Conferences, conferences, conferences

Conferences are in many ways the peak of my so-called professional year. No, Gentle Reader, not because I don’t have client work to perform and I get to faff about the conference hall without care or responsibility, but because conferences are where I meet – in person – my comrades in Performance Management arms and where I learn and with luck where I help others. Conferences are work and sometimes physically exhausting; they are certainly mentally so, in part because of the excitement that surrounds the new and novel and in part because the days are long. New people, new environments, new products, new ideas, new new new. Long – there have been nights where I really-and-truly have slept for just over two hours – simply because it’s too difficult to tear myself away from it all. It is both exhausting and exhilarating. I’ve been attending user conferences since the (gasp) waning days of the Bush The First administration thanks to a very generous Fortune 50 employer (truly, I knew bugger all but it was a great place to learn; many would argue little has changed) to working for myself to working for boutique consultancies back to working for myself to working for a software vendor and finally back to consulting. My let’s-have-fun-and-kill-ourselves-writing-content-for-presentations started in 2001. Whew. I really have been at it for some time. I really like conferences.

Conferences are important to me and many others. If they hold no appeal, you really ought to think about why and change your ways. Seriously, I’ve made friends, forged business relationships, furthered what I laughingly call a career, and increased my knowledge through user group conferences. You can and should too.

What those many conferences have driven home is that Content is King, networking, food (surprisingly important to attendees), and parties (Ibid.) aside.

Well, which ones does Yr. Obt. Svt.care about at OneStream Splash 2023?

Sessions, sessions, sessions

A few notes about these sessions. I am most definitely not an accountant and I am a geek so the sessions reflect that. I also work for a consulting company (you are after all reading this on BDA’s website) so I will not – with one exception – be highlighting their sessions because I can see them internally (surely if one has the privilege of presenting at a conference one should also have to suffer an internal audience that can freely comment and catcall during your presentation rerun) and because it smacks of self-promotion. No one has ever accused me of having fantastic business acumen (I mean c’mon, Cameron, you work for these guys and you don’t take advantage of an opportunity to promote the firm? Are you really that dumb? Apparently, yes.) or even a smidgen of self-preservation, so I’m going to let you pick from BDA’s list of sessions, especially since BDA has already detailed all of those sessions right here.

With all of that, let’s do this day-by-day, hour-by-hour.

Monday, 17 April 2023

I’m arriving by car (30+ years of conferences and this is only the second one I’ve been able to drive to)…sometime, I’m not entirely sure when that will be. I do know I’ll be helping put together a booth. Given that I only had to take one of these bad boys off a screen door twice yesterday to get it to work, I know that my mechanical acumen will be of the greatest help when assembling displays.

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Expo Hall – 8 to 4:15, Prince George’s Expo Hall C-E

I’ll more than likely be at the BDA booth just about every day, on and off. Stop by and say hello.

Opening Keynote – 9 to 10:30, Potomac Ballroom

This is where the tone for the conference is set. While OneStream’s journey over the past year will be interesting, I’m more interested in what’s coming.

OneStream Roadmap: What’s New and What’s Coming in Platform Core – 10:45 to 11:45, Cherry Blossom Ballroom

Ooooh, the best, the very best, the bestest. This planning geek wonders (and to all and sundry, these really are my hopes and dreams – I have zero inside knowledge) if a new engine for planning is coming, what additional planning functionality is on the horizon, is there another Business Rule type I need to learn, and will we finally, finally, finally get asymmetric queries in Quick Views). All of this or none of this or some of this might come true. Fingers crossed.

Excel Add-in 101: Back to Basics – 1:15 to 2:15, Maryland C

Hah! Excel! I get to whine about asymmetric queries again. Also, I get to see my buddies Tiffany Ma and Nick Blazosky. Blameless Tiffany was instrumental in getting my foot in the OneStream universe; Nick I know from many years in the Oracle space.

Sleep, rest, probably working the booth – 2:30 to 3:45, Prince George’s Expo Hall C-E

I’ll more than likely be at the BDA booth just about every day, on and off. Stop by and say hello.

What’s New and What’s Coming in Productivity – 4:00 to 5:00, Maryland C

Tell me tell me tell me.

Wednesday, 19 April 2023

Sleep, rest, probably working the booth – Who knows when to 10:00, Prince George’s Expo Hall C-E

I’ll more than likely be at the BDA booth just about every day, on and off. Stop by and say hello.

Solution Exchange and Partner Solution Introductions – 10:15 to 11:15, Cherry Blossom Ballroom

You really ought to attend this.

Introduction to the Solution Exchange Product and Ecosystem – 11:30 to 12:00, National Harbor 2

You really ought to attend this.

Extending, Expanding, and Enhancing OneStream with SQL – 1:15 to 2:15, National Harbor 11

Surely the best, the very best, even bester than the last bestest session, session at the entire conference. Superb technical content, matchless speakers, 100% geekiness, and more than a few interesting takes on how SQL extends the OneStream platform. And oh yeah, I’m copresenting with my Objectively Taller, Younger as well as Subjectively Better Looking and Significantly Smarter Brother From a Completely Different Set of Parents, Celvin Kattookaran.

I was slated to present with him last year, but I cleverly had The Plague through the whole conference. He tells me that it was SRO. Let’s see if I can depress that count down to one or two or even zero.

True story – I presented – something, I can’t quite remember, but it was semi-interesting, or so I thought – at a regional conference and my audience was exactly one person. That smarted so hopefully this will be better.

The CPM Blueprint is a Great Place to Start your Solution Development – 2:30 to 3:30, National Harbor 2

I can – as many will attest – always use help. The Blueprint app is supposed to help with that so fingers crossed this will solve all my manifest problems. We’ll see.

Guest Keynote – 4:00 to 5:00, Potomac Ballroom

A real honest-to-goodness racing car driver: Danica Patrick. I’m (to steal a Britishism) a true petrolhead, so this will be a treat.

Thursday, 20 April 2023

Sleep – From what will likely be far too late at night/early in the morning to 9:45, my hotel room with a Do Not Disturb tag hanging on the door

I know this is going to happen. It just will. I both fear and hope.

Optimizing Data Unit Design – 10 to 11, Maryland B

Understanding the Data Unit is key (beyond truly overly optimistic scaling exercise/an awfully poor application of a Cube to a Performance Management requirement) to OneStream performance. Be there.

Smart Integration Connection – The New Way for OneStream Integration – 11:15 to 12:15, Maryland D

I’ve blogged about the simplest forms of this (and have another one coming) so I’m super interested in how to do it better.

Advanced Dashboards – 1:15 to 2:15, Maryland A

I’ve been told that I have the artistic capabilities of a five year old busily engaged in finger painting. Let’s see if that can be improved.

Designing for Performance – 2:30 to 3:30, Maryland C

Does anyone enjoy slow performance? Why? I get to watch my old chum Ludovic de Paz and colleagues present good performance practices.

Collapse – 4 till who knows when, I don’t know where

By the end of all of this, the adrenaline will have worn off and I shall be well and truly tired. Aren’t conferences great?

And that will be the end of Splash 2023

Conferences are great. How can a geek not get excited about content like this? As a side note, this post took me far longer than I anticipated as I had to really think through what I wanted to attend as there are so many compelling overlapping sessions. I suspect you too will as well.

Be seeing you.