RMOUG Training Days 2018

This year was the first time I attended (and spoke) at RMOUG Training Days. Last year I submitted a few sessions but they were rejected. This year I had the honor of having 2 of my sessions accepted to the conference.

Let’s start in a chronological order.

Pre-Conference and arrival

This year, the conference had a pre-conference workshops and the actual conference started on Tuesday around noon (after the workshops). My sessions were Wednesday and Thursday, so I decided to travel on Tuesday and miss the first day. I really hoped to be at the VIP dinner that was organized for the speakers and ACEs, but my flight only landed after 7pm (and it took me a while to get there) so I didn’t make it on time.
I decided to follow the instructions I got to get to the hotel. The plan was to catch a bus (that was schedule for 7:40 and 8:20, so that was convenient) and call the hotel when I’m on the bus so they can pick me up.
However, there were a few problems with this plan. First it was almost -20C outside (for you US people, it’s almost -4F). I know I should be a Canadian, but Vancouver isn’t really  Canada when it comes to cold weather and snow. The second problem is that I got to the bus station right on time for the 7:40 bus, but it wasn’t there. The 8:20 bus was there and the driver said that we can get on it, but he has to wait until 8:20. I decided to wait outside for the earlier bus, which arrived at about 8pm. I boarded and it left. The third problem was that I called the hotel and they didn’t have a clue where the bus stops and where to wait for me. To make a long story short, I got off the bus, enabled the GPS and looked what google maps said about my position. Then the hotel people found it on google and came to fetch me. I had to wait for them outside for about 10 minutes, but I didn’t lose any fingers, so it wasn’t that bad.

The conference

The conference itself was great. The hotel was very nice (we didn’t leave it even once, it was too cold outside) and everything was very well organized.
My first session was about the optimizer dynamic behavior in the last few Oracle versions. This is a session that I presented a few times in the past, so it went well and I think people liked it. My second session was a story about a tuning process I did more than 10 years ago. What I like about it, is that it talks about the big picture of SQL tuning as well, like application design and query logic. This is a new session so RMOUG was the first time I presented it. I think it went well (well, people laughed at my jokes and I had about 30 people in the room), but I’ll have to wait for the feedback to see more about it.
Besides that I met great people (as always), some I already know and it was fun to chat with, and some I met for the first time and it was fun to chat with them as well. I won’t even try to mention everyone, because I’m definitely going to miss someone, but it was great to meet all of you!

Post conference

Once I knew I’m coming to Denver, I knew I had to ski in the Rockies. I love skiing, and being in Vancouver is great, we have a few small mountains right outside the city and they run until 10pm, and we have Whistler of course. I’m not a great skier, I’m an OK one, but still enjoy it a lot. I’m trying to ski as much as I can, and my kids started lately as well (my daughter is getting better, my son is still a bit young to ski properly). So I rented a car and went up to loveland, which is a ski site just over 1 hour driving. It was a tiring day, but I had great time.

Next time

I don’t know about next year yet. I’m enjoying these conferences a lot, but can’t afford  to travel much (budget and time wise), so I have to pick the ones I can attend. Will I submit papers to RMOUG next year? Maybe. Will I be able to attend? I hope so.
In any case, it was fun, thanks RMOUG for organizing such an awesome event.