Whether Oracle actually cancelled Marc Benioff’s keynote speech or simply “rescheduled it” to Thursday, a day Benioff couldn’t be there, is immaterial. Oracle World is clearly huge and very focused on all things Oracle. I walked on the bridgeway above Howard Street yesterday and even from the outside, you can see it dwarfs the Dreamforce conference from a month ago. However, if someone thought moving/cancelling Benioff was a way to avoid giving him a voice, they calculated very, very wrong.
Now, no matter what Oracle and its partners announce, Benioff will always be mentioned in any news coverage of the event and, possibly more importantly, the gossip/Twitter streams, and blogs like this one. That means a whole lot of money is being spent and Benioff gets the last laugh.
I missed Benioff’s alternative talk this morning at the St. Regis Hotel – which happens to be across the street from Oracle World – but what he said doesn’t matter. What will remembered is the already famous tweet I saw retweeted dozens of times in my Twitter feed starting yesterday afternoon.
Whether you like Benioff or Larry Ellison, no one should question Benioff on this one. I’m not sure if Ellison actually made the call to cancel Benioff’s keynote or if it was someone else’s idea. If it was some else’s idea, their boss should be asking why someone who can’t think through potential ramifications is in a position to make these types of decisions. Anyone who knows Benioff, his reputation or has read his book should have seen this exact course of action happening, including the “street protest.” If this truly was Ellison’s idea, it is another example of what happens when people can’t tell their leader he has a bad idea. Either way, today, and this particular Oracle World conference, belong to Benioff.
