December is here, UKOUG Tech17 is over, and this means only one thing: end of year is coming.

I generally like to take few minutes to look back to my year and review what I did, so I can better plan the year after.

Five conferences

This year, like already 2016, was rich in travels and conferences for me. It started with Finland and OUGF Harmony 2017 in Helsinki, followed by a Italy and ITOUG Tech Day 2017 in Milano and Netherlands with nlOUG Tech Experience 2017. Then some calmer months and it started again with Germany and DOAG 2017 in Nuremberg and finally United Kingdom with UKOUG Tech17 in Birmingham.

Topics were various: from DevOps with Docker for OBIEE, to building a RPD from scratch in 45 minutes. From Oracle Data Visualization Desktop custom plugins to EPM sources in OBIEE.

Ups and downs blogging

This year has also been probably the first full year for my blog (yes, this one). I do not really have fixed schedules for writing, it depends instead on what I do and discover or experience. One of the main topics of the year has been Docker of course.

Docker clearly changed my way to work with Oracle tools starting from mid 2016. Nowadays most of my sandboxes and environments are Docker based. It’s easier, faster and require less resources, so definitely a positive thing.
Only exceptions are the pre-built VM like OBIEE SampleApp or weird VMs like Exalogic to install HFM, Planning and Essbase on Linux.

Oracle ACE

Finally, last but definitely not least: getting an email informing me that I have been chosen to receive the Oracle ACE award. This clearly made my year !

Oracle ACEI’m really proud and happy to be an Oracle ACE. My career started reading and following few Oracle ACE and ACE Directors who were sharing their knowledge and experience online on blog posts and conferences. Also thanks to them I kept improving and learning more things.

At some point I had the feeling it was now time to start giving back to the community what I received and that’s when I started presenting at conferences, writing blogs, contributing to the Oracle Developer Community forums etc.

There is still a missing point I will keep trying to develop: manage to contribute to an Oracle User Group directly by setting up an event or meetups. So far it didn’t work also because of “political” issues on how local groups are managed and run. But I don’t give up on this one !

What about 2018?

Next year will probably be similar to 2017. I already sent many abstracts to various conferences and already got some replies. Unfortunately I also already had to cancel one conference where I was selected to speak because of agenda and budgeting conflicts, but I still count in attending at least 3-4 event over the year.

Still not sure about the topics which are going to keep me busy in 2018, for sure some graph database if only Oracle focus a bit on on-prem solutions again instead of cloud only. OBIEE & related tools for sure as I will not really give up so easily until the tools are dead.

And for sure I will also keep answering on the ODC forums as it’s also a place where I get some ideas for blog posts (when same questions come back again and again it must means there is still space to fill covering that topic).

So … stay tuned!

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