So what else did I get up to on Wednesday and Thursday?
Well, before the keynote I was in the lounge for the ‘Oracle ACE Office Hours’ slot. I think it’s fair to say that this particular innovation was unsuccessful. My personal feeling is that it wasn’t promoted properly. I’d like to say it’s because people aren’t caught up in that ‘rock star’ thing but I suspect they are really. No, to me the problem was that although information about who would be there at specific slots was available on a wiki, most casual attendees wouldn’t have seen that wiki. It would have been better to have an obvious display of who would be there and when and I think people who happened to be floating around the OTN lounge during the week might have noticed it. For example, the Meet the Experts slot last year was much better because people knew who they were going to see. Oh, and why do I know it isn’t just that nobody could give a monkey’s about meeting me in particular? Because I was there at the same time as Cary Millsap, Anjo Kolk and others that I’m sure lots of people would love to meet to discuss Oracle, but hardly anyone did. I’m pretty sure no-one thought it was a success, apart from the big plus that various ACEs could meet each other! As usual, the OTN lounge was definitely the place to hang out for relaxation and good conversation (after The Cave, of course) but I hesitate to say that because it might be packed out in future 
Good work from the OTN team, as usual.
Alex and I went over to the keynote, which I’ve already covered, but I would add that it was a long time since I’d attended a main keynote and, as Jason and I were agreeing later, being there can excite even the most cynical heart. It’s certainly an impressive show. Having said that, I would agree with someone who said to me later that Larry himself wasn’t really on form. Not one of his better presentations, but the announcement itself did the job for me
We had time for a few quick beers in the 4th Street Bar and Deli afterwards, which I was pleased about because it’s quite hard to spend time with everyone I want to. I particularly wanted to catch up with Jason Arneil because we seem to share so many tastes and he was going through his first time experience which I remember so well. Even for a cynical techie, it can be pretty exciting as well as frustrating and disappointing at times, depending on the individual. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been to materials pick-up, so didn’t have a wrist-band for the Appreciation Event and we managed to lose him as we left the pub anyway.
So, on to the Appreciation Event.
After last year’s fiasco, when I wondered around by myself for two hours, I was extremely driven to go with a group of friends and stick together. So driven that I might have been annoyingly matronly. I was like an organisational nazi or something! But, as a result, I got to do it with people who made it much more fun. Mark Williams wasn’t keen on crowds so, once we had some food and after some initial dazed wandering, we found our way to a bar without queues at the end of one of the piers. As well as the bands this year, there were extensive fairground attractions. I’d expected a couple of stalls here and there, but it really was like going to an old-fashioned fairground with the constant smell of popcorn. Of course, every fairground is stuffed full of cuddly toys! As prizes!
I’ll forgive them for hanging them because they’d soon be in good homes. As we walked around and saw more and more people with cuddly toys under their arms, I realised how ideal this appreciation event was for me and became more and more determined that I would not leave without a cuddly toy.
Fortunately, I have some good friends who rallied to the pumps, or the Whack-a-Mole, to be more precise. I wish I had some pictures, but I was a raving cuddly-toy-seeking lunatic by then. There was a moment when there were 6 or 7 of us in different lines. We weren’t very good, though. Which was ok, because we just kept joining the end of the line again. Top effort from everyone involved and I won’t forget it, but the biggest thanks go to Mark Williams, who eventually won this guy just before Elvis Costello was due on stage.
I had already explained to Mark that you tend to know their names and a rough idea of their personalities in a few minutes and that it’s traditional for any donaters to be allowed to name them. Mark pondered this for a little while and so Rodney he is. This is despite the fact that a certain mildly drunk Russian kept mumbling in my ear … ‘I think he is Ivan’.
After that, we made our way to the outside stage to see Elvis Costello but lost Alex a couple of times on the way! After a lot of me and him shouting down the phone at each other (these events can be quite chaotic and disorientating and we were a little drunk) he managed to find us. It turned out that he’d been off playing more fairground games, trying to win another cuddly toy. An Ivan for me, perhaps, in which case it was very sweet of him. Elvis was cool but maybe some of the song choices were a touch obscure for a big party crowd although Alex did his best to rally the crowd by dancing with abandon. Then it was time for people to disappear off in dribs and drabs to get the buses home. A good time, so thanks to all for the company.
Next morning it was up early to attend the Exadata presentation that I mentioned in my last blog and then I just had time to say goodbye to people before Andrew Holdsworth’s "Real-World Database Performance Techniques and Methods". Unfortunately it meant I had to skip Frits Hoogland’s ASM session which I heard very good reports of, reiterated by Jason here. I spent quite a bit of time with Frits, Jacco, Alex and Marco this year and I’ve realised that’s the key to Openworld for me - hanging around with a few like-minded individuals rather than trying to meet hundreds of people. It’s like friendship as opposed to networking. So I was very pleased that it went well for Frits because I knew he’d be nervous.
I didn’t enjoy the Real World presentation as much as I expected and I suspect Andrew wasn’t as good as I remember last year - a bit of an off-day. Maybe it was my hangover or something However, I did think his slides were good so I think they’ll be worth taking a proper look at later and it was an opportunity to say a last quick goodbye to some of the Oracle folk. As usual, Jason captured some of the content in the same blog posting as the Frits presentation.
Actually, I did have one time for one more drink in the Cave and to say goodbye to a few more people before a positively blissful and uneventful trip home. I am *so* pleased I bought that business class ticket - it makes all the difference. Then again, I was in a dazed semi-awake state most of this evening and I’m now wide awake at 5:30 am 