What Would You Most Like to Talk (Rant) About With Peers at SAP TechEd&&d-code?
Have you ever attended an event and had an unexpected insight as the result of speaking with someone or had an ah-ha! moment by sharing an opinion with another working professional?
While many hallway conversations and networking opportunities arise out of serendipitous and impromptu meetings, there is a way to encourage such exchanges and to “load the dice” (so to speak in Vegas) to provide more than a chance this will happen.
This year at SAP Teched&&d-code, in additional to structured sessions, hands on workshops, expert lounge sessions, special events for coders and developers – participants are invited to have informal chats around themes that matter to them. The organizers will provide the space while you, the participants, bring the topic…and the passion.
Although SAP drives many of the topics and themes of the more formal sessions, might you wish to speak about “other stuff”? What would be some of the themes you would like to hear your peers talk about? Would you dare to invite others (those Birds of a Feather) to flock together to chat, rant, opine?
If you are attending either the event in Las Vegas or Berlin please comment here with your topics and also let me know if you are willing and able to call upon other “birds” to flock to your slot.
Birds-of-a-feather (BOF) Sessions:
Birds-of-a-feather (BOF) Sessions: The last hour of the day on the show floor is your opportunity to connect with SAP development experts and your peers around topics of mutual interest.
In Las Vegas these Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions will be held in the Expert Lounges Tuesday 6-7 pm, Wednesday and Thursday from 5-6 pm.
In Berlin these will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5:30pm – 6:30pm.
Looking forward to seeing and hearing lots of birds. Let the feathers fly.
Marilyn,
I would like having/hosting/promoting a gather related to SAP CRM && Web Client Development/Customization on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Talk about anything CRM related, but also focus on dicussing how to take advantage of EHP3 and also lessons learned during EHP3 upgrade. I can promote such a session also 😉 .
Thank you,
Stephen
Thanks Stephen. Adding you to the roster!
If I'm completely honest, I'd really like a session to discuss & complain about not being able to attend TechEd this year due to so many other things going on in November, however I can't help thinking there's a fundamental flaw in that plan...
To those who do make it, last year I spent most of my time in the expert sessions, with small & engaged audiences participating in a more informal and discussion based session. This meant I spent about 80% of my time networking, rather than focusing on purely technical learning.
For what it's worth, this sort of approach to TechEd is, in my opinion, far more valuable than just sitting in all of the technical sessions. I think the addition of these BoF type sessions to this years agenda is a brilliant one and advise anyone who can to make the most of them.
Cheers,
G.
Looking at that picture I can't help but think of the pidgeons as ranting developers and the product owners are somewhere sitting underneath. And the pidgeons'll be like "Why haven't you adapted the UWL into WebDynpro ABAP and invented POWL instead? What were you thinking?" - "Pidgeon One, Fox Two!"
Oh, the humanity!
I guess we now have the name of your session and abstract 😛
Perhaps the product owners need to bring some umbrellas or bird awnings to sit under....
Change and/or Release Management in the Real world.
Hi Brenda!
Would love to have you lead that conversation. Would you be so kind and if so what day would work for you?
If by "lead" you mean, "willing to show up and try her best to make sure everyone stays on topic," I'd be willing.
Wednesday works best for me.
Just to be clear, I'm going to Vegas.
Thanks Brenda! That's exactly what is meant by lead. You start flying and the flock follows....or perhaps you follow them after you "take off". Wednesday in Vegas it is!
Marilyn, I hope you are well, and it will be good to see you at the event this year!
I am happy to contribute to B.O.F - if you still need some suggestions. With the impending mass retirement that will occur in the next ten years, perhaps a discussion that focuses on Knowledge Management should be considered. Or, how we create, or participate, with our colleagues, to promote a culture of knowledge sharing - while we are juggling tremendous workloads and trying to meet deadlines. The concept is vital to the future of SAP, it's customers, and all businesses alike.
See you Soon, and, Best Regards, Tom Matys
Hi Tom,
That is a fantastic topic and one I'd love to see discussed. I'm still a decent way away from retirement but have long battled with management about succession planning, and the points you mention are vital to this whole topic.
Cheers,
G.
Gareth,
Thanks for the feedback! And, yes, you will be the one technical person that will replace three technical people retiring in the next ten years. I hardly think that getting jobs, especially in IT, will be an issue. And, I hope that you are successful in your crusade for succession planning. Unfortunately, some, not all, companies, and/or businesses, are taking this as serious as Y2K.
Yet, to be aware of how we are staffed, and run our current technical IT operations, today, as compared to the number of employees in the next gen workforce is important. I'd be losing sleep if I was a CEO. System upgrades, custom development, basis, security, functional analysts, etc., etc., along with the number of human assets and intellectual property related to staffing. It seems that it will be quite the challenge.
I'll look for you at the event!
Best, Tom
Love that you add yourself to the roster (and bummed that Garth won't join the discussion F2F as he can't attend this year to my knowledge)
I'll add you to my list, Tom Matys . Does Wed from 5-6pm work for you?
Marilyn,
Sure, 5 to 6 PM Wednesday night is good for me. And, I am always happy to participate if you think the topic will fit.
Regards, Tom
Excellent. Just DM your mobile for the matrix (that sounds funny).
Well, thankfully things have changed and I now will be at Berlin TechEd 🙂
I was thinking about a session looking at organising local SAP (and indeed non-SAP) events such as Inside Track, CodeJam, MeetUps, etc. based on my recent experience - how to gather interest and make it relevant to people, what ideas can help to make it a success, etc. Definitely something I'd be interested in hearing other snippets on and hopefully it will be interesting to others.
What do you think?
I'll sit in on that one if I'm free...
Steve,
I look forward to meeting you, and hearing your feedback on this topic.
Regards, Tom
Tom,
Steve and Gareth will be in Berlin so I'm not sure you'll be meeting them F2F this round 😉
Marilyn,
That is OK. So, do we cancel? I am fine either way. If you need any other support, let me know. But, confirm my thinking - that we will cancel. Unless there is another way. You always do a great job Marilyn - and I enjoy collaborating with you, but only if you need me to help out in someway. Else, I am sure that I can find something else to do that day and during that time slot 🙂 .
Sincerely, Tom
In defense of pigeons - I'd like to point out that they are very smart birds and may be of some help in making sense of maps and analytics Pigeon intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plus they have great memories for images and can be taught complex actions...
and I'm two snaps away from including them in software usability testing... 😏
On a more serious note I'd like to talk about how we encourage better business and IT collaboration - especially around UX, business rules and innovation.
I'd also like to chat about where people see wearable technology and Internet of Things going
Hi Jocelyn!
Yes, usually those flocking together at events are "smart birds" 😉
Glad you'd like to hear people speak about about UX, Business Rules and the future of LoT . Now the question is do you have the bandwidth to drive conversation around any of those topics? I'm not sure there still is time to "put it in the agenda" http://sessioncatalog.sapevents.com/go/agendabuilder.sessions/?l=84&locale=en_US&AEID=&selectedFilters=tag_0:0,tag_199:15184&kw= but I imagine that creating a conversation around that would still be possible in the expert session spaces during the BOF timeslots.
Hi Marilyn, Given the heavy focus on Fiori, SAPUI5, OpenUI5, Personas et al I'm sure the UX topic will come up at least. Actually it might fit in well with the Design Thinking in Development session on the Tuesday - these are good use cases for why we need ways to help Business and IT collaborate on developments?