March 20, 2024:
Stepping onto Dutch soil for the very first time, as a speaker in APEX World 2024 was an unforgettable experience that I’ll treasure for a lifetime. The journey from London Heathrow to Schiphol Amsterdam was surprisingly swift, whisking me away in just over an hour. Taking an intercity, it was a scenic train journey from Amsterdam Central to Amersfoort Central with picturesque landscapes, Dutch charm, and glimpses of stunning architecture along the way.
With just enough time to check into my hotel and settle my luggage, I eagerly set off for the much-awaited Oracle ACE Dinner in the city centre with my Rittman Mead colleague and APEX consultant – Petar Simic who had arrived from Serbia earlier.
As we arrived at Dikke Dirck restaurant, it was evident that the choice was impeccable—a blend of traditional Dutch cuisine and modern flair in a vibrant atmosphere. We were more than 20 Oracle ACEs filling the long tables, immersed in conversation. Renowned for its generous portions and innovative dishes, this restaurant turned out to be a culinary gem celebrating local flavours with contemporary twists. I discovered a new favourite: the Mustard Soup! It was delightfully creamy and utterly delicious. We savoured not only the food but also the joy of connecting and catching up with one another. Chris Saxon graciously hosted the dinner on behalf of the Oracle ACE team, and the atmosphere as you can see below was truly delightful, brimming with warmth and camaraderie.
The group included Oracle delegates, NLOUG team and volunteers and ~18 Oracle ACE Speakers for the event. Even after our dinner, we all were still buzzing with energy, gearing up for the big day ahead.
March 21, 2024:
This year’s APEX World location was right in the centre of Amersfoort which was conveniently accessible for all. When we reached, the buzz at the registration area was invigorating; with attendees eagerly lining up to check in and collect their badges and lovely Oracle Redwood themed goodie bags with interesting goodies within. Conversations flowed freely as participants exchanged greetings, shared excitement about the event, and discussed their schedules for the day. Volunteer team members of NLOUG worked hard to keep things running smoothly, adding to the friendly vibe. It was the perfect start to an exciting day ahead.
Here I am, striking a pose in my favourite spot at the venue—the eggshell chair (my own nomenclature). It was interesting to see how the NLOUG team had thoughtfully included slides on a bit of Dutch learning too. Came in handy for me!
Yvonne Bakx (Chairman of the NLOUG Board) gave a vibrant opening address to the event – infusing a sense of excitement and fun into the atmosphere.
Soon followed by an insightful keynote by Marc Sewtz –Senior Director of Software Development on the topic – “Elevating Application Development with Oracle APEX”. Marc’s session was an enlightening one wherein he explored the transformative impact on APEX development with the integration of AI features. He also discussed the latest features in APEX 23.1 and 23.2, including enhanced extensibility through Template Components, workflow automation, CI/CD improvements, and Fusion Apps extensions.
Until lunchtime, the schedule featured a diverse range of intriguing topics, from Roel Hartman’s exploration of Oracle Database 23C for APEX Developers to Heli Helskyaho‘s session on Generative AI, LLMs, and Vectors. Additionally, attendees enjoyed sessions on ORDS & APEX by Moritz Klein and Luc Bors‘ insights into leveraging Select AI to enhance applications – to name a few.Top of Form
The lunch was sumptuous with my Dutch favourite – Mustard soup delighting me again.
After lunch, we were fortunate to secure slots in Heli’s limited seat hands-on workshop to “Build an Intelligent Oracle APEX Application”. The two-hour workshop guided us through data preparation using Oracle Data Studio, training, and deploying a machine learning model via Oracle Machine Learning’s AutoML interface, and integrating the model into an Oracle APEX application to predict resale flat prices. Special thanks to Adrian Png for the LiveLabs workshop, allowing us to further explore the possibilities.
After the workshop, I had the opportunity to explore the booths, participate in their lucky draw contests and network with fellow attendees. As the evening networking drinks kicked off, The Docs team revealed their winner, and to my astonishment, it was none other than me—bagging a colossal chocolate bunny! It was an exhilarating first-time win for me, and there I stood, grinning from ear to ear, clutching the bunny tightly. Yet, amidst my joy, I couldn’t help but ponder the logistical challenge of flying with the bunny back home – intact for my daughter as a gift.
The evening was a whirlwind of excitement, with three hours of networking, great conversations, tech discussions, drinks, and dinner, with accompanied live music that kept the audience captivated and enthralled – all culminating at 8 PM. Although tempted by the NLOUG team’s invitation to an extended party at a nearby restaurant, I opted for an early night’s rest, prioritizing preparation for our presentation the next day.
March 22, 2024:
Petar and I were fully immersed in preparing for our 11:30 am presentation, so we skipped the morning sessions. Our topic, “Oracle Digital Assistant with APEX – De-mystified!” drew a considerable audience, many of whom were new to the Oracle Digital Assistant application. My goal was to introduce key concepts, features, and development aspects of ODA with live demonstration along with demonstrating how Oracle digital assistants can talk to the database and convert user inputs as SQL queries, while Petar delved into APEX integration. We fielded intriguing questions, including discussions around real-time scenarios like multi-lingual sports team’s order placement application showcasing ODA’s capabilities.
It was a thoughtful gesture from the NLOUG team to gift all the speakers post-session. The ‘Bluetooth Speaker’ we got as our gift is exceptionally fitting and appreciated.
Day 2 of the conference had again great mix of content from Oracle ACEs and other exceptional speakers. Enthusiastic participation from the student community added more charm to the final day of conference.
I chose to attend the session by Plamen Mushkov from Insum Team titled “Talk to your Documents” post lunch, wherein he addressed the limitations of ChatGPT, Bard, Bing, Copilot and other Large Language Models and discussed how Oracle APEX could overcome these. His demonstrations on how the vector stores allows to do similarity searches on documents, texts and images were quite appealing.
I was excited about the next session, ‘ChatBot and AI: Question your Data’ by Dimitri Gielis and his team, as it related closely to our work on SQL Dialog feature of Oracle Digital Assistants. It was interesting to see how our research on ODA aligned with theirs, and how they discussed the potential of Select AI to address real-life use cases.
We had our final full house keynote session by Menno Hoogendijk, Principal Member of Technical Staff – which was a deep dive into Oracle APEX Template Components. Menno’s session included live development demo on how APEX can render template components on a page along with ways to deal with its complexities.
This was succeeded by Yvonne Bakx delivering the concluding remarks, coupled with heartfelt expressions of gratitude to all who contributed to the event’s resounding success. Witnessing the NLOUG team united on stage, openly acknowledging and celebrating each other’s hard work, was truly heart-warming.
We had our final networking session following this where it was sadly time to bid farewell to newfound friends and acquaintances. The past two days seemed to pass in the blink of an eye amid wonderful people and a delightful ambience.
As I embarked on my journey back, my heart was reminiscing all the cherished memories and of course, accompanied by my chocolate bunny! (Stay tuned for a special blog about my adventures with the bunny on its epic journey!).
Until next time, ‘tot ziens’!