This is just a quick blog post to shamelessly promote my appearance at the Puget Sound Oracle User Group meeting on November 18, 2008. I haven’t visited PSOUG for a few years so I’m looking forward to it. I have a 3-hour time slot to present. I read the email blast sent by Dan Morgan yesterday where he wrote:
9:00am Kevin Closson a performance architect in Oracle’s Systems Technology Group will lead a special class on performance architecture with emphasis on storage and with a discussion of Oracle’s new, and very exciting, Exadata Storage servers. This will be pure technology and education … not marketing.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing Dan and the PSOUG folks-and, of course, seeing my old friend Mogen Norgaard is always a pleasure.
Come, Hear My Marketing Pitch
The last two words of Dan’s email blast got me thinking because there happens to be another regional OUG that recently asked to see my slides prior to extending a speaking arrangement to me. It seems they wanted to ascertain whether I meant it when I said I would conduct a technical/educational session by reading my slides. First of all, my slides generally serve mostly to remind me about what I’m supposed to be talking about and unless you already know the material it might be difficult to tell how technical the presentation is by looking at my slides in advance, but nonetheless, I found the whole thing odd since I’ve spoken at this other OUG before and recall seeing their session ratings which were free of any negative feedback. I didn’t send them my slides on principle, but I want to blog about this a bit.
It is impossible to speak about a completely new product without having a market slant. Allow me to explain. There is a reason Exadata was brought to market and that reason is to meet a market need. That is, Exadata is on the market because it aims to beat other players at the same game. In Dan’s words, my presentation will be “technology and education … not marketing” and that is true. However, I can’t impart a single educational principle about this technology without comparison and contrast to other existing technology which is, by definition, technical marketing. It would not be very educational to hear about Exadata architecture, capabilities and internals without gaining an understanding of how Oracle Database interacts with Exadata compared to other storage technology.
No, I don’t’ have slides that say 7 out of 10 DBA’s surveyed prefer Exadata. That would be marketing, and I recall the last time I presented at a PSOUG meeting they were a bunch of nice folks so I wouldn’t do that to them. I couldn’t bring myself to offer that sort of presentation anyway.
So if you don’t have Exadata today, what could possibly be the value in hearing about Exadata? Well, there is always planning for the future and knowing more about what you are planning for might help. But, honestly, I think if anyone sits through a deep technical dive into Exadata they might learn a little something about their current storage technology-or, at least how Oracle interacts with it.
Hi Kevin,
>> I just like the opportunity to meet and speak to Oracle practitioners.
That’s fine, just be careful not to promote for-profit events as-if they were to help support a user group community. It’s deceptive and unethical, IMHO.
>> As President of NCOUG, perhaps you can confirm or deny whether your group would like to have me visit?
YOU BET! That would be great.
NCOUG does not charge dues, but I’ll see if I can find a company to sponsor you. If I must, I’ll pay for my ticket myself!
We get over 100 members, and I’ll promote it as a special event.
I’ll ask Harry Conway to contact you!
Excellent presentation. I learned a lot. Thanks.
Hi Jim,
I had a hard time committing attendees names to memory… You were there on Tuesday? I liked the PSOUG group. Very good folks. Very good questions!
Yes, I came in a little late in the morning – darn traffic in Seattle; had driven up from Portland starting at 5 AM. I had a blue short sleeve shirt and at the dinner I was sitting across the table and to your left near the door. (glasses, brown hair, mustache, as a friend from Haiti would say looks prosperous.(lots of calories))
Jim,
Yes, I now have a name to the face. I’m glad you came and I’m glad you enjoyed the presentation!
I’m sorry I was not able to attend – have you published your presentation on the web?
If not, would you be able to email it to me?