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Former Member

Throughout my SAP years and I have had the opportunity to visit Buenos Aires a number of times and meet some of the best developers in Latin America.  A few days ago I had the opportunity to host two SAP HANA CodeJams in Buenos Aires and my perception of Buenos Aires developers stands.  The economy in this region may have had some ups and downs however SAP presence and penetration remains strong.  Such is the feeling that I had while talking with university developers and consultants.  Developers in this region not only know SAP for its core business but also for its platforms.  This is a very positive change and big difference in the last 10 years.   Some of them have already implemented in these platforms and are active participants of the developer community.


UCA – Universidad Católica Argentina


The first SAP HANA CodeJam in Buenos Aires started in the Universidad Católica Argentina a positive experience in every aspect.  The department of computer science opened its doors and had prepared a lab with everything ready for participants to connect to HANA systems.  Participants could use lab desktop machines with pre-installed HANA Developer studio and HANA Client or use their laptop machines.   This preparation in combination with good refreshments made this event an overall success. The support and interest for SAP from the university faculty was clear. As one of the faculty members put it:


“We appreciate SAP’s Involvement with our university and our students are interested in learning more of what SAP offers”



We got half of the classroom full and the interest in how HANA works made for the other half.  Most of them completed the exercises and it was quite encouraging to know that many wanted to understand the currently customer challenges in BIG DATA. We spent at least two minutes linking the technical work to the business challenge, explaining the reasons why to use a high performing in-memory platform as oppose as any other conventional platform.  Many participants found out that the day after SAP CodeJam planned an advanced session and it was good to see them the day after, a clear sign of their interest in SAP HANA.


I should mention that UCA is located in Puerto Madero.  Argentinians are proud of their delicious meat, how they cut it, season it and grill it. Puerto Madero is home of the best “Meat” restaurant in the world.  This fact was too obvious to ignore while I stepped out of UCA during the evening hours and smelled the delicious cooking all around.  Puerto Madero is certainly a beautiful place to experience.



Glooobal and Sovanta


Two active SAP Partners in the region collaborated with SAP Hana CodeJam to make this event in Buenos Aires a success.   Good planning and collaboration certainly showed in the second HANA CodeJam in Buenos Aires.  It was clear that Sovanta and Glooobal went the extra mile to ensure that everything went right.  The outcome was around 40 participants mostly from various consulting companies interested in getting a hands-on experience in SAP HANA.  Their level of expertise varied and planning took this fact into consideration by dividing participants in two groups – advance and beginners. 11 participants stepped down to the floor below for a more advanced session while the remaining stayed with me for the beginner session.  All of this took place on a Saturday afternoon.

One of the best HANA CodeJams I hosted.  I majority of participants completed their exercises and that is a big number.  For the first time I had to point some participants in the beginner track to advanced material never touched before in any other codejam.  Many of them already had HANA Developer Studio and HANA client in their Laptops.  Connectivity to Amazon AWS was optimal and collaboration with the SAP partners was ideal.  The spirit of the CodeJam was kept with a FOCUS interest, as one of the organizers put it:


“In this CodeJam I see a very FOCUS audience. Yes, they can stand up and engage in conversations, have snacks but most of them are very focus in learning and completing the task at hand”


This observation is a good summary for this HANA CodeJam.  I believe the main reason of their focus engagement was their motivation as consultants, be prepared in their roles.   I had the opportunity to talk with many of to them I learned that their current working roles was already demanding for them to know about SAP HANA.  Therefore, most of them were very much interested in getting the most of this event.  Material for the advanced session was delivered by Glooobal and Sovanta, I had the opportunity to visit the advanced track and the engagement was active as the beginner session.


Finally, it should be mentioned that this CodeJam had top of the line snacks and food.  Everyone enjoyed the food, material and connecting with peers.