November 15, 2009

Regional EPM Connection Conferences - Update

OAUG Connection Point - Enterprise Performance Management
Back on October 30, I wrote about what little information I had on the upcoming regional OAUG conferences on Hyperion and EPM. The name that OAUG is giving to these conferences is way too long and way too hard to remember, so I'm going to start calling them "EPM Connection" conferences. If OAUG doesn't like it, they should come up with a shorter, catchier, more marketable name (like Dimensions, Solutions, Collaborate, Kaleidoscope, or OpenWorld).

I have some new information to impart compliments of the OAUG eNews from November (scroll way to the bottom):

Date Change: February 22-23
Contrary to earlier information that put the dates slightly later, the conference is now going to be held on Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 22-23) in Jersey City, NJ.

Tracks Revealed
There are going to be 5 tracks at the first EPM Connection conference:
  • Budget, Forecasting & Planning
  • Financial Consolidations & Reporting
  • Business Intelligence & Analytics
  • The Office of the CFO
  • EPM Product Roadmap
The non-product orientation of the tracks seems to imply that this will be more of a business-oriented rather than technical conference. Considering that this is put on by OAUG, we sort of expected that though. To drive this point home, OAUG had this to say about their desired audience:
This event is ideal for accounting and finance professionals of all experience levels, internal audit staff with a focus on external and compliance reporting areas, and IT professionals who need to understand what the accounting and finance groups need to achieve.
I don't like how EPM is getting pigeonholed as only applicable to finance/accounting types, but you can't win 'em all.

More Information
OAUG is telling people that more information will be coming soon to this website:

At the moment, there is less at that link than I just discussed in this blog posting, but I'm sure more will be posted soon since EPM Connection is now just 3 months away. They'd better hurry with their call for papers (if they're even going to have one).

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the feedback Edward R. on the naming convention our user member team has created for the EPM Conference. Given your self-prescribed monastic lifestyle, you have undoubtedly had a lot of time to reflect on your recommendation.

We too had taken time to qualify and vet our name with our standing committee (those somewhat like yourself who have a keen interest in Hyperion). They felt the name to be a good representation of pending conference and in general, would allow those less familiar with the EPM world to identify with the conference.

To enable those that may be reading your BLOG as I do for the singular insight you provide, I share the entire name with tag line:

"OAUG Connection Point – Enterprise Performance Management"

"Providing excellence in education & training to the Oracle Hyperion and Business Intelligence communities"

I did take note and agree with your observation on the silo impact of our previously published conference description. Connection Point will extend a benefit beyond Finance and Accounting. Sometimes well established and comfortable paradigms are hard to break. We’ll work on that one.

Dave Ferguson
Conference Chair
OAUG Connection Point – Enterprise Performance Management

Jim said...

Ed the dates you had before were correct here is the confirmed date and location information:

Seminar Date: February 23/24
Hotel:
Hyatt Regency, Jersey City on the Hudson
Two Exchange Place
Jersey City, NJ 07302
(201) 469-4550 Telephone
www.jerseycity.hyatt.com

Unknown said...

Just a quick note to alert you that we have opened registration on the OAUG website for our Connection Point - Enterprise Performance Management Conference coming this February 23rd and 24th in New Jersey. There was a bit of confusion in the ether about the dates.

The website contains information on the educational tracks and conference accomodations. We are adding to the official site as more of the information becomes available.

Additionally, we have issued the call for presenter's papers and provided an avenue for proposal submission.

All official conference information can be found at...
http://oaug.org/conferencesandeducation/conferences/2010/cpepm/

Dave Ferguson
Conference Chair
OAUG Connection Point – Enterprise Performance Management