By Marshall Lager, founder and managing principal, Third Idea Consulting

OCTOBER 14, 2009 — I keep forgetting that there are settings for San Francisco weather other than, “Hey, that’s really nice.”

Tuesday at Oracle OpenWorld was the single-worst climatic day I’ve ever experienced in California, and in fact the heaviest rain the state had seen since 1962. That’s right — the last time it poured like this, the LA Dodgers were still a relatively new idea, the NY Mets were truly new (and truly terrible, losing 120 games their first season), and working-class people could still afford to see a baseball game.

If you’re wondering why I keep referring to baseball, it’s because I’ve spent most of my time here in the company of Paul Greenberg, a fine fellow-traveler who harbors a passion for America’s Pastime and a deep, uncanny lust for the NY Yankees. For better or worse:

Oracle OpenWorld + Dem Bums in the postseason = associating enterprise CRM with baseball whenever Paul’s in the room.

[Editors' Note: "Dem Bums" is what the Brooklyn Dodgers were called, back before the O'Malleys brutally ferreted them away to California in the dead of night. You can find Paul Greenberg's Oracle OpenWorld blogpost here.]

Back to the weather: It’s fitting that the skies opened up and drenched us, because Tuesday amounted to Cloud Computing Day at the show. There are plenty of software-as-a-service (”SaaS” — are we still calling it that?) at this convention, and in fact they’ve got their own section of the show floor staked out in Moscone South, but the biggest one of all — Salesforce.com — pulled out all the stops. In addition to its sizable booth presence (not in the SaaS area) and excellent T-shirts, there’s a fleet of Salesforce.com–liveried Mini Coopers circling the downtown area. [Editors' Note: As part of its marketing push at this year's Oracle OpenWorld, Salesforce.com was giving away three Mini Coopers to attendees who visited its OpenWorld booth — "one will be given away each day," according to a blogpost by Salesforce.com Chief Marketing Officer Kendall Collins.] As a special treat, Marc Benioff himself hosted a special session in the nearby Yerba Buena Arts Center.

By “special,” I mean there was a massive queue of people waiting in the drenching rain, with no shelter, for a good half hour. By “treat,” I mean Salesforce.com was giving away HD Flip cameras to the first 500 attendees, which probably helps explain the queue. To be fair to myself, though, I didn’t know about the camera until after I was indoors, so my soaked-to-the-skin experience was all about seeing what Marc would have to say in Larry Ellison’s back yard.

If I’m honest, I must say that there was little news to be had at the event, at least for people who track Salesforce.com at all closely. Marc modified his message to play better for the enterprise crowd that comes to OOW, a large chunk of which is less interested in SaaS than his typical audience might be, and the demos were compelling for those who hadn’t seen them before. As always, Marc brought his considerable force of personality to bear, and made a strong case for cloud computing. He was respectful of his host (a company that has a cloud product of its own) and didn’t step on toes, though I felt the overall effect was toeing the line.

[Editors' Note: In the upcoming November 2009 edition of CRM magazine — dedicated to Salesforce.com — Marshall Lager's monthly "Pint of View" column takes a closer look at Benioff's "force"ful personality.]

Salesforce.com makes all its bones on the cloud, whereas Oracle devotes only a relatively small amount of its efforts in that direction; to make that strong case at the show of somebody who is comparatively weak in that area is bordering on poor taste. Note that I said bordering; Marc and his team stayed classy, but controversial enough for me to point it out.

There are numerous companies here using the appearance of unrest as their marketing approach, arguably with less class. They cover a range, from businesses I’ve never heard of to Microsoft SQL Server, all taking turns on the street corner with placards, prisoner costumes, and the rhetoric of a World Bank protest to generate interest. It’s such a common theme this year that I wonder if there was a planning meeting with Oracle to plan it. Phrases like “Better Dead than Red” (stolen from the McCarthy era), “Encryption Shouldn’t Be a Pain in the App,” and “Stop the Spindle Swindle” are stuck in my head, though I doubt any of the associated companies will follow suit. The use of protest imagery by so many organizations dulls the effect of each, so it looks like the sort of picketing you can safely tune out.

On another note, I get a second chance to hear Larry Ellison speak this afternoon, at the 2:45p PT closing keynote. While it’s too late for me to redeem my Sunday failure (necessary though it was), it will help my sense of accomplishment for the week. More important, I get to see one of my idols. Not Larry — Roger Daltrey of The Who will be performing at tonight’s appreciation event. The headliner is Aerosmith, and we’ll also have a shot at Three Dog Night, The Wailers, and Shooter Jennings, but for me it’s all about Rog.

Marshall Lager is the founder and managing principal of Third Idea Consulting (http://www.3rd-idea.com). An award-winning writer, he continues to pen CRM magazine’s back-page column, “Pint of View.” He can be reached at marshall@3rd-idea.com, or on Twitter at @Lager. This post originally appeared on his own blog, which can be found here.