It’s been a crazy year. In 2017 I’ve done talks in Paris France, Helsinki and Rovaniemi Finland, Sofia Bulgaria, Moscow Russia, Denver Colorado, Las Vegas Nevada, San Antonio Texas, Krakow Poland, Dushanbe Tajikistan, and Raleigh North Carolina. A few of these cities, (Helsinki, Moscow, and Sofia) getting there more than one time this year. And these don’t count the side trips to places like Saint Petersburg and London to see the ballet, visit friends, visit a pub, or see a football game. It’s now coming on the end of the year and thankfully I don’t have any travel planned for the rest of the year. You should see my frequent flier statement, but we all know it does not compare to Heli’s frequent flier statement.
Also in 2017, I made Oracle ACE Director. Now if you do the math, estimating there are over 500,000 Oracle Customers and if each customer has five Oracle professionals on staff, that would mean there are over 2.5 Million Oracle professionals in the world. As of this day there are 107 Oracle ACE Directors (the top tier professional advocates) in the world and I am one of them.
Robert Lockard – Oracle ACE Director
Then last month, I was asked by Oracle Magazine about doing a peer-to-peer profile. That was published this morning.
Now when Oracle Magazine asked me to do the Peer-To-Peer, it also included doing a short video. It’s hard to believe, but this short video took me four hours to shoot.
Oracle Magazine Peer-To-Peer Video
What is the plan for 2018? Well it’s going to be hard to beat 2017, But I’m up to the challenge. I hope to spend a little more time in Saint Petersburg Russia to explore the city some more. This is a seriously beautiful city and I think late May would be the perfect time to explore it. Fortunately, it will be just in time for White Nights.
I’ve decided that in 2018 I will be focusing more on the smaller Oracle Users Groups. Yes, Collaborate, KSCOPE, and RMOUG are great conferences, and I am not abandoning them for good, I’ll return to them perhaps in 2019. On January 1 when I’ll be heading back to Europe for a week that will include another new place for me, Tbilisi Georgia and I also have tickets to see the Nut Cracker in Moscow that week. I have two papers into the UKOUG Ireland event in March. I also plan on speaking in Utah, Ohio, Atlanta Georgia, Helsinki, Moscow, Poland, Paris, London, and of course, Bulgaria again. Maybe I’ll also get to do a talk in Saint Petersburg while I’m there.
What else will I be doing? Well, I’m working hard to bring speakers to the Baltimore Maryland area. I’ve already have Steven Feuerstein lined up for January 18th in Baltimore, Bobby Curtis and I are talking about him coming out in March. I would also love to get SQL Maria out here to do a deep dive into the Oracle Optimizer. Yes, 2018 is going to be a busy year, and I promise I also will be flying my plane more.