GUOB - LAOTNTour - 3

After Uruguay and Argentina, the next country in the OTN Latinoamerica Tour (South leg) was Sao Poalo, Brazil.

Just like the other countries it was also my first time here. I knew Brazil from the football and dance, but it surprised me in many ways. Already in the plane I couldn't believe my eyes... as far as I could see, I saw buildings, buildings and buildings! I didn't realize Sao Poalo was so big. There's a lot of contrast in new buildings vs older ones (or in other words between rich and poor).

Here's a picture from my hotel room

Now back to the conference. GUOB, the Oracle User Group in Brazil must be one of the biggest user groups in Latin-America.

The organization and turnout was great. Arround 300 people attended the conference. Although I didn't really understand the opening speach from Eduardo Hahn, as it was in Portuguese, I was amazed with what was happening. Suddenly the music started to play, people had to stand up and had to search something below their seat. During the music they also had time to say hi to each other, and much more. I found it an original opening, Brazil style if you like :-)

Here's a picture when Eduardo opened the conference (the people were not standing then, you can see a picture of that on Twitter)



The conference itself went great I think. I met many new people and during my talks I got many questions, on and off topic, but all APEX related. Thanks again to the translators and the English speaking people, without them it would have been very hard for me to understand the Portuguese.
It seems APEX in Brazil is starting to become popular, the people were definitely enthusiast about it.

Before and during the conference, the board of the User Group under the lead of Eduardo, made sure we had enough food... In Brazil it's all about barbeque and meat :-)
After the conference we went to Fogo de Chao; if you want to eat meat, you have to go there! They keep serving you until you say stop. Never seen the way they serve; they come with different kinds of meat and on one stick they have the different cookings available (well done, medium, medium rare etc.)
Here's a picture when they served Poalo from OTN.



As I had some time between Brazil and my next stop in Lima, I tried to visit Mercado Municipal de São Paulo on Sunday, but because it was fathers day, it was closed. I did go to the Parque do Ibirapuera, which I enjoyed very much. Water, green, piece... and in the background you see the big building rising.

Muito obrigado Eduardo, Patricia, Marcus and many others.

Talking, spending time, having fun and dinner with other speakers is really nice. Unfortunately for some of the speakers Brazil was their last stop. Craig, Dana, Francisco, Tom, Graham, thanks so much!  It will be different without you guys in the next countries. I truly enjoyed our time together.