Welcome back! In the next few months leading up to Kaleidoscope, I hope to feature some interviews with folks that have been to Kaleidoscope in the past, and are planning their attendance this year. I hope you’ll find them interesting, letting you get to know each person a little better.
For this entry, I had the chance recently to ask Lewis Cunningham a few questions about ODTUG Kaleidoscope. Lewis is an Oracle ACE Director, known for his database application development expertise.
Here is Lewis’ bio:
Lewis Cunningham is an Oracle ACE, a published author, a frequent conference speaker, and a database architect. Lewis’s specialties revolve around databases, data warehousing, business intelligence, and most anything having to do with databases. Lewis has two decades of multi-vendor and open source database experience in a variety of industries and capacities. You can read Lewis’s blog here.
Lewis has two presentations accepted at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010, in Washington, DC from June 27 – July 1 at the Marriott Wardman Park.
The presentations are: Getting Started with PHP and Oracle, and Understanding Your Code with PL/Scope and the Hierarchical Profiler.
Lewis, which presentation of yours is a “can’t miss” session that Kaleidoscope attendees should plan on attending, and why?
Lewis told me “My Understanding Your Code with PL/Scope and the Hierarchical Profileris a can’t miss because these are great tools that are available to developers and they are so under used. It’s better to understand your code pro-actively than it is to react to a crises in production.”
So, besides yourself, who else should Kaleidoscope attendees plan on seeing a session from, and why?
“Who else? Wow. It’s so hard to find the time to see all of the great speakers. I will attend as many Cary Millsap, Sue Harper and Mark Rittman sessions as I can. Any presentation given by John King is worth a look and Maggie Tompkins Pigs, Chicken and Agile Development should be a hoot! Does that make me a pig or a chicken?”
I know that you have presented and attended many conferences throughout your career. What differentiates Kaleidoscope as a conference from other conferences out there?
“I have always said that Kaleidoscope is the conference for people who care about development: developers, managers, business analysts, end users. If the application that hits the user is important to you, this is the conference. From tools to the database to methodologies to career planning, this is the main event.”
Lewis, I know you mentioned that you have been to Washington before, can you recommend one thing that a first time visitor should take advantage of while visiting during Kaleidoscope?
“Washington, DC is an amazing city. I’ve been there quite a few times. Probably a first stop for everyone should be the National Mall. It’s the very well known grassy area with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Awesome.
If you have spare time, the Smithsonian Institution will keep you and your family occupied for days.
For a short visit, the Jefferson Memorial is a beautiful monument located at a beautiful site.”
Can you tell us what your best memory is from a Kaleidoscope conference that you’ve attended previously?
“My best memories of previous conferences are the friends and contacts that I have made. There are plenty of fun activities and the day of service is a great opportunity to give back if you get to the conference early.”
Registration is now open for ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010, June 27-July 1 in Washington, DC.
Here’s a thought for everyone out there…plan on staying after the conference to experience the biggest 4th of July celebration in the United States. Great after conference rates are available at the conference hotel, the Marriott Wardman Park.
I welcome your thoughts and comments at any time. Feel free to contact me atmriley@odtug.com at any time. If you have anything you’d like to share about your Kaleidoscope experience, you can post a comment to this blog, or send me an e-mail at the above address.
I’ll see you at Kaleidoscope 2010, in Washington DC!!
