Oracle OpenWorld 2011: Big Footprint in San Francisco

Larry Ellison and his band of Oraclenians don’t do Oracle OpenWorld/JavaOne in a small way. This two-headed conference is so big, it is the only one held at Moscone Center in which an entire city block of Howard Street (between Third and Fourth) is closed off to all traffic.

Last year, in a memorable OpenWorld 2010 thank-you concert/party for attendees, Don Henley, Steve Miller, the Black Eyed Peas, Berlin, and Montgomery Gentry performed until deep into the evening on Treasure Island.

This year, the headliners are Sting and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. One cannot say Ellison doesn’t know how to get a party started and keep it going.

OOW is not about music, of course, although that’s a fun entryway into the conference. OOW is really all about future IT: software, hardware, and services that you will be using during the next few years.

So why is this item in the Storage Station column? Easy. This conference is all about storage, databases, clouds, security, and a score of related subjects. Most of the major storage and virtualization players will be there, of course — except competitors such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Here is a fact sheet, with information collected by some of Larry’s Legions, on this year’s conference, which opens Sunday evening, Oct. 2, with an Ellison overview keynote, and ends Thursday, Oct. 6:

• The show will bring an estimated 45,000 conference attendees to San Francisco.
• It will also generate an estimated $100 million in revenue for the San Francisco Bay Area.
• It will help sell out every hotel in downtown San Francisco, plus hotels on the Peninsula.
• On peak nights, attendees fill more than 14,700 hotel rooms or 74,107 hotel room nights booked.
• Attendees hail from 117 countries.
• More than 100,000 online attendees expected.
• Closes down Howard Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.
• Union crews will work more than 20,000 man-hours before the first session begins on Sunday, October 2.
• 100 percent of equipment running during show are locally sourced (within a 2 – 3 hour radius).
• At the show, 140,000 cups of coffee, 140,000 sodas or juices and 60,000 boxed lunches will be served.

If you’re going to be there, have a few cups of coffee and a great time. And say hi to Sting.