UTOUG, An East Coast Girl Heads Out West to Spread the Forms Love

What a view!

I just returned from my first trip to Utah where I briefly (I was only there for 28 hours!) touched down in Salt Lake City to attend the UTOUG Fall Symposium.

Before I give you the run down, if you just want to cut to the chase, here are the session slides:

Evolving From Legacy to Mobile and Beyond

The Next Two Years: What Should I Do NOW with My Oracle Forms Systems?

While such a short trip meant the entire experience passed in a whirlwind, I got the royal treatment (thanks to the Oracle ACE program and the UTOUG leadership team) and thoroughly enjoyed my time there, especially the beautiful mountain views.

As soon as I landed I was greeted at the airport by friendly faces, Kellyn Pot’Vin and Tim Gorman, the Oracle DBA rockstars, and after a quick hug I rushed off to my hotel to get some sleep before the symposium in the morning.

After quick coffee I was off to present my first session, “Evolving From Legacy to Mobile and Beyond” where we discussed all of the challenges of going mobile and the considerations for how to design a mobile-first application. I went into so many challenges, opportunities and considerations, I hope I didn’t scare the crowd off 🙂 You can view the session slides here.

Kellyn and I posed for a boot twin picture, but we got photobomed by Alex Gorbachev, CTO of the Pythian Group

As soon as I finished my first session I rushed off to my second one, “The Next Two Years: What Should I Do NOW with My Oracle Forms Systems?” With so many conflicting reports about the future of Forms, I wanted to set the record straight and offer a simple strategy for modernizing Forms systems for the future. And if you can believe it people STILL asked me if Oracle is discounting Forms! You can view the session slides here.

After a fast lunch I joined back up with Kellyn and we attended the Women in Tech Program. I always love events that highlight women in technology because there simply aren’t enough of us.

UTOUG just started their Women in Tech program last year, so this session was a chance to catch up and see what progress has been made. An achievement that UTOUG was able to accomplish was mentoring eight female undergraduate CS & IS majors to promote hiring women in the tech field. One of the key takeaways was that by the time students get to the college level it’s almost too late. One new idea was to start mentorships as early as middle school. I must admit this idea really inspired me and I have already talked to the PTA of my son’s school looking into this type of program in his school.

As one of the few female Oracle ACE Directors out there I’m always glad to hear that user groups are starting their own initiatives to bring more women into this field. Female power please!

After such a long day I was happy to unwind over a few drinks with some fellow ACEs and prominent members of the UTOUG community, including the President, Michelle Kolbe. UTOUG was kind enough to sponsor our dinner out at Red Rock and it even allowed me to stick to my vegan habits with a delicious polenta. A big shout out thank you to UTOUG for being so gracious and a special thanks to my tour guide and personal driver who gave me door-to-door service on my whirlwind tour, UTOUG board member Michael Heining.

Beautiful sunset on my way out of SLC

It was definitely one of the quickest trips I’ve ever taken, but I’m really glad I made the trek out west. It was great to catch up with the UTOUG community and to present for such great audiences. I’m definitely looking forward to the UTOUG Spring Training Days in 2015!