Yup, another South Florida EPM meetup and the best yet

Yup, another one and the best yet

I just attended my sixth (I think it was the sixth but it’s all beginning to blur a bit.  Fifth?  Fourth?  No matter.) South Florida meetup out of the 15 or so meetup groups ODTUG have appleseeded.  Wherever they are, meetups are in one word fantastic.  Why?

1. They’re informal
2. They’re grassroots
3. They’re inclusive
4. They’re free
5. They’re educational
6. They’re awesome

Six reasons aren’t enough?  One would hope so.  If you’re not convinced let me review for you what made the latest meetup on 18 August 2016 in Miami, Florida so special.

The sponsors

While meetups can run on a shoestring – and sometimes these are the best of all – this latest event was a wee bit more organized and thus took money but not to the attendees.  Yup, you read that right:  this mini conference was free, gratis, sans frais, and geen kosten.  Did I mention I like ODTUG meetups?  Why yes I did.

ARC EPM, Secure24, and Top Down Consulting all generously contributed.  Thanks, Jessica Cordova, Monica Gordy, and John Riley.  It wouldn’t have happened without you.

What happened?

Good grief there was an awful lot going on.

The kickoff

Jessica, meetup organizer extraordinaire as well as ODTUG EPM Community meetup lead, kicked it off.  I’ve talked to Jessica in my role as the ODTUG board’s EPM liaison and she’s gone from nervous neophyte to seasoned practitioner.  Let her use her experience to help you set up a local meetup.

Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch?  ‘Cos there was.  I had the chicken.  It sure beats the PB&J I typically have whilst working at home.

Speed dating without pain

Having once witnessed that as a disinterested observer (they were going through existential angst, I was having a Rob Roy at the bar), I’m entirely happy to relate that wasn’t occurring at the meetup.  What actually was happening was geek speed networking which happily misses the aforementioned exercise’s desperation but shares the notion of enabling EPM geeks to meet fellow EPM geeks.  

There, I’ve probably insulted half of my readers although I think it’s debatable which group I’ve insulted with what.  Sometimes I amaze myself, but almost always in a bad way.  Whew.   

Clawing my way back to relevance, it was a fun and effective way of meeting perfect strangers.  My only complaint is that we didn’t have enough time to do this for everyone (not all of us could meet everyone) but it was a big group (22 not including Yr. Obt. Svt. and two others).  This is a nice problem to have.

Some of us really got into it.  And why not?

The presentations

As noted Yr. Obt. Svt. reprised the Kscope16 presentation Jason Jones and I had on PBCS administration vs. on-premises.  Jason, I mangled the bit about your PBJ API framework for PBCS but I blundered through to the best of my ability.  Here I am rehearsing that morning disheveled, unshaven, and unshowered.  Eeek.  See, Gentle Reader, I do this all for you.

The dog seemed to like it.

Ron Moore and Ludovic de Paz presented their “(Keep) Pushing the Envelope with New Calcs Features”.  I used Ron’s section on FIXPARALLEL directly after the meetup to parallelize a DATACOPY section of an administrative currency conversion fx calc script.  One can’t ask for more than that when it comes to actionable information.  I should note that long ago in another professional life Ron Moore taught me ASO in one of his classes.  I’ve presented with Ludovic as well as Paul Hoch re Calculation Manager usage.  I guess my point is both of them know me, both of them knew I would be there, and both of them showed up anyway.  Thanks, guys.

Do people value these things?

Do you see that upper left photo in the collage below?  That’s Dhaval Shah and he drove two hours to attend the meetup.  He even won my latest book.  That’s hunger for knowledge.

You’re going to be at the next one, right?  

Or start up your own in your area if one doesn’t exist?  Right?  Why not?  Reach out to ODTUG and git a goin’.

Be seeing you.

Working in EPM? Live in South Florida? Not going to the South Florida EPM Meetup? Why?

Why indeed

Just what is a meetup?  Given EPMers’ technological bent, it is surprising to me that we don’t readily cotton on to the concept of a meetup.  That’s a pity because they are a great way to (danger ahead:  a geek who thinks he’s witty) meet up with like-minded individuals.  Think of them as a social media tool involving living, breathing meatware, using their collective wetware, all occurring in real life.  Isn’t slang wonderful?

What does that all mean in Plain English?  

Here’s a good definition, a meetup is “a meeting, especially a regular meeting of people who share a particular interest and have connected with each other through a social-networking website”.    

Have you been to an ODTUG-nurtured EPM meetup?  Hardworking (given her ODTUG volunteer workload it’s more like insanely hardworking) Janice D'Aloia heads that initiative within the ODTUG EPM community.  A note about these meetups:  ODTUG encourages them through funding and support but at the end of the day a meetup is owned by its members, not ODTUG so please don’t think attendees are taking any orders from what-is-likely-the-best-Oracle-user-group-ever.  It’s all part of ODTUG’s service to its community members and yes, it is pretty noble sounding and it just plain is.

If you are interested in getting help starting up a meetup in your area, please contact ODTUG at erin@odtug.com to start the meetup ball rolling.  ← That’s an idiom, not slang, but aren’t idioms just as wonderful as slang?  Discuss.

South Florida EPM Meetup

And that brings us to a specific meetup, namely the upcoming South Florida EPM meetup.  It’s  occurring on Thursday, 18th February, 2016 at Dave & Buster’s Hollywood, Florida location from 3:30 to 6:30 (or later if you’re having that much fun) pm.

What’s on offer?  The very things that make meetups so much fun:  education in form of a Special ODTUG Surprise (And no, I do not qualify as a surprise, or at least not a pleasant one.  There will be a projector, and a laptop, and a demo.), a super geeky-cool game, and the opportunity to meet your fellow Floridian EPM practitioners.  What’s not to like?

It’s easy-peasy to register – you can do this on ODTUG’s EPM meetup page right here.  Meetup.com provides a lovely confirmation screen once you’ve registered.

And Bob’s your uncle, you’re set to attend.  You are going to, right?  You should if you’re not.

And to whom to do we owe the pleasure?

As I noted, ODTUG is an enabler but meetups are intrinsically grassroots.  They are founded and led and staffed and attended by you, the EPM geek.  The organizers are just like us – people who live, breathe, and eat EPM.

In the case of the South Florida meetup it’s Jessica Cordova of ARC EPM and Kris Calabro of Tyco International.  Jessica and Kris make meetings like this possible and we’re all in their debt.  Meetup organizers, whether they be hiking enthusiasts, British sports car owners (make mine a Sunbeam Tiger with Minilites), or yes, even EPM practitioners do it because they love whatever the passion is.  Benefit from their enthusiasm if you’re in the South Florida area on 18 February, 2016.  Join us, won’t you?

Be seeing you.