SAP TechEd 2010, best TechEd ever!?
My colleagues and I go to SAP TechEd every year, and we’ve never been seriously disappointed yet. Not each year brings the same amount of innovation and new products to try out, but generally it’s worth its money, also due of course to the many networking possibilities. Last year was one of the best, with innovation happening pretty much everywhere, not to mention the kick-off of innovation weekend, now called SAP InnoJam. One aspect that especially made me happy was that at last all recordings of the lectures were made freely availableon SDN (including all recordings of 2006-2009!). And as it turned out, it got even better: totally unexpected, for me at least, last week I got an email inviting me to complete the exercises of 7 more hands-on sessions online. Now that is what I call value for money! In my opinion this more than qualifies to call SAP TechEd 2010 the ‘best TechEd ever’ (following the tradition of the Olympic games).
Thank you TechEd team!
Just before SAP TechEd Berlin I had an email exchange with chip.rodgers about being able to reserve a third hands-on workshop before or at the event. He told me it was something they would consider for 2011, but they were unable to realize in 2010 on such short notice. Well, shame on me for my narrow-minded thinking, because this online offer beats my suggestion by far. And when I asked Chip about it, he told me they had been planning this for two years! To give credit where credit is due: the initial idea was made by Ulrich Klingels, and to make it really happen (this year) he was supported by Philippe Rosset. So a big ‘thank you’ to these guys seems appropiate!
Details
Let me first warn you, in order to avoid disappointment/frustration: this offer is only available to full conference attendees of SAP TechEd 2010 Berlin or Las Vegas.
With that out of the way: what you’re offered is access to acopy of the SAP TechEd 2010 laptop clone for 22 hours on end, and in that time you get the chance to complete the exercises of 7 carefully chosen hands-on sessions. The selected sessions are:
- TP260 - SAP Technology: Putting it all Together
- BI260 - SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office
- CD266 - ABAP Development: Update Your Skills to SAP NetWeaver 7 and Beyond
- EIM263 - SAP NetWeaver MDM and SAP BusinessObjects Data Services Integration
- PMC166 - Managing and Mashing Up Portal Pages with Web Page Composer
- PMC360 - Architecture Guidelines for Composite Applications in Practice: Loose Coupling with Events
- SCI261 - SAP NetWeaver Identity Management 7.1 - Workflow Configuration
A very broad selection, so there should be something in it for everyone. Access starts at 6am, and lasts till 4am the next morning. You can easily imagine why this setup was chosen when you recall the number of participants at both TechEd locations.
You get to pick any date you want, but there are (only) 50 clones available each day (and availability ends May 15th), so you have to be quick. Furthermore you’re on your own, as not surprisingly there is no technical support or anything.
Suggestions for next year
Happy as I am with this opportunity to get some more practical training, there are some things that might be done to bring even more value to the participants. (These are my personal opinions, so feel free to chime in).
- I would like to be able to spread this work over two days to play around, as 22 hours on end is difficult to plan with a family and work and all. Of course if you can do it in one day, that saves you a day, but some flexibility here would be appreciated.
- It would be nice if this offer could be extended to people not going to SAP TechEd. Of course a small fee could be charged (which would at the same time make it easier to earn back some costs), but I think it could be an interesting mini-teched experience for some people.
- I missed the hands-on session about Gateway. Is there a way to still add that one? Just joking of course. Let’s say I’m setting expectations for next year.
Summarizing
This offer makes SAP TechEd more valuable, and while I’ve always been a proponent of attending it, this should make it even easier to convince your boss that you really *must* go.
