Learning is not a spectator sport

Conferences ARE BACK in APAC – Perth, Melbourne, and New Zealand!

After not having conferences last year, it was fantastic to see a full APAC conference circuit this year. This season took me to Perth, Melbourne, and Wellington – each with a nice buzz in the community, reminding me of why these events are so important.

Perth kicked things off with over 100 attendees – nice to see the local tech community as keen as ever for the latest in Oracle tech. Kudos to Eddie Harris – he was very active on Linkedin promoting the event the past few months.

I ran my 26ai database features session, which has now grown to more than 80 features so even with 2 sessions, we only covered a tiny fraction. If you’d like me to run it for your team, just reach out. APEX topics were popular with local experts Jeff Kemp and Scott Wesley, as well as some overseas guests. And fresh news – we know now that the next release is called APEX 26.1.

But being a local boy, the real highlight in Perth was the networking. Its great to catch up with people many of whom I’ve worked directly with over the years before I joined Oracle.

Melbourne was a little smaller in numbers, but it still plenty of energy in the crowd. A shout out to Anita from Kyte Consulting. She’s been a mainstay of the user group for the past few years, so it was nice to have a face-to-face chat with her about how we can make the group stronger next year.

This was my second time in Wellington. I love the place – the people, the atmosphere, the howling wind that greets you the moment the plane touches down (and touching down in the plane is always met with relief in Wellington – its like landing a rollercoaster). But the NZ tech community are super friendly and I had some awesome conversations with people here.

In particular, I had the chance to catch up with the Dbvisit team – it was great to reconnect with them because many had travelled to India earlier in the year for the Yatra tour. Just like back in Australia, the main buzz was around Oracle 26ai.

That’s a wrap for conferences for me this year. It’s been a busy but amazing year of events. I can’t wait for next year and the chance to see even more of our incredible community around the world!