Many months ago, I blogged about wanting to go to SAP TechEd in Bangalore, India. If you are reading this now, then I'm on my way.
Help an SAP Mentor with his travels?
In a previous installment, I wrote about deciding which mobile/electronic devices to pack. It's a quandary for me, as I'll want to be full bore blogging, video recording and capturing moments of the TechEd conference, but I'll also be on the road where I can't and don't expected to be wired. I expect to be unplugged. In both cases, I need to record the experiences at least part of the time. The result? I packed both a PC and the iPad. I could have gotten along with just the PC, but not just the iPad. I decided to bring the iPad more for its function as an electronic book display than any other must-have app. Packing enough paperbacks for over 2 weeks of travel was weight prohibitive.
The number of lenses boggles my mind, and i'm not talking about the ones in front of my face. Though I left home my SAP Mentor FlipCam (nice definition, but huge file and bandwidth required as a result), and my webcam (depending on Aslan for this at TechEd, and the iPad if bandwidth allows Skyping). I still have 6 camera lenses, and will likely use one or 2 on the iPad, the Nikon digital camera, and one on the Droid (if I have wireless - otherwise it's somewhat of a brick). The borrowed Blackberry won't be useful as a camera, and not because of the worldwide BB Crumble.
The number of lenses boggles my mind, and i'm not talking about the ones in front of my face. Though I left home my SAP Mentor FlipCam (nice definition, but huge file and bandwidth required as a result), and my webcam (depending on Aslan for this at TechEd, and the iPad if bandwidth allows Skyping). I still have 6 camera lenses, and will likely use one or 2 on the iPad, the Nikon digital camera, and one on the Droid (if I have wireless - otherwise it's somewhat of a brick). The borrowed Blackberry won't be useful as a camera, and not because of the worldwide BB Crumble.]
The borrowed Blackberry may or may not turn out to be a paperweight, depending on how the current issues resolve. I was able to activate the device while still in the office, within walking distance of our enterprise technical experts. What would I do should this happen 10 time zones away from the office is another question. I've recorded peoples phone numbers (in a paper notebook), and will have lots and lots of personal support from a range of colleagues in the SAP community, not to mention the professional support my travel agent has lined up.
The last day before getting out of town I spent in my usual last minute frenzy of figuring out if I had everything I planned to bring. I might seem organized, listing my goals, my resources, and my vision, but there's something about the clock ticking that seems to drive away reason. Writing lists on the back of envelopes and on daily logs and who knows where else is great, but when the "fog of queuing" descends it's time to drop back to Plan B: "if I didn't bring it, I don't need it." The night before leaving, I filmed yet another Bollywood homage, with dialogue suggested by Kumud Singh, language coaching by Abesh, and goading on Twitter. The results are below - all mistakes are my own.
Here's my agenda, not including all those last minute Mentor appointments that have begun to pour in.
www.editgrid.com/user/jspath55/SPATH-TECHED-2011-INDIA
Besides preparing the agenda and itinerary, and the SCNotties awards, I've got a few goodies to share. The first one is a derivative of the recent SAP Mentor webcast "outtake" with Vishal Sikka talking about "Are there infinite turtles in the ecosystem?"
Despite Apple making it difficult to read Amazon Kindle format books on the ipad, there are a couple hoops to go through, and I downloaded a set of free classics, including a few by Gandhi, and others of historical interest I would not find in any local libraries. I also grabbed a dozen or so Grateful Dead concerts, from archive.org, to listen when my brain needs recharging. The audience tapes are free in MP3 and other formats, and have that live, you really had to be there feel. Scarlet Begonias, indeed.
In parallel with my preparation, my friend Marilyn Pratt put out a new blog on the Thursday night event. I've also linked last year's, for comparison:
Last year - Innovative Community Day Live from Bangalore
This year - Embracing Inclusion – Driving Innovation in Bangalore
And now, some home made Bollywood footage. If you're on site, and spot me, I'll record you in 30 seconds, either with similar dialogue, or your choice of pithy sayings. You won't win a SCNotties award at this time, but you will be memorialized!
p.s.
R.I.P Michael S. Hart, inventor of the e-book.
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