1) Look at the Sunday schedule. I booked to arrive on Sunday and found a lot of the APEX session I was interested in were only held on Sunday.
2) Check out the unconference. I heard of this, but I didn't put much thought into it.. It is located on the 3rd floor of Moscone West.. I was really dissapointed when I walked by, and saw that Jonathon Lewis did a presentation on Monday. I would check it everyday to see if there is anything good to go to.
3) OTN Lounge.. This was located on 3rd floor Moscone west next to the unconference board.. The sign read Free beer, expert advice.. Sounds like a match made in heaven.. Too bad I didn't see it until 4:00 the last day of the conference.
4) Eat breakfast early .. There was no breakfast this year (though you could find something in the moscone south exhibit hall around 10:00). If you stay nearby, and are expecting to grab something on the way.. so does everyone else.. Go to starbucks (or where ever) when you first get up.. It's San Francisco.. Go in your pajamas and they'll think your a local !
5) Plan ahead with schedule builder. Many of my sessions were full, and there was a long waiting line outside for those not registered.
6) Plan on walking out of a few sessions. There are some points where you will immediately find the session is too much review, or not applicable.. Walk out and go the exhibit hall.. If you book up you whole week with sessions, you can get some free time by leaving sessions.
7) Talk to people. That's part of the point right ? See what others are doing and what kind of problems they are having.. Also, look around when you are in your sessions.. If you go to lunch, and recognize someone from one of the sessions you attended, chances are you already have something in common. Remember there are people attending from all areas of Oracle.. If you are a DBA, you might sit down with a table of JD Edwards users.. Finding others attending your session assures they understand what you do.
Find out who is presenting.. After awhile you learn who to go to, who to avoid.. Tom Kyte.. go... Vendors selling their products.. skip.. The rest is in the middle.. The best presentations are without the product managers.. I went to a great presentation where the Oracle person said .. "first these are the talking points I have to say.. blah.. blah blah'. Good, now I can tell you the truth." and he did !!9) Make sure the Keynote is something you want to hear. I spent a lot of time hearing about how H&M changed the fasion market for the all retail companies and how Oracle could help.. Would I rather have spent time having a decent breakfast reviewing what I learned ? You betcha !
10)Don't pass up any invitations for events. Some of the best information I got was attending events (both oracle and vendor). Having conversations around some stuffed jalapenos and your favorite beverage can sometimes be the most productive.
11) Look for the "newspaper" in the morning.. This is a newsletter that talks about the previous days keynote (that you probably skipped), and tells you if sessions have been added/removed/moved.. This is very helpful.. Otherwise you might go to a session on time to find it's been moved in another room on another floor. DOH !
12) Talk to Oracle people at displays in the exhibit hall.. This is a good chance to find out about some of the products you don't know much about.. Learn about Times Ten, Berkely, what enterprise manager can do with other products.. It's worth broadening your horizons by talking to developers
13) Check out openworld ondemand. This is included with your membership. Most presentations are available on MP3 with the powerpoint. You can listen to any sessions you missed, or relive the glory of that special session. http://openworld.vportal.net/?exitURL=
14) Spend a lot of time in the Demos in exhibition hall. Talk to the developers.. You can learn a lot here one-on-one for free ! This is what you/your company is paying for.