Oracle Corporation today welcomed nearly 25,000 attendees to Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco, running today through Thursday, December 9 at Moscone Center. This year's show combines Oracle's two premier conferences, its business applications conference -- Oracle AppsWorld -- and its technology conference -- OracleWorld -- into one global business and technology event. Oracle OpenWorld's educational sessions and exhibitions are designed to provide business and IT professionals with vital information and strategies to help them improve processes and manage their critical information assets. In addition to customer and partner adoption of Oracle software across industries, Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco will focus on three strategic themes: -- Information Age Applications -- modern applications built to operate and deliver data differently than legacy applications. -- Data Hubs -- a unique area of innovation for Oracle to be outlined this week. -- Grid -- clearly outlining specific differentiations for next generation Grids and how Oracle Grids run real-world applications -- unchanged. New Business Intelligence, Integration and Enterprise Content Management solutions will also be prominently featured. "Consolidating the conferences gives Oracle a single venue to present a complete picture of all our products and technologies," said Karen Gainey, vice president of Corporate Marketing at Oracle. "Oracle OpenWorld helps customers and partners better understand how each set of products works individually, but more importantly, the conference helps attendees understand how Oracle software combines to form an open, standards-based, integration-ready platform upon which you can run a real-time business." Highlights of this year's conference include: -- A world-class keynote series that includes industry leaders from Dell Inc., EMC, HP, Intel Corporation and Oracle Corporation. -- Charles Phillips, president, Oracle Corporation, today at 9:00 a.m.; -- Carly Fiorina, chairman and chief executive officer, Hewlett-Packard Company, today at 9:45 a.m.; -- Ron Wohl, executive vice president, Applications Development, Oracle Corporation, today at 4:00 p.m.; -- Michael Dell, chairman of the board, Dell Inc., Tuesday, Dec. 7, at 8:45 a.m.; -- Richard Wirt and William A. Swope, co-general managers, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Corporation, Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 5:00 p.m.; -- Chuck Rozwat, executive vice president, Server Technology, Oracle Corporation, Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 9:00 a.m.; -- Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer, Sun Microsystems Inc., Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 10:00 a.m.; -- Larry Ellison, chief executive officer, Oracle Corporation, Wednesday Dec. 8 at 1:30 p.m.; and -- Joe Tucci, president and CEO, EMC Corporation, Thursday, Dec. 9 at 9:45 a.m. -- An Exhibits 360-Degree program featuring 300 partner booths, partner pavilions, customer showcases highlighting current and upcoming business intelligence, collaboration, grid computing, integration and security technologies. -- The opportunity to meet with industry experts, the Oracle Gurus, to gain an in-depth look at the latest technology and business solutions. -- A full day of industry-specific sessions focused on 15 key industries designed to help conference attendees understand how they can better solve business problems specific to their market. In addition, thousands of in-person and virtual attendees can tap into a wealth of conference news, keynote addresses, technical sessions and online demos via Oracle OpenWorld Online, http://www.oracle.com/openworld/online/ .