I’ve got a community and you’re awesome

So, it turns out that even when you fail; learn a lesson; redefine success; tell everyone about that lesson; you can (amazingly) become successful with the original goal. Try putting that as an inspirational meme! Rather than edit the title of my original blog this story is a worthy of its own.

For those who are unaware of my original blog: in a nutshell Sue and I wanted to bring a goat to SAP TechEd. We thought we’d covered all eventualities and it wouldn’t be that difficult to achieve until we got to the stage of asking for permission. We were thanked for our creativity and advised that we should avoid turning “#wherethecool****happens into #wherethegoat****happens” (replace **** with a 4 letter word that begins with an S, ends with a T and happens to say HI in the middle). I must admit that having a newborn that the thought of dealing with the Goat version of the **** didn’t even cross my mind as a consideration. But hey, I do appreciate we hadn’t thought of the health & safety impacts – one of many reasons we should leave event planning to the experts.

In being told no, it did motivate me to write that blog. I had fun – as did many others – to reminisce about the goat. I started to receive feedback from people about how the thought of the goat brought a smile to their face. The blog helped cement what I value most about our community. And that you, my dear readers are you. You are the people who make community. For me our community has meant that:

• I became a SAP Mentor and have expanded my knowledge through this network of truly inspiring people;
• I am recognised as a product expert and receive frequent work and business opportunities;
• I work with other experts who I met via the community (we met through the community living on opposite sides of the world and today we were sitting face to face in the office);
• I passed my certification through testing my knowledge by answering community questions;
• I have been beneficiary of the kindness and compassion of this community during the lowest part of my life and they helped me bounce back;
• I can resolve work issues faster by searching the community for the answer;
• I have access to a variety of information and the only cost is my time to consume the content;
• I have a place in Coffee Corner to channel my procrastination efforts into;
• I interact with people from all different walks of life who I may never have crossed paths with – many who I now consider friends and part of my global family;
• I am valued and appreciated as a member of this community; and finally
• I am a goat herder of the community goat.

Yep, the final line: we now have an official community goat. And this goat is making an appearance at SAP TechEd. This announcement was made as a comment in my original blog and since then I’ve been welcomed to the inner sanctum of goat planning as a self-titled unofficial official community goat herder.

First up, our goat needed a name. As much as Hannna was fun it was decided it wouldn’t be the right fit. Think about it – no one could agree on the number of Ns for its spelling. And SAP has already tried to put HANA in front of enough products. Long live Hannna but it was time for a new goat to take on the title of ‘Community Goat’. In taking inspiration from SAP’s love of all things Italian (think Fiori & Leonardo) the goat is now known as Capra. We really are that simple when it comes to originality: Our Community Goat is aptly called Goat.

Next up, is Capra’s participation. As a trusted goat herder I can announce that Capra will be at SAP TechEd as well as online participation. There will be goat games. Like the #catchamentor of the past, there will be goat spotting where you need to obtain a photo with Capra and post to Twitter or to this community blog under the #goatspotting. There will be Community giveaways. More details will follow closer to SAP TechEd. What happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas (Capra’s journey will continue).

Finally, it’s time to introduce Capra. As mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I did succeed with the original goal. It’s just like most things in life, I had to adapt and accept change. My actual goal was never to bring a goat to SAP TechEd. It was to bring the community together. And the goat was a conduit for this.

So, without further waffle and tangents: meet Capra the Community Goat:

Again, Capra will be making an appearance at SAP TechEd and will be escorted by official goat herders (we don’t want Capra to miss the plane to the other Events). More announcements will follow from the community team.

In the meantime, there are some goat herders who have been managing Capra’s Unofficial Twitter Account – @community_goat. They have been sifting through the community announcements to share interesting blogs, questions and plenty of goat pics. This account will help track Capra’s journey and provide hints for #goatspotting at SAP TechEd.

And with this announcement, I sign off.

Thank you for accepting me as a member of this community. I hope you all enjoy getting to know and follow Capra’s antics. It all started with Sue writing a status update telling us ‘I’ve got a goat and he’s awesome’. Now Capra has a community and you’re awesome.

Stay Tuned…

Regards
Colleen
#goatherder for Capra the @community_goat