#oow13 Choose your measurement criteria so that you will meet it - how to go to Oracle OpenWorld 2013

My first #oow13 post.

I don't write much about Oracle any more - because of my 2009 job change, I haven't attended Oracle OpenWorld in several years - but I'm still on Oracle's mailing lists, and have received several invitations to attend Oracle OpenWorld.

Oracle realizes that OpenWorld can be expensive, so they want to help potential attendees justify their trip. In an effort to do this, Oracle's most recent e-mail stated the following:

Need Help Justifying Your Trip?

Consider this statistic: 99.5% of attendees surveyed last year said Oracle OpenWorld delivered on their objectives.

Of course, if your objectives were to hear a bunch of bands and to hear Larry say "Next slide please," Oracle OpenWorld clearly can deliver on those objectives (although Larry has learned how to advance his own slides these days).

Of course, Oracle realizes that you need a BUSINESS justification to attend. Here are some excerpts from the justification e-mail template that Oracle has prepared:

There’s no other conference where I’ll have the opportunity to learn the key information I need to get the most out of our current (and future) Oracle products and technologies. I’ll have access to experts from around the world—customers, partners, and Oracle—so I can grow my skills and increase our productivity.

I’ll be able to choose from more than 2,500 sessions, tailoring my schedule to get exactly the information I need.

At this point, there's a blank in the template. Since Oracle's stack has grown so huge, it's essential that the person using the template list the specific interests that he or she has. (When I attended, my interests were primarily in the database area, although I occasionally had interested in some related products.)

Incidentally, the current discounted rate to attend Oracle OpenWorld is $2,450. It HAS been a while since I attended, apparently.