KScope19 – It’s a Wrap

This year I attended my second KScope ever. My first one was 2 years ago in San Antonio (I wrote about it here) and I missed last year’s one. In 2019, ODTUG decided to have the conference in Seattle, which is so cool for me as it’s just across the border. I actually ended up taking the bus. It’s a 4 hour trip, much cheaper than a flight and quite convenient.

I really like KScope conferences (at least the 2 I attended, but I guess that’s the standard). I have a constant battle with going to conferences. As I am paying for myself I limit the number of conferences I attend each year and I’m always debating between the larger conferences and the smaller regional ones. Last year I went to RMOUG in Denver and Oracle Open World, earlier this year to UTOUG in Salt Lake City and now KScope (and will go to Oracle Open World in September as well).
I like the smaller conferences a lot, they are more intimate, you have time to get to know people and the atmosphere is quieter and nicer. The bigger ones are sometimes too much. Too many people so you don’t see the same ones, too many sessions, etc. The benefit of the big ones is the veriety in content and the chance to meet people from other continents (that usually don’t come to the smaller local ones). The thing with KScope (being a bigger conference) is that it’s AWESOME! Somehow the people at ODTUG manage to have quite a big conference but still make it feel very intimate and welcoming.

What we had

The conference itself was Sunday to Thursday. I missed Sunday (I arrived in the afternoon) so I attended only Monday to Thursday. There were lots of good sessions and even though KScope is more focused on development and applications, there was enough content for database people as well.
So what did we have?

• I presented 2 sessions and both had about 25 attendees which is a really good number.
• I attended some other sessions (one wasn’t that great, the others were quite good).
• I participated in the WIT lunch which was really good (we had moderated discussions about a few topics and it was interesting). Another thing that I liked is that the women appreciated the men that joined, while sometimes men feel quite awkward in these events.
• We had Oracle ACE dinner which was packed. I was amazed by how many Oracle ACEs were there and it was great.
• Lots of receptions (speakers, general, Viscosity, Quest…)
• A great party at MoPOP (where I even jammed a bit with friends).

Who I met

Wow, I met so many people this year! I think this was probably the conference where I met the largest number of people that I already knew but have never met face to face. Most of them are people I know from Twitter (and they know me), others I’ve been in touch with about different stuff. Seeing these people finally and talking to them was lots of fun.
I will try to name all of the them, hope I won’t miss anyone (and if I do miss someone, let me know and I’ll add them):

• Alfredo Abate – and congrats on the Oracle ACE promotion
• Becky Wagner – and congrats on the Oracle ACE promotion
• Elizabeth Garcia
• Erik Van Roon – I have to admit that I did meet Erik in KScope17, but it doesn’t really count
• Haleigh Hughes
• Helen Sanders – and congrats on the Oracle ACE Associate award
• Jessica Sharp
• Jorge Rimblas
• Kim Berg Hansen
• Monica Li
• Neviana Zhgaba – and congrats on the Oracle ACE Associate award
• Scott Wesley

And these are only the people I have never met face to face before. There were so many that I have met before and I won’t even try to name them, but it was great to see everyone.

What’s next?

Next is to decide whether to submit papers to KScope20 or not (I probably will) and see if I’ll be able to attend (I really want to). The KScope team is making it really difficult to decide not to attend.
I also had a great lunch on Thursday with Kim and Erik and we had a long discussion about KScope and sessions. Besides that I talked with people A LOT about Oracle User Groups, the Oracle ACE program and ideas on how to help each other. I guess I have quite a lot of work about that now…

Thank you

I want to finish by thanking the ODTUG team and the KScope19 organizers, I know how hard it is to organize a 1-2 day conference, I can only imagine how hard is to organize KScope. Thank you the content committee for choosing my sessions. Thanks for the people who attended the sessions, and thanks in general to everyone. Now I need some rest…
Hope to see you all again soon.