2016 was again a busy year. I have been working on my regular day job, studying the Big Data world, researching, writing, speaking and teaching at the University of Helsinki.
My second book came out:

I spoke at several events (I hope I did not forget anything):
- DOAG2016, Nuremberg, Germany
- OTN APAC Tour:
- Beijing, China
- Sangam16, Bangalore/Bengaluru, India
- POUG, Warsaw, Poland
- Oracle Open World, San Francisco, USA
- MiitIT, Helsinki, Finland
- ODTUG KScope16, Chicago, USA
- UKOUG Scotland, Glasgow
- RoOUG, Romania
- BGOUG, Bulgaria
- AMIS 25 β Beyond the Horizon, Leiden, The Netherlands
- APEX Connect 2016, Berlin, Germany
- OUGF EXA-SIG, Helsinki, Finland
- Collaborate, Las Vegas, USA
- OUGN, Norway
- GaOUG Tech Day 2016, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
I attended my first academic events: a Big Data Workshop (http://udbms.cs.helsinki.fi/BigData2016/) and the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE (http://icde2016.fi/). I was also a volunteer worker in both events and I guess I made some kind of history by being a chair for one of the sessions at ICDE as a newcomer:-) I really enjoyed both the events!
I was helping to organize and co-chairing the EOUC Leaders’ meeting in Nuremberg:
http://www.helifromfinland.blog/2016/12/02/eouc-leaders-meeting-at-doag2016/
I have been helping several user groups to judge the submitted Call for Papers and of course serving the EMEA user groups as their elected Ambassador. One of my duties during the year was to attend the EOUC Leaders’ meeting in Romania in June and give a speech to our long time Oracle liaison, Mary Lou Dopart. I want to thank her for all the years she has been working for user groups and I want to wish her all the best with her new duties:

For many years (at least since 2011: http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/green/eco-enterprise-awards-2011-517494.html ) I have been one of the judges for the Oracle Sustainability Award (used to be called the ECO Award). I am very honoured about it because I consider myself as a “green person” and I enjoy seeing companies making green choices. Also in 2016 I wasΒ judging the 2016 Oracle Excellence Award: Sustainability Innovation (http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/green/sustainability-innovation-3251463.html). Congratulation to all nominees and the winners!
I attended the OTN/AMIS Hackathon in Leiden. We did not win but we had a great team and so much fun!Β π

I have been giving interviews, signing books and smiling in several photos π .Β I think this photo sums it all upΒ π Somebody taking a photo of Connor “AskTom” McDonald taking a photo of meΒ π

Oh and I was listed as one of the TOP 100 IT Influencers in Finland by TiVi magazine (http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/tassa-ovat-it-alan-100-vaikuttajaa-2016-6604873), just like last year. I am extremely proud of this. Thank you!
And just to remind everybody, it does take a lot of work, it is not just dancing ballet (I love ballet! and I know how real this photo is…)…

It was a great year and I probably forgot to mention half of what happened. I am tired but happyΒ π
Thank you! I am looking forward to 2017!
— Heli