Why Collaborate?

I have mentioned in previous posts that I will be presenting a paper at Collaborate 09 in May. This will be my third year presenting and I have found it very rewarding. I attended IOUG events back when the conference was called IOUG Live, and it has only gotten better since I have been involved with presenting. So why should someone go to Collaborate instead of taking an Oracle class? Why should you fight to go when training budgets are being cut? I have several reasons.


Content
Collaborate is one of the few places that you can find the best technologists in the Oracle community all in one place. These are people who are really doing the work and managing the projects to implement and support Oracle technology. Go through your list of Oracle authors and chances are they will be there. Tom Kyte, Rich Niemiec, Michael Corey, Ian Abramson, Michael Abbey, Carey Millsap, Jonathan Lewis... and the list goes on. There will be 350 sessions and that is just from the IOUG Forum. Add in OAUG and Quest International and the options are almost endless.

Are you having issues with Real Application Clusters? Can't quite figure out how to get PeopleSoft monitored with Enterprise Manager? Need help designing a process to patch eBusiness Suite? Starting your first BI project and don't know what BI means or what it has to do with stars? Answers to these questions and more can found at Collaborate. Many times I have been sitting in a session when the speaker said something and I thought, "so that's how you do that!"


Networking
I already listed some of the well known authors/presenters that will be in Orlando this year, but that's really only half the story. Ask the Experts sessions, topic specific orientations, the IOUG/SIG Welcome reception, "Tuning" Open Mic Night, lunches and receptions are all great places to meet new people that are doing some of the same things you are doing. Personally, there have been many times that I have been stuck on an issue, or just wanted to bounce an idea off of someone, that I have e-mailed or called someone I have met at Collaborate or through the IOUG. The network of people that I have connected with has been a huge time saver for me and a money saver for the companies I have worked for.


Cost
Recently I did a comparison between what it would cost for me to go to and Oracle instructor led training course instead of going to Collaborate. To just attend the conference, you could get away with traveling Sunday to Thursday and only pay for four hotel nights at one of the Conference hotels.

Collaborate Early Bird Registration:	$1,335
Airfare:	$200
Airport transfer:	$29
Hotel - Four nights@$140 + tax:	$625
Food:	$100
Total:	$2,289

Oracle Instructor Led Class:	$3,000
Train Fare:	$44
Cab Fare Roundtrip:	$40
Hotel - Four nights@$160 + tax:	$739
Food:	$125
Total:	$3,948

As you can see, you can save at least $1700 by going to Collaborate instead of an Oracle class. And that is if you have access to taking the train to an Oracle education site on Monday morning. If you have to fly, there would be added cost for the flight, plus an extra hotel night. Collaborate is four days and the Oracle class is five days, so that is part of the difference.

If you add a Sunday University Seminar for $459 and one extra hotel room night at $155, you would still only be spending $2903, a full $1000 less. You could also add a Thursday University Seminar for just the cost of the session and not add to the travel budget. The University Seminars are targeted deeper dive training. I would highly recommend trying to go to at least one of them.


Why Collaborate?
You can now see what I Collaborate! You could say it has become a little bit of a passion, but it is something I very much believe in. Check out the registration link at www.ioug.org/collaborate09 and look for the top ten reasons to attend. Also, you can find a proposal to give to your management on why it is important to be at Collaborate. Hope to see you in Orlando!

Until next time... stay clean!