The Data Warrior

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

Archive for the tag “#rmoug”

26 Jan 2014
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Better Data Modeling: The Oracle Data Warrior Speaks!

Looks like I will be doing a bit of speaking this year at a number of  events around the country, and later on, the globe (more on that later).

As usually all my talks will center around using SQL Developer Data Modeler, data modeling standards, Data Vault, agile, or a combination of all of the above.

If you have budget and time, please come out to at least one of these events this year, I would love to meet you in person and talk about the world of Oracle and Data Modeling.

If you aren’t planning to attend one of these – WHY NOT?

These are all great events with tons of learning opportunities. The networking alone is worth the price of admission.

Here is a list of the first three events confirmed on my calendar (and SURPRISE – they are NOT all Oracle related events):

RMOUG Training Days

In less than two weeks: The Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group Training Days 2014 in Denver, Colorado. This runs from Feb 5-7 , will have at least 1,000 people and you cannot beat the price.I will be presenting Friday at 1:30PM on how I save my clients big $$ by applying repeatable processes and standards to my data models.

Follow it on twitter with #RMTD14.

Data Vault Consortium

Next up March 20 – 22nd , I will be participating in the 1st ever World Wide Data Vault Consortium and User Group meetup in beautiful northern Vermont near the home of my good friend, the inventor of the The Data Vault Model and Methodology, Dan Linstedt. I will be speaking about agile and data warehousing, using SDDM to do Data Vault modeling, and no doubt engaging in some lively debates with Data Vault experts from around the globe. Check out the agenda on the event page for more details on who will be speaking (hint: Bill Inmon, father of  data warehousing is participating!).

Enterprise Data World 2014

The #EDW14 event is really the annual conference put on by DAMA International and the speaker list is a veritable who’s-who of the data architecture and modeling world. This year the event is in Austin, Texas on April 27 – May 1. Since that is quite close to where I live, I figured I would submit an abstract and I was honored to be accepted. I have attended this event only once before when it was in Denver (a long time ago!) and have been a member of DAMA on and off for years, but this is the first time I have been asked to speak. I am looking forward to it for sure (not sure how I will fit my talk into a 45 minute slot!). Sign up for it here.

If you are planning to attend any of these, drop me a line over Twitter or LinkedIn so we can plan to meet up.

Later.

Kent

The Oracle Data Warrior

Posted in Data Modeling, Data Vault, Data Warehouse, Oracle, SQL Developer Data Modeler, User Groups and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
25 Dec 2013

Merry Christmas!

To all my loyal readers, followers, #BBBTers, #ODTUGers, #ChiGungers, #RMOUGers, #DataVaulters, #TKDers, and fellow Oracle #ACEs and #ACEDs, I want to wish you all a

Very Merry Christmas!

Talk to you soon.
Kent

Posted in BBBT, Chi Gung, Data Vault, ODTUG, Oracle, Tae Kwon Do, User Groups and tagged , , , , , ,
12 Feb 2013
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RMOUG Training Days 2013 – Day 1

Unlike many conferences, today started off not with the keynote but with an actual session (probably some advanced psychology at work here). 🙂

I started off with John King’s session on Oracle 11g features that developers should know about. (He was going to talk about 12c but since it has not been released yet, he could not speak about it)

John King giving Session 1 at RMOUG 2013

John King giving Session 1 at RMOUG 2013

John is a great speaker and gave us some very detailed information.

One very interesting piece to me, as a data modeler and data warehouse designer, was the addition of Virtual Columns. With this you can declare a virtual, calculated/derived column to be part of a table definition. With this you can define a calculation once and have it appear when querying the table without actually physically adding a column to the table. Looks promising.

John told us about lots of new things like Pivot, Unpivot, Results Cache, PL/SQL Results cache and Nth Value functions. Some of them are shown in the following pictures.

SQL PIVOT Example

SQL PIVOT Example

Example of UNPIVOT

Example of UNPIVOT

Another cool SQL Function: Nth Value

Another cool SQL Function: Nth Value

All neat options I did not really know about.

Next up was the keynote speech by Mogens Norgaard from Denmark. Mogens is an ACE Director, CEO of his own consulting firm, and a brew master. Interesting guy.

He showed up in his bathrobe to talk to us all about how the smartphone is taking over  the world and all the cool apps you could build (and some he has built).

Mogens Norgaard in his keynote best.

Mogens Norgaard in his keynote best.

Next was my turn – my first session of the conference – 5 Ways to Make Data Modeling Fun (based on a blog post).

I was pleasantly surprised that I had 40-50 people attend and most stayed for the whole talk. It was a good, interactive session. My good buddy Jon Arnold assisted me in administering some of the activities. It was great fun getting the attendees to actually collaborate on activities during a session.

Great participant collaboration during my talk

Great participant collaboration during my talk

As promised, I did give out prizes for some of the activities (all branded Data Warrior LLC stuff).

Next was the ACE Director networking lunch where they put our names on tables so people could sit with us to ask questions (if they wanted too).

Networking Lunch

Networking Lunch

After lunch we some vendor sessions (which I skipped) and several panel discussions. These included the Women in Technology Panel and an Oracle Career Roundtable.

Women in Technology Panel

Women in Technology Panel

Oracle Careers Roundtable

Oracle Careers Roundtable

Anyone notice that the Women in Tech had one male on the panel but the Oracle Career panel had no women? Just sayin’ folks…

Next I sat in for part of a session on Oralce TimesTem database for real-time BI. It turned out to be the same stuff I heard at Oracle Open World so I did not stay.

Last for my day at RMOUG was my joint session with Stewart Bryson on Data Vault and OBIEE. Unfortunately due to the late slot (5:15 PM) we had a very low turn out. 😦 But is was a good session as I discovered all the things Stewart learned trying to use the data vault model for virtualizing the data mart layer (in OBIEE). It was all very good and reinforced my belief that Data Vault is a great way to model an EDW and that non-data vault people could understand it and apply it to dimensional modeling (or that Stewart is really exceptional).

Adios for now.

Kent

P.S. Forgot to mention again that I will be conducting another morning Chi Gung class at & AM above the registration area. Please join!

Posted in Data Modeling, Data Vault, Data Warehouse, ODTUG, Oracle, User Groups and tagged , , , , , ,
11 Feb 2013
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RMOUG Training Days 2013 – OTN Lab Day

Today  I arrived in Denver to attend the annual Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group (RMOUG) Training Days conference. It is one of, if not the, most successful local Oracle user group events in the United States (and has been for many years). For the past few years it has been held at the Denver Convention Center (which is guarded by a big blue bear).

Big Blue Bear

Big Blue Bear

It has a been a few years since I have been able to attend and I am glad to be back. I am attending and presenting (as I posted last week).

Today, I was mostly in attendee mode and got to attend a lab session hosted by a few of my friends from Oracle product management (Jeff Smith, Kris Rice, and David Peake). They did an end-to-end, soup-to-nuts session taking the attendees through using SQL Developer Data Modeler to design a database, then SQL Developer to build the tables, then Oracle Application Express (APEX) to build a web based interface to add and view data in that database.

OTN Developer Lab

OTN Developer Lab

And all this was done using an Oracle virtual machine downloadable from OTN.

Unfortunately it would not load on my machine (figures) so I paired up with my long-time friend Jon Arnold and did the labs together.

David Peake Teaches APEX

David Peake Teaches APEX

I learned quite few interesting things and got re-introduced to APEX (which s a very cool tool). I need to look some more at the Interactive Reporting feature for sure.

The coolest thing was that APEX can be used to build applications that run on mobile devices. All point and click development to do it too. APEX has been used to build some pretty big apps for some pretty big companies (including Oracle).

APEX Mobile

APEX Mobile

Another cool thing I learned was that the default install of APEX (a no-cost option with every Oracle database) comes with a bunch of packaged application that are ready to use and a bunch of sample apps for oyu to start with to try out different APEX features. You really need to check this tool out.

Tomorrow will be busy.

I was officially added to the agenda at 7 AM to teach my morning Chi Gung class.

Then I have two presentations to do and a networking lunch session.

Then dinner with some friends and soe good Colorado Mexican food (and adult beverages).

Stay tuned…

Kent

Posted in Oracle, SQL Developer Data Modeler, User Groups and tagged , , , , , , ,
05 Feb 2013

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

 

Posted in Chi Gung, Data Modeling, Data Vault, Oracle, SQL Developer Data Modeler, User Groups and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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