I forgot to wear my FitBit at Sapphire2015 and I ensured that I did not make that mistake at TechED, so after 5 days and 3.2 miles shy of a marathon I am exhausted but it was a journey worth every step.
Possibly the classic newbie mistake, I bit off a bit more than I could chew and I signed up to assist with 6 recurring sessions (12 total) and 1 networking session for a combined 13 events. A little heads up derek.loranca, jamie.oswald and tammy.powlas? The sessions calendar blended with mentor meetings with SAP executives, 2 Keynotes and a concert were enough to go down in the history book as a long-distance walking (sometimes running) event. Since I am still on the waiting list to test drive Cloud for analytics, I decided to do a quick mash up in Lumira to visualize my TechEd journey with data I exported from my fitbit account. (click image below to enlarge).
(^click image to enlarge^)
Day 1: The Warm up
Given that this was my first time in Vegas, I decided to walk around and get familiar with the venue while getting registered ahead of the first keynote with Steven Lucas. The keynote focused on the digital enterprise and how we can be empowered to make it a reality. I was even more fascinated by Jim McKelvey presentation where he shared personal stories and it drove home the message of “timing is everything” (no matter how good your are). The day wrapped up with a mentor welcome reception and a brisk walk back to my hotel (Casino Royale) to prepare for the next day.
Day 2: The Peak
Starting off the day with Bernd Leukert’s keynote where we got more details on SAP’s new offerings, mainly focused around cloud for analytics and HANA Vora. The demos for cloud for analytics looked good with boardroom of the future and geo-spatial maps and the key point that it can connect to any data on premises or otherwise. I wait patiently to get my hands on cloud for analytics to see for myself.
The day continued with me helping out in 2 hands on workshops, Leverage a BI platform to deploy Lumira (2 hrs) and Using Predictive Analytics with SAP BW on HANA (4 hrs). The day ended with attendance at the GC Networking/Influencer session at Lagasse Stadium (hanging with fellow mentors karen.rodriguez and tamas.szirtes3) and finally the Inclusion event hosted by Stacey Fish. Both events were great and it was very nice to so many women in attendance at the Inclusion party, way to go SAP!.
Day 3: The Descent
After peaking at over 16k steps on day 2, I was beginning to hit that wall that I hear the mentors talk about and between 4 hands on workshops, meetings and DemoJam I was beginning to feel exhausted. Still, not to be outdone by the clear limitations of my body, I pushed on and had fun with the Fiori Jam Band (powered by #SAPMentors), enjoyed the presentations at DemoJam and a big congratulations to the crowned winners, keytree with their S.M.I.L.E app.
Day 4: Winding Down
Somehow on Thursday it felt like the final day of TechEd. Maybe because some persons were leaving or that we had the concert which felt like the closing of the event. Nonetheless, there were meetings and sessions that lasted all day and I hosted my very first networking event at Lounge 4. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to show up and a big thanks to christian.braukmller4, derek.loranca, mark.richardson2 for the feedback and support.
Day 5: The Finish Line
The final day of TechEd was very low key and most persons had already left or were in the process of leaving and after helping out a little in a hands on workshop I took the rest of the day to rest and recover from what was an exciting, exhausting and educating event.
After 53k steps, 23 miles and almost 5k activity calories, my fitbit battery is drained but I am reinvigorated and enthusiastic about the journey ahead. I now look forward to taking the knowledge, experience and networking to the first ever SAP Inside Track Caribbean, to be hosted in Kingston Jamaica on December 6th 2015 where the journey continues but maybe a half marathon this time :smile:
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