Seeing information coming out now about Ascend 2022, I want to encourage other young professionals to make the case to attend. I’ve been working with Oracle products for about two years and Ascend 2021 was my first professional conference. I really appreciated the opportunity to meet other people from around the world who are using Oracle products. There’s a whole community of people who can help me solve problems!
At Ascend, I learned how other people are doing the same things I am but in different ways. I met people with all levels of experience. To me, the most beneficial part of attending Ascend 2021 was connecting with others and building a network of people I can contact in the future to share ideas and ask questions. At my organization, we are talking about moving to the cloud soon. A senior colleague met someone at Ascend who’s already using the cloud. They had a very helpful conversation about what this company’s experience.
I think attending Ascend was definitely worthwhile. Attending a conference like this can broaden your mind to possibilities of the technology. It’s so interesting to see that people take the same technology and use it in different ways. There is so much you can do with this software. When there is a problem that needs to be solved you know who you can call. I also found conversations with the vendors very interesting. It’s fascinating to discover the capabilities of the software and how it can be integrated with other software to make things easier or more efficient.
The Emerging Leaders group was very helpful to me, as a new attendee. I met several people at the first get-together early in the conference and we discussed what everyone is working on. One vendor who attended explained what they have to offer. Another person is doing complex data processing. We had a very interesting conversation.
My advice to other first-time Ascend attendees is to look at the agenda and find the topics and presentations that are relevant to you. Look at what’s offered that applies to you now and to what you may be working on in the future. Then, attend those sessions and make connections with the other attendees and the presenter. Introduce yourself and understand what they are working on. These connections may be very helpful in the future.