Collaborate 08 Hyperion Track - 1,300+ Attendees

I just uncovered that the Hyperion track at COLLABORATE 08 now has around 1,300 attendees. It's kind of difficult to determine the exact number, because Hyperion attendees could register under OAUG, IOUG, Quest, or through a special Hyperion link. Unless they registered through the Hyperion link, they had to mark that they were interested in Hyperion presentations. If they forget to do this, they're not counted in the ~1,300. Suffice to say that COLLABORATE won't be the size of the Hyperion Solutions conference, but it will most likely be the largest "Hyperion" conference of 2008.

I'm supposed to leave for the COLLABORATE 08 conference first thing Sunday morning. The only potential problem is that I'm on an American Airlines MD-80, so if I don't make it to Denver, please tell my family that I love them. Assuming my flight isn't cancelled (and that I land safely), I will be writing about all of the significant Hyperion events at the conference. Since my days are pretty full (I have 10 presentations to deliver), the blogging will usually happen daily between the hours of 3 and 5 AM, so check back then!

The first Hyperion event of note is at 1PM on Sunday: the OAUG Hyperion SIG meeting. Ed Delise was going to be heading up the meeting, but since he's home anxiously awaiting the birth of his new baby, Kristin Newman from Hitachi is going to be chairing the meeting. My role in the event is fairly minor (I'm reviewing the Hyperion presentations that are going to be delivered at the conference), so I should have time to write about anything else interesting I hear. Kristin and I went through all the lists of COLLABORATE Hyperion presentations we could find and came up with 98. We'll be handing out the complete list of ones we were able to find at the meeting.

I did hear that Rich Clayton will no longer be the keynote speaker. He's been replaced (but not in our hearts) with Fred Richards, Oracle's Senior Director of BI Product Marketing. Fred's a friend of mine: we gave a joint presentation on Essbase successes at OpenWorld in 2007. I swapped e-mails with Fred, and he said he's going to be presenting on the new vision of EPM/BI at Oracle and how Hyperion integrates that vision. Time permitting, he'll talk through some of the recent Hyperion roadmap changes (there will be an in-depth Hyperion roadmap talk at 8AM on Monday).

Well, it's time now to go pack. Hopefully, I'll get to nap a little too in advance of the sleep-deprivation exercise that is a software conference. Usually these events are so busy that I plan on not sleeping from the time I arrive until I leave. This is why my presentations are far more lively at the start of the week (and why I tend to fall asleep while talking towards the end).

Advanced Copies of New Essbase Books

I mentioned before that Look Smarter Than You Are with Essbase: An End User's Guide was going to come out soon. While it's not officially available yet (the big launch event is going to be at a book signing at Collaborate), you can buy a copy now direct from our publisher for $29.95:
http://www.lulu.com/content/2192220

This book focuses just on the end user-side of things like the Essbase Excel Add-In and the Hyperion Smart View Office Add-In. If you're interested in buying 5 or more copies (enough for every one of your end users!), you can e-mail info@interrel.com and we'll give you a 30% bulk discount.

Speaking of books, we've gotten a number of requests recently for a 'System 9' edition of Look Smarter Than You Are with Hyperion Essbase. Bowing to the voracious demands of the book-buying public, we have an updated version of our last book which focuses entirely on System 9 content. We have also added more than 40 pages of additional content, because we noticed some areas (like security in Shared Services) warranted an entire new chapter in the updated book. The price point is the same (screw you, inflation) at $49.95 and like the "End User Guide", it's right now only available directly from our publisher. Here's the link for Look Smarter Than You Are with Essbase System 9: The Complete Guide:
http://www.lulu.com/content/2192328

If you want a signed copy of either of the two new books, come to Collaborate (there, now you finally have a good reason!), and attend one of the book signings. Tracy McMullen (my wonderful and irreplaceable co-author) and I will be signing copies on Tuesday and Wednesday from 12:30-1:30 at the bookstore. It's not that I think our signatures will actually add value, it's just that this gives you a chance to heckle/question Tracy and me directly while we smile and make illegible scribbles on the front page of your brand-new, pristine book.

Also at Collaborate, you'll be able to browse preview copies of three more books Tracy and I are releasing before the end of 2008 (if God, our families, and most importantly, our interRel editors allow). I don't want to spoil the surprise about the exact three titles, but suffice to say they're all about Hyperion and none of them are about Essbase (since we've now officially done that topic to death).

Kaleidoscope Conference - Early-Bird Registration Extended

The early-bird deadline for the ODTUG Kaleidoscope conference (the one in New Orleans in June with an Essbase-focused track) passed on March 25. That said, the Executive Director of ODTUG, Kathleen McCasland, was kind enough to extend the deadline until "at least April 7" to give time for all the Essbase junkies to get approval to attend who didn't even hear about the conference until after March 25.

The extended early-bird deadline is only for Hyperion attendees, so they had to make a special link. Make sure you go here to get the cheaper rate:
http://www.prairiesystemsgroup.com/odtug_hyperion_registration.html

I think I've blogged more times in the last 2 weeks than I have since OpenWorld. It's not that I've had particularly a lot of free time on my hands, but rather that there's been a lot of news happening. Don't be surprised if we get to August and the only post I make for the entire month has to do with what my cat ate for breakfast. [Note to self: get a cat before August, so I have something to blog about.]

Collaborate - Hyperion SIG Agenda

Kristin Newman from Hitachi forwarded on the Hyperion SIG agenda for Sunday, April 13th at Collaborate in Denver. It's basically a 2-hour agenda (room 407) followed by a cocktail reception (room 108). I have no idea why they're changing rooms for the reception. Maybe the alcohol is better in the lower numbered rooms?

OAUG Hyperion SIG Meeting Agenda

1:00 - 1:15 OAUG Hyperion SIG Welcome and Introductions
- SIG Board members
- Domain Leads
- Web Cast Series
1:15 - 2:15 Oracle Key Note Speaker:
- Rich Clayton, Oracle VP of EPM
2:15 - 2:30 OAUG Board Member Speaker:
- Ray Payne, OAUG VP of Global Outreach & Transition
2:30 - 2:45 Collaborate Hyperion Presentations Overview
2:45 - 3:15 SIG website overview and Q& A for ideas
3:15 - 4:15 Cocktail & Appetizer Reception

Collaborate 2008 Has 1,000+ Hyperion Attendees

I'm tempted to rename this blog from "Look Smarter" to "Updates on All the Hyperion Conferences and User Groups" because it seems like that's all there is to write about these days. I just found out today that the number of people registered for the Hyperion track at Collaborate 08 has surpassed 1,000, so it seemed like a great opportunity to give an update on the conference. Though Collaborate as a whole attracts over 7,500 people, I'm amazed that they have over 1,000 Hyperion registrants. 1,000 was their goal and the conference is still weeks away.

If you haven't registered yet, make sure you do it by April 3. After that, the price goes up from $1,495 to $1,695 (and you're basically paying the on-site rate). The easiest way to register is here: http://collaborate08.com/COLLABORATE08/Hyperion.htm.

It will give you two options. If you're a member of OAUG, IOUG, or Quest, it will direct you to register through their links. If you're just a common Hyperion user who doesn't belong to one of them fancy "citified" user groups, you'll be instructed to click here: https://www.questdirect.org/registration/default.aspx?ec=103.

No matter which route you take, please use discount code INTERREL08 when you register (we get credit for pointing you in the right direction).

There's a tremendous amount of information available on-line about the conference. There's an overall agenda for the conference in a nicely printable PDF. If you prefer a PDF just listing the Hyperion presentations there's one of those too. There's a search page pre-filtered for Hyperion sessions if you're looking to find specific presentations. OAUG also offers a personal agenda builder to create a schedule of just what you want to see.

As far as Hyperion presentations go, they were originally hoping to offer 100-150 Hyperion sessions. (I mentioned this on a blog posting back in February.) Due to the lack of quality presentations to choose from, they only ended up selecting a little over 80 presentations (hey, quality is better than quantity). Of those ~80 presentations, ~30 are being delivered by Oracle staffers (mostly the high-level intro presentations or the product direction presentations). interRel is delivering (either alone or with interRel clients) 25 or 26 presentations. That leaves around 25 sessions that non-interRel clients and other partners of Oracle are presenting. I'm wondering if the Collaborate folks should say "The Hyperion Track is brought to you by Oracle and the good folks at interRel"...

Since they spread the ~80 presentations over 19 timeslots, a couple of the timeslots are pretty sparse. Some hours have as few as 2 presentations while other slots have up to 7 presentations. There are a few time slots where interRel isn't presenting anything and then there are weird times like 2:15PM on Monday when 3 OUT OF 4 presentations are by interRel.

Of the interRel presentations, I'm delivering 9 or 10 of them. Tracy McMullen is doing another 8 or 9 and we have another 13 people coming to the conference to help deliver the remainder. Oh, and they're staffing the booth too. If you want to come by and visit us at Collaborate, we're in booth 963. You can also visit Tracy and me at our book signings. Apparently, there will a bookstore at Collaborate selling books on Oracle topics (including copies of all of the different Look Smarter books we've written). On Tuesday and Wednesday from 12:30-1:30, they've asked us to come by the bookstore and sign copies of our books for our adoring fans (if any actually exist). If you wish for me to deface your book with my signature, please free to stop by.

I'm looking forward to seeing you in Denver!