Oracle OpenWorld History
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In 1986, almost 500 Oracle users gathered in San Francisco for the first International Oracle Users Week (IOUW) conference. It was at this meeting that the International Oracle Users Group (IOUG) was formed. The following year, the IOUG partnered with Oracle to present IOUW, and attendance doubled. Throughout the years, IOUW attendance continued to grow and Oracle Corporation saw an opportunity to create more marketing sessions at the conference, which it hoped would increase growth even more. So, in 1996 Oracle Corporation made the announcement that beginning in 1997, it would take control of the user conference and call it Oracle OpenWorld.
Oracle OpenWorld Recollections
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“As I recall, the first Oracle Users Conference was put on by Oracle (then RSI) in 1983 at the Long Wharf Marriott in Boston. In those days, most of RSI’s customers were on the east coast: DoD, Bell Atlantic, PSDI (which became MRO and then IBM), etc. I believe the second Oracle Users Conference was in San Francisco in 1984, which coincided with the release of Version 4. That was the year Larry promised a new major release every year to correspond with the last digit of the year: V5 in ’85; V6 in ’86, etc. So instead of 11g, we should have seen V27 this year!â€
–David Teplow, IOUG Board Member
 David Kreines: An Oracle Certified Professional, David Kreines has been a frequent contributor to Oracle conferences, user groups, and publications, both in the United States and in Europe. Kreines served two terms as president of the International Oracle Users Group-Americas (IOUG-A) and spent ten years on the board of directors. Kreines has worked with Oracle as a developer and database administrator since 1985 on a wide variety of platforms, from PCs to mainframes, and has authored or coauthored several books on Oracle technology. His recollections are excerpted from an article he wrote in 2003.“The first user conference probably took place in 1985 in San Diego. I say probably, because some Oracle users were getting together informally to discuss the product (Version 4 back then), but San Diego was the first time Oracle actually sanctioned a meeting. There were probably 50 users present.
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“In 1986, Oracle had just moved into its brand-new world headquarters in Belmont, California and hosted an event called International Oracle Users Week in San Francisco. All involved were thrilled with the attendance, which was almost 500! It was held in the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, and the exhibit hall was on meeting room with two vendors (Sequent Computer and Israel Stern with a little product called SQR). One of the more notable events at this conference was a general user meeting, where attendees divided up by region and selected representatives to organize a new users group, which took the name International Oracle Users Group, or simply IOUG. The new group got organized during the year, and provided some limited assistance to Oracle with the planning of the 1987 User Week event in Washington.
The 1987 meeting was another success, with about 1,000 attendees. Oracle was 10 years old and growing rapidly. The company recognized the value of a user-oriented conference and encouraged IOUG to become a full partner. I was selected as conference chair that year and held that position through 1996.Â
International Oracle User Week or IOUW, as it was now known, became increasingly successful. In 1996, IOUW was held in Philadelphia, and Oracle made a surprise announcement that beginning in 1997, it would take control of the user conference, call it Oracle OpenWorld, and base it permanently in California.â€Peter Smith: First introduced to relational databases in 1987, Peter Smith has been working exclusively with Oracle Database since 1992. He is currently president at NBS Consulting Solutions, in Ontario, Canada and serves on the IOUG Board of Directors.
“I was at International Oracle User Week (IOUW) in Philadelphia when Larry Ellison announced Oracle OpenWorld via satellite conference. At that time, IOUW was an Oracle conference run by the IOUG with massive support by Oracle and was the event to attend to learn anything about Oracle. The Oracle VPs in attendance at IOUW were unaware this announcement was coming, so they and the IOUG were unprepared for such a far-reaching change. IOUW had grown to be a large event with thousands of attendees; it appeared to have been growing steadily since I started attending the IOUW conferences in 1993.
“IOUW 1997 had been booked to be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. That slot was given to Oracle for the first Oracle OpenWorld 1997. “The Oracle OpenWorld parties were incredible, and they were on every night from Sunday to Thursday. The conferences were five days at that point, with not much happening on Sunday except people writing Certification exams. The conference closed on Friday, but most people started bailing around lunch time or Thursday night. I sure can’t remember the technical content, but the parties by the vendors and Oracle were events that all attendees flocked to. The vendors seemed to have a contest to see who could throw the best party, and the attendees tried to get into as many of the ‘exclusive’ events as possible.â€Share Your Recollections
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