Personal Insights
SAP Champions in Action
The year is quickly coming to an end, and as Craig Cmehil announced in his blog What a year 2019 has been for the SAP Community the other day, we’re closing 2019 with SAP Community as the Topic of the Month. That means December is the perfect chance for me to give you an update on the SAP Champions who are going to play a vital role in this Topic of the Month (and in the community in general).
In case you don’t recall, I am the program manager for SAP Champions, so let’s recap what’s been happening with these SAP Community Influencers since my last blog after SAP TechEd Las Vegas.
Welcome our new SAP Champions:
In August we announced our first batch of SAP Champions. Since then we added 4 more wonderful and powerful community people, so that we have now 27 individuals in the program. Please welcome:
Marina Pontjakova | https://people.sap.com/accmarinapontjakova |
Douglas Kuchler | https://people.sap.com/douglas.cezar10 |
Nil Peksen | https://people.sap.com/nilpeksen |
Ronnie André Bjørvik Sletta | https://people.sap.com/rsletta |
Please check out the SAP Community Influencers finder to learn more about all SAP Champions, SAP Mentors, and more.
I am a proud “all-3-TechEds survivor,” and it was worth every trip — to Las Vegas, Barcelona, and Bangalore. Beside meeting the SAP Mentors and doing a lot of activities with them, I was able to meet 21 out of the then 24 SAP Champions! We were able to get to know each other better and to draw up plans for the SAP Community. This leads me to my next announcement related to the SAP Champions/Topic of the Month: 2 out of the many ideas from the SAP Champions are going to be rolled out this week and next:
- The 29 Seconds in 29 Days SAP Community Video Challenge: Jim Spath started the SCNotties “30seconds of recognition” in 2009, and he’ll be announcing a new version of this video contest for SAP Community. Keep an eye out for a blog post from Jim this week, in which he’ll give details about the contest – how to participate, what the rules are, and more! (Update: Check out The 29 Seconds in 29 Days SAP Community Video Challenge!)
- BlogItForward: Susan Keohan is bringing back the Blog It Forward Community Challenge. Her post to relaunch the initiative will come early next week. (Update: Check out Blog It Forward – the Sequel!)
In addition, we will have an SAP Community call with Michelle Crapo mid of December on “How to use the SAP community to increase Productivity” – This call aims at enabling open sharing between SAP Community members and how it helps individuals to benefit from SAP Community becoming more productive. You’ll be surprised at all the things out there besides the Q&A”….Register here.
Stay tuned on the SAP Community call page to find more interesting sessions.
Each project and initiative involving the SAP Champions is designed to move our SAP Community forward, mainly engaging the people — as engaging with members (and helping them to engage more with each other) is an important part of what the SAP Champions are doing. (Please read my blog post Here come the SAP Champions — It’s all about the people to learn more.)
A community is only as strong as its members and the knowledge, skills, and energy they bring to the table. Collaborative contributions fuel the community’s efforts, with EACH Community member participating. So please do join in – and stay tuned, as more community calls and activities will start soon.
Not that things haven’t started already. SAP Champions have been engaging with the SAP Community throughout the year – not only in December — through several activities.
Since becoming SAP Champions, in addition to continuing to contribute to Q&A and blog posts in technical and product areas, they have written about the importance of SAP Community, shared their thoughts about their new roles, offered up ideas on how we can work together better as a community, participated in events, and more. Here’s a sampling of things they’ve done since August (when we announced the first group of champions).
Community Engagement
Susan Keohan; SAP Community and me – Why we stay together
Bärbel Winkler: Standing offer – lending a helping hand
Marssel Vilaça: Farewell SAP Mentors & welcome SAP Champions
Nabheet Madan: Happy Programmers Day!
Michelle Crapo: Sap Community – Can you make a difference?
Reflections on SAP TechEd
My SAP TechEd adventure – Prologue: Getting to Barcelona
My SAP TechEd adventure – Tuesday
My SAP TechEd Adventure – Wednesday
My SAP TechEd adventure – Thursday
My SAP TechEd Adventure – TL;DR version
Nabheet Madan: My First #SAPTechEd Experience ->Awesome
Phil Cooley: SAP TechEd Las Vegas 2019 – Here we Go!
Phil Cooley:: SAP TechEd – What a Blast!
Other Events
Anne Johnson: #sitCPH 2019 well done – fantastic meetup!
David Ruiz Badia: SAP Inside Track Barcelona 2019 Recap
Nabheet Madan:: Project named #sitCHD went live successfully??
Phil Cooley::SAP Stammtisch Melbourne – 21st November (after SAUG Melb Conference)
Phil Cooley::SAP Tech Night Melbourne #sitMEL 1910 – Wednesday 2nd October
https://people.sap.com/douglas.cezar10: “Und Action!” – What I’ve learned from DSAG’s Annual Congress 2019
https://people.sap.com/rsletta: SAP CodeJam goes north! and Report from the trenches – SAP Inside Track OSLO 2019
SAP Community Calls
Bärbel Winkler:: SAP Community call: Taking on fake news about climate change
That’s just a taste – and we’re not even a full year into the program! I encourage you all to follow the SAP Champions (get the full list of SAP Champions in the SAP Community Influencers finder, click on their names to access their profile pages, and click the “follow” button on their profiles) so you can remain aware of all the cool stuff they’re doing. Comment on their content and connect with them. And be sure to be ready to participate in the 29 Seconds in 29 Days SAP Community Video Challenge and BlogItForward. Let’s use this month to celebrate SAP Community by supporting these fun activities…and each other! Enjoy!
So many great actions!


Welcome New SAP Champions ! Now it is officially announced. Douglas, nice to see you in the Club.
Also, it is great to hear about Blog it Foward series.
Thanks, Marssel. I’ve learned a lot from working closely with you and other SAP Mentors for the SAP Community in Brazil!
Congratulations and welcome to all the SAP Champions!
This is an amazing group that understands the value of supporting the growth of other people through motivation, knowledge sharing and setting good examples.
I am looking forward to all the fun and work with all the Community!