SAP TechEd is SAP’s premier technical conference – which generally attracts developers, engineers, architects, system administrators, DBAs, IT Managers from SAP Customers and partners. This year, as per my own observation, crowd is more compared to the last one. Lot of technical professionals eagerly waits for this yearly technical event in this part of the world.
This year in Bangalore, there were seven session tracks defined for SAP TechEd:
Explore the Intelligent Suite - (ENTx) : it explores how line-of-business solutions from SAP work in harmony and are infused with innovative technologies to provide customer with an intelligent suite in cloud.
Integration Out-of-the-Box - (INTx) : this track focuses on technologies and concepts for enabling process, data, user experience, analytics, and IoT integration for cloud and hybrid application landscapes.
Digital Transformation and Cloud Application Architecture - (CAAx) : this track explores transformation journeys from on premise to the cloud, addresses how to build and operate intelligent cloud solutions and services, and focuses on the integration and extension requirements of modern enterprises.
Applied Intelligence - (AINx) : here, one can learn how innovative technologies like machine learning, IoT, and blockchain can be applied to and embedded within enterprise applications to deliver value and unleash the power of SAP Analytics solutions.
Next-Gen Data Management and Artificial Intelligence - (DATx) : in this track, one can learn about the impact of Big Data, data flows, machine learning, data science, and predictive algorithms on the business processes and systems.
User Experience - (UXx) : this track focuses on the end-user experience and as well as on the experiences of technicians, designers, and business experts in working with cloud-based applications, tools, and UI technologies.
Security by Default - (SECx) : in this track, one can learn how to set up and run a secure landscape of business applications in the cloud and in hybrid landscapes.
More details on session tracks can be available on : https://events.sap.com/teched-india/en/tracks
Lecture sessions, Hands-on sessions, Roadmap sessions, etc. were all associated with these seven tracks. Hands-on sessions were always full in advance as usual; there were long queues of non-registered people before most of the session rooms. In theaters, there were so much crowd gathered, even without the headphones, to listen and understand about roadmap of SAP products & solutions.
Apart from the above, SAP TechEd Show Floor includes
- SAP Experience
- Developer Garage
- SAP Community Lounge
- Exhibitors
Developer Garage and SAP Community Lounge were always jam packed. And the exhibitor places were always crowded by the enthusiastic techies for new learnings and gathering the knowledge about the new features or so. Everything was very interactive also where audience clarifying their doubts with no hesitation.
Till date, I have attended more than dozen SAP TechEd in my career. After rejoining SAP, my last three SAP TechEd experience are unique in nature. Last year – I was a Speaker, last to last year – I was part of SAP TechEd organizing committee at the ground, and this year as a participant. But apart from normal attendee, also I was wearing an interesting hat this year – I was part of Cross Generational TechEd Pairing – which was an innovative initiative under Diversity & Inclusion from Intelligent Enterprise Organization.
By the way, as per my assessment, the SAP TechEd Bangalore 2019 was unique on numerous ways:
SAP TechEd Executive Keynote and most of highly technical demos – both, single-handedly delivered by Juergen Mueller, SAP CTO and Executive Board Member
Eco-friendly approach by reducing single use plastic
First-ever wooden badges for attendees
Reusable plastic bottles for attendees
Wooden structures used in the event are from reusable materials
Different Layout or Floor Plan compared with earlier SAP TechEd in Bangalore
Hall #4 used for Keynote and for Celebration Night in the evening
Complete Hall #5 is used for Show Floor and Lecture/Hands-on sessions
It was more spacious, well lit, well ventilated
Display screens are slim and with better resolution (technology improved day-by-day)
Better Audio & Sound system during Lecture, Hands-on, Theatre, sessions at Hall #5
More spacious and quite Speaker ready-room (as it was separate from Hall #5)
This Cross-Generational Pair program mainly arranged for the Early Talents, who hired recently in SAP. For them, it is a great opportunity to learn while spending time with a SAP colleague – ideally from different organization unit, culture, other job function, varied responsibility, diverse experiences and so on. At the same time, senior SAP colleagues will also be accustomed with the cross-generational learning and benefitted with different perspective & stimulating discussions with the early talents.During the SAP TechEd, the juniors will be tagged with some senior SAP employees. For most of the juniors, it will be first SAP TechEd. So, senior SAP employee should guide the juniors for SAP TechEd and accompany them for visiting booths. Also, there will be unique opportunities to meet with SAP Executives to discuss with open topics, feedback, Q&A. It’s interesting and with lot of fun.
It’s really a unique concept and personally enjoyed & liked it. I was privileged to accompany two young ladies – Elsa and Mridula. I met them few days ago – just before the SAP TechEd in Bangalore;
all three of us from different domain/technology. We have 3 meetings to know each other and plan for SAP TechEd, e.g. personal agenda building, setting the priorities, logistics etc.
As a team, we had a privileged to meet with SAP Executive during SAP TechEd. On the first day, we met Sindhu Gangadharan, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director, SAP Labs India. Sindhu asked everyone in the team about his/her experience about this cross-generational pair in SAP TechEd and asked for the feedback.
We all visited together some of the booths like Intelligent Enterprise Experience, Creative IT Showroom, etc. at Hall #5. I personally liked and thrilled while visiting SAP Creative IT Showroom – it’s fun with sand.
After the whole day learning, we all enjoyed a lot during the Celebration Night. By their hyper-energetic and engaging performance, the trio, Shankar, Eshaan and Loy, aka SLE, made the musical night simply awesome!!
On the second day, we have an appointment with Sven Denecken, Senior Vice-President, Product Management and Co-Innovation SAP S/4HANA. During this meeting, we discussed about how we can collect the customer feedback and induced the same into development team for innovating new features. Sven also highlighting the importance on connecting new people and building/extending network.
On the last day, we had a personal and team photo session – few of us changed our SCN Profile with the new picture. Later, after discussing with Michael , I have arranged a visit for early talents to the SAP TechEd Control room. There, Michael has described :
How we technically plan for hosting a SAP TechEd.
What are the technical arrangements need to be taken care for Demo & Hands-on sessions
How the security aspects need to be look after.
I also shared my experience as a speaker – what are the areas need to be coordinated and checked before a live Lecture/Demo/Hands-on Lab session in SAP TechEd.
Due to this program, I met young and smart talents like Sheetal, Dhriti, Elsa, Mridula, Ravneet and Manasa during these three days in Bangalore SAP TechEd. I also very fortunate to connect with Venu, Rakesh, Niraj and Michael. Naveen was from my team only. And special thanks to Rashmi for organizing this kind of initiative.
It was interesting to share my experience with the energetic team and try to understand their thoughts about the current & future technologies. While discussing & interacting – we also share our likes, dislikes and future career paths. It was really nice experience as in our daily life at office – we were busy always with day-to-day job and hardly get times to interact with these young and talented colleagues – who are the future torchbearer of SAP. In this dynamic business world, we must be very open minded to learn new things, in new ways. It’s the duty of ours – who are senior in this industry to share the tips with these enthusiastic millennials – and that’s all – they will run the show with ease. In other way, it apt to say, SAP runs SAP.
SAP Experts, Partners and Customers share their opinion here. One can get all the video replays from SAP TechEd 2019 Bangalore.
There is an excellent video on SAP TechEd Bangalore - just sharing with you.
A big thumbs up to our team and for all the people associated with SAP TechEd Bangalore 2019. And what? Waiting for next SAP event with far more better experience…..
Note: The above view/experience is purely my personal on the event. I have published my main technical blog on SAP TechEd Bangalore 2019.
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