Oracle user groups band together for single show

Computerworld - Three of the larger Oracle Corp. user communities this week announced that they are banding together to launch a single education and technology sharing event next year.
The organizations are the Chicago-based International Oracle Users Group (IOUG), which is composed primarily of database users; the Atlanta-based Oracle Applications Users Group; and the Lexington, Ky.-based Quest International Users Group, made up of the onetime PeopleSoft Inc. and J.D. Edwards & Co. users Oracle inherited after its buyout of PeopleSoft in January.
The event, dubbed Collaborate 06, will run from April 23-27 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville. Collaborate 06 will be open to all Oracle, PeopleSoft and J.D, Edwards applications and database users, according to a statement from the three organizations.
"This is great for all the user communities," said incoming IOUG President Ari Kaplan, who is also president of wireless management software vendor Expand Beyond Corp. in Chicago. Kaplan was on hand for his organization's own show, IOUG Live 2005, which took place this week in Orlando.
By allowing database and applications users to mingle, attendees at Collaborate 06 can share their own particular expertise, he said. Each group will also be allowed to manage its own specific set of offerings.
In that same vein, while various groups will focus on their core technologies, they will also be able to focus on issues that they share, said John Matelski, deputy CIO for the city of Orlando and executive vice president of the Quest user group.
"These partnerships are truly win-win experiences for the user community, and provide an opportunity for members of groups to network and share best practices and begin working towards a unified voice [around] topics of interest," he said.
The decision to launch the combined Oracle user group event comes as SAP AG has decided to collocate two of its own user events. SAP announced Tuesday that next year its Americas SAP Users Group conference and Sapphire customer and partner event -- both held annually in the spring -- will be combined (see story).

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