As I sit at home over the holidays, I find myself thinking back over the year. I can’t believe that it was only 9 months ago, in March 2013, that I joined the SAP Mobile Product Marketing team. I’m not new to product marketing, having worked at Sybase for 14 years, but in March I transferred from a position specializing in mobility thought leadership marketing back into product marketing - a move that I had been eager to make. I stepped in to a role that was incredibly busy throughout 2013 as our team significantly ramped up our mobile security portfolio. Here’s my list of favourite memories from the year.
| Meeting more and more mobile experts. I had a great number of opportunities to attend mobile conference and events in 2013, starting with CES in January and barely slowing down until Amphion Forum in December. I was able to meet many wonderful people at all of these events; my first TechEd in Europe was an outstanding event, where I met SAP experts who impressed me with their vast technical knowledge of our mobile security products. I was impressed with analysts Tyler Shields of Forrester, Dionizio Zumerle and Rob Smith of Gartner, all of whom bring vast knowledge and expertise to the mobile security space. Speaking of Gartner... one unexpected meeting was at the Gartner Security Conference in London, where the proud new royal parents were showing off the baby of the year and even let me hold him! |
|
| Attending SXSW for the first time. One of my favourite hilights before I left my mobility thought leadership role, was attending the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, TX in March. SAP had an opportunity to speak on a fantastic panel session on the consumerization of the enterprise. I had never been to the event before, and it was unlike any that I have ever been too before - simply buzzing with energy and activity. We had over 300 people (standing room only) for the session that featured a cool mobile interactive component too. Read more about it in my blog from the event "What's the Difference Between a Consumer and an Employee?" |  |
 | Making the world a little more secure one app at a time. A huge focus for me this year was working side by wide with my product manager and the team from our partner Mocana to launch SAP Mobile App Protection by Mocana. I’ve been continually amazed with the dedicated and smart people I get to work with every day on this product. It has been a joy marketing an awesome product with an awesome team, which started with our launch in May and culminated in an event in December known as the Amphion Forum. I was pleased to moderate a great panel discussion on securing the Internet of Things at the event. |
| Introducing a more secure world at SAP TechEd. In October in Las Vegas, we unveiled SAP Mobile Secure and launched updates to every product in the portfolio. This included enhancements to SAP Afaria to include support for iOS7 and Samsung KNOX, support for SAP Mobile App Protection by Mocana in the cloud, a new secure mobile browser and an update to SAP Mobile Documents. We took the exciting news on the road to Amsterdam in November to share with our EMEA-based customers as well. My colleague Carolyn Coad (pictured here) and I helped drive SAP Mobile Customer Advisory Board meeting in Amsterdam, collecting feedback and guidance by working hand in hand with our top customers. The events were a fantastic way to gain valuable input from our key customers. |  |
 | Reaching 1,000 followers on Twitter. When I first started tweeting, I wasn’t sure what it would take to reach an audience of this size, but in retrospect, I think it’s simply important to be a social person both in person and online. I’ve made so many fantastic connections via Twitter that have turned into friends. Shoutouts to @Wkoenders for finding me at TechEd in Amsterdam, and to my Twitter friends @bobegan @paladorbenjamin @maribellopez @bmkatz and @biz_mobility for making every mobile event in 2013 a lot more fun. |
| Taking a little time off to remember what’s important. I’m usually pretty connected via my mobile device even when I go on vacation, so this year was a little unique when I went off the grid with my son to tour around Europe for ten days. Mobile is such an inherent part of my day to day life that it was nice to take a break and see some amazing sights in the world. Our only way to be connected while on a Mediterranean cruise was when we hit Wi-Fi hotspots in our port destinations. My favourite restaurant in Greece had a sign out front that said “We don’t have Wi-Fi. Talk to each other.” Perhaps this is one of the best memories of the year. Appreciating what mobile brings to us, but also knowing when to slip into airplace mode and enjoy just being with people. |  |
Overall, 2013 was an incredible year and I'm looking forward to what 2014 will bring!
Happy New Year.
- SAP Managed Tags:
