SAP TechEd 2016 - Why should you go?

leandropia · ‎08-15-2016

Every SAP professional heard about SAP teched before. It is the biggest SAP event that cover many sessions, lectures, workshops, hands-on and Q&A sessions, covering both present and upcoming technologies. Those sessions together goes over 1300+ hours of knowledge been exchanged. It is like 32 weeks in just one!

SAP TechEd is to an SAP-enthusiastic what Disney World is to a kid (well… to many adults too, but you got the idea, right?).

The event this year has a special flavor celebrating the 20th anniversary of SAP TechEd.

I am always looking for opportunities to exchange ideas, engage and discuss SAP technologies and innovations and SAP TechEd (and also SAPPHIRE) has being significantly contributing to educating and engaging developers, engineers, analysts, consultants and technologists by delivering deep technological education to developers and IT professionals, and by bringing SAP, its partners, and customer experts together.

The time for digital transformation is right here, right now!

What you probably will see this year and things that you don’t want miss:

SAP will continue introducing showcases for their new technologies
Speakers will continue reiterating the company’s HANA-centric strategy
Demonstration of business and applications reinvented after SAP HANA
How the C2B experience matters more than the B2C – Multi-channel Experience
How to engage your business with new and existing customers
The benefits of permanent innovation – adapt the existing enterprise application, build new application, review the old ones, update the landscape, modern hardware, efficiently, quick and cost effective.
Internet of Things – Data is the new currency. The more data you have, faster and effective you can predict the future. But you need a powerful tool to run analytics. Keep your eyes on HANA VORA, SAP new in-memory engine, Cloud for Analytics and etc.
Digital Board room – it was shown during the past SAP events, including SAPPHIRE this year, but you should expect more demonstration on this powerful analytics dashboard built on Cloud to analyze data from your S/4HANA system displaying the results in large touch-screens.

What should you do?

Knowledge is power, don’t miss an opportunity to learn something new or improve what you already know. Each person has its own strategy and plans when attending events like this. It is hard to tell what you should do, but here are some suggestions:

SAP Execute Keynotes – Take a chance to hear what the executives ahead of the company are thinking to the future of the SAP company and their customers.
Hands-on sessions – You can pick 2 I guess. Look the agenda in advance and pick some of them to your favorites, pick more than one, because when they open for registration late in August, if one of the sessions you pick is already full, you can pick another one that you already had in mind without losing time searching it.
Lecture sessions – It is where more of the technical detail are, in the single sessions.
Opportunity to deep dive in hot topics such as: Analytics, Big Data, Cloud, IoT, HANA, S/4HANA, UX, Fiori, HCP, VORA and etc.
To the developers, TechEd is where the most innovative and brightest developers minds can introduce new ideas, so, don’t miss a chance of participating of the 30-hr coding Hackathon competition (TechEd InnoJam), a talent show with a business case as its foundation.
NETWORKING! Connect with SAP experts, Partners, Customers… Talk to them, share experience, knowledge and contacts.
SAP Mentors – If you see them, talk to them! Ask them what is going on their mind and their mission. You will recognize the SAP Mentors easily. They usually wear a Polo Shirt (black or blue) that says “SAP Mentor”, it has a number and their twitter account. Last year I participate of the challenge “Catch a Mentor” – go to this link to see some pictures of last year’s challenge http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-68147
Try to balance between lecture sessions for example and show-floor visit to get first-hand insights on SAP products walking in the conference floor, where the Keynotes are held.
- Check here the “in-progress” agenda and prepare a list with the sessions that you want to cover in advance… check the links on the top of this post for some hints on building the agenda.

Get into the Spirit!

If it is your first TechEd experience or if you missed last year’s edition, here are some links to replay some of the Keynotes from 2015 event:

SAP Executive Keynote: Steve Lucas

SAP Executive Keynote: Bernd Leukert

Since TechEd has been almost an year ago, I also recommend you watching some of the keynotes and presentations of this year’s SAP Sapphire held in Orlando, in May:

Bill McDermott Live, SAP CEO : Run Live, Run Simple

ASUG Transformative Talks: Disruption Driving Success

Robert Enslin, Bernd Leukert, Steve Singh Live

Prof. Hasso Plattner Live, Chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board

Can’t go?

Ok, it is sad, but don’t waste the opportunity to follow online, live! Some of the sessions are live broadcasted. It is still worth! Reserve the days if you can, work late hours if needed, so you can follow the sessions during the day. Follow the hot topics on twitter during the event’s days. Make notes and reviews during and after the presentations. Share them online, on SCN and etc.

What else?

If you are registered to TechEd, you can also register to the 5K race that happens Wednesday early in the morning (I mean, VERY early, Check in at 6am). What is betten than starting the day healthy and active? I know the answer: Sleep a little more.

What I did in 2015’s edition?

I met Steve Lucas in a dinner (thanks to my friend henrique.pinto). Steve is the global president of the SAP Platform Solutions Group, leading the go-to-market teams and strategy for key innovations and technologies including SAP HANA, Analytics, Mobile, Platform as a Service, and Big Data.