Announcing ASUG Call for Proposals is Now Open for SAP TechEd Las Vegas
I know ASUG Annual Conference / SAPPHIRENOW is two weeks away, but today, call for ASUG Proposals for SAP TechEd Las Vegas (October 19-23) is now open. ASUG and SAP are working together again in education again this year for SAP TechEd, offering customer-led education sessions and Influence opportunities.
Here are the details:
Call for submissions opens today
Submissions close on May 24
For non-SAP Speakers only
Please review the following information before submitting your session proposal.
From the SAP TechEd site:
Location and Date: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, October 19-23, 2015
This special call for proposals is open to SAP customers and partners who are members of Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG). SAP employees are not eligible to participate.
Session proposals are subject to a final review by the ASUG Design Team. You will receive notification regarding the status of your proposal by mid-June.
The deadline to submit ASUG customer session proposals is Sunday/Monday, May 24/25 11.59pm PST/8.59am CET. The ASUG Customer sessions are 1-hour lecture sessions.
The Session Owner is the speaker who proposed the session.
Session Owners are responsible to:
- Provide session details
- Review edited details and schedule
- Submit presentation materials
- Meet deadlines
- Additional speakers or co-speakers are not allowed
- Sessions may be scheduled twice based on popularity of the topic
- All speakers are required to accept the Proposal and Speaking Guidelines before proposing a session or being approved as a speaker
- Speaker Assignments are reviewed and approved by the track owners
Approved speakers receive:
- Complimentary lecture-only conference registration
- SCN Contribution points
- SAP TechEd does not reimburse for speaker’s time, travel or hotel.
- Important – Make sure to look through the site and reach out to saptechedspeaker.info@sap.com with any questions.
Track story plans are here
Submit your session proposal here. Deadline to submit proposals is Sunday, May 24.
Reference:
ASUG Members, the SAP TechEd 2015 call for speakers is coming soon!!!
ASUG members, start planning to present at SAP TechEd 2015!
Plan Now for Call for ASUG Speakers for SAP TechEd Las Vegas
The ASUG Design Team Kristen Dennis Gretchen Lindquist looks forward to your submission. If you have questions feel free to post below.
What does "Complimentary lecture-only conference registration" mean? What do speakers not get access to?
I'm guessing this includes the "general admission" to TechEd, without the ASUG pre-conference sessions that cost extra. Although the verbiage is a bit confusing to me too.
In the past it meant you don't get to sign-up for hands-on sessions or attend those I believe(unless you are the speaker of one). That being said, having presented many years ago now, I definitely would recommend submitting an abstract to present if you have a topic that falls within the guidelines. I had a very positive experience with my presentation and found the experience to be very worthwile and educational 🙂 .
Wow, on top of non-reimbursed travel expenses makes one think how much speakers are really wanted... Oh wait, there are SCN points involved? Never mind then. </sarcasm=off>
Jelena - ASUG (being non-profit) does not pay for speaker expenses.
I can understand the non-profit aspect, but not allowing speakers into hands-on sessions - that's just cold IMHO. Does it really cost that much? It's not cash out of pocket, just pull up another chair... Most likely not every speaker would even take advantage of those sessions (maybe it'd make sense to ask?).
"Customer stories" are the most popular sessions at every event. They also take more preparation because customers usually don't have a ready-to-go presentation available (unlike vendors). Giving such speakers full admission ticket seems like the right thing to do. At least I would if I was the organizer. (Well, maybe that's why I'm not. I'd be out of business obviously throwing money left and right. 🙂 )
I think the problem is that speakers would be eating into profits since they would take away a seat from paying customers...
Hands-on sessions are "first come, first served", so not even all paying customers get a chance. Maybe a compromise would be just giving the paying customers a "head start" to register?
In any case, as I mentioned, there might not even be that much interest. But not having this on the table sends a wrong message (IMHO, of course). Speakers are the ones bringing the paying customers in, after all.
Hi Jelena - to clarify, those who pay extra for the hands on get to register for the hands on sessions first and are the first seated.
If they are late then they go to the waiting list
My understanding (I could be wrong) is those on a lecture only pass could attend hands-on after all the ones who registered sit and if there is any space.
Agree, speakers bring in the paying customers.
Jelena,
even without the hands-on sessions and unreimbursed travel expenses, i have found presenting worthwhile and overall very helpful in learning more about where SAP and the rest of the ecosystem were going. meeting many SCNers in real life was the biggest benefit of them all and i'm not even all that crazy about Vegas.
cheers,
greg
I guess I look at this differently from personal experience. When I did present at SAP Teched(which was four years ago), I thought was awesome that I was choosen to speak. If you think about it there are not that many slots for "customer presentations" and it was great that I was given one.
In terms of the hands-on, well I can tell you on the day that I spoke I really didn't have time to do much beyond present at my session and then hold my meet the speaker later in that day.
I will also say if you are focused on "free stuff" that being a speaker gets you, then you are looking at the wrong things. I truly believe that presenting allows you to solidify your knowledge in your presentation area and let you met new people in your area of interest in a unique way. The free ticket is just to me a way of saying "thank you". In addition the speaker support staff/educational development team that runs the program is top-notch.
If had a worthwile topic for this year, I would definitely submit an abstract to present again.
Take care,
Stephen
I agree it's an interesting experience with some of its own rewards. But considering the amount of preparation needed to deliver a good session custom-tailored for such large event I wouldn't call it "free stuff".
It might be my communist upbringing speaking, but short-changing speakers by not giving them full access (or at least one hands-on session should they want to attend) just seems unfair to me. Maybe it's a non-issue (as you've pointed out, speakers might not even have time) but I thought this needed to be said. If it was at least offered (could be a good compromise in cost-cutting), it would look much better for the organizers IMHO.
Yep if I analyzed the ROI on volunteering to present like a paid job then it has a terrible tangible ROI($$) on effort(time) spent. I won't argue against that. That being said all the other benefits from speaking personal was worth volunteering some of my time to provide a presentation.
Now if you really want look at bad ROI in terms of time/money you should write a SAP technical book. It's definitely not something done as a get quick rich scheme.
Take care,
Stephen
Yes, Stephen had it right, lecture only means the hands-on sessions are not complimentary
Jelena - generally there are additional costs for ASUG pre-conference sessions as well.
Stephen - well-said - thank you
How much is a hands-on session if you want to add it?
I don't think those fees have been announced yet.
I recommend joining the mailing list at Get Event Updates | SAP TechEd Global for updates
Just to shed a bit of background onto this discussion: ASUG has been planning a portion of the educational content at SAP TechEd in the US since 2005. I have been speaking at this event off and on over the years since 2006, and to my recollection it has always been the policy that ASUG's speakers get lecture-only comps. I don't know whose decision that was, but as this is an SAP event, I would wager that it was their call. Anyone who is unhappy about that is probably better off taking it up with them. ASUG's Design Team- Tammy, Kristen, and I- are at the bottom of the food chain, and if anyone thinks we call the shots or have any pull on such matters, I should clarify that all we do is spend about 6 months working hard to put on the best content we can, and we very much appreciate the ASUG member's willingness to share their expertise.
Gretchen
and... unrelated to this discussion...
but lots and strong Kudos to you, Tammy, and Kristen and all the other volunteers behind selecting the content because you doing a great job year after year after year...
Ingo
Newman! errr... SAP! 🙂
It wasn't suggested in any way this was the problem of the ASUG Design team. It's obviously ASUG leadership who could make it right. If I see Paul Fipps at SAPPHIRE I'll make sure to point this out to him.
Thank you!
Actually the SAP speakers are getting as well "just" a lecture only complamentary pass. So the rule is for all speakers the same.
The other reason is that the seats are really limited and a full paying customer would might not be able to get into their session, when we would allow all speakers to reserve HO Sessions. But as Tammy pointed out, speakers can get on the waiting list, so at least there is a chance to attend.
But if the speaker works for SAP wouldn't they have access to all the hands-on they can eat through their employer? I guess that might also explain the reasoning behind it...
They have the same access to the material after the event as customers and ASUG speakers have. They can download the materials from the offered sources. And the complemantary speaker tickets, doesn't matter if ASUG or SAP, they are coming all out of the SAP TechEd Budget.
For my perspective It is more about garantee the seats for the paying customers. A customer would not be amused to find out, that he is not able to get into the session because all seats are blocked with speakers, right ? At least I would not be amused, if I would be a paying customer ;-).
On that PDF document with the "track sessions" (slide 3) shouldn't the grid have little "X's are some such for the squares where the content in the vertical line match the subject of the horizontal line e.g. "user experience" on the left should have an X against the "user experience" column?
If not what is the purpose of the grid, it seemed to be trying and relate the "hot topics" to the content tracks, or does every hot topic relate to every content track (doesn't seem likely)?
I had a look on the internet just now at the list of full registration vs lecture registration for TECHED in Bangalore and the only differences seemed to be no hands-on sessions and no 30% discount on some sort of exam which costs a billion dollars anyway.
Not that I would be interested in the "free" stuff anyway, oh no, no no, no no no, not at all, no no no, absolutely not, as mentioned above this is not about free stuff, this is about personal development, oh yes indeed. So I am not interested in free stuff, no no no, of course not.
But let us just say hypothetically that I was, if I was some sort of horrible capitalist only interested in getting as much as I possibly could whilst the going was good, then probably I would ask something like the following:-
"Do speakers get to go into the free booze up (oops I mean networking drinks) and the pop concert, and get to go round the exhibition hall collecting pens?"
I managed to get 99 different pens from different IT related companies all in the space of a year by going to various IT conferences in Australia. Someone at work made me a special holder for them. Not that I am interested in such free things of course.
Cheersy Cheers
Paul
Hi Paul -
Thank you for your interest and comment here.
On page 3, the hot topics are intended to cross the tracks so in theory there would be X's there
Lecture only means you can't reserve any hands-on sessions; if you want to reserve a hands on session you pays extra; that doesn't prevent you from standing in line to possibly attend a hands on session on-site if there's room - many people do this all the time.
You can still attend the concert, visit the show floor, etc.
To borrow your great line "Cheersy Cheers"
Tammy
All jokes aside, I looked through the "track stories" slides, and that document looks aimed at internal SAP staff, presenting on technology that has not been released yet.
There is nothing wrong with that - a lot of the things I have seen at TECHEDS in the past only go into mainstream usage 5-10 years after I first saw them at a TECHED, and that's fine, a lot of people, myself included, love looking at the future.
Us SCN types cannot do talks about things that are only released internally inside SAP. I often used technology just as it has come out e.g. the first SEM implementation in Australia, Ariba etc but not before it came out.
When I have presented at IT conferences in Australia e.g. Mastering SAP Technologies, the vast bulk of the presentations have been by SAP customers saying how they have used cutting edge SAP technology to solve real world business problems.
This is the sort of thing I would have thought the customer sessions SAP are looking for would be about, to differentiate them from the SAP presentations which would be about what is just about to be released, lab previews and the like.
Is there a way to see the abstracts of "customer" presentations at previous TECHEDS? That would give me an idea of what sort of things they are looking for.
Some people on this thread have said they presented at TECHED as non-SAP people - may I ask what was the subject(s)?
At my company we try to be cutting edge and have carte blanche to use whatever we want to try and solve the problems at hand, no matter if it just came out last week. As such I can think of several topics which might be appropriate, but I have no idea if they are.
Any feedback (form anybody) more than welcome!
Cheersy Cheers
Paul
PS I would also like to thank Tammy for putting my name forward to SAP as a possible presenter. Tammy also got me in touch with SAP Press about writing a book. She is clearly helping my SAP career - that is my definition of an SAP Mentor living up to the name!
Hi Paul -
Thank you for your kind words and interest.
Here is a link to the ASUG abstracts that were presented last year:
SAP TechEd && d-code Las Vegas | October 20&#8211;24, 2014 | Home
Not all of us are using SAP cutting-edge technology, which makes these types of ASUG sessions at SAP TechEd more important, in my view.
Jim Spath reminded me of that in this blog: Back to Orange County, again
Please let me know if you need anything else or if you have more questions.
Tammy
I have bitten the bullet, and just submitted my session proposal.
I worked out where the customer stories were hiding - they are under "technology, strategy and innovations" which is looking for "customer-specific real-life scenarios which provide significant business value for companies and their end users"
That is where us SCN types come in, as far as I can see.....
Cheersy Cheers
Paul
Paul,
Thank you for submitting your abstract. I'm sorry that the track stories document was confusing. Customer specific case studies/ success stories are welcome in all the tracks; customers are still using current SAP solutions that are not on leading edge, and the ASUG design team is eager to present educational content covering a wide variety of solutions.
Gretchen