First time at TechEd

I am really thankful that I could attend SAP TechEd in Barcelona during the last 3 days. I was one of the 10 lucky winners of the scholarship program for Barcelona.

I am (almost) 32 years old and an ABAP developer for about 10 years now. I already had the opportunity to be a developer in an implementation project quite early in my career. Being able to attend TechEd was one of my dreams and definitely a top priority on my bucket list! Now I can also check this one…awesome, right!?

Check out my interview:

Let me tell you a little bit more about my background and my TechEd experience.

I am working as an in-house developer/consultant for a chemical distribution company located in Germany. I work on an ECC 6.0 EhP 8 system on anyDB. I program ABAP (OO) and switched from SE80 to Eclipse about 2 1/2 years ago. My favorite modules are MM and SD. During my latest project – an Ariba Integration – I was able to strengthen my skills around web services (SOAMANGER) and XML processing. 

I believe it is essential to never stop learning if one wants to be successful as a developer – and what’s better for updating your developer skills then TechEd?

So I used the opportunity to catch up with the latest technologies and developments from SAP, e.g.:

• SAP cloud platform – aka. steampunk (check one of the many great blogs)
• modern ABAP development
• Fiori / SAPUI5
• everything around ‘how to transition to S/4HANA‘

Besides some bigger-picture and roadmap sessions what I liked most where the hands-on sessions – there you could get your hands dirty and try out the latest innovations yourself.

But TechEd is not only about getting in touch with the latest stuff from SAP, but it is also all about the people and the community. I met a lot of interesting folks from all over the world – but also from around the corner. It is also nice to reconnect with people you met at different SAP events a while ago. 

Gotcha – Michelle Crapo

Another highlight for me was to meet Craig Cmehil. I love how passionate he is about the community and bringing it back to the top! We talked about the community, engagement, local events, and some coffee corner stuff 🙂

Additionally, this was my first SAP event where SAP compensates the CO2 emissions generated by the travel activities. Together with the reusable water bottle, it is a big step in the right direction – for a more sustainable world!

For some more impressions, make sure to not miss Jerry’s recaps:

Barcelona – TechEd – Day 1

Barcelona – TechEd – Day 2

To sum it all up I had an amazing time in Barcelona and I would encourage all of you to attend TechEd yourself – at least once! If you think your boss wouldn’t let you go, you never know for sure, until you asked – and there is still the scholarship program 😉 But as TechEd is not the only option to learn new stuff, I am happy to see what are your ways to keep your knowledge and skills up to date. Leave some comments!