OpenWorld 2006 Is A Wrap!

Oracle OpenWorld 2006 is now a wrap. The parties and networking are all finished. I have been PowerPointed into a gelatinous blob of bullet-point overload.

All in all, I came out with several "take aways" despite the bullet-point overload. In particular, I was pleased to find more of an international mix with the attendees this year. We had a true melting pot of people in substantial numbers from across the globe, which also meant that we had a substantial variety of perspectives. I probably got at least as much new information from the international attendees as from the Oracle presentations.

As I see it, the conference highlights were:

• The Sunday Special Interest Group ("SIG") meetings, especially the OAUG Middleware SIG

• Jesper Anderson's "Ready for Change" scorecard assessment for potential Fusion customers

• Nadia Bendjedou's "Oracle E-Business Suite Customers: 10 Things You Can Do Now To Get Ready For Fusion"

• The strong emphasis on XML Publisher, Release 12, and using Fusion Middleware

No, the laser lights and hip-hop dancers did not make my list of highlights. However, the Beta release of the 11g database and the entry of Oracle into the Linux marketplace are also noteworthy. Although I may not write on either here, I will probably post something about each on www.itsafeature.com

Over the next few days, I'll be writing on each of my highlight points as I digest the mountains of notes I took on each subject. Stay tuned...