I am in London waiting for my flight home.

This was my first Kscope as an attendee and as a speaker. I loved every minute of the conference! It did not start very well, probably because June was really busy for me. First of all I did not book the hotel in time and could not get a room from Sheraton. Well, I did get a room from Westin and that hotel was really nice. Secondly I forgot to book the flights and did it at the last minute (and I payed for my mistake quite dearly) by a help of a travelling agent that found me from Twitter. Isn’t that cool! Well, unfortunately that was not all… Next I realized I had not registered for the conference and the registration was closed already. Thanks to Lauren who seems to understand us speakers better that we do ourselves handled everything and there was no issue at all. I could have stopped here and try to be smart but no… Two hours before my session I went to check the conference app to see that I have the right version of my presentation there…no…it was not the right version, in matter of the fact it was a completely wrong presentation. Yep. I did upload the right one but updated it with the wrong one just before I left Finland. Well, I uploaded the right one and one more time checked that my slides on my laptop were the right slides. Now I was getting nervous: what will happen next? Mr Murphy was obviously very fond of me.

I was a panelist on WIT panel hosted by Kellyn Pot’vin. I think this panel was really good. We had a huge audience, both women and men, and they really were interested in the topic. A lot of interaction!

I had my session, 9 Use Cases for Data Modeler, right after the panel. I was quite nervous, which I am usually not. But when I started to present and my audience was just fantastic I was not nervous at all: I enjoyed. I had a great audience! Thank you! You really inspire me!

The content of the conference was very high and everything was so fluent. I will need to ask ODTUG board for some advice on getting sponsors and more attendees. I do not think many user groups today can say they have more attendees every year and sponsors signing already for next year. Well done!

It is always important to have good content and plenty of good food in conferences but still I think the best is to meet friends and make some new ones. I was so happy to see many of my friends and finally to meet some of my ‘virtual friends’. I attended several sessions and learnt a lot. I gave a couple of interviews on WIT and on ACE program. I met my publisher and my tech editors. I had a great dinner sponsored by the ACE program (thank you, Vikki!) and I even drunk some beer (luckily Jeff Smith came to help me out, I was quite desperate:-), I do not drink beer and I do not like it). And I was so glad to see Mike Riley and I wish all the best to him and his family.

Thank you ODTUG for having me as a speaker and letting me to attend and experience this amazing conference! And thank you for the great party! Cannot wait Kscope15 and Florida!

What I do not get is why do they say it always rains in Seattle?

Done with the BGOUG conference. The content was amazing with several international and exceptionally big number of local speakers (fantastic!). And the organization was as excellent as always when my friend Milena Gerova has something to do with it. Thank you! Absolutely great conference!

This evening was one of the hightlights of my journey on user groups. We had several nations sitting in the same table (Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Finland, …) and sharing their visions on European history and different cultures. I can tell you that none of this was taught to me when I was in school! So today I really learnt that history the way it is written and taught might not be the real truth. User group events are not just learning about Oracle but also learning about your own history and different cultures. I enjoyed this evening very much and I want to thank Milena and her team and those people who educated me this evening. I am sure I learnt very much. And I did make many new and good friends today.

And BTW I believe my sessions went well. At least they were well attended and I was told by many that they enjoyed and learnt. I am very happy about it. Thank you for letting me speak! I love my job!

Now it’s time to pack. I am travelling home tomorrow morning. Good night!

In Bulgaria at the BGOUG conference. Great day by the way but the evening is super: dancing! After the dinner everybody just starts dancing. I love it. Unfortunately I had to leave in the middle because I decided this morning to change my presentation for tomorrow totally so finishing my brand new presentation now… fun;)

Note to myself: next time remember to practice Bulgarian dances beforehand using the dvd Milena gave long time ago.

Have I ever mentioned that BGOUG is just great?

Here I am in a beautiful town of Sandanski in Bulgaria. I am supposed to prepare (finalize, what ever) my new presentation for the conference but I am so full after the delicious speakers’ dinner that I probably must leave it for tomorrow. This place is just amazing and I already feel how my body and soul like this free air and good climate. This place if famous for its mineral water fountains and health therapy. When I fly back home on Sunday I will not just be smarter but also healthier!

Tomorrow it all starts and I know Milena has done such a great job again. Stay tuned.

Woohoo! Going to the OOW14! Happy, happy, happy… Please, please, please come and hear me…

We are almost ready for the OUGF Harmony…

Tomorrow it all starts with a lunch and some sightseeing with some of our speakers and then a dinner with all the speakers. The dinner will be served in a viking restaurant. There might be interesting pictures in Twitter tomorrow…

The OUGF Harmony will be a very special conference in a middle of a Finnish forest. First of all the speakers will be top quality (what else!) and the content will be extremely interesting (yep, yep, I have heard this before…nothing special…). There will be six tracks plus three more in tents (What!). Secondly there will be the Oaktable World, RACAttack (special sauna edition! Have you ever installed RAC in a sauna? This is your chance…), world premier on SE HA (with special, numbered t-shirts!), among others. Thirdly the speakers will spend the night in a tent in the middle of the forest (I just hope they do not like it too much and stay there forever:)).

And of course I do not need to mention that the dinner will be served outside by an open fire and by a beautiful Finnish lake. And attendees may take a sauna and a swim on the lake either before or during the dinner. And there is one more surprise nobody knows yet. Do not tell anybody… We will have THE Oracle band playing live music during and after the dinner…

Oh BTW did I say that THE C.J.Date will be there and explain temporal data? I cannot wait!!! He is definitely one of my personal favourites…and he travels all the way from California just to be here for us!

This will be a conference one of a kind. I am very sorry if you will miss it:( But do follow Twitter to see what is going on (#OUGF14).

Now we just hope for a good weather. Fingers crossed!