I am at the Las Vegas airport waiting for my flight home. It was a busy week but an extremely nice one.
This week I attended my first COLLABORATE (#C16LV). It was held in Las Vegas (did not see much of Vegas so no comments on that). I gave the WIT (Women in Technology) Keynote on Monday. The room was full and unfortunately not everybody who wanted to attend could do it because the seats were limited, the room can take only as much it can, not more. I was very surprised how popular WIT is at the COLLABORATE! I was very nervous before I started. I had prepared this session for weeks, and I mean weeks. Now I can tell you that preparing a regular tech session is MUCH easier than preparing a WIT session 🙂 Before I started I got a message from my husband saying: You will do great. When I started the presentation I was having a lot of fun! There was no reason to be nervous. The audience was simply GREAT! And the feedback I got…THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I am so glad I accepted the invitation to come and speak. Thank you so much for inviting me.
On Tuesday I had two sessions: a panel about communication and a talk about how to manage changes in database structures with Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler. The panel was organized by Michael Abbey. He is a great person and the panel was a success. Thank you, Michael, for inviting me to this panel!
My session about database changes went well too and I can proudly say that Mr Steven Feuerstein attended this session and did not fall asleep 🙂 Actually Steven came to me afterwards and gave me some compliments 😉
Wednesday was the day for meetings. I am the Ambassador for EMEA Oracle Users Groups and in that role I attended some great meetings. Thank you Mary Lou Dopart for inviting me.
Thursday was the last day of the event and I gave my favorite session about database designing using Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler as the last session of the event. I was surprised so many people still had the energy to attend the session and I am very happy for the feedback you gave me after the session.
During the week I also attended several sessions by other speakers, especially on Big Data. On Sunday I attended the OEM Hands on Lab (by Kellyn, Courtney and Werner) together with Jim Czuprynski. That was great fun! Jim is such a nice guy to work with!
On Monday I attended the keynote about trends and technologies, Rob Lockard’s security talk to mention some. On Tuesday and on Wednesday I attended a couple of big data sessions. And on Thursday I learned about JSON.
The parties (every evening 🙂 ) were great, I am sure, but as a first timer and a jet lagged person I needed to leave them early to be able to be energetic the next morning 🙂
Thank you very much for having me and thank you for attending my sessions!
I really hope I will get an invitation to speak at the #C17LV !
— Heli
HeliFromFinland 
But did you sell any books? 🙂
Glad you had a good experience and glad someone was there to represent Data Modeler!
Yes Jim C is a great guy and Courtney is a neighbor here in Texas! Just a few blocks away. I see her at school events as our kids go to the same school. Very small world.
I have no idea if I sold any books because Oracle Press was looking after that 🙂 Great event and I enjoyed a lot!
Heli
It was awesome to sit through your lunch presentation. It was the prod I needed to get me back to thinking about being a Woman in Technology. It’s kind of weird how many of us came by this adventure in a round about way.
Thank you for making me think and smile!
I’m looking forward to getting to (hopefully) present next year.
Wonderful! Take care! And remember to say: YES!
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