Behind the Curtain: Oracle Federal Forum

Now in its tenth year, the Oracle Federal Forum is taking a fresh approach to its annual show. As always, it brings together government technology, business and industry leadership, IT experts of every flavor, as well as technology thought-leaders to provide a hands-on look at the future of government IT.

Oracle's Federal Forum theme this year is, "Modern Cloud, Endless Possibilities," and is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 14, at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Washington, D.C. Oracle and its industry partners will examine how agencies can begin embracing the power of cloud computing while also acknowledging that government has considerable investments in existing, on-premises technology. In addition to being a hands-on technology event, Oracle will also offer sessions and workshops on more business-oriented content for HR, finance and budgeting, and marketing professionals.[Tweet "Behind the Curtain: Oracle Federal Forum. What you can expect from this year's event. #GovEventsBlog"]

The team at Oracle took some time away from their planning and preparation to share some insights on what people can expect from this year's event.

With 2017 being the tenth anniversary for this event, can you share a little bit about how the Federal Forum has changed over the years?

Oracle has a long history providing enterprise software to U.S. government agencies, starting with the CIA in 1977. The Federal Forum was launched as another way to connect with government leaders and end-users - and to hear from them about their challenges and discuss how our technology, along with our partners, can help them moving forward.

Over the last 10 years the technology landscape has changed dramatically - cloud computing being just part of the discussion. Innovations in mobility, IoT, artificial intelligence and more are as relevant as data management and cybersecurity. This event allows Oracle and our partners - from systems integrators to solutions providers and resellers - to not only demonstrate our commitment to the market but to ensure we're meeting and anticipating its needs. The day also allows us to provide an actionable product and technology roadmap, get feedback, and better understand every agency's challenges and opportunities. We're speaking, but we're also listening.[Tweet "The Oracle Federal Forum is a way to connect with government leaders and end-users. #GovEventsBlog"]

What makes your event stand out in a sea of similarly-named Federal Forums?

We think our differentiator is that we offer technologists and business leaders an intimate and hands-on view of the technologies and business tools they need to be successful in their environment. Our sessions are small enough to encourage feedback and discussion. The workshops are highly focused, hour-long sessions that allow participants to go deep on a particular technology or solution. We have partners like Intel, Accenture, Deloitte, Mythics, Dynamic Systems and many more that bring deep expertise to the sessions and workshops that give attendees a close-up view of the topics that interest them most.

How did you decide on the topics for the Oracle Federal Forum

We used to focus on seven key tracks, and each track had sessions aligned to them that were heavily product-focused. It was a good model because agencies either used the products or had interest in them. This year, we changed our thinking a bit and moved to themes - areas of interest that our customers care about. For example, we now have a Budget and Finance theme that looks at the challenges unique to those departments; there's another on Citizen Services, focusing on the digitization of government and innovative ways to engage constituents; and there's a Modern IT track that doesn't examine point solutions per se, but rather looks holistically at the ways agencies can securely and cost-effectively build out a modern infrastructure, including hybrid cloud solutions, with topics spanning PaaS, IaaS and SaaS.[Tweet "Oracle is pulling out all the stops for their 10th Federal Forum. #GovEventsBlog"]

What are you most excited about with this year's event?

It really feels like we're pulling out all the stops for our 10th. First, we're thrilled to have Intel as the event's Presenting Partner, a big commitment that includes the Intel Innovation Pavilion and its keynote address on "Digital Transformation in Government." We also have a fantastic lineup of speakers, including Rep. Will Hurd, Chair of the House Information Technology Subcommittee, as well as former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who flew missions to the Hubble Space Telescope. And our own Thomas Kurian, president, Oracle product development, will offer attendees in his keynote a fascinating glimpse of where Oracle is headed the next five years with our products, and our incredible global commitment to R&D. We expect the whole day to be educational and fun.

Thanks again to Oracle for sharing some more color on this year's event. Happy double digits to the team! To learn more about the event and to register, click here.