Journey to #SAPTechEd

So this year, it started with a submission to a community talk.  Last year I spoke about community reputation; this year I spoke about free things to move to S/4HANA.   If you missed it I wrote a summary of what I spoke about here.  Special thanks to Mynyna Chau  for accepting my session.

Rehearsals for the session started the Saturday before.  At first I thought this must be a typo.  Meeting on Saturday? But it was real.

Was the lighting good?  How about the camera?  Did I stay in the center of the shot? I was fortunate to have Michelle Crapo  interview me.

On Monday we have another check in.  Same thing – lighting, camera, etc.

On Monday (not related to SAP TechEd) I received the SAP Community Video Contest Award.  Special thanks to Jim Spath  Katarina Nonhebel  and Jerry Janda  for sending this.

I received an email on Saturday from Thomas Grassl  makes me think I need to rehearse more…do I?  I ask Michelle on Monday if she wants to rehearse again with me on Tuesday, and she kindly agrees.

A nice tip from Matt Harding  appears on Tuesday – the SAP TechEd materials are on github, so I go to check that out.

Fun Run –  usually at SAP TechEd Las Vegas I miss this, as usually at 8:00 am that day I am in a hands on session that I don’t want to miss.  This year thanks to SAP TechEd being virtual, I participate.  So I take pictures every day of my early morning walks and as a result I get to participate in the Unofficial TechEd Fun Run.  Below I see Santa on one of my “fun run” walks.

I was lucky to be selected by Svea Becker  for a USA “Check-in”.  Lena Stodal  made it really easy.  I didn’t worry about it and didn’t know the check in was to last only 7 minutes until right before Lena called on me.  We discuss the food I miss in Las Vegas, but how the virtual opportunity gives me the chance to attend several workshop sessions.

I attend a SAP Data Warehouse Cloud workshop with the great Ingo Hilgefort .  Someone asks him to play music, and I requested AC/DC.  I think everyone liked it.  We were half-way through our exercises, and the AC/DC music reminded me of an NFL game, where you’re on the 50 yard line and still have half-way to go to a “touch down”.

Then at 3:30 pm on Wednesday my session started.  I am grateful to Michelle for the interview, Thomas Grassl for the nice lead in.

On Thursday I take a picture from another walk.  My Santa picture appears in Svea’s recap on Thursday!

Some regrets:

On the SAP Coffee Corner podcast, Matt Harding said he took the week off for SAP TechEd.  Michelle tells me that she too took some time off.  I didn’t consider doing this at all; plus I am in a Fiori boot camp in addition to regular work.  So I don’t spend as much time as I’d like on SAP TechEd, but there are always the replays.

A big thank you to Michelle, Mynyna, Svea, Lena, Thomas and everyone else for a great SAP TechEd.