IOUC Meeting / ODTUG Board Meeting

Sorry I have been off-line for a few days but I traveled to Oracle Headquarters last week for the International Oracle Users Group Community ("IOUC") Leaders' Summit meeting and for the Oracle Development Tools User Group ("ODTUG") Board of Directors meeting.

The IOUC is an organization of Oracle User Groups from around the world and the purpose for the meeting was for the various user groups to meet with Oracle user group coordinators. The Summit is organized by Mary Lou Dopart, Senior Director, Global Customer Programs at Oracle. Mary Lou has helped us in the Hyperion developer world by securing John Kopcke, head of the Oracle EPM Global Business Unit and former Hyperion Chief Technical Officer, to give the conference keynote to all Kaleidoscope 2009 attendees. Some of you may remember that John had agreed to do a keynote for us at Kaleidoscope last year but that, in the end, he was not able to attend. This was in no way a reflection of John, but more a case of those of us from the Hyperion world didn't understand how Oracle works with their executives in scheduling these types of events. As luck would have it, John was scheduled to be elsewhere 'through the proper channels'. This year we used the proper channels! Mary Lou is also working to confirm the keynote for the Hyperion Symposium at Kaleidoscope.

The other purpose for the meeting is to foster greater cooperation between all of the various user groups. Networking and the sharing of ideas between groups is helpful and productive for all involved. I had an opportunity to meet with the other Hyperion related board members, Larry Costello and Diane Maluzhinsky. Larry works for Textron has been elected to the Board of Directors of the New England Oracle Applications User Group. Diane works for General Dynamics Land Systems and is working with the Board of the Michigan Oracle User Group. Congratulations to both Larry and Diane and I look forward to working with you!

The ODTUG Board of Directors meeting started Friday afternoon and lasted until noon on Sunday. The agenda for the meeting was very busy and included discussions on the upcoming Kaleidoscope Conference being held in June of this year in Monterey, CA. I was recently elected to be Treasurer of ODTUG and was thus responsible for the Treasurer's report. We also discussed potential locations for next years Kaleidoscope. Although I can't disclose any of the locations discussed, where would you want the conference to be?

In summary, we have many places where ODTUG can help the Hyperion development community. It is my hope that more people will volunteer their time to help us fulfill that mission.