This is a guest blog by Oracle ACE Director Dani Schnider
On a Monday evening at the end of January, a group of tourists from various European countries met in a restaurant in the city center of Zurich for an outdoor fondue dinner. I was never in this restaurant before, but when I walk by, I’m always amused by the freezing foreign guests who enjoy this typical cheese dish in the cold weather. Now I was also one of these “tourists”.
The next morning, the same people (and a few more) met at the offices of Oracle Switzerland in the business center “The Circle” at Zurich Airport. They were no longer tourists, but speakers at the first Database Circle Conference (DCC2024) organized by the Swiss Oracle User Community (SwissOUC). The conference was opened by Oracle ACE Pro Jasmin Fluri, president of SwissOUC.
After a short welcome speech by Billy Kneubuehl, VP Tech Cloud Sales for Alps and Country Leader for Switzerland, the stage was set for the first keynote: Dominic Giles, Distinguished Product Manager Oracle spoke about Generative AI in the Oracle database. In two parallel streams, a total of 26 sessions were presented by 21 speakers (including 14 Oracle ACEs) – an impressive line-up for such a small conference, which was taking place for the first time. The second day of the conference also began with a keynote: Chris Saxon, Senior Developer Advocate Oracle presented various features of Oracle Database 23c for developers.
Even with all these presentations, there was still plenty of time during the breaks to chat with participants and other speakers. As on every conference, socializing was an important part of the event, especially at the aperitif on Tuesday evening. It was a special honor for me to be able to supply beer from our small hobby brewery. Many of my colleagues from the Oracle ACE Program know that I brew beer, but never had the opportunity to taste one of our beers before.
Switzerland has two organizations that are involved in the Oracle community – SwissOUC, founded in 2020 and the Swiss Oracle User Group (SOUG). With the Database Circle Conference, SwissOUC organized an international conference for the first time.
It was a great pleasure for me to attend the DCC2024 as a speaker, participant, employee of one of the conference sponsors and even as a beer supplier.