More than 7,500 Oracle technology and applications customers will gather at COLLABORATE 08 - IOUG Forum, April 15-19 in Denver, CO, for the largest and most comprehensive Oracle-based user conference. Deep educational content, sharing of real-life best practices, and networking with peers are just some of the compelling reasons that make this the must-attend Oracle event of the year.

The IOUG board of directors, along with conference planning committee members, are delighted to welcome these professionals to this year’s event, where through more than 425 customer- and expert-led sessions, informal events, roundtables, Oracle presentations and 250-plus solution-provider insights, customers will leave with tried and true practices, approaches and solutions to integrate into their current and future strategies.

The IOUG Forum will be presenting an opening session with Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president, Oracle Database Server Technologies, coupled with an in-depth interview with Dylan Tweney, senior editor, Wired News; exclusive IOUG hands-on lab sessions; priority seating at Expert Technical Sessions; Expert Panels; Unconference Sessions - PowerPoint Free Zone (peer-to-peer discussion forums); Special Interest Group meetings; and exclusive admittance to the SIG Welcome Reception and Tuning Oracle Coffeehouse, a spot where you can enjoy beer with the IOUG board of directors and your Oracle peers.

I’m delighted to welcome new communities to this year’s event. Along with focused education, we’ll be introducing Hyperion and Stellent constituents with tailored "conference within a conference" programming that specifically addresses their core needs. It offers the opportunity for the broader Oracle community to learn about these important additions to the Oracle market.

Stellent education will include Andy MacMillan, vice president of product management for Content Management, and Al Hoof, president of the Minnesota Stellent Users Group, and will feature more 30 Stellent-focused educational sessions. Hyperion programming will include an exclusive keynote address from John Kopke, senior vice president, Enterprise Performance Management Global Business Unit at Oracle Corp., and will be composed of more than 100 sessions.

While content spans a number of concentrations and skill levels, key programming focuses for this year will include Oracle Database 11g/10g/9i, developer technology, BI, Fusion Middleware, SOA, grid computing, data warehousing and much more.

Our conference represents the collective voice and intellectual capital of our community. Designed by customers, for customers, programming is based on community feedback and top interests. In a recent survey of the Oracle customer ecosystem, we discovered that the top three critical areas facing the customer community in the coming year are: the environment, providing/improving high availability and managing upgrades and migrations. The IOUG Forum sessions are designed with these challenges in mind, so that customers are armed with leading practices to better implement, manage and improve their Oracle infrastructures.
If you have any questions about this premier conference for Oracle users, visit www.ioug.org/collaborate08 or feel free to contact our headquarters office at ioug@ioug.org. I hope to see you in Denver!

About the Author

Ari Kaplan is president of the Independent Oracle Users Group. He is also a senior consultant at Datalink Corp., focusing on storage solutions for the database market. He can be reached at ari_kaplan@ioug.org.