Attending my first SAP TechEd 08 (Berlin) I was immensely impressed by the scale and professionalism of the event. The supreme: organisation, planning and efficiency enabled the 4000 attendees to: eat, meet, play and learn with ease. Hosted in the colossal International Congress Centre, during the city's Festival of Lights - the TechEd was also illuminating.
More than 300 sessions - delivered by real experts (e.g., Developers, SAP book authors etc) - in the form of lectures and hands-on workshops were presented.
All the sessions that I attended were excellently presented and enlightening (thankfully no marketing PowerPoints). Some of those sessions were:
- Enterprise Integration Patterns for SAP Netweaver PI
- Mapping Enhancements in SAP Netweaver PI 7.1
- End-to-End Root Cause Analysis for SAP Netweaver PI 7.1
- SAP Netweaver Process Integration and SOA Best Practices
In addition to the educational sessions there was also the : SCN Clubhouse, SAP EchoHub, SCN Demo Jam and Steve Winwood concert.
The Demo Jam is worth experiencing. It involves six groups (selected from an entry of approximately 80) demonstrate live, in 6 minute slots, their innovative uses and enhancements of SAP software in front of a large audience in a massive auditorium. The group receiving the most applause (gauged by a high tech applause-o-meter) wins. Intimidating prospect but all the groups excelled.
The SCN Clubhouse provided an opportunity to meet the SCN team, e.g. SCN evangelist Craig Cmehil, and SCN contributors, e.g., SAP Mentors. There was also the opportunity to receive help from SCN staff to create your Wiki profile.
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In summary if you get the chance to attend a SAP TechEd then I thoroughly recommend you take it.
Thanks to the SCN team (Craig, Michael, Gali, Scott and Katharina) for making the TechEd such a pleasurable and rewarding experience.