In the last two weeks I was very busy: three conferences in ten days are exhausting – but it was a lot of fun. The last conference for this year is over now. Time for my personal conference review that I write since a couple of years.
When I started to work for Callista a year ago, my new employer offered to pay my travelling expenses for up to six international conferences a year. Thanks a lot to Callista to support me. And what a surprise: I was able to speak at exactly six international conferences in 2023. Precision landing!
It is not possible to write down all the impressions from all the conferences I was able to join. This personal review is a summary of some highlight from six completely different events. Because all Oracle conferences are usually well documented on Twitter (sorry, I wanted to write: on X), most of the photos in this blog post are copied from there (with links to the original tweets). Thanks to all the photographers.
APEX connect 2023, Berlin
Beginning of May, my conference year started with APEX connect in Berlin. I presented a new session about database constraints. I decided to talk about this topic because I think that constraints are still underestimated by many developers. On the conference in Berlin, there was at least a high interest in the topic: The room was crowded. This motivates me to submit the session to more conferences next year.
Most of the presentation were live demos, and it was the first time that I used Oracle 23c for the demos – with some nice surprises, as you can read later in this post.
My presentation about constraints at APEX connect in Berlin. Photo: Oliver Lemm (@OliverLemm)
ODTUG Kscope23 Conference, Aurora
One of the highlights of my conference year was the ODTUG Kscope23 Conference in Aurora end of June. It was my fourth Kscope conference so far (or fifth, if I also count the virtual conference in 2021). This year I had the opportunity to present three sessions:
- Make Your Oracle Data Warehouse Fast: Comparing Performance Features
- Function Calls in SQL – Black Box for the Optimizer?
- Autonomous, Automatic, Adaptive: Are we running out of work?
The session about function calls I already presented before, but when I tested and adapted the demo scripts for Oracle 23c, I found another nice surprise, as you can read later in this post.
Comparing performance features at Kscope23. Photo: Christian Gohmann (@CGohmannDE)
One of the performance features is Star Transformation. Photo: Philipp Salvisberg (@phsalvisberg)
An important part of every conference is to meet friends from the Oracle community. Since I left Trivadis, it is also a chance to meet some of my former colleagues (those who are still there, but also those who left the company like me). An interesting detail on every conference: The Dutch guys are always there.
European speakers in an Americal steakhouse. Photo: Erik van Roon (@evrocs_nl)
HrOUG Conference ‘23, Rovinj
Rovinj, Croatia. Photo: Dani Schnider
Rovinj is a scenic old town and fishing port on the west coast of Croatia. A few kilometres off the coast, there is an island with 400 Oracle nerds – at least once a year in October, when the HrOUG annual conference of Croatian Oracle User Group takes place. I heard a lot of good things about this conference, so I submitted some abstracts for the first time and was accepted with two presentations.
Because I already presented both sessions a few months before at Kscope23, I didn’t spend much time to prepate my talks. But be too relaxed is never a good idea. The comparison of data warehouse performance features I prepared for a 60-minute slot at Kscope. Here I had only 45 minutes, which I only realised during the presentation. My time management was “sub-optimal”, I was not very happy with the performance of my performance comparison. Fortunately, the second session about function calls went much better.
Live on stage with my session about function calls. Photo: Sai Penumuru (@sai_penumuru)
UKOUG Conference ‘23, Reading
The UK Oracle User Group already exists since 40 years. That’s why the UKOUG Conference ’23 in November should be something special. Ok, it was a bit “special”: Unlike in previous years, the event was not in a conference center, but took place in the Oracle offices in Reading.
Entrance of the UKOUG conference in Reading. Photo: Zahid Anwar (@ZedDBA)
The “special” thing for me was a brand new presentation that I prepared during the summer: How Intelligent is the SQL Analysis Report in Oracle 23c?
Let’s go back a few months: In April, I prepared the demo scripts for my presentations at APEX connect and Kscope with Oracle 23c. Coincidentally, I discovered a new 23c feature that I have never heard of before: SQL Analysis Report. I wrote a short blog post about it, but planned to do more research on that feature. The result is this presentation. In Reading I presented it for the first of three times in a row (UKOUG, POUG, DOAG).
The second day of the UKOUG conference I missed, because I travelled (together with about a dozen of other speakers) to the next conference…
On the way from UKOUG to POUG at Heathrow airport. Photo: Ludovico Caldara (@ludodba)
POUG 2023 Conference, Warsaw
One of the most important conferences every year is the one organised by POUG (“Pint with Oracle User Group”, not “Polish Oracle User Group”). It is a kind of class reunion of the Oracle community. Almost everybody is there – even those who are retired and spend most of their time with gardening and bread baking.
The POUG 2023 Conference took place in Warsaw, just one day after the UKOUG conference. When I had the choice between the POUG speakers dinner and the second day of the UKOUG conference, it was clear that I didn’t want to miss the dinner at POUG with all the friends from the Oracle community.
Coffee/tea break at the POUG 2023 conference. Photo: Sabine Heimsath (@oraesque)
Since there are only two parallel streams at the POUG conference, the rooms are usually quite full. The talks are generally more technical than on other conferences, and the audience likes fun and jokes – and some attendees like beer too. I presented my session on SQL Analysis Report again, but it was a very different experience from two days earlier at UKOUG or a week after at DOAG.
Crowded room at POUG conference opening. Photo: Dani Schnider (@dani_schnider)
Connor McDonald in action at POUG2023. Photo: Martin Klier (@MartinKlierDBA)
My session about SQL Analysis Report for the audience in Poland. Photo: Martin Berger (@martinberx)
Oracle ACE Adventure in the Warsaw Brewery. Photo: Oracle ACE Program (@oracleace)
After the conference, on Saturday evening, all members of the Oracle ACE program were invited to the ACE Dinner & Adventure in the Warsaw Brewery. It was the second ACE dinner this week, and the next one will be two days later in Nuremberg.
DOAG 2023 Conference & Exhibition, Nuremberg
After the ACE dinner is before the ACE dinner… On Saturday, we had a wonderful dinner in Warsaw, two days later was the next ACE Dinner & Adventure in Nuremberg. Many (not all) of the attendees were the same, and we had again a lot of meat and good beers from a local brewery. The Oracle ACE dinners are always a highlight of a conference, and all members of the ACE program that join the conference are invited.
Oracle ACE Dinner in Nuremberg. Photo: Oracle ACE Program (@oracleace)
My first talk on a DOAG conference was in 2004 in Mannheim. Since 2010, I attended the conference in Nuremberg every year, most of the time as a speaker. But until this year I never had the pleasure to speak in the big hall “Tokio” with 1200 seats. This year, I presented my session about SQL Analysis Report on the big stage. Of course, the room was not full during my session, but it is a special experience to present on a stage like this.
Live demo of SQL Analysis Report on a big stage at DOAG. Photo: Christian Gohmann (@CGohmannDE)
The second session I presented this year at DOAG was a new one about challenges in Star Schema design. For this session, I had a smaller room, but an interested audience anyway that asked many questions. I hope I can present this session on other conferences again next year.
Data Warehousing with Oracle 