Yathra simply means travel or journey. OTNYathra did cover many miles! OTNYathra is my first conference tour, organized by Oracle Technology Network. First and foremost, I would like to thank AIOUG and OTN for having me as a speaker, Oracle ACE Program for taking care of my travel and accommodation, and OneNeck IT Solutions for all the support.
The Chennai event was on April 23rd. I reached Chennai on the morning of the 22nd and hence had time to visit Chennai before the conference. Thanks to AIOUG team – Sai and Hari – for taking us to Mamallapuram and showing us around. Had a good time visiting the historic sculptures and temples. The first day’s lunch was superb, and pretty much every day the food was great and I put on a few pounds in a week 🙁
The conference venues were carefully picked. The Chennai event was at the prestigious Loyola-ICAM College of Engineering and Technology (LICET) campus. The volunteers of Chennai AIOUG chapter came early and set everything up and were ready. Kudos to all volunteers, I learned that the Chennai chapter is a very active chapter with regularly organized meetings and conferences. Good job; I am sure Chennai Chapter will produce many Oracle ACEs in the near future.
My two presentations were well received by the Chennai crowd. By the way, Chennai had the largest crowd and the organizers stopped accepting more participants as all seats were sold out. It was a bit tiring to travel to Bengaluru after the Chennai conference and then be ready for Bengaluru conference on Sunday 9 A.M.
The Bengaluru event was at the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Electronics City. The main event hall was like a theater. Thanks to all the AIOUG Bengaluru chapter volunteers. After the conference, I took some personal time and visited my sister in Marathahalli.
Monday, April 25th was a day of relaxation and travel. The flight was on time, and we reached Hyderabad by 2 P.M. We started off our Hyderabad visit by having the famous Hyderabad Biriyani for lunch. The drive to the hotel in HiTec city was quick. The Hyderabad airport, highway to HitTec city and the hotel were in a different world, totally different world from the normal Hyderabad. I visited the Golgonda fort and Charminar with the team. It was a great evening.
The Hyderabad event was at the Tech Mahindra Danube Auditorium. It is an excellent high tech facility with big screen projection. I met many friends whom I know only through social media or email. It was very nice of Saurabh Gupta to autograph and present a copy of his most recent book to me. Thank you Satya for taking us shopping and for the delicious dinner.
April 27th was pretty much spent waiting in the airport! The flight was 3+ hours delayed, but I had the opportunity to travel with the Pune IPL team lead by M. S. Dhoni! My sister gave me a surprise by coming to receive me at the airport.
The Pune event was at the Oracle Financial Services Software office. The office is on top of a beautiful hill. We saw a lot of very enthusiastic attendees in Pune. It was kind of sad to leave the OTNYathra without completing the next two cities – Mumbai and Gurgaon, but I had to honor prior commitment and be in Dallas on April 30th evening.
It was a great honor meeting many seasoned speakers, including Chetan Vithlani, Nassyam Basha, Veeratteshwaran Sridhar, Saurabh Gupta, Prabhaker Gongloor, and Satyendra Kumar. I enjoyed the opportunity to connect with the attendees and speakers in all four cities.
I enjoyed the company of Oracle experts and my fellow speakers Connor McDonald and Riyaj Shamsudeen. I’m grateful to the AIOUG organizers Sai, Hariharaputhran and Veeratteshwaran for taking care of all aspects of the Yathra- from airport pickup, taxis, food, site seeing, conference schedule, pretty much all logistics of the conference from the day I landed in Chennai. OTNYathra was an excellent experience! A great technical journey…
Once again, many thanks to AIOUG, Oracle ACE Program, Oracle Technology Network and OneNeck IT Solutions… and thanks to all my session attendees – you are awesome!
