Devtoberfest 2023 kicked off today, with a wealth of live sessions. Read on to find out why I think Devtoberfest is a great way for developers to get themselves ready for SAP TechEd.

The Developer Advocates at SAP have been busy over the past few weeks putting together the content for our now much anticipated annual event – Devtoberfest. If you don’t know what Devtoberfest is, let me explain:

• it’s a month long open celebration of what makes us developers: coding and collaboration
• it’s deliberately scheduled to take place in the run up to SAP TechEd
• it’s a lot of fun, and combines learning, earning points, and the possibility of winning prizes

There’s a key activity that’s common to any developer, regardless of their area of expertise, interests, and craft. That key activity is learning. The world of development, of software, architecture, operations, and more, is moving at an ever increasing pace, and if there’s one thing I’ve perhaps finally figured out, after over 35 years as a developer in the SAP tech ecosphere, is that there’s always more learning to do.

Learning is something we should be doing regularly. It doesn’t matter whether the subject matter is brand new, or you’re revisiting something you have already had experience with, to go deeper. It doesn’t matter if the relevance to your current work tasks is only fleeting, and it certainly doesn’t matter how you prefer to learn. Reading, watching videos, completing tutorials, taking part in discussions, asking and answering questions, earning points & badges – each one of these activities helps you to level up. Back in the early 1990’s, I was working at the largest SAP R/2 installation in the world, and learned a valuable lesson from one of my colleagues there. That was to make time to read. I recount the story in the blog post Tech Skills Chat with JonERP – A Follow-on Story, and the key takeaway is: Always Be Reading.

Anyway. Sometimes one learns best alone. And other times, it’s great to learn together. And that’s what Devtoberfest is all about.

So over the next four weeks, I want to encourage you to make time for yourself as a developer, make time to learn, make time for Devtoberfest. Check out the many, many sessions we have for you over on the Devtoberfest events calendar, focused on five main topics, each of which has a colour code, and each of which falls on the same day each week:

• 🟢 Monday: ABAP & CAP
• 🟣 Tuesday: SAP Build / Low-Code and No-Code
• 🔴 Wednesday: Integration
• 🔵 Thursday: Data & Analytics and AI
• 🟠 Friday: Frontend

It won’t surprise you to realise that these core topics are also the backbone of any great SAP TechEd event too. And that’s no coincidence. We want you to be prepared for SAP TechEd by being up to date, with your learning neurons revitalised and ready for more action, and hungry for more knowledge.

So dive in. Get started by heading over to and joining the Devtoberfest group on SAP Community. You’ll find plenty of information in the blog post area on how things work, and what to do next.

See you there!

(originally published on qmacro.org)