Collab07 - Day 4 - My presentation + APEX hands-on

I didn't sleep that well Wednesday night... I kept thinking about the presentation I had to do... I suppose doing your first presentation in the States or on a big conference makes it special.

The sessions I did on Thursday...

Session 1 - APEX by Example: Shared Components - Dimitri Gielis

Finally it was my turn! My presentation, as it got announced on the IOUG website a long time ago, about APEX Shared Components.

History... If you're a regular reader of this blog you know the creation of the whitepaper and presentation took me a lot of energy and time... The whitepaper counts 56 pages, the initial presentation 116 pages, but I reduced it to 107 during this week.

Everybody who has already given a presentation know that to fit 107 pages in a one hour session is really hard! I suppose that was also why I couldn't sleep that well: timing...

Nevertheless I made it!! 107 slides and 5 live demo's in one hour! Unbelievable? Yes, I also don't know how I achieved that, but the people in that room can confirm it! ;-)

I started with presenting myself, knowing the audience and the goals of my presentation.
The rough lines of my presentation:

• Quick overview of APEX Shared Components
• Questions/Problems that rise when you're developing an APEX app
  
• Why use a particular Shared Component
• An example of that Shared Component in DG Tournament
• And finally How to integrate that Shared Component
  

After a few slides I showed DG Tournament. In that application I used all Shared Components. By showing the application I told my audience which Shared Component I used. That went really well. I went back to the slides to give them first a bit of theory of a particular Shared Component I would demo later. The live demo's I did:

• Session State Protection
• Build Option
• Shortcuts
• Copy and Subscribe
• User Interface Defaults

After the demo's I did the remaining of the powerpoint presentation... 3 minutes before 9.30 I showed slide 107. During and after the presentation I even had the time to answer some questions. I made it! Don't ask me how ;-) I'm not sure I can finish on time again! (normally I'll give this presentation also at ODTUG)

Afterwards some people congratulated me, they said it was awesome (that was a word I often used during my presentation, as APEX is awesome ;-))... people saying that, gave me a warm feeling. I did my best... my English is not perfect, but I got the message to them. I hope they all enjoyed it.

I took the image on the right a few minutes before I started my presentation. When the door closed, I think there were around 50 people. Thank you all for rising up so early (my session was at 8:30).

Session 2 - APEX hands-on

At Collaborate there were also rooms with computers to have hands-on sessions. After my presentation the Oracle Application Express hands-on session was scheduled. I think there were around 30 people testing APEX. Carl, John, Tony, Steve and myself walked around to help them...
Some saw it for the first time, others wanted to try some of the APEX Shared Components I had demoed and others asked us questions about problems they had in their current application. APEX is great for that... some logged in from a Collab07 pc to their own environment at work! So I really saw what they tried to do. Sometimes it feels wonderful... after a couple of minutes a problem was solved and they were so happy ;-)

Closing Session - Great Tool Debate - Rich Niemiec, Dr. Paul Dorsey, George Trujillo, John Scott, Larry Grey, Chris Heller

The very last session of Collaborate was about the choice of (Oracle) tool for the future.
Rich N. was there as database specialist, Paul D. to represent the Java/JDeveloper area, George T. as Fusion Specialist, John S. for APEX and Larry and Chris for the "predefine apps" (Peoplesoft, Oracle CRM, ...)
It's an interesting debate... remember the debate with Chris Muir I blogged about a few weeks ago? Also in this debate there was no final decision which is best... They all agreed that the business logic should be in the database. APEX runs completely in the database ;-)

The end ...

Carl Backstrom, John Scott, Steve Howard and myself went for "the last drink". Carl talked about life in Vegas, Steve had a fantastic story about his experience in Russia and John and I were enjoying these stories ;-)
Apparently I should not have blogged. There's a sentence in Las Vegas that says: "What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas"! They only told me on the last day...