This year was my 4th time going to Oracle Openworld at San Francisco. The last time I went, it was 2017. That year, Blue Angels were doing an exhibition and there was a bit more energy in the city. This year, however, is a little quiet. I took these pictures before and after the event, hence the empty streets and convention center. It was a huge crowd as always.
Oracle seemed to have done a better job this year with the convention. All the sessions I attended were in either Moscone West or South, compared to being scattered in various hotel ballrooms a few years ago. This time, they were able to make use of bigger open areas by making smaller sections and providing headphones to reduce the noise. The headphones were uncomfortable though. But this made it a lot easier to go from one session to another, even when they’re scheduled back-to-back.
The strategy of Oracle continues to focus on the Cloud. Many many sessions were about Oracle Cloud even for Oracle Enterprise Manager sessions. Oracle’s Cloud offering seem full-fledged. And anyone who hasn’t adopted their Cloud ecosystem should feel the squeeze, as the technical staff falls behind on the big push.
Starting last time I attended OOW, I told myself to avoid this guy who presents in general sessions and flips through Powerpoint slides every 2 seconds. This year I still ended up in his session just cuz I filled up the schedule with 6 sessions each day. But I did see him on the street buying coffee for a homeless person!
Brian