News reports surfaced this week that Oracle OpenWorld, which has for many years been held in San Francisco during September or October, is moving to Las Vegas.
An Oracle spokesperson provided a written statement to 5 Minute Briefing confirming the move: “Oracle is excited to offer a modern, state-of-the-art experience for attendees at Oracle OpenWorld and Code One 2020 in Las Vegas. The city and its vast amenities are tailor-made for hosting large-scale events, and we look forward to bringing the industry’s most comprehensive technology and developer conference to America’s premier hospitality destination. Oracle continues to enjoy a strong relationship with the City of San Francisco and partners such as the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors. We look forward to working with our longstanding counterparts in San Francisco on future events.”
Along with the annual COLLABORATE conference, which is presented presented jointly by the Oracle Applications & Technology Users Group (OATUG) and Quest Oracle Community (Quest) in April, Oracle OpenWorld is an important event each year for the Oracle ecosystem. Every year, thousands of data experts and professionals from more than 100 different countries converge at the 5-day OpenWorld conference to hear first-hand from Oracle chairman and CTO Larry Ellison and other Oracle executives about new and upcoming technology updates. In addition, the conference offers a variety of networking and entertainment events, opportunities to connect with user group members and leaders, educational sessions led by customers and partners, and a third-party vendor showcase, among other notable features.
The news of the venue change was first reported on Tuesday by Ari Levy of CNBC (www.cnbc.com).
According to Levy, Oracle OpenWorld is planned to remain in Las Vegas for at least 3 years. Levy attributed his report to an email that the San Francisco Travel Association (SFTA) sent to its members on Monday stating that Oracle had signed a 3-year agreement to bring its flagship event to the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. In addition, according to Levy, the email said that the move was due to attendee feedback regarding "poor street conditions" and high hotel rates in San Francisco.
The first Oracle OpenWorld conference was held in 1996. According to the CNBC article, in its email, the SFTA, which promotes San Francisco tourism, estimated the economic impact of losing the conference in San Francisco for each of the next 3 years to be roughly $64,000,000.
The Caesars Forum in Las Vegas has yet to open. The website says the 550,000 sq. ft. conference center will offer 300,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space "and the two largest pillarless ballrooms in the world are conveniently located with direct access to more than 8,500 hotel rooms at Harrah's Las Vegas, the LINQ Hotel + Experience and Flamingo hotels."