In this post:
- Introduction
- Reasons to submit a paper for an Oracle User Group event
- What should you talk about?
Introduction
Just a few days ago I received a reminder email from Burke Scheld for the “AUSOUG National Conference Series – Perth 2011 – Call for Papers”. I had an event-related conversation with several Oracle guys in my professional networks and the answers I received triggered this blog post. Some of the very good Oracle professionals I personally respect said “…I am not sure what I would get out of it …” or “…I haven’t done anything exciting for the last FEW MONTHS …”.
The answers I received shocked me a bit. Typically I am in the opposite situation where I have so many good things happening I would love to share with the world that I had to choose from too many topics to submit several. I am sure that I am not very different from other folks who work with Oracle technologies on a day to day basis. One just needs to see the opportunities around you.
Let me get back to the conversation and cover each of the statements one by one.
Reasons why you should submit
or “…I am not sure what I would get out of it …”
Let me start with the obvious:
1. “RESUME” – any participation as a speaker adds a solid record to your CV. If you’ve never spoken before it will bring your RESUME up to a totally new level and it gives you an advantage over any other candidates for the next role you may be applying for.
2. “RECOGNITION” – and it isn’t just your boss who we are talking about here. It is your family and friends who you will make proud. There is also your workmates and professional network. You will get visibility among event participants and the industry in general.
3. “IT’S A WAY TO BIGGER EVENTS” – if you think that an event you just received an email about isn’t a big and recognizable event and it isn’t worth trying at all, think about it again. It might be hard (but still worth trying) to be accepted as a speaker for a very big event (like OpenWorld) right from the beginning. Participation in a smaller event will give you a good base for future conferences you may have dreamt about. So keep trying even if your proposal is not accepted on the first try. Occasionally you will get there.
4. “EASIER TO CONVINCE YOUR BOSS” – it is much easier to convince the company management you are working for to sponsor your participation in a conference if you are accepted as a speaker than just a participant.
5. “TRAVEL TO NEW PLACES” – obviously participating in conferences gives you an opportunity to visit places you have never visited before.
6. “HAVE A BREAK” – this is a good chance to have a break from your regular life. For several days you will get away from your work, friends, town and family. It will give you a chance to have a look on your life from the outside and maybe help make it a bit better in the future.
7. “NETWORK” – any event provides a great opportunity to meet new people as well as old fellows from the same industry you haven’t seen for a while. Each next year you will have a chance to make your network even bigger.
8. “LEARN NEW THINGS” – typically you have one or two presentations for an event. The rest of the conference time you listen to others and learn.
9. “GET ENERGIZED” – for the last few years the biggest take away from conferences I participated in was the energy I received from other presenters. It is always a great pleasure to listen to such speakers as Tanel Poder, Tom Kyte, Jonathan Lewis, Cary Millsap and others. You see how enthusiastic and energetic they are and that makes you ready to follow in their footprints to investigate, research, think (differently) and learn.
10. “LEARN EVEN MORE” – I find that I am learning a lot while preparing for my presentations. During the preparation phase you experiment, test things and become an even better expert on the topic you like to speak about. Therefore it is important to choose the right topic for your submission that you know about and would like to investigate even further.
I hope these 10 benefits have convinced you to have a go. Let’s talk about possible topics.
NOTE: If you have some other good reasons in mind (I am sure there are some other good reasons) please do not hesitate to post them in the comments for this blog post.
What should you talk about?
Or “…I haven’t done anything exciting for the last FEW MONTHS …”
… I am sure you have ;) You just didn’t notice. One thing that I would suggest you keep in mind while thinking about a topic for a conference is the fact that most event participants are like you and me. They are part of an Oracle User (Group) community and interested in sharing and using your real life experience. Any interesting issue or solution you worked on today, yesterday or last week may be of value to others.
Other advice I would give is to keep thinking about possible topics while you are working on a day to day basis. Keep it as an ongoing process rather than a one time brainstorm session. Next time you come across something interesting (what you possibly would like to investigate in detail) make a short note in a text file and keep going. At the end of the day you will find several dozen ideas in a relatively short period of time.
As an example from my current list I can mention the following:
– Oracle db scheduler and scheduling windows overlapping (if there is an overlap tasks may start as the time you do not expect those to start in).
– How to find TOP SQL generating the most changes in a database (blogged)
– Simple shell script to return Excel taking an SQL text a parameter via Apache
– How to Install Oracle Grid Control from Oracle VM template provided by Oracle having limited RAM installed
– Time Zones implementation in 11G advanced queuing
…
I am sure that you will have many more ideas to add to the list… Just don’t stop asking good interesting questions and keep going. I’m sure that at some point in time I will meet you at a conference and will learn from you!
Please don’t be shy and submit your paper proposal for the next Oracle User Group conference or an event! It doesn’t cost much and it has huge benefits for you and the community!
For those who would like to have a go I have a very good opportunity for you! Please submit your proposal for AUSOUG organized conference in Perth, Australia! Hurry up! You have just a few days until the deadline of 10th of August to do it.
NOTE: If you are aware about any other Oracle event around the world that calling for papers at the moment please do not hesitate to post information about it in this blog post comments.
Hope to see you soon,
Yury Velikanov
22 Comments. Leave new
Thank you Yury!
Great post!
What do you recommend to do if ideas that you
got were already blogged?
Do you think it worth to blog about it anyway
(possibly considering to add something that
you observed but not mentioned in the blog)
or you just choose another topic from your
list or its all depend on how you like the
topic?
Cheers,
Andrey
Hi Andrey,
Thank you for following and for the comments.
If I see added value to other I blog. I as any of you can’t read all related blogs in the world. Therefore the efforts duplication is expected here.
Yury
Yury! The post is great! Looks like you need more competition for the speaker positions :)
If Seriously, I don’t see any drawbacks in trying to get your papers approved for the conferences, I’ve participated in several events too, and I have found out that :
* I learn a lot while I’m preparing, that’s why I try to choose topics that are interesting to me and which I want to investigate more, and as I’m investigating more I find more questions and ideas for the future.
* I improve my presentation skills which later help a lot in client meetings (I’m also not native English speaker, therefore sometimes the language causes trouble, and this is an additional way to improve it and test it in situation when everyone is listening to you)
* It’s a challenge to myself to prepare well and do the presentation well, but if the audience is satisfied, questions are being asked and I can provide answers that people are looking for, and in the end you get a good feedback, it’s a great feeling of job well done when yo go back home.
* Speakers at conferences build their professional networks faster as you get questions from the audience, and people talk to you after the presentation if they liked it or have additional questions.
* Speakers gain recognition that helps building careers.
In case I’m not a speaker, but I still attend the event, I’ve found I learn a lot during the presentations, but very seldom the presented topic is 100% clear for me and that’s good, because, I have a huge list of ideas and open questions “What if I do …” when I go back home. That’s a source of new topics for blog or for the next papers.
Conferences give you inspiration, ideas, energy and new challenges – these are the things that I find quite hard getting doing only my daily tasks.
Yury, You’re doing good work by encouraging people to participate, as more applications are there for presentations as wider the choice of really interesting presentations to be included in the event.
It’s a win win situation for everyone!
Guys, you don’t have to believe what I’m saying here, you better apply for an OUG event and check yourself! See you there!
Maris
Thank you Maris for the comments.
You rightly mentioned that presenting is a hard work. However if you do it well it paid off.
>> Looks like you need more competition for the speaker positions :)
Well :). I think if more people we will involve in the User Groups events, more quality presentations we will see on the conferences. The Oracle community will get stronger. Oracle products will get better and better. Oracle will get more clients ….
In simple words I am not afraid from the competition :)
Yury
Great post, Yury.
Waiting for the next LVOUG to make a first start for myself.
You will be laughing… about something OID related – eating it on breakfast. :)
As you said – to start from something smaller.
Andrew.
I know that if anyone can help with OID related issue then it is Andrejs Prokopjevs! You must present on that topic! I am sure you will be successful! See you at Oracle OpenWorld one time (or may be even at ClosedWorld :)
Excellent Post. I did my first presentation on VirtaThon and its a wonderful learning experience about the topic and about myself too.
Giridhar
Hey Giridhar,
Congratulation with your fisrt public appearance at VirtaThon. They got quite impressive speakers list out there! https://www.brainsurface.com/virtathon . It is interesting to see how quickly Brain Surface got it popularity! Wish you to start presenting in front of real audience. It is a different experience :)
Yury
Super post!
I did my first presentation this Spring @LVOUG mostly inspired by Maris :) Now I am really looking forward to continue doing it in future.
Yury, Maris, I am wondering – were you speaking on some other Europe OUG except EMEA, UKOUG or LVOUG? Can you advise some other good event nearby?
// Andrejs K
Hey Andrejs! 100 years not seen :)
Thank you for following. I am glad that you follow the advice and started to present.
>> were you speaking on some other Europe OUG except EMEA, UKOUG or LVOUG? Can you advise some other good event nearby?
I am not there anymore ;). However there have been some events organized by Oracle User Group in near by countries (Norway, Finland, may be something going on in Estonia). The best way for you is to get in touch with Heli Helskyaho (FINOUG President, @HeliFromFinland) or Andrejs Vorobjovs (LVOUG president, @lvoug). They definitely keeping track on what is going on around and will help you.
Keep it going Andrejs! Keep it going!
Yury
Splendid post Yury as usual.
I would add that even if you dont have any user group in your country or any such event occurring near your place, dont lose heart. There are online webinars and virtual conferences out there like Virtathon.
Sky is the limit
Hey Fahd!
Thank you for your comment! I have got another idea for you. If you do not have any Oracle User Group in your country you may create one :) and gather all Oracle geeks around. I know several persons who have created OUG in the countries which didn’t have any OUG before. Let me know if you are interested and I can pass introduce you to them. I am sure they will be happy to share the experience.
Yury
Great post Yury – it’s always good to see encouragement for people to start presenting. I finally jumped in the deep end in 2007, and now I find myself as the program chair for the Perth conference.
It does take you places, you do learn, and you get plenty of enjoyment!
Scott.
Hey Scott,
Thank you for the feedback. You are a very good example for the people! Everyone who is reading this post – take Scott as an example. Presenting and organizing events is a very good experience and another good way to develop your career.
Scott: Just wonder you you got a good number of papers submitted for this year? I hope this post helped a bit and added a few proposals.
PS At least I myself decided to submit another topic at last minute because of that activity :)
Yury
Yury, I appreciate your post. When looking for presenters at our local user group, we always put users at the head of the line and give them preference for time slot. The users that choose to attend relate much more closely and get more value from fellow end users.
I reluctantly took the position of Vice-President of the Twin Cities Oracle User Group last year. I say reluctantly because I had only been in the industry for five years and didn’t feel I was qualified to sit on the board of an organization filled with people far more qualified in anything Oracle than I was. I quickly dismissed that excuse as I saw the value of being involved. Thanks to this post and a quality presentation from Mr. Alex Gorbachev last year among others, I am inspired to book myself at an upcoming meeting to present.
I would just add to your post to say that folks in the industry should not only consider presenting, but also get involved with a user group or forum or write a blog. Find a way to share your experiences with others and the payback will come ten-fold and quicker than you think. Get out of your comfort zone and you’ll find those things you feared weren’t so uncomfortable after all.
Seth
Hey Seth,
Thank you for your comment. I think your comment by it own can be a small blog post :). You are exactly right and as one of the experts said during our local Sydney Oracle Meetups meetings (https://bit.ly/nBdMK3) – The more you give to the community, the more you will benefit from it!
The TOP folks are different to others by 2 things:
a. They share their experience (and this is what this blog post a about)
b. They invest a bit of time (sometimes a significant bit) to the research. And this is up to any of us to decide how much time to spent in front of TV or digging to resolve another technical challenge :)
Yury
Nice post Yuriy
My first presentation was last year at OpenWorld Unconference session. As it was my first visit at OpenWorld, that was very hard to decide whether to present or not. But I thought that this session will be way to the biggest events as you’ve mentioned, so I decided to present
Then I presented at TROUG (Turkish Oracle User Groups) where I was invited by my Turkish friends
Now, my OOW paper was accepted for this year and I’m a more calm than I was at my first presenation :)
Thanks again for such nice blog post!
Privet Kamran,
Thank you for reading and commenting on the post. I think you are very good example on how to start presenting publicly. I would like others to follow your example. BTW: You OOW11 session Sunday, 02:45 PM, Moscone West – 2006 on RMAN 11G new features is part of my schedule for this Open World. I hope to meet you in person!
Yury
Privet Yuriy, rad bil poznakomitsa s toboy!
I would be honored to present in front of you.
See you next month! :)
[…] are not sure why you should participate I would suggest you to read the following blog post “Why you should submit a paper for an Oracle User Group event“. Speaking for local Oracle User Group may be a very good step towards being accepted for […]
Outstanding info it is without doubt. I have been waiting for this content.
If I have an idea for enhancement (some Oracle’s features), how can I share this idea or submit an enhancement request for this to Oracle?
Is OpenWorld “good address” for that?
Thanks,
Andjelko Miovci