25 AUSOUG Perth

This was my fourth visit to Perth, having been with AUSOUG there in 2011, 2015, 2017 , but I also attended Australia Insync in 2009 and 2010 which didn't travel to Perth.

Whilst AUSOUG was the most important thing happening in Perth it was not the only event bringing in tourists as the Ashes cricket also happened to be on. Perth was buzzing.

I am travelling this year to scuba dive my bucket list and December has long been planned as the Great Barrier Reef. There were a few things I wanted to do in Australia first so I flew out late November and has a few days in Sydney. After this was planned AUSOUG published their event days I could manage Perth but Melbourne would mean I would miss my boat, so I only went to Perth.

One of the amazing things about speaking at global events and the ACE program is the number of people I have made friends with around the world. Whilst in Sydney I met up with Bambi Staverley. Bambi used to look after user groups in APAC for Oracle but left in 2012 and now runs an amazing hair products company. Meeting with her and her husband was a great opportunity not to be missed.

In Perth I stayed with Penny Cookson and her husband who used to be a local Oracle partner before retiring. I was lucky she hosted me as the cricket made finding an affordable hotel in Perth almost impossible. Many of the presenters flew overnight to Melbourne for the next leg as hotels were so unavailable. 

Anyone who has travelled with me knows but a terrible car passenger I am and taxis are included. Having had another issue in South Africa just 10 days before, Connor McDonald who does actually have a home between events, and is a local to Perth, offered to be my Uber driver and he brought along Bailey his famous dog for me to meet in person.

The night before the event there was a speakers dinner thanks to the committee. Before the dinner I met up with another long time usergroup friend Arnold Wong. He left the Oracle world many years ago but saw on Linkedin I was to be in Perth and reached out. I cannot tell you how much these friendships and connections mean to me.

The dinner was on the banks of the Swan river in South Perth and Penny and I travelled by train and ferry so I felt quite a tourist in Perth. As the sun set we had an amazing view over Perth and then apparently perhaps for the Cricket there were fireworks laid on. Perfect.

The event stated early on the Monday, a single day event and most people stayed the whole day. There were 3 streams with great content. The keynote was on AI and Oracle Apps so I did my EBS roadmapping session to a full room and they all came back later for the AI in EBS compared to Fusion. The keynote speaker joined my last session which gave me the opportunity to refer back to his content.

I was also honoured to be give an AUSOUG Master award presented by Penny. This means a lot to me because from way before the ACE Program came along and made it easier, I have always loved presenting at all user groups and sharing my experiences and supporting them. I may not have been in Perth for a while but have done a few webinars for them and happy to continue to. 

I left as the event wound down with a reception and went off to the airport to continue my journey. It may be just domestic travel in one country but Australia is a big country. I started in Sydney, flew to Perth for the conference, but then had to get to Horn Island for my boat, a bit of cross crossing and an extra 15 hours flying. My flight was delayed by an Ash Cloud over Africa. Not because I was being routed that way, but because Qantas had 2 flights to Europe and delayed them until it was clear what routing they needed and Perth being a little airport didn't have enough staff, so we had to wait till they had left. It didn't cause me any issues just a little stress for shortened connections.

So thank you to everyone in Perth, The ACE Program and all my old and new friends. I hope to be back again one day.

25 SAOUG Our Own ACE Adventure

In the main post I talked about the South Africa conference, but this is more the travelogue. Whilst not an official ACE Adventure I can say we all had a great time and it would never have happened if we were not part of the program.

As ever I had a layover in Heathrow before my flight and Dr Abi joined me as she flies in from Newcastle. We had a few hours to kill so enjoyed the First lounge which may be our last chance as under the new British Airways frequent flyer program I will never get elite status again :(

The flight was ok, went quite fast and we had good seats for economy. I slept well although am pleased you can't see the photo of me Abi took. We landed in Johannesburg early which was good as Connor was waiting for us, as was his taxi. we arrived at Misty Hills just before noon.

We had a little wait for our rooms but not too long and I had an upgrade to exactly the same room as last year. Thankyou SAOUG. Sarah, Lydia and their boss Marc arrived a couple of hours later and they were no sooner in their rooms then we were off on a game drive arranged by Marc. Two of their graduates Methembeni and Ed drove us in their own cars which was so nice of them. Local help is always appreciated to get the most out of a destination.

We went to Dinokeng Reserve and our guide was Olivia. Before getting in the trucks we saw a family of monkeys. First spotted were Rhinos and Wildebeest. Then as we drove around a bend we met a pride of lions, so exciting. 

So within 30 minutes along with various impala, Eland and Springbok we had seen more than most do on a single game drive. Olivia told us she could hear elephants but if we went looking for them there was no guarantee and we would potentially miss other things. We trusted her and went looking for the herd. Almost an hour later we were rewarded with so much elephant life. More than a dozen of all sizes. Pure Magic. As the sun set we had to leave the reserve. We had missed the drinks but no one cared, and twice we had to reverse as our path was blocked by rhinos lying on the path as it is warmer than the grass at night. Our final sightings were a few young Jackals. What a way to start the trip.

On the way back Marc took us to a steak restaurant he knew from growing up in South Africa and it was amazing. We almost missed out as we arrived within 5 minutes of the last orders due to our extended drive. We got back to Misty Hills about 10.30 all very very tired, remember the previous night had been spent on aircraft, but no one was complaining.

Sunday a few made breakfast but not everyone, and we had our ACE Dinner at midday, in the Carnivore restaurant. I had been before many years ago and remembered what an experience it was, so when so many ACEs were confirmed I asked if we could have an ACE Dinner there. Thankyou to them for saying yes. Carnivore does what it says on the tin, and we got to experience meat we would never otherwise have. We were joined by Ahmed Jassat the local and only SA ACE and then Ron Ekins who also came from the UK but a day later, he literally arrived and joined us.

Sunday evening there was a reception for the user group and the mandatory South African Braai. The final ACE Raja joined us and although we didn't eat a lot more meat (there is a limit) we loved it. 

Monday the event kicked off and after the sessions (which I covered in the last post) there was a party, with a dress code of African Sheik. 

I had managed to fashion a jacket from scarf fabric and was very pleased with the result. There was a live band and a great DJ and even I got up to dance once. However this old lady hit a wall about 11pm and went off to bed but some of the younger ones kept going till 1.30am when it stopped.

Tuesday sessions kept going till 6pm, but Abi, Ron and I had to leave at 5.30 to get to the airport for our overnight flight home. We had booked a taxi from the hotel, but it didn't turn up and when chased was going to be another 20 minutes. However since we had Ron with us we voted to get the unrecommended Uber option. Our driver was excellent, drove quickly but not too fast and obeyed most rules of the road (not all South African's do). We arrived at the airport with time to shop, which is always important. If you know Connor, ask him about his taxi back to airport, more exciting than ours! And ask Abi about her room mate!

Having shopped until there was no space in our hand luggage which probably didn't matter, Abi and I met a man buying a 4 foot tall wooden giraffe going on our flight in one shop. The flight wasn't actually that busy and again I managed a decent amount of sleep.

After a quick breakfast Abi and I had our flights home. 

South Africa delivered again and I hope I can manage again next year. Thank you again Penelope and Debs for all your help.

2025 SAOUG Hello Africa

Last year my trip to SAOUG was a whirlwind, and my attendance doubled the ACE presence, with Ahmed Jassat being the only ACE in South Africa.

This year I was back with a few friends and an extra day – bit the travelogue is the next post.

 

SAOUG promoted the ACE team well, and Oracle sent Connor McDonald, ACE Alumni and Database Advocate. We were ready to add to this great event.

 

The conference was held at Misty Hills again and the main area was in a very large room known as the tent. The exhibition was opposite and below the tent and the breakout rooms located around the resort that is set on a hillside, so lots of steps and running between sessions.

 

There were a series of keynotes, first Demetris Skourides, an x oracle employee who is now Chief scientist of Research innovation and Technology of the Republic of Cyprus. He gave the government view, challenges and opportunities of AI.

Then the country lead  Sandhya Ramdhany and  Gomedi Makhongoanafrom Oracle South Africa talked about Oracle promises of AI and the local view.

 

I was meant to be next but as I was speaking about how AI technology is embedded in Fusion Applications and how people are adopting it,  I thought it would be better to swap with the last keynote of the day, Connor. It meant the messages flowed better but what an idiot to go after the world’s best speaker! I cant list how many speaker awards he has, and when I was runner up to him at UKOUG a few years back I was honoured.

 

Connor talked about data and AI, which I was able to refer back to both in my keynote and AI in EBS session.

So the morning flowed really well and the delegates were well educated.

Then after lunch it was into streams where I talked about AI in EBS and it was a great conversation. I also collected more submissions for my EBS survey so wil be doing a followup webinar for SAOUG.

Then I was interviewed for SAOUG YouTube.

The next day we had a recap and Deetris had another AI session followed by Abi who talked about story telling with data and captivated the audience. 

 

I then hosted the customer session on Digital Transformation in Africa. I had chatted to the 6 companies before hand and was able to weave a story across technology, apps, maturity and industries and amazing examples of oracle in Africa making a difference.

Back into streams and I did my All Y Need To Know for the student track. Actually they were interns many at Orace but some from other companies, Abi saved the day as I went from doing my panel to this session which was a long trek in zero time. Abi set the session up for me. I failed a bit in my execution of the quiz but it got everyone involved and talking. I also got to explain the Apprentcie ACE program level to them all.

My favourite session of the day was two graduate trainees from Brovanture talking about how they were learning EPM and being valuable to customers. The students were captivated, this was their people explaining their journey into our industry. Well done Edzisani Nematoka and Methembeni . 

Finally it was back on stage for the ACE panel, SAOUG had me down to facilitate this too but I passed the baton to Connor who did an excellent job. Then all too soon it was time to leave.

Thanks to all at AOUG for an excellent conference, engaged delegates and an amazing agenda. 

2025 AI World - A Tale of Many Hats

This blog tends to be what I did rather than what I learnt, a record of what I get up to.

As ever I attended AI world with multiple hats:

I was partially supported by the ACE program in recognition of having content in the AI World Agenda.  I had a birds-of-a-feather session with Mia Urman my fellow ACE Director on modernizing EBS, and I was also on a panel for Oracle integration cloud where I shared several examples of how we extend fusion applications with OIC for our customers including Bradford White who were in the audience.

 

The ACE program has a presence in the exhibition and like all other ACEs I took my turn to talk to delegates about the program, and new this year the ACE Apprentice initiative which I'm looking forward to encouraging people to take part.

 

Wednesday evening was our ACE dinner they try and organize these dinners at any event where there is several ACEs taking part, but this is by far the biggest. The support from Oracle is so welcome and I want to thank Jenny Tsai Smith in particular who called out the Apps ACEs at the dinner. I sat with Jenny and Kumar Rajamani who is responsible for autonomous and AI select. We had a great conversation on where it is used in Ask EBS and how you Inoapps have implemented it on our EBS archiving solution product.

 

After the dinner was the main Oracle party with death leopard but I just wanted an early night so skipped that event

 

There was also an ACE adventure on the Thursday after AI world officially finished, but Jenny invited me to the Global Leaders Meeting which is about the database, but she gave me honorary membership, and I was able to continue the discussion around how we are using AI here. I also got to meet visionaries from around the world who are using AI in Oracle's database to make a difference.

 

My employer Inoapps were at AI World in force. We were not in the exhibition but had a private space in one of the restaurants alongside it, where we held roundtables and many meetings with both Oracle and delegates. I hosted two roundtables around E Business Suite users where I was joined by Cliff Godwin, SVP EBS and Mia.

 

Inoapps had a reception on Sunday evening were Oracle friends who had arrived early in Vegas. It was a great time for us to relax, tackle the jet lag and ponder what the next few days might bring. As partners we had previews of all the big messages ahead of the main event. We also won an award as Global Managed Services Partner. 

 

Like many partners we held an appreciation reception on the Tuesday evening at are now regular Sugarcane location where many of our customers Oracle contacts and opportunities came to say hello.

 

Did this mean I wasn't fed on Monday evening? Of course not. Mia's organization Auraplayer, whom we partner with, held a dinner for her customers which I was able to attend.

 

On the Thursday morning, I managed to have two breakfasts the first with an analyst company I have the pleasure of working with and the second with an Inoapps customer who are excited about their AI journey.

 

I make no secret of the fact that Las Vegas is not really my cup of tea but if you're there you can't help but be a tourist. On Sunday morning I had a private pilgrimage to the gospel brunch at the House of Blues. Last year it was so hot I had to take an Uber to the Mandalay Bay where it is located, but this year it was pleasant enough to walk both there and back, a round trip of about 7 miles. I know this is a show, but the music is fantastic, and I enjoy the fellowship. I do like the strap line “praise the Lord and pass the biscuits” although I'm not too sure about the additional extra for an all-inclusive drinks package.

 

On the Friday morning a great friend Michelle Malcher and I went to the strip's eldest hotel, the Flamingo and listened to their wildlife ranger talk about the rescued sea birds they keep alongside their flamingos and I also took the chance to meet up with many other friends that I've had the privilege of making over the years.

 

My next outing is the South African Oracle Users Group in less than two weeks and I'm very excited that this time in recognition of their growth there will be more ACEs attending and hopefully will sign up some of those apprentices.

And what did I learn at AI World? Well I'll blog on the Inoapps page about that.

 

Story Telling, Oracle and Diving - #JoelKallmanDay

When my beloved Tim reached out for contributions to the Joel Kallman day, he suggested that personal topics were welcome. So I thought I would combine my 2025 diving odyssey and the work I do in the Oracle space as a storyteller.

I have been an Oracle partner for approaching 30 years and one of my skills is taking the facts of an implementation or project and telling it as a story that resonates with other customers. Not simply 'we implemented fusion cloud for customer X', but what is their business model, how do they interact with their customers and staff and what were the challenges they were looking to overcome with the implementation and then add a heavy dose of project highlights and low lights to make it real. I think I do it well and have had a good career on this basis. The question I asked repeatedly when building a story is "why? why? why?".

 

But this week I have learned more about storytelling from a real master Steve Backshall, who is a famous TV documentary maker for the BBC and his highlight show is Deadly 60 which is aimed at children, a real adventure program.

I had the privilege of meeting Steve earlier this year when he came to the same remote part of Indonesia where I was diving. He was actually trying to film a sugar glider that had the worst case of stage fright I've ever seen. Steve and his team had spent the previous week in Lembeh Straits where I was going the following week to learn to muck dive and his team had also filmed the whale sharks the day before that I and the group I was with did the next day.

Steve about to give up

We were asked not to talk on social media about the show until it was released and this happened just a couple of weeks ago and last night I sat down to watch the two episodes of Deadly 60 (series 6, episode s 2&3) that covered this.

 

The sugar guilder never got a look in, obviously not enough footage but part of the episode on sharks included the whale shark and a wobbegong and then there was a whole episode on oddball creatures which was the muck diving in lembeh.

I saw each and every one of those animals an ornate woebegone, the whale sharks and if you look at my photo of the whale shark right down by the tail, that speck diver is me. In Lembeh I saw the flamboyant cuttlefish, the mimic octopus, the bobbit worm, the hairy frogfish and my favourite the coconut octopus. I too went diving with Ben their guide. In fact Ben is the resort photographer and will help anybody who dives there, improve their photo skills regardless of what equipment they have.  

These are my efforts:

coconut octopus

Bobbit Worm

Woebegone Shark

Hairy Frogfish

Flamboyant Cuttlefish

Mimic Octopus

The two episodes which are on BBC iPlayer which you can easily download them in the UK and they will eventually turn up on their Youtube channel for those outside of the UK.  Having watched his episodes the way he told those stories to appeal to his audience of children and excite them by the wild world in which we live, reminded me that is not my story or the story of my customers and their projects I need to tell, but it's the story that engages those new customers and potential customers need to hear, what particularly are they looking for and where can I find something in one of my story books that will resonate with them.

 

I know this is not quite the Oracle blog that you might have been expecting but one about the soft skills I use in my job every day and a chance to share some of the photographs from my amazing trip this year. I am such a lucky person and this was all about my passion and going back to Joel community was his passion.

 

Happy Joel Kallman day

LAOUC 2025 Tour - The Extras

 

I said at the start of this tour that it was my sixth visit to LAOUC and what a privilege.

I like stats so here are mine for LAOUC:

That's 30 events in 17 cities, spanning 14 countries over 6 tours. Thankyou Oracle ACE Program for giving me these amazing opportunities.

The tours are full on, and very little time to see a lot but we try. If there is a spare day we will attempt a tourist day. Personally I try to add things to the trips, often diving, like Panama 9 years and this year in Mexico before the tour starts. I went to Machu Picu with Tim Hall in 2015 after that tour. Spent a lovely weekend in Cartagena on my first visit and great hosting from local user group leaders in many of the cities.

Deiby Gomez who I met many years ago from Guatemala and was their first ACE Director,  who's taken a break from speaking at conferences whilst he completed a degree in law, joined us for the Guatemala dinner and then hosted myself, Emmanuel Guzmán Rojas and his girlfriend for a day to Atitlan lake. I have been before to the top tourist place Antigua so this was a fantastic opportunity to see more of this beautiful country.

We started early in the morning as it is a long drive through the mountains but worth the journey. We arrived in time for breakfast overlooking the lake. There are several villages around the lake with the only realistic travel being by boat. Deiby had us a private boat and it was an amazing day, the villagers are used to tourists and have set up co-operatives to share their skills in coffee, bee keeping, cotton weaving and chocolate. We got to experience several of these as well as climbing to the viewing platform. I was even persuaded to do a couple of tuk tuk journeys, I am getting much braver in my old age.

I couldn't do the whole tour, just the first 4 countries but I did stay a night in Heathrow on the way back so I could meet up with Ronald Bradford and his family, Ronald who was a MYSQL ACE Director who I had previously travelled with on LAOUC tours and even attended his wedding and his family have visited me in N. Ireland.

I have made amazing friends over the years with the LAOUC tours and the wider ACE program and many are still friends today. With such a break since my last visit it was great to catch up with those I have not seen since, although most welcomes went "Welcome back to .........., it's great to see you again and where is Tim (Hall)?"

I don't intend to leave it so long next time and fit in perhaps one more tour before retirement and I promise I will try to take Tim with me but I can't guarantee it.

Return to Tour Reflections

LAOUC 2025 - Tour Reflections as an Oracle ACE

The tour isn't complete yet, but my contribution is. I only had 2 weeks available, which meant just the first 4 legs. Mexico City, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala.

I have been involved in user group events for over 25 years and have heard most feedback before but on this tour I met many first time 'tour' speakers, local, Oracle and ACE participants and thought I would share my thoughts.

ACE Director Funding:

This isn't a negative, in ANY way, just clearing up a few myths:

I am incredibly fortunate to have funding from the Ace program for many events. For participating ACE Directors they pay for flights and hotel, for the night before and off any sessions I deliver. It doesn't cover any extras, and often not what I actually pay for these two categories, but you know in advance, and it is your choice to participate at that point. I am not complaining, it is a generous contribution, and has enabled me to speak all over the world and experience many unforgettable events, make real friends, and visit places I may not have visited otherwise.

Other ACEs are not funded by Oracle, they may be lucky and have employer funding, and in the past I have benefited from this, but many are contractors or their own small business and this is not only direct costs but also non billing days.

For the usergroups:

When the individual uaergroups that make up a tour, they determine the dates. If they want speakers to do multiple legs, especially if funded under the ACE program (ACE Directors only), then they need to be close together, but that also needs to be feasible.

We did Panama one day and flew onto Guatemala the same day. That makes the day incredibly long for the participants, and means the usergrpoup cannot host the speakers after the event if they want to.

The tour organisers need to set up a group chat, we used WhatsApp on this tour which is great, and doesn't cause issues for people from overseas. But it should be setup at planning stage, not just for the actual tour. It is really great to travel in small groups, share rides and know you aren't the only one on a flight. You don't all need to travel and stay together, people have favourite airlines and hotels, but by sharing information you get nice sociable travel packets.

I travelled with Alex Zaballa, I have done several LAOUC tours with Alex when he was an ACE Director but now he is at Oracle itself. He was also joined by two other speakers from Brazil,  Gilson Martins and Mario Barduchi. Alex and I became travel mentors to Gilson who was on his first tour. I hadn't met Gilson before in person but he did interview me for his GoldenTalks Women's Day video. Alex was our foodie and most of his restaurant picks were awesome but don't mention "spoon' in Costa Rica (not his best).

Hospitality is really appreciated, it gives the speakers a chance to meet with each other, especially those only at that event. ACEs should be encouraging local speakers to join the program and help those who are trying to progress to the higher levels. This is a great time to do that. Often there are Oracle Product Managers speaking and that gives a chance for new relationships to be formed.

It is helpful if the local event can recommend hotels, including corporate chains, and give an indication (real not optimistic) traffic times. Most foreigners rely on Uber and what we didn't factor for in Mexico was the time it takes to actually secure an Uber. We don't want to be late but equally don't want to unnecessarily give up any  sleep :)

At the locations we are not overly needy but we do need good AV systems with on sight people to help if there are problems. Internet is also a must, we want to demo systems and that requires connect ability.

Audience Expectation:

Often events are held in universities, but this doesn't always mean the audience is students. They may be local users and just in a university because they are cost effective. There may be a lot of students and there maybe a mixed audience. All variables are good but speakers need to know. We need to adapt our content for heavily student audiences.

Personally I love speaking to students, they want to know about careers that use the technology they are learning. Those universities like Mexico and Panama that are already linked to Oracle are a great opportunity to encourage them to do more. Access to Oracle learning is so much easier now with Livelabs so they can take up more learning and gain even more interest in Oracle which is what we all want.

One student in Panama came up to me later in the day and said she only came to my session as her boyfriend suggested it, but she liked the way I talked about Oracle and was really impressed and will look at it more. Speakers live for comments like that.

Being part of a tour is such a privilege and real fun. I have made so many friends on tours where you really get to know people, and have stayed friends like I said on my 'extra's post.