What to Expect at the 2020 Oracle Conference COLLABORATE 20

What to Expect at the 2020 Oracle Conference COLLABORATE 20

Read time: 3.5 min.

While it seems like COLLABORATE 19 just happened, we’re already looking ahead to COLLABORATE 20. The annual Oracle technology and applications conference for the user community will move back to Las Vegas in 2020, and in order to start preparing our trip out west, we interviewed Christina Yue of Quest Oracle Community about what attendees can expect at the upcoming event.

What’s new that attendees can look forward to at C20?

Christina: Quest has really focused on networking efforts this year and have several new things to offer. We believe people come for networking, because how often are you face-to-face with other Oracle users and vendors? We’ve had our first speed networking event, which is an opportunity to meet other Oracle users and answer questions you might have. We’re bringing that back this year and expanding it with buddy match, which will pair attendees with veteran users. These pairs will meet a few times and help maximize your time at the conference. It works kind of like a mentoring program in some ways, where you’ll learn what to do, what to attend, and who to meet with while on site.

Another new addition we’re excited to be offering is Zip Labs – hands-on digital labs that are designed to provide opportunities for attendees to build familiarity with an Oracle product using step-by-step instructions at your leisure.

We also have a new app this year – the education agenda builder now has cool new functionality in which you can share your agenda and get matched in the app with others who use the same Oracle product. It’s a cool feature to have in hand to meet other people while you’re there.

What top events are back?

Christina: We’re excited to be bringing back some of our top networking events like speed networking and product specific networking events. We’ll continue to feature extensive workshops, certifications and hands-on labs – networking events people won’t experience unless they go to a conference like this one.

C20 is an informative and educational Oracle conference for customers, vendors, users and those looking to learn more about Oracle’s applications. What would you recommend to someone attending for the first time?

Christina: I think the biggest thing is getting engaged – we know that 40 percent of attendees are new. Those who engage by going to the Oracle conference show floor, attend networking opportunities, ask questions in sessions are much more likely to leave the conference with actionable insight and connections they can take back to the office and begin using right away. They get the most value out of the conference by taking advantage of the opportunities to ask the questions and get the answers they need. We encourage all attendees in our attendee walk throughs that it’s important to embrace these opportunities.

How can those wanting to attend C20 make the case for budget approval?

Christina: We have a justification letter on the registration page on our website to help map out why someone should attend. It highlights what an attendee is going to get out of attending, the access you get to roadmaps and resources and the numerous opportunities to interact one-on-one with Oracle Product & Strategy Team and other Oracle users.

Additionally, more than 250 solution providers are there having conversations, helping with your technology journey and doing demos. There are also close to 50 networking opportunities during the conference. We encourage people to look at the education, build your agenda feature and show their boss the opportunities for them to learn.

What’s a can’t-miss for attendees?

Christina: You can’t miss your keynote or roadmap – that is crucial to the education piece to understand where the Oracle products are going. We also encourage people to attend our Quest welcome party – it’s a great opportunity to meet with people using the same products as you in an informal environment and make those connections while meeting people outside of the traditional educational setting. Also, a can’t-miss is walking the show floor – there are a good number of vendors serving all Oracle products.

Our advice is to walk the show floor at least once, go to at least one welcome party, attend the keynote and roadmaps in order to set you up to think about what you should be looking at for the rest of the week.

Anything else?

Christina: Quest has integrated with the Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG)  – we now include database, tech ops and dev ops, as well as our continued content for the applications side, so we encourage companies to send their tech and database team as well. Our expansion in to this side has allowed us to provide both a business and technical view to each topic.

Christina Yue, Quest, Terillium

About Christina Yue

A native of Frankfort, Ky., Christina Yue has been an employee of Quest Oracle Community for the past six years serving in numerous roles. Her current role as the Customer Learning Senior Manager allows her to oversee the educational and networking offerings both digitally and at face-to-face events like COLLABORATE. She also manages the customer experience and works to cultivate relationship throughout the community.

Before joining Quest Oracle Community she worked as a part of the University of Kentucky HealthCare Development team where she learned to be creative when it comes to event planning and cultivating relationships that last.