Former President Barack Obama has a speaking engagement at August Hall (a.k.a. the former Ruby Skye on Mason Street) today, at an invitation-only tech conference.

The event is being put on by Splunk, a local company that "produces software for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated big data," per Wikipedia. And the title of the conference is "The Beginning of Everything," which ABC 7 reports "will focus on how big tech companies can responsibly collect and manage information across the internet."

The conference is happening at the same time as Oracle's OpenWorld, which is happening in and around the Moscone Center and gumming up SoMa traffic per usual. It's unclear how the two events are linked, if at all.

SFGate reports that it's a half-day conference, and it's just going on this morning.

According to MarketWatch, Splunk CEO Doug Merritt will be talking to Obama on stage "to discuss responsible practices around data use as part of a day-long conference held at the software company."

Meanwhile, down in Milpitas, the city council just voted on Tuesday to change the name of Dixon Landing Road to Barack Obama Boulevard. The change has confused some residents, but the council said in its notes that "this roadway leads into the Sunnyhills Community known as one of America's first integrated communities."

Photo: Lubo Minar