What to Do On a Rainy Day in San Francisco?

That was the question for 30,000-plus attendees at Oracle OpenWorld 2009 last week, when weather forecasters were predicting the remnants of a Pacific typhoon would hit San Francisco with winds up to 60 miles per hour and drop rainfall measuring multiple inches. Fortunately, the best attractions were all indoors. Oracle OpenWorld is one of the largest events held each year at the Moscone Convention Center. The keynote speeches, conference seminars, and partner exhibitions fill all three buildings. Even Howard Street between the North and South halls is closed for an entire block to create room for the lunch pavilion. Oracle OpenWorld is the best place to come for face-to-face education and interaction on all subjects related to every facet of the Oracle ecosystem. Altova is an Oracle Partner and this is an event we look forward to every year. The Altova MissionKit provides extensive support for database management, query, and design; database integration; database differencing; and database content editing. We love to meet users whose Oracle databases contain XML and show off features like support for Oracle XML DB data modeling, and the XQuery editor, debugger, and profiler in XMLSpy. We love to talk to users whose Oracle databases don’t contain XML yet, so we can demonstrate how to derive an XML Schema from the tables and relationships in a non-XML database. We also like to meet users who sometimes interact with databases other than Oracle, since the database functionality in Altova tools is never restricted to a single database technology. Due to the Oracle acquisition of Sun this year, MySQL was a popular subject. Our DatabaseSpy demo in the Altova booth highlighted simultaneous connections to Oracle and MySQL databases with interactive functionality to compare and merge data between tables in different database types. With convenient shuttle service from all the area hotels to Moscone, the question became not “What to do in the rain?”, but “What to do first?” Conference sessions covered every topic from databases to applications, to middleware, to specialized industry topics, and even XBRL. In Moscone West the Oracle Demo Grounds were always busy, with dozens of individual stations simultaneously active. The Altova booth was a popular spot, as were displays by other Oracle partners, including Amazon, Salesforce, and many more. To refresh and recharge, there were lots of fun things to do too. We even saw evidence that Paul and Ringo might have been there. Best yet, when we stepped outside after a long, productive day, the rain had stopped and we were presented with a warm San Francisco night. Check out our Oracle Openworld 2009 video slideshow on YouTube to see more: