The Data Warrior

Changing the world, one data model at a time. How can I help you?

Archive for the category “Self Defense”

Welcome to the Biggest KScope Conference Ever!

Day breaks over the Mighty Mississippi

Day breaks over the Mighty Mississippi

Day one at ODTUG’s KScope13 was awesome as always with a great set of symposiums and networking events.

At the speaker meeting we learned that there are 1,400 registered attendees, 30 countries represented and over 50 exhibitors making this the largest event and largest exhibit hall in the history of the Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG).

So we must be doing something right to attract such a large crowd.

Part of what we do right is getting the top Oracle developers, consultants, and Oracle ACEs in the world to present. And we get stellar participation from the Product Management and Development teams at Oracle Corporation.

Even though it was Sunday, there was a tremendous turnout for our free Sunday Symposiums. In the Symposiums we had rooms dedicated to specific topics so attendees could stay in one place all day and get a series of related talks.

After conducting my now annual Morning Chi Gung class (had nine attendees!) I spent the day in the DB & Developer’s Toolbox Symposium. It had quite a line up.

First I attended Jeff Smith’s session  on SQL Developer 4.0 which will come out later this summer.

SQL Developer Product Manager, Jeff Smith of Oracle, introduces new features in the upcoming 4.0 release

SQL Developer Product Manager, Jeff Smith of Oracle, introduces new features in the upcoming 4.0 release

Got lots of great tips and trick which I am sure Jeff will be blogging about at ThatJeffSmith.com in the near future.

Next was Oracle Technologist Tom Kyte who spoke about many new features and enhancements to SQL And PL/SQL in the upcoming Oracle 12c release of the database.

Tom Kyte (of AskTom.com fame) introduces attendees to new SQL and PL/SQL features in Oracle 12c

Tom Kyte (of AskTom.com fame) introduces attendees to new SQL and PL/SQL features in Oracle 12c

And last for my day of learning was Maria Colgan discussing changes to the Oracle Optimizer in 12c.

Oracle Product Manager, Maria Colgan, discusses the Evolution of the Oracle Optimizer: Rules based to 12c

Oracle Product Manager, Maria Colgan, discusses the Evolution of the Oracle Optimizer: Rules based to 12c

As always, Maria provided so much information my head was ready to explode from information overload. And later in the week she has a second session on this topic with even more new features to discuss. If every Oracle DBA could attend one of her sessions, all of our databases would run better!

After the sessions it was time for formal and informal networking. There was the speakers meeting and the official welcome reception in the exhibit hall. I got to attend an official Oracle ACE dinner cruise on a steam powered paddle wheel river boat complete with live jazz band. Very much in the spirit of New Orleans.

Stay tuned for more reports as the week progresses.

Kent

The Oracle Data Warrior

P.S. I got to do a little touring as well and visited the oldest Catholic Cathedral in the United States. It is quite a beautiful church inside and out.

The beautiful St Louis Cathedral near Jackson Square  in New Orleans

The beautiful St Louis Cathedral near Jackson Square in New Orleans

See you at KScope13!

Are you ready?

It is almost time for the annual ODTUG KScope conference in New Orleans. It starts with the Community Service Day on Saturday June 22nd and runs through Thursday June 27th at the Sheraton Hotel right on the edge of the French Quarter.

For my readers that are attending, I will be giving three talks this year, leading morning Chi Gung classes,  as well as sitting on the BI Lunch and Learn Panel.

My talks will be:

Five Ways to Make Data Modeling Fun – Monday at 9:45 AM

Using OBIEE and Data Vault to Virtualize Your BI Environment: An Agile Approach – Monday at 3 PM (with Stewart Bryson)

Top Ten Cool Features in Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler – Tuesday at 12:15 PM

And on Wednesday at 10:45 AM you will find me in Social Media Lounge getting interviewed about Data Modeling, ODTUG, and KScope.

If you are joining me for Morning Chi Gung, I believe we will meet in the hotel lobby at 6:45 AM so we can walk to the river front park where we will hold our class. It is only a 30 minute class right before breakfast so please give it a try and get energized for a long day of learning and networking! Follow me on twitter @KentGraziano for any updates to the location and meeting time.

Don’t forget to download the new KScope Mobile App so you can keep track of your schedule and not miss any of these sessions.

See you in New Orleans!

Kent

The Oracle Data Warrior

Get thee to KScope13!

Jeff Smith (@thatjeffsmith) just posted a great little piece about why you can’t afford to miss this year’s ODTUG event in New Orleans: KScope13. As usually I will be speaking there as well and running my now annual Morning Chi Gung classes.

Get thee to KScope13!

See you there.

Kent

Rocky Mountain High and Some Chi Gung

Are you ready?

Are you coming?

The annual Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group Training Days kicks off next Monday, February 11 at the Denver Convention Center. I can hardly wait! I love the beautiful surroundings and vibe of Denver and the mountains. It is a great place to hang out, relax, and sharpen your skills.

I will be there attending sessions, networking with some old friends, and doing three presentations. Here they are:

Five Ways to Make Data Modeling Fun Tuesday, 11:15 – 12:15

Using OBIEE and Data Vault to Virtualize Your BI Environment: An Agile Approach Tuesday, 5:15 – 6:15 PM

Top 10 Cool Features in Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler Wednesday 2:45 – 3:45 PM

In addition to these officially scheduled sessions, I will be conducting  Morning Chi Gung sessions at 7 Am both Tuesday and Wednesday morning for those interested. Not sure yet where we will gather for this but probably in the Convention Center somewhere. (Keep an eye on my twitter stream @KentGraziano for details once I am on site next Monday).

The Chi Gung sessions are staring to be a traditon with me at various Oracle user events, so please come and join our growing tribe. If you are not sure what Chi Gung is, check out my post from last summer for a video introduction. For those of us coming from lower altitude, these morning sessions should help us adjust a little easier. Since the air is a bit thinner in Denver, learning to breathe deeply will be a useful skill. 🙂

If you are signed up and planning to attend, I look forward to meeting up with you. If not, get signed up soon and get yourself to Denver to enjoy a little Rocky Mountain high with 1,000 of the brightest Oracle minds in the world.

See ya!

Kent

 

Happy 2013! What will you do this year?

Happy New Year! Welcome to year #2 of the Oracle Data Warrior.

I hope everyone is looking forward to a bright, happy, and successful year (however you measure it).

For me it will be a year of figuring out my long term business model (maybe?), writing a few more short ebooks (stay tuned), doing my Oracle ACE Director thing, continuing to work as a Data Vault and Data Warehouse advisor and consultant,  presenting at RMOUG, KScope13, and hopefully a few other choice events, and of course writing on this blog (and practicing my martial arts).

That ought to do it, don’t you think?

But you never know what life may throw your way, so I am not tied to any of that really, but that is where my wave seems to be heading today.

One thing I have already done was to take advantage of Vizify to build a visual story about myself. I really like the look and feel of the app and the way it presents my information. Check out the animation on the location page and then the timeline on the career page (which is not quite complete yet). Very cool.

How about you? What is on your horizon for 2013?

Cowabunga!

Kent

P.S. See this cool 2012 report WordPress generated automatically. It covers the stats I put in my last post but much nicer presentation. 😉

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 23,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

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