I finally have time to sit down and write about my experience at the ilOUG Tech Days 2015!

The Tech Days took place in Haifa, Israel 9.-10.6.2015. I had three sessions to present: Database Design in Agile Projects, Reporting with Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler and Is Your Database Secured? This was my second time in Israel (two years ago I attended the ilOUG Tech Days 2013 in Jerusalem) so I knew a little bit what to expect: fantastic food, great questions and surprisingly many women in the audience. And of course Ami and Liron from the user group to do everything they can to make you feel welcome and comfortable. And they really do a great job!

During my Data Modeler sessions I gave some copies of my new book away and signed them. The Data Modeler talks were well received but I think the security one was the best. It is not an easy task to go to Israel and talk about security: those guys know everything about security! I even had some solders is my audience! But I think the presentation went well and the audience liked my ideas and comment on the topic. I had many excellent questions and many people thanked me afterwards. My favourite was the gentleman who asked me if I will write my next book on security… Who knows what happens…

I think the conference was excellent and I really hope I will have a chance to go to Israel again. Thank you for the “Bambas”! And halvas!

It is easy to say BGOUG is one of my favourite conferences. Not only because Milena is a dear friend, the venue is always wonderful, food is excellent etc but because I simply love the Bulgarian audience! They are extremely interested in learning, they ask a lot of questions and the best for a shy Finn like me is that they give you wonderful face-to-face feedback.

After my first session a gentleman came to me and he said he saw my session two years ago and it changed his life for better: now he knows a better way to talk to the end users to get better requirements to be able to create better databases and applications for end users. Another person came to me and said he really hope I will be there in November to share my knowledge again because he learns so much in every presentation. A lady wrote to me that she admires my work and enjoys my sessions very much. Etc.

I am usually very bad with feedback: good or bad. But these people can give it in a way I do not feel embarrassed but honored and privileged. Thank you all for your nice comments! You do not know how much it means to me! I was really tired after the conference (I just realized I have not had any free weekends for two months!) but extremely happy: my travelling and speaking has a meaning! Thank you!

And Thank you Philip Stoyanov for the fantastic speech!

Heli

It’s the second day of BGOUG conference. The first day was excellent and was highlighted by a great party in the evening: good food and drinks, great company and lots of dancing! Not to mention the nice speech Philip Stoyanov gave at the party before we had a raffle for two lucky winners for a copy of my book 🙂

The second day started with a breakfast at 8 and the sessions at 10. I have been working the whole morning (answering questions from customers about Data Modeler, preparing my sessions etc) and I just realized that while you are travelling you do not make a difference if the day is a weekday or Saturday/Sunday. It’s 11.30 am now and I was wondering why people do not reply my emails. Now I know: it’s Saturday 🙂

Today I will have two sessions: one about comparing designs and database (at 14:00) and another one about reporting (at 15:00). Both sessions are in Plovdiv 3. I hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Heli

Now I am in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and the BGOUG conference is about to start…

Travelling around and trying to do your job on the side is not always easy: usually it means you will not sleep much… Well here we go… and this will be a great conference as BGOUG always is!

Tomorrow it starts: the ilOUG Tech Days 2015 in Haifa, Israel. I travelled all day yesterday to be here in time to attend the fantastic guided tour by Ika, the best guide in Israel. We had a wonderful day at the Nazareth area. After the tour I needed to work a little and then to dinner. Then I prepared my slides for tomorrow. I will be talking about agile database design, reporting with Data Modeler and about database security. And I will give one copy of my new book away in each Data Modeler session…

Hope to see you tomorrow! Now it’s time to go to bed…

I just got back from the EMEA user group leaders’ meeting in Lisbon. It was so great to see so many amazing friends again!

During the meeting we for instance agreed on the Ambassador program (DOAG and UKOUG will organize the election for new Ambassadors pretty soon) and the new and improved way of counting votes for the OOW when we select our EOUC speakers. I posted about these to Oracle community platform.

I hope I will have time later to blog more about the meeting. Unfortunately my pictures are not very good so cannot share them 😦

Now back to work. On Sunday I will fly to ilOUG and so much work I must finish before that…