Creating UKOUG Tech15 – The View from the Inside

….Who plans the content of Tech15>
……Tips on submitting and abstract>

At the end of last week I was contacted by the UKOUG who asked me if I would agree to be on the planning committee for the annual technical conference this year – Tech15. Not only that but I was privileged to be asked to repeat my role from Tech14 and be the Lead for the Database area. I am of course happy to do so.

Why do I mention this? Well, this year I intend to share what is involved in helping to organise the content for an event like this, to give a view from the inside. This will mostly be by postings to my blog but also on twitter (@mdwidlake – see the little “twittering” section on the right margin of this page).

Most of the logistical work required to run the conference is done by the team at UKOUG. The UK Oracle user group is large enough that it has a small, dedicated team of paid staff – it needs to, pure voluntary efforts by people with day jobs simply could not run something that is the size of a small company. The office team, helped by the board-level volunteers like Debra Lilley and Fiona Martin, decide on and book the venue (I’m pleased to say that 2015 we are returning to the ICC in Birmingham after 2 years “holiday” in Manchester and Liverpool, and will be on the 7th-9th December – see the Tech15 announcement here) and deal with the hundreds of issues there, including catering. They of course run the registration system, the negotiations with sponsors and vendors wishing to participate, promotion of the event and all the other tasks that go with running any conference, be it I.T., politics, businesses or science fiction. We volunteers do not get involved with any of that, the office staff are highly proficient at such things. Also, that side of it is probably not of much interest to you lot so I won’t say much about it. I’ve helped with the logistical side for smaller events (Tech & Life Science conferences and, yes, a science fiction convention) and most of it is dull and very job-like.

We volunteers do the part that the office staff would struggle with, which is decide on the content. I’ll describe the process in a later blog or blogs but as we volunteers work with the technology we know the subject matter, what is current and coming and, between us what the audience is likely to be interested in. We also have input into decisions about how content is delivered and the things that surround it – the social events, the timing of the talks, any pre-event activities. Basically, aspects that will impact the attendee enjoyment are generally passed by us.

That is the part I’ll mostly try and share with you as we go through the process. For now, I’ll just mention that my friend Anthony Macey did this nice piece about being a volunteer for Tech 2014

Usually when I blog it is very obviously my opinion and no one else’s. I don’t feel the need to have that usual weaselly disclaimer to absolve others of any association with what I say. However, for postings about preparing UKOUG Tech15 I will be in some ways talking about the efforts and actions of others and could be seen as representing the UKOUG. I am not – all opinions and errors should be heaped on my shoulders alone. I did take the step of asking the UKOUG if they were happy for me to run this series of blogs and if they wanted oversight of the postings – they were good enough to say that they were happy for me to do it and that they would not require oversight. So I have their blessing but am a free agent.

If anyone has any questions about the conference and how it is organised, please feel free to get in touch. I can’t answer questions on everything, but if there is some aspect of how it is organised that your are curious about then please ask (so long as it is not “why did my talk on blargh get turned down“).