My life is always busy but I do not think it has ever been busier than it was during 2014!

In January, while I was visiting the Oracle HQ, Paul Carlstroem from Oracle Press came to me and asked if I was interested in writing a book for them. Believe me I was the most surprised person to hear my reply: yes. Wow! That decision alone made my year busy!

So in January I was at the Oracle HQ attending the International Oracle User Group Summit and in May I attended the EMEA User Group Presidents’ meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria. During the year I spoke at some exciting events the first time: the OUGN boat conference, Kscope14 and the Nordic ACE Director Tour. These were so great and I can already say that I am a lucky girl: I will be speaking in both OUGN15 and Kscope15! New to me were also the roadshows organized by local Oracle. Amazing tours around Finland that I was lucky to be a part of.

Of course I did do some talks in user groups I always love to go: BGOUG (Bulgaria) and DOAG (Germany). Lucky me! Not to mention my own user group OUGF that organized an amazing event in the middle of a Finnish forest in June. That conference I will always remember. Mainly because it also included a guided tour in Helsinki by yours truly and a camping night for the speakers. That was great fun!

This year’s Oracle Open World was very special to me. There was my first Oracle ACE Director briefing at the Oracle HQ just before the Open World and I had four talks during the Open World. It was a busy 10 days! But I enjoyed very much and I am really looking forward to my next briefing and the Open World! Thank you for letting me be an Oracle ACED! I am so happy and honored and will try to be as good ACED as I can be!

2014 was not a good year in the sense of finance and Finland is not doing great now. I hope 2015 will be better. I love my country but I am very worried. I never speak “politics” but this country needs strong decisions and less restrictions for business.

2015 will be very interesting. My book will come out (I am so excited!) and I will have been invited to many great events to go and talk about my favorite topic: database design! It is possible I will find new topics too as I did in 2014… I have made a very hard and sad decision for 2015: I will not continue as the president of OUGF. I will continue my work and co-operation with user groups if they only let me but I will not be a president any more. My life has been too busy and I have too many responsibilities, it is time to let other people to take some of those responsibilities. My company needs me, my family needs me and most of all I need me…

Thank you for making my year 2014 so amazing! And thank you for being a friend!

I wish you all a great 2015 and I hope to see you in 2015 many times during my trips!