping enterprises harness the power of information, so register today.

Oracle OpenWorld Content Catalog Goes Live Soon

The Oracle OpenWorld 2009 content catalog is scheduled to go live in the next ten days. It will give you the first glimpse into most of the 1,800 Oracle OpenWorld sessions available this year, including session titles, abstracts, track info, and confirmed speakers. The catalog will include session info on Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle Develop, and the Primavera Program.

Plus, there will be a very cool new feature: You can tag sessions. That way you—and others who do what you do or think the way you think—will be more likely to find the important sessions you don’t want to miss.

What it won’t include just yet are the sessions you get to vote on beginning tomorrow. Make sure you cast your vote on Oracle Mix.

So watch this space. We’ll let you know when the content catalog goes live.

Public Voting for Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Sessions Is Now Open

Public voting for sessions opened recently on Oracle Mix. You can go there now to vote on the sessions you want to see added to the Oracle OpenWorld agenda.

We tried something similar at last year’s show, and it was a huge success. This year, our content team wanted to ensure that their favorite proposals made it in. After you—our customers, partners, and developers—answered the Call for Papers, they evaluated every single submission, picked their favorites for inclusion, and then put another batch up for public voting. Now you get to choose who gets invited to present.

To get started, go to the session voting page on Oracle Mix. Then, look through the submissions sorted by streams, tracks, title, top vote-getters, or a random selection, and start voting for the ones you want to see in the show. Remember, only registered Oracle Mix members can vote. If you’re not a member yet, sign up now. Then, vote for your favorites.

If your submission is in the running, let everyone in your network know by using the “Share this” section of your paper’s voting page. We want to make sure the best content gets in; the more votes we get, the better the conference will be.

We set up an FAQ about the entire process if you have questions. Since this is only the second time we’ve done something like this for Oracle OpenWorld, we’re looking for your feedback about where we can make improvements. Leave your thoughts here in the comments, or start a discussion on Oracle Mix—after you vote, of course.

Oracle OpenWorld Content Catalog Is Live

The Oracle OpenWorld 2009 content catalog is live.

You can start perusing most of the 1,800 Oracle OpenWorld sessions available this year, including session titles, abstracts, track info, and confirmed speakers. The catalog will include session info on Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle Develop, and the Primavera Program.

We've also added the ability to tag content this year. That way you—and others who do what you do, or think the way you think—can easily find this year’s don’t-miss sessions.

Remember, you can still have a say on sessions you want to see added to the Oracle OpenWorld agenda. Make sure you cast your vote on Oracle Mix.

Take a few minutes to poke around, and let us know how the Oracle OpenWorld 2009 content catalog works for you.

Vote-a-Session Deadline Extended to July 10

Response to the Oracle OpenWorld Vote-a-Session has been so enthusiastic, the deadline has been extended a week to Friday, July 10. If you haven’t voted, go to Oracle Mix now.

Here's a quick recap of some top-rated sessions so far:

• Blistering Web Applications with Oracle 11g RAC and In-Memory Database Cache
• Oracle Projects Costing 11i10 for Seamless Capital Costs Accounting
• Provisioning of Clusterware - ASM - RAC with Enterprise Manager
• Transportation Security Agency Advances Shared Services With Oracle Insight
• Delivering a J2EE Stack in the Cloud with Oracle Weblogic Server

If you have a session under consideration, let people know about it. Talk about it on Oracle Mix, send a Twitter update, blog about it, and add links to your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. You can even give us some details in the comments section of this post. But make sure you visit Oracle Mix and participate in the Oracle OpenWorld community.

Find Your Way to Expert Advice

Have you ever waded through endless documentation trying to establish best practices at the very beginning of a project? Or, with the project’s deadline fast approaching, scrambled to solve glitches you could never have predicted despite all that careful planning? If so, you know that expert advice is sometimes necessary. In fact when you’re in a tight spot, it can’t come too soon.

As usual, the current issue of Oracle Magazine covers a full range of technical topics, sometimes responding directly to readers dealing with real-life implementation issues. Take the time to learn how others are overcoming obstacles while getting their projects off the ground using Oracle Application Development Framework, PL/SQL, Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio, and Oracle Data Pump, just to name a few.

If you’re looking to roll up your sleeves for an extreme learning experience, you can’t beat Oracle Develop, the developer event that coincides with Oracle OpenWorld. This year, Oracle Develop is more deserving of your attention than ever. The list of topics covered might be immense, but the knowledge gained from attending expert-led sessions, labs, and demos is always right on target. Program tracks are now listed, so you can start making plans today.

Customize Your Oracle OpenWorld Experience

The Oracle OpenWorld Schedule Builder will be available soon. It provides your first opportunity to enroll in the sessions that are most important to your business and your career. The unique recommendation engine uses your profile to recommend other interesting content specific to you and your industry.

This year’s Schedule Builder has been retooled to be more robust, more intuitive, and more helpful than ever, thanks to your feedback from last year. So, watch this space for the launch announcement.

But remember to complete your Full Conference registration before taking advantage of all of its benefits.

(Photo by NASA, courtesy of nasaimages.org.)

Build Your Own Oracle OpenWorld Agenda

The Oracle OpenWorld 2009 online Schedule Builder is live. If you’ve already completed your Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle Develop, or Primavera Program registration, you can start creating your Oracle OpenWorld schedule now.

Based on feedback from last year, we added features so that this year’s improved Schedule Builder will be more helpful than ever. You can use it to navigate the conference, view detailed information on sessions and activities, and add the sessions that interest you. Your schedule will automatically include all main general sessions, as well as any content you add. Once you come up with your own agenda for the show, you can view, edit, print, and export it any time.

Finding the sessions right for you is easy. Here’s some of the ways to create your own Oracle OpenWorld experience:

• Build Schedule: Search for sessions, tags, demos, and exhibitors and add them to your schedule or interests.
• Save Schedule and Interests: View your current schedule and add or remove events.
• Stay Updated: Get session additions, cancellations, and schedule changes.
• Get Recommendations: Use the recommendation engine—powered by Oracle Data Mining—for a customized list of sessions, demos, and exhibits.
• Share Sessions: Send your coworkers, partners, and business network an e-mail about interesting sessions from within the tool.

With the launch of Schedule Builder, your Oracle OpenWorld 2009 experience begins today. After you’ve started compiling your selected sessions, come back and tell us about the process. We’d love to hear what you think of the new and improved Schedule Builder.

Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g

This year, middleware is sure to be one of the hot topics at Oracle OpenWorld. In fact, you should mark your calendar now for the middleware stream keynote, presented by Hasan Rizvi, Senior Vice President of Oracle Fusion Middleware. Like much of the middleware track, the focus will be on innovation. How are organizations innovating their business models? Cost structures? Customer relationships? The answer is in IT and the transformational technologies currently being adopted, such as SOA, enterprise content management, business intelligence, and application grid.

The Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g resource center launched at the very end of June with Webcasts that feature Charles Phillips and Thomas Kurian, discussing what's new in the latest release. The site also points you to a whole slew of resources (white papers, podcasts, videos, and data sheets) on the specific products we've updated.

As you'll be able to tell from even a quick glance at the resource center, the four basic pillars of Oracle Fusion Middleware are that it's: complete, integrated, hot-pluggable, and best-of-breed. What do these principles mean? Read the cover story of the latest issue of Oracle Magazine for all the nuances. You'll also get a detailed discussion on how they apply to SOA, grid computing, and Enterprise 2.0—plus examples of how organizations are already realizing benefits from our standards-based approach.

If you've found some innovative uses of your middleware, share them in the comments.

Oracle OpenWorld Focus On Documents

Oracle OpenWorld has so much to offer, you don't want to play it by ear—and you certainly don't want to hear about a must-attend event from your colleagues after it's already happened.

Start planning now by reviewing the Oracle OpenWorld Focus On documents. These guides narrow all of the keynotes, sessions, demos, and networking activities relevant to particular areas of interest. They're one of your best tools for finding events sorted by Oracle products, technologies, solutions, and industries. You'll find topics as broad as database application development or as fine-tuned as a specific Oracle E-Business Suite module.

The Oracle OpenWorld team will keep Focus On documents up-to-date—and add new ones—as the show gets closer. Bookmark them today, so that you have them within easy reach as the updates get made.

An Interview with Steve Lemme, Independent Oracle Users Group

The Independent Oracle Users Group is one of the largest Oracle-based member communities, serving nearly 20,000 database professionals throughout the world. Host to the annual COLLABORATE conference, the group extends its in-depth seminars, "ask-the-experts" sessions, and hands-on labs throughout regional meetings, Webcasts, and events. (IOUG board member Steve Lemme's upcoming session at Oracle OpenWorld will be about deploying virtual environments.) In this clip, Oracle Magazine Senior Editor Jeff Erickson talks with Steve about a "passion for learning" among IOUG members. The interview took place at Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, California.

Shining a Light on the Oracle Support Stars Bar

Today, we kick off our new video series Over-Dressed for Oracle OpenWorld, highlighting the antics of a misguided conference attendee who favors style over substance.

If you're coming to Oracle OpenWorld with some tough support questions, make a stop at the Oracle Support Stars Bar—open all week during the conference. It's an excellent venue for learning about the Oracle applications, database, management and infrastructure, and middleware products you use everyday. The stars of Oracle Support are the same people providing world-class support to the 345,000 customers who use Oracle products to run their enterprises. Get their autographs during the show at Moscone West, Level 2 during select hours.

An Interview with Todd Sheetz, Independent Oracle Users Group

When the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) decided to establish a special interest group (SIG) for Linux in 2007, Todd Sheetz saw an opportunity. "I thought there would be no better way to grow my Linux network than to lead the SIG myself."

Sheetz, a frequent presenter and panel discussion moderator at Oracle OpenWorld, is now preparing for his upcoming Expert Roundtable on Oracle-on-Linux war stories. In this interview from Oracle Magazine, Senior Editor Jeff Erickson talks with Sheetz over Skype about what makes a successful conference session.

Pitch-n-Putt for Prizes at the Callaway Experience

If you haven't yet seen our fashionable video series Over-Dressed for Oracle OpenWorld, be warned: it may force you to rethink your wardrobe for the show.

In this installment, an eager attendee gets all geared up for the Callaway Experience—an interactive par 3 golf simulation game, taking place inside the Exhibition Hall booth during the week. Badge-holders can participate in putting and chipping contests using Callaway foam practice balls. You could win any of several great prizes, including $100 Callaway gift cards and sleeves of Callaway balls. It's your chance to swing away in the great indoors!

True Religion Brand Jeans Stays Faithful to On-Demand Model

Is there one software delivery model that's right for every customer? Probably not. Choosing an on-demand, in-house, hosted, or application management model is mostly a matter of timing and objectives.

For True Religion Brand Jeans, an on demand implementation was ideal. Their business is about redefining denim and sportswear, so it's no surprise that their innovative thinking extends to their choices in IT solutions.

True Religion wanted software that best fit their philosophy of new-generation or light IT. And they wanted a vendor they trusted to be accountable for their product. They opted for Oracle E-Business Suite On Demand, which perfectly fit their plans for significant business growth and eventual global expansion.

You can learn more at Oracle OpenWorld on Monday, October 12, when John Dohm, True Religion's VP of IT, takes the stage in a session titled Putting It Together.

To get you ready for John's session, take a look at the interview he gave during the recent Oracle Retail CrossTalk 2009 event.

An Interview with Mike Riley, Oracle Development Tools User Group

As president of the Oracle Development Tools User Group, Mike Riley's emphasis is perpetuating the sharing and teaching that he first experienced soon after joining ODTUG years ago. In this Oracle Magazine clip, Senior Editor Jeff Erickson talks to Riley about mentorship and collaboration among users.

Riley now oversees the 21 sessions that ODTUG will be presenting at Oracle OpenWorld 2009, including 16 at Oracle Develop. In addition, on Sunday, October 11, ODTUG is participating in the Oracle Users Forum through four Symposium events: a full day Oracle Application Express Symposium, along with the Independent Oracle Users Group, a full day Web Architecture Symposium, a full day Portal Technologies Symposium (another partnership with IOUG), and the Hyperion Symposium, held in conjunction with the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) and featuring a keynote by John Kopcke, Senior Vice President of Oracle's Business Intelligence and Performance Management Global Business Unit.

Meet Riley and talk to other leaders of ODTUG during Oracle OpenWorld 2009, by visiting their booth in the User Groups Pavilion on the 2nd floor of Moscone West.

Oracle SVP Mike Beck on Outsourcing Your Data Management

After spending more than 20 years working on large outsourcing contracts, Michael Beck knows that outsourcing has become a key consideration of every leading organization's IT strategy. And as the Senior Vice President for Oracle's On Demand Global Operations Services, Mike is proud to deliver Oracle software to customers around the globe.

Oracle OpenWorld gives Mike the chance to share his knowledge about the challenges that today's CIOs face every day—keeping enterprise stacks up and running while monitoring, maintaining, and updating the software on a constant basis. At Mike's session on Monday, October 12, Experts Host & Manage Your Enterprise Software, you can learn how to reduce risk by following Oracle On Demand best practices for managing software and infrastructure.

For a sneak peak at some of the answers to your Oracle On Demand questions, take a look at the FAQ video Mike recorded. If you have a question that's not covered in the video, let us know. Or, better yet, head to Mike's session, and ask him yourself.

A Sneak Peek from Presenter Andy Mendelsohn

As Oracle OpenWorld approaches, several keynote presenters have stepped away from their desks long enough to give us a preview of their presentations. In the video clip above, Andy Mendelsohn, head of Oracle's database development group, shares the exciting innovations he'll cover Monday, October 12, at 11:30 a.m. at Moscone North, Hall D.

This year, the announcement of Oracle Exadata V2 and the release of Oracle Database 11g Release 2 promise extreme performance for OLTP workloads and Data Warehousing customers. Andy will explain the new addition of Exadata Smart Flash Cache using Sun FlashFire technology to enable speeds over one million I/Os per second. He'll also show how Oracle Database 11g Release 2 is already delivering cost efficiencies and productivity gains critical in the current economy.

Got a database question you're dying to have Andy Mendelsohn answer? Ask it here in our comments section, and we'll pass it along to him before the show.

A Sneak Peek at Show Sessions

Virtualization is driving fundamental transformations in the data center, bringing with it lower cost and greater agility—but also management challenges. At Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle Chief Corporate Architect, Edward Screven, and Senior Vice President of Oracle Product Development, Richard Sarwal, will explain why virtualization is not just about servers, but also about applications and services. You'll see firsthand how Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) unleashes the power of virtualization to help you build your private cloud, simplify deployment and management of applications, and maximize the return on your investments in any environment—virtual or physical.

This 4 p.m. general session is on Monday, October 12, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Novellus Theater.

Got a virtualization question you'd like to ask Edward or Richard? Leave it here in our comments section, and we'll pass it along to them before the show.

Action! Adventure! Demos! At the Solution Spotlight Theater

High drama and heartbreaking pathos highlight this episode of the video series Over-Dressed for Oracle OpenWorld. Set against the epic backdrop of a modern-day trade show, a cosmopolitan theatergoer is hornswoggled into believing he's off to a night at the theater. Confusion reigns until he discovers that the Oracle OpenWorld Solution Spotlight Theater is actually the place where conference attendees can seek help from a staff of Oracle experts. Here, the Oracle partner community connects with one another to demonstrate solutions, services, and unique capabilities in the Moscone South Exhibition Hall, next to the Oracle DEMOgrounds. For those in need of concrete answers to the most troubling technology conundrums, this theater promises its patrons a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Keeping Score at Monday Night's General Session

Fantasy football fanatics who are attending Monday night's Oracle OpenWorld General Session Keynotes have assurances from presenter Steve Miranda that game scores will be intermixed with his insights on how Oracle Applications can help your company's economic, operational, and competitive performance. Miranda, Senior Vice President of Oracle Applications Development, will demonstrate ways in which today's CIOs can deliver applications that optimize every function of the enterprise and increase business competitiveness. Joining Steve will be Rick Jewell, Senior Vice President of Oracle Applications Development, to talk about supply chain applications, Hyperion to Demantra integration, and Oracle's new rapid planning capability.

Their presentation starts at 5:15 p.m. on Monday, October 12, in Moscone North, Hall D.

Got a question you'd like to ask Steve or Rick about Oracle Applications? Type it here in our comments section, and we'll pass it along to them before the show.

Oracle OpenWorld Tools

By this time next week, we'll be more than mid-way through Oracle OpenWorld. Before the show gets started, we wanted to highlight some of the tools this site has for you to stay current on conference news, schedule changes, and exciting announcements.

We've got two sections near the top of this page that we're particularly interested in pointing out, Oracle OpenWorld Tools and Stay Connected. Each has a wealth of information to discover with just a few clicks of the mouse. First, let's focus on the Oracle OpenWorld Tools section.

Here we have links for the Content Catalog—so you can find the sessions you're looking for—Schedule Builder—if you haven't used it yet, what are you waiting for?—and the Oracle OpenWorld Wiki—your evolving reference for the 2009 show.

In the next part of our series, we'll take a closer look at the Stay Connected section. If you're planning your own on-line strategy to follow the show, share it with us in the comments.

Update:
We added Virtual Collateral Rack and Navigate. OpenWorld. links to the Oracle OpenWorld Tools section. These additions combine to give you the power to make the most of your time in the Exhibition Hall. You can search for collateral and the find the exact booths you need to hone in on the demos and exhibitions yo're looking forward to at the show..

Stay Connected

In our earlier post, we told you about how to learn more about next week's show from the Oracle OpenWorld Tools section of the site. Next, we want to highlight the Stay Connected features.

Under this area, you'll find the quickest ways to access our more interactive Web presences. Our Facebook page has a collection of posts and videos that you can share your opinions on. The Twitter account we created for the show let's us engage you in conversation and answer your questions. Our group on LinkedIn has been a great place for users to start their own discussions, and we hope that you're doing the same in our Oracle Mix group, too. Finally, our YouTube channel has been the place for informative, and sometimes light-hearted, video creations.

We'll be using all of these resources to make sure you can get the information you want, and share the thoughts you have with us. Make sure you keep coming back to this blog during the show. Our staff will be posting updates from keynotes, uploading interesting happenings to our YouTube channel, and sharing surprises and contests on Twitter. Check back often, and share your own stories in our comments section.

Sizing Up The Callaway Golf Experience

Attention golfers: there's been a change of course! The Callaway Experience—an interactive par 3 golf simulation game will be taking place inside the Exhibition Hall at booth #3623 during the week (not #3645, as previously reported).

It's still the same great chance to pitch-n-putt with Callaway foam practice balls to win prizes like $100 gift cards and sleeves of balls. This year, the golf experience is brought to you by Tata Consultancy Services. And if you're wondering what to wear to this "sport of kings," consult our video series, Over-Dressed for Oracle OpenWorld.

Have some golf advice for puttering putters? Feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Innovation Takes Center Stage at General Sessions

With the release of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, Oracle delivers a foundation for organizations to innovate business models, cost structures, and customer connections—while maximizing IT efficiency. At Oracle OpenWorld this Monday, be among the first see Oracle Senior Vice President Hasan Rizvi demonstrate how the latest release of Oracle Fusion Middleware delivers on the promise of the agile and intelligent enterprise. Hear how transformational technologies such as SOA, enterprise content management, business intelligence, and application grid provide the foundation for customer-driven innovation and Oracle Fusion Applications.

This session takes place Monday, October 12, at 2:30 p.m. in Moscone North, Hall D.

Got a question you'd like to ask Hasan? Leave it here in our comments section, and we'll pass it along to him before the show.

Dedicated Sessions on Data Integration

On September 3, 2009, Oracle completed the acquisition of GoldenGate Software, a leading provider of real-time data integration solutions, making GoldenGate a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle. As partners for more than ten years, Oracle and GoldenGate share a vision of providing customers with comprehensive real-time data integration solutions. Adding GoldenGate products to Oracle's middleware portfolio increases Oracle's ability to provide mission-critical capabilities to customers operating in complex IT environments.

Learn more about GoldenGate at Oracle OpenWorld through dedicated sessions, or see the latest product offerings in booth #3709 at Moscone West.

(Photo by George Oates, available under a Creative Commons license.)

Exerpt from the Oracle OpenWorld Daily. By Staff.

Welcome to Extreme Innovation at Oracle OpenWorld. Join Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Sun Microsystems Chairman of the Board and cofounder Scott McNealy, and others as we kick off the premier business technology conference of 2009 with a keynote that will get you thinking about the week ahead and, more importantly, about technology for the future of your business.

The Sun Oracle Database Machine is the world's fastest machine for both data warehousing and online transaction processing (OLTP). It is a complete package of software, servers, and networking for all data management, including data warehousing, transaction processing, and consolidated mixed-application workloads.

With the Sun Oracle Database Machine, customers can consolidate all their database applications, store up to 10 times as much data, search data up to 10 times as fast, and make faster business decisions in real time without making changes to applications.

Don't miss your opportunity to hear it here first. Join Scott McNealy at 5:45 this evening in Moscone North, Hall D, for a showcase of the newest game-changing innovations. McNealy is also hosting a special onstage discussion with Larry Ellison on Sun and Oracle's plans to deliver even more innovation and value to customers.

Get the full story in the Oracle OpenWorld Daily.

"What Are We Still Doing Wrong?" Asks Tom

By Richard Levitt.

Tom Kyte, vice president and senior technical architect in Oracle's Server Technology Division, Oracle ACE, and the popular blogger behind Ask Tom, enthusiastically kicked off Oracle Develop yesterday by pointing out areas where developers can realize big improvements by making minor adjustments to the way they approach their work. What are some of the things we're still getting wrong?:

1. Underestimating the complexity of jobs—code changes that seem simple or inconsequential to LOB execs may be major engineering feats.
2. Not knowing how to ask for help—with the accessibility of user forums, blogs, and other resources, developers have become sloppy about posting incomplete or irrelevant questions.
3. Generating too much code—"You can reduce a million lines of code to a single SQL statement," said Tom.
4. Pretending everything will be all right—plan for disaster and, at least, conscientiously back-up data.
5. Taking security for granted—Tom suggests developers "Submit your code to someone who doesn't like you."
6. Treating "best practices" as rules—"know the technology inside and out and make your own decisions," he advises.

To hear more from Tom, watch a replay of this keynote online, or join his next session:

ID#: S311234
The top 10--No, 11--New Features of Oracle Database 11g Release 2
Track: Database
Tuesday, 10/13/2009, 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Moscone South, Room 103

Profit: The Executive's Guide To Oracle's Applications

The November 2009 edition of Profit magazine is available online now, and we especially invite Oracle OpenWorld attendees to take a look. If you're attending this year's Applications Stream sessions, there's no better way to begin soaking up the topics we'll be covering at the conference.

In our feature article, you'll find out how City University of New York implemented PeopleSoft software with a minimal budget—while achieving maximum results.

This issue also includes executive insight on Oracle's support for open standards, articles about customers who are achieving success with Oracle's Hyperion and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software, and a look at two companies—EMC and Maruti Suzuki—that are seeing excellent business results from a strategy based on the complete Oracle stack.

Both CUNY and EMC will be presenting sessions at Oracle OpenWorld, so you can stop by and ask them any follow-up questions in person.

Insights Into This Year's Attendees and Topics

The November/December 2009 issue of Oracle Magazine is now available online. It features "Portraits of Excellence"—the presentation of the eighth annual Editors' Choice Awards to distinguished leaders and technologists. Find out which of your fellow Oracle OpenWorld attendees stand out from this year's crowd.

The issue also includes coverage of this year's hottest topics: Oracle Exadata V2 and Sun Oracle Database Machine; an interview about Oracle Database 11g Release 2 with Andy Mendelsohn, Oracle's senior vice president of Database Server Technologies; customers talking about their use of Oracle Database 11g Release 2; Oracle Database evangelist Tom Kyte's first look at key features in the new database release; and a lot more.

Exerpt from the official daily newspaper from Oracle Magazine and Profit. By Bobbie Hartman.

Before a packed crowd of customers and partners, Oracle Presidents Charles Phillips and Safra Catz took the stage at Monday morning's keynote to highlight Oracle's accomplishments over the last year and present Oracle's vision of the future—a future that is connected, open, and ready to deploy.

Catz kicked things off with the backstory of Oracle's strategy, recounting that as Oracle went through its own IT transformation, the company realized that most of the hard work in IT was being done by the customer, not the vendor.

Following on Catz's remarks, Phillips discussed Oracle's accomplishments over the past year. Oracle spends billions on innovation and integration every year, he reminded the audience. Phillips outlined the latest developments in the Oracle stack: in applications, industry solutions, middleware, database, and infrastructure.

Commenting on Oracle's record with its acquired technology, "We did exactly what we said we would do," Phillips said. "We continued to enhance these products, making them easier to upgrade, with better analytics and modern middleware. It's instructive to look at that track record as people are again worried about what we might do with Sun hardware. We'll do what we've always done. We'll make the products better."

Get the full story in the Oracle OpenWorld Daily.

IT Managers and Executives Share CRM Success Stories

By Richard Levitt.

One by one, senior IT managers of huge, decentralized, highly-demanding global IT organizations got up and spoke about the challenges, fears, problems, threats, and general shenanigans involved in implementing and adopting a CRM solution.

Then each described how Oracle CRM solutions mitigated all those problems and concerns, and what happened once they began the process of rolling out the implementations.

Starting out the presentations, Shauna Della, Hewlett Packard Vice President Sales IT, described the world's largest Siebel CRM implementation, with upwards of 32,000 users. "It provides a unified platform for managing our sales pipeline," she said.

Christian Venter, Head of Global Solutions Delivery for ANZ, is responsible for all customer channels except online, including telephone, tellers, ATMs, and others. He explained, "We're getting better results from the limited time and touchpoints we have with customers."

Next up, Stephen Miller, Sales Operations Manager for Scottish Windows, pointed out that even with tens of thousands of sales and service employees and millions of customers, they were very quickly "up and running as a combined sales force, with standard processes and management reporting."

"We almost brought Oracle to its knees," joked Bridget Warns, Senior Director of Customer Engagement and Integration of US Foodservice, "with our fast-turn business and the enormous quantity of data we manage." But after a meticulous review of leading solutions, they chose Oracle CRM On Demand because it offers six key benefits: simplicity, speed, connectivity, integration, reporting, and lifecycle management.

If there's a CRM session you're looking forward to, or want to share with other Oracle OpenWorld attendees, leave a comment and let us know.

Oracle OpenWorld Is On Demand for Everyone

Probably the one question we hear most often about Oracle OpenWorld, from those who make it to the conference and those who don't, is "How can I watch the presentations after the show is over?"

The answer is Oracle OpenWorld On Demand. And, this year—for the first time ever—all 1800+ conference sessions plus Keynotes are available on demand for everyone. And at huge discounts from previous years.

Full Conference attendees now receive free access as part of their package. Anyone else can purchase access for only $245. That's a $455 discount over last year for partial attendees—and an offer previously unavailable at any price for nonattendees.

All conference sessions will be available as downloadable mp3s with PowerPoints. Keynotes and General Sessions will have synchronized audio, video, transcripts, and PowerPoint. These Sessions can be downloaded as mp3 audio, mp4 audio or PowerPoint with embedded transcript.

Access is easy:

• If you're a Full Conference attendee, access here.
• If you're a registered attendee but don't have a Full Conference pass, you can purchase access as an add on.
• Nonattendees can register and purchase here.

You can also visit the official Oracle OpenWorld Web site for more information, to purchase, or for access.

Exerpt from the official daily newspaper from Oracle Magazine and Profit. By Fred Sandsmark.

As a wet, windy storm slammed the streets of San Francisco, Oracle OpenWorld attendees gathered on Tuesday morning to hear Thomas Kurian, Oracle executive vice president, product development, describe the storms that businesses face today.

Business Process Management. Kurian advocated a packaged yet customizable business process infrastructure built on Oracle Application Integration Architecture—one that works out of the box but that can be adapted to changes in business conditions.

Business Intelligence. Kurian was joined onstage by Michael Siebert of Ingersoll-Rand, who discussed how his company gets a unified view of business intelligence through integrated Oracle applications.

Governance, Controls, and Security. Kurian invited Norm Fjeldheim of Qualcomm to explain how his company uses Oracle to create strong governance and compliance. Qualcomm now closes its books in one day and completes its SEC reporting in two days.

Scalability and High Availability. Many companies need to add capacity, reduce downtime, and work within tight budgets, and Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and Oracle Middleware 11g provide new ways to do so.

Operational Management. Companies need a centralized way to manage many different business applications and systems, correlate that information to actual user problems, and take action, Kurian said. Marshall Lew of Office Depot said his company uses Oracle Enterprise Manager to centrally manage its environment.

Kurian said in conclusion, "Not only do we offer a complete, open, and integrated suite of solutions, but every individual piece of that solution footprint is best of breed."

Get the full story in the Oracle OpenWorld Daily.

Powerful New Oracle Products Deliver Speed, Performance, Flexibility, and Security

By Richard Levitt.

Wednesday's keynote featured Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO, and S. Gopalakrishnan, InfoSys Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director—plus a couple surprise guests.

The capacity audience was greeted by rock n' roll and animated graphics showing the building blocks of IT as they assembled and reassembled themselves into the infinite combinations of a modern technology stack.

First, Oracle President Charles Phillips introduced founder of the Who and Appreciation Event headliner Roger Daltrey.

Then S. Gopalakrishnan spoke of trends that define successful business: simplification, adaptivity, moving from value chains to value webs, smarter organizations, and strategic partnering.

"This is the time to focus on innovation," he said.

Then Larry Ellison came on stage and taught a master class in enterprise data management, starting with an update on Oracle Enterprise Linux , and continuing with a gleeful description of Oracle Exadata V2, the new Sun Oracle collaboration that has broken all records for data warehousing and OLTP performance.

After extolling the many virtues of Oracle's latest innovation, Ellison pointedly backed his claim of unmatchable performance. "If anyone wants to make $10 million, prove me wrong," he offered, pointing out that the performance of Oracle Exadata V2 comes at about one-quarter the cost of a comparable IBM system.

His presentation was punctuated by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came onstage and spoke about technology and its economic and social importance. "It's the bridge to solving problems in the 21st century," he said. The Governor then invited attendees to stay after the event and enjoy California. Half joking he added, "We need the revenue."

Ellison then continued with a demo of a new product support tool, based on the merged power of MyOracle Support, Oracle Enterprise Manager, and a collaborative, global configuration database. "It's proactive, unified, and personalized," he said.

Finally he offered a brief summary of Oracle Fusion Applications, Oracle's next generation BI-based suite of software and tools. "We understand that our customers have an enormous investment in existing applications, and we're going to continue to enhance those applications for the next decade and beyond," said Ellison. "We not only maintain the software of today, but we build the software of tomorrow, so you can move, if you want to, when you want to."

Did you see the keynote? Share your thoughts here.

New Program Kicks Off At Oracle OpenWorld

If you skipped any of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) events at Oracle OpenWorld, you may have missed the announcement about the new OPN Specialized program launched at the OPN Forum.

Designed to help our partners gain differentiation and competitive edge, it represents a major evolution in our support program, with new partner levels and increased specializations in different product sets. Visit the OPN Website to find more details on the OPN Specialized program and our upcoming virtual event in December. Get ready to become "specialized."

If you're not an Oracle partner yet—but want to be—visit the OPN portal and catch-up on all of the keynotes, executive messages, video blogs, and session highlights at the Partner Experience Online.

... But It's Still Going—On Demand

And it's going strong. We're happy to see that this year's post-conference activity is more robust than ever—Oracle OpenWorld On Demand has had tens of thousands of visits, and there have been more than 129,000 downloads of presentations and supporting materials to date.

We're taking this as a big thumbs up for our new and improved pricing policy: free for all full conference, Oracle Develop, and Primavera program attendees, and only US$245 for everyone else.

Missed a session? You can still catch it. Find it on the Oracle OpenWorld On Demand site.