As I wrote a while back I was accepted to speak both at the User Group Leader summit at DOAG16 and at RMOUG Training Days.

The first one was a short presentation where I talked about a large bug in Oracle security and the need to patch and upgrade to not have that exposure. It was great fun as it was limited to a four-minute talk. I learned a lot from preparing for it as that short time allows for no questions and no spur of the moment comments. Each slide has to be carefully timed to make sure the time is enough for all slides.

The last one was about a customer case where a severe performance issue was handled where I talk about all the assumptions we challenged in the process of resolving it. The job took 36 hours and it could only use 8 and soon the amount of work was expected to double. It ended up taking just a few minutes when we were done. Part regular tuning and part using the “magic” of the EXADATA.

While the talk ended up having few attendees – competing with Maria Colgan and Graham Wood is tough – it was a great experience. I have not presented at a conference this big before. Training Days is also a conference that scares me to present at. I lived in Denver and my respect for the conference, the presenters and the quality expected is almost at an unhealthy level. So being there to present was a way to slay a dragon of mine. I had a great time at the conference and I enjoyed presenting. Even though I did not have an oversubscribed room, those who came seems to have enjoyed the session as I was rewarded with a 9.0 rating for the talk.

If you’re thinking about maybe going to Training Days next year, my advice is to do it. It is a great conference and it is extremely well-organized. It is small enough to know the layout and the rooms fast, while still being big enough to have a lot of great talks to choose from every session. There were several where I wanted to go to three and I still regret having missed those where 2-3 fantastic sessions were held at the same time.

I really liked the effort made to make the biggest names available and approachable by everyone by having them have their own tables at lunch time and letting people sit at the table where one of the persons they respect the most sits. I really enjoyed my lunch at Cary Millsap’s table. It was a great group and a very inspiring discussion about performance and discussing old battles in the field.

It is far away, but I’ll be back. I had a blast.