Here we are in San Francisco

Some 23 hours after waking up in dreich old Scotland we arrived in sunny San Francisco 2 hours ago ready for Oracle Openworld. Almost a whole day out of my life hanging about in airport departure lounges or sitting in planes watching cruddy movies I wouldn't even consider at home, listening to some good country music (mostly the Hackensaw Boys, Dixie Chicks and Kasey Chambers) or subjecting my travelling partner to the kind of banal drivel that only long enforced incarceration can elicit.

The event itself doesn't start until Sunday when Larry Ellison will be making his keynote speech and we all get the chance to marvel at Oracle's successes over the last 30 years. Rumour has it that Billy Joel and Prince will be making an appearance. I wish I had known that before I packed my toilet bag this morning.

Haven't even unpacked the bags yet so photos of the Bay area (or more probably the goings on at the Moscone Centre) will need to wait.

There seems to be a great sense of anticipation here about this event as everyone I've spoken to (admittedly only immigration officials, taxi drivers and hotel porters so far) has simply assumed that's why we're here.

Tomorrow's plan is to get some sleep and shake off this travel lethargy, maybe do a bit of sightseeing and plan for the coming few days. Key things I'm looking to find out about - and straight from the horses' mouth:

• should we be looking at Oracle Web Services Manager as a potential evolution of the local CAS Gateway
• how can we better exploit some of the tools like Oracle Access Manager that we have licensed across the public sector
• what new features will the 11g database offer (looking forward to a session that Tom Kyte is running on that one)

Off to get some food and drink and prepare for Alcatraz...