Last year, we gained some experience and knowledge regarding online events: In addition to the web conference platform, the tool Gather.town was available to visitors this year. It allowed participants to walk through the virtual image of Phantasialand with their own avatar and exchange with others using microphone and webcam. The two sponsors of the event, MT AG and Database Consult, each had a small virtual booth in Gather, where staff welcomed visitors to exchange information.
Gather.town was utilized thoroughly throughout APEX connect 2021! On the evening of the first conference day, a moderated quiz show provided great entertainment. Here, the participants could put their knowledge to the test and compete against each other. The moderator asked, among other things, how much a full-grown blue whale weighs or what "Twitter" translates to. From matching musicians to given song lyrics to Jeopardy and useless knowledge, everyone was involved.
Afterwards, the avatars of the visitors and speakers danced polonaise through the virtual Phantasialand and formed the name of their favorite tool together: APEX. The night owls among the participants concluded the evening at the virtual APEX bar.
To kick off the event, Niels de Bruijn, DOAG Board Member and Head of the DOAG Development Community, officially welcomed the participants to APEX connect 2021. Immediately afterwards, the participants received information directly from the source! Thus, Carsten Czarski and Patrick Wolf from the Oracle APEX Development Team presented the current version 21.1 of Application Express in detail in their keynote and gave an outlook into the future. More than 30 presentations on the topics APEX, JavaScript and PL/SQL awaited the participants on the two conference days. Part of the presentation program for the first time was a "Good Practices Series" aimed at beginners and advanced users. In these virtual workshops, speakers provided interested participants with basics as well as advanced knowledge on a wide range of topics. In the second day's keynote, Steven Feuerstein took participants behind the scenes of the "Evry" app developed with APEX. It allows its users to make one or more personal contributions to the environment and sustainability every day.
So that APEX fans would not have to split into two, all presentations were recorded. These will soon be made available to participants on our website. This allows people to review what they have already learned and catch up on presentations they may have missed.
A big thank you to all participants, speakers, sponsors, and contributors! Save the date: APEX connect 2022 will take place on May 3 and 4, 2022 at Phantasialand.
A Look Back at APEX connect 2021 [online]
APEX connect 2021 welcomed around 320 participants from all over the world for the second time as a virtual event on May 4 and 5, 2021.
