The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) is again hosting their annual educational event COLLABORATE 08: Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle Community, April 13-17 in Denver, Colorado, with third-year co-hosts the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) and the Quest International Users Group (Quest). The event is recognized as one of the largest and most comprehensive Oracle-based user conferences, and COLLABORATE provides a central location for education and networking with more than 7,500 professionals in the greater Oracle community.

More than 425 customer- and expert-led sessions, informal events, roundtables, Oracle presentations and 250 solution-provider insights offer customers tried and true practices, approaches and solutions to integrate into their current and future strategies. “While content will span a number of concentrations and skill levels, key content focuses for this year will include Oracle Database 11g, 10g and9i, developer technology, BI, Fusion Middleware, SOA, grid computing, data warehousing, and much more,” said IOUG president Ari Kaplan.

Participants of the IOUG Forum get access to ‘IOUG Forum only’ activities, like new tracks specific to newly-acquired Oracle customers, including Hyperion and Stellent. Tailored conference-within-a-conference programming will specifically address these audiences core needs and offer opportunity for the broader Oracle community to learn about these additions to the Oracle market.

Stellent education will includea keynotespeech byAndy MacMillan, vice president of product management for content management, along with Al Hoof, president of the Minnesota Stellent Users Group, and will feature more than 30 Stellent-focused educational sessions. Hyperion programming will feature keynote speaker John Kopke, senior vice president, enterprise performance management global business unit at Oracle Corporation, and will be composed of more than 100 sessions.

Other IOUG Forum benefits include an opening keynote address from Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president of Oracle Database Server Technologies, and an in-depth interview with Dylan Tweney, senior editor of Wired News; exclusive IOUG hands-on labs; priority seating at expert technical sessions; expert panels; “unconference” sessions, which are PowerPoint Free Zones or peer-to-peer discussion forums; special interest group welcome receptions; and a “tuning Oracle” coffeehouse with the IOUG Board.

The IOUG Forum represents the collective voice and intellectual capital of the IOUG community. Designed by customers, for customers, programming is based on community feedback and top interests. In a recent survey of the Oracle customer ecosystem, the top three critical areas facing the customer community in the coming year are: the environment, providing/improving high availability and managing upgrades and migrations. The IOUG Forum sessions are designed with these challenges in mind so that customers are armed with leading practices to better implement, manage and improve their Oracle infrastructures. To register for COLLABORATE 08, please visit: https://www.ioug.org/collaborate08/attending/registration.cfm.

About the Independent Oracle Users Group

Founded in 1993, the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) is a global membership organization that provides Oracle users the opportunity to enhance their productivity, maximize their investment and influence the quality, usability and support of Oracle technology. The IOUG represents the voice of Oracle technology and database professionals serving nearly 20,000 database administrators, developers, architects, technical managers and other Oracle professionals throughout North America and worldwide. The IOUG empowers its members to be more productive and successful in their business and careers by delivering education, sharing best practices and providing technology direction and networking opportunities. For more information, visit www.ioug.org or call (312) 245-1579.