Johannesburg, 21 Oct 2010
The 2010 South African Oracle User Group (SAOUG) conference, in Cape Town, at the end of October is expected to be one of the largest yet, despite the economic pressures that have seen IT budgets slashed or frozen completely.
The User Group chairman, Dirk Snyman, says this is indicative of the interest generated in the Oracle offerings now spanning both hardware and software, but particularly due to the excellent value that delegates can expect over the three days.
“We committed at last year's conference to deliver even more value to our user community, and we have managed to do exactly that,” says Snyman. “In addition to top international speakers, we have introduced elements to the programme from which C-level executives can gain strategic value and insight, while also broadening the scope to include the Primavera, MySQL and Java communities.”
The theme of this year's event: 'Explore your future... Hardware and Software', talks to the recent acquisition of SUN by Oracle and aims to demonstrate the value that customers can extract from this new relationship.
Snyman says this is a real differentiator now for Oracle as it is seldom that customers are able to get the best in hardware and software technologies and solutions from a single vendor. The synergies forged between the hardware and software solutions are addressed across the conference.
They receive special attention from numerous keynote speakers, which include Dr Andrew Sutherland, Senior Vice-President, Middleware Business, EMEA; Thomas Oestreich, Chief EPM Strategist; Dermot O'Kelly, Senior Vice-President, Hardware Sales, EMEA; and Joyce Boland, EMEA Oracle Applications Marketing.
“The added value for executives is that these speakers will be available for forum and panel discussions in which Oracle's roadmap and strategy will be shared, while they will also be available to discuss customers' own technology strategies in person,” says Snyman.
The programme caters to the needs of all Oracle users, business partners and developers, with the conference organisers making good on the promise last year to create a platform that addresses the MySQL and Java communities. This has been done through introducing specific tracks and sessions, which will be expanded upon even further at next year's conference.
The door has also been opened to accommodate users of Primavera project portfolio management solutions, which was acquired recently by Oracle. Snyman says that even users of Oracle's databases and hardware products will be able to benefit through having their requirements and questions addressed at this conference.
“The combination of all these top speakers, subjects and technologies make us believe that the User Group conference will be our best yet, and we are confident we will exceed the 1 000+ delegate number quite comfortably,” he adds.
Registration for the SAOUG conference, which is being hosted at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 31 October to 2 November, closes on 28 October. Registration forms, the full programme and additional information can be found at http://www.saoug2010.co.za.
Dirk Snyman, Chairman of the SAOUG
pics: http://www.emergingmedia.co.za/spokespeople/dirk-snyman
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