Tag Archives: TechEd

An Entirely Virtual SAP TechEd?

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image from Craig Cmehil's Rantings blog

image from Craig Cmehil's Rantings blog

A tweet by Capgemini’s solution architect Lee Provoost today got me thinking about the future and potential of SAP TechEd conferences:

how is SAP going to deal with the fact that lots of companies have now “no travel” policies for cost cutting?

Very aptly Lee pointed to the current economic climate which forced a lot of SAP customers to put a ban on traveling and expenses for conventions such as TechEd. This will be a problem that SAP will have to address when planning and organising the next wave of TechEd conferences taking place later this year and beyond. A while ago Chip Rodgers tweeted about the complications of figuring out the number of potential participants for TechEd given the current economic circumstances (“in this economy, how do we estimate attendance?“). TechEd attendances have been going from strength to strength in recent years, and quite rightly so. On my recent visit to TechEd Berlin in October 2008 I was very impressed with the level of organisation that goes into these events. However (and I sincerely hope otherwise)  2009 and maybe 2010 could be tough years for SAP’s main developer conference. Essentially, this got me thinking of ways out of this and thereby also making a move towards a greener way to cope with traveling as well as a smarter usage of energy.

“The biggest virtual developer convention in the world”

OK, brace yourselves! What if SAP would create an entirely Virtual SAP TechEd conference? Similar to the recent PKOM (Partner Kick-Off Meeting) and also the Business Suite 7 launch, would it not be a fantastic and mindblowing idea to entirely hold a big conference such as SAP TechEd in the virtual space? A combined use of video and microblogging could give an event such as this the feel of true collaboration. Granted, the devil is in the detail here, but there are only a few software companies on the planet that could pull this one off. In my view, SAP is one of them. The benefits and opportunities for such an idea:

  • real savings for customers
  • a truly green event
  • bigger reach to even more developers and BPXers
  • great extension to the current Virtual TechEd format
  • real online collaboration
  • target group for this already used to the web format

Now I can hear some people shouting “Bah Humbug” already, argueing that for example the organisational effort for an event such as this would be phenomenal. Another one: “What about face-to-face meetings, networking and collaboration ?”. Well, maybe, but would not tools such as Twitter (to some degree) prove these critics wrong? There could potentially be small compromises. For example, similar to the break up of SAPphire EMEA into smaller, more regional events, TechEd could go an analogous route by hosting one small main event with speakers/mentors and several satellite venues which would provide web video links to the main event, yet still giving participants a face-to-face option to network and collaborate locally.

Now, I can imagine that clever TechEd people such as Chip Rodgers, Amir Blich, Marylin Pratt or Craig Cmehil (Second Life?) have already been hatching a “Virtual TechEd Masterplan” such as this… or at least I hope they have.

extension of certification exams – SAP listens

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This morning I found an email in my inbox from SAP UK Education telling me about an “extension of certification offer plus 10% discount on courses”. Obviously a decision has been made to offer the certification date range until the end of 2008 for TechEd Berlin 2008 attendees, which exactly what I proposed in my TechEd Berlin roundup from last week.

No matter what the motive for this was – I think it is great news for potential participants of certification exams in the UK.

Ask the Execs

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The differences between the attendance fees for SAP TechEd has been a bee in my bonnet ever since I went to my first TechEd in Vienna 3 years ago. This year, according to my calculations, attendees for Berlin have to pay a whopping 1274 USD more than their Las Vegas counterparts (2595 USD vs 3869 USD).

Let’s not make any mistakes here: SAP TechEd is a well-run, worthwhile and great event for everyone in the SAP arena. There is no doubt about it.

When I saw the opening of the “Ask the SAP Execs” competition, in which carefully selected video questions are played to SAP Executives during their keynote, I just couldn’t resist.

Have a look at my entry for yourselves…

Some years ago I asked Shai Agassi the same question and he told me that this would be something SAP “has to look into”.

Berlin here I come !

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ICC BerlinI am really looking forward to be at this year’s SAP TechEd in Berlin. Come this October it’s been 3 years since my last visit to SAP’s annual conference on technical education and things have certainly moved on in “SAP Land”. It’s also been over 4 years since my last visit to “my” capital city.

At TechEd 2005 in Vienna I focussed on learning more about XI (now renamed to PI), Consuming Web Services and a little bit of WD4A (WebDynpro ABAP). As far as this year’s session offerings are concerned I actually haven’t made up my mind just yet, but I’ll probably go for a mix of advanced ABAP and beginner’s Composition. I’ll also be able to access Virtual SAP TechEd for the first time – a good opportunity for me to see all those sessions missed. I’ve been very critical about Virtual TechEd in the past, but things move on – simple as that. I expect a lot of valuable information: I remember sitting on the plane back from Vienna in 2005 with my head buzzing. This time round it will probably be worse.

Social networking has changed the way how the SAP community communicates and a lot of the key people will be joining the party in Berlin. So most of all I am excited about putting faces to names. For example the ESME (Enterprise Social Messaging Experiment) project is going to be part of the Demo Jam. Whenever time allows I try to keep up to speed with what’s happening there and seeing it demoed in Berlin will surely be a treat. They’ve achieved so far in such short space of time… I wonder what it will look like in October.