For me the best day of every TechEdis the Community Day. It is smaller more intimate and magic happens every time. The sad thing is most TechEd participants don't even know that it exists or how much they could benefit from being there.
One of my favorite examples is still how Thomas Jung was looking for a co-host for an Advanced ABAP programming SDN Community Day in Melbourne (BoF) session for SDN Day in 2006. Top ABAP contributor Rich Heilman, back then still working for Yorktown Cabinetry, took him up and they did an amazing session. Both got approached afterwards by SAP Press whether they would like to make a book out of the session and they did. It came out early 2007 and they signed copies at last year's Community Day.
Both of them are SAP Mentorsnow and this year we are having a special SAP Mentor Hands-On (MHO) track. Check out the SDN Day wiki page for more details. Dan McWeeney and Ed Herrmann are also hosting a MHO each:
- Thomas Jung: SAP's RIA techology - Get In and Get your hands dirty with Islands, Flex Client, and NetWe...
- Dan McWeeney Flex Component Development 101 - Integrating the best of Adobe UI and the newest SAP Portal
- Rich Heilman ABAP Essentials for Building Next Generation Enterprise Applications
- Ed Herrmann Bring it all Together with FPM (Floorplan Manager) for Web Dynpro ABAP
We are going to have a Webinar to introduce the new MHO track next Wednesday 8pm PST mark your calendars. More details to come soon.
Other Magic moments at SDN and Community Days:
- Craig last year setting up his video camera and streaming many sessions live for the ones who were not able to come. Although you can't beat the full experience of being there. One can check the recorded ones out on his Ustream.tv channel.
- Having Shai swing by at SDN Day in 2006, sorry will not happen this time 😉
- The outside viewpoints from folks like Bruce Sterling, Tim O'Reilly, James Governor, Cote, Dennis Hewlett, and so many others.
- Sitting in a large circle during the Geeks and Suits session with Minda Zetlin and Bill Pfleging
- So many folks stepping up and hosting their own session
We have a couple of changes. First you sign up for BPX or SDN day. We will have a joined introduction session, but then we will split into BPX and SDN tracks. Even if you have signed up for one you can still participate in sessions from the other tracks. We will for sure be back together for an evening reception after the general SAP TechEd keynote.
If you want to discuss a certain theme or feel passionate about an aspect of the SAP environment, please add your own session to the Community Day wiki pages. It is worth it. True happiness can be reached by being fully immersed in what you are doing.
I experienced that last weekend when I played in an impromptu marching band in San Francisco. Nina on Rattle and Tambourine was with me and I brought the clarinet. It was scary first, as I haven't played clarinet in ages and not once in a marching band. It really was a rag tag group of people that came together at the Ferry Building. After a bit of awkwardness we got a good rhythm together and were able to even listen and pick up a tune from a fellow musician and develop it further. Total bliss.
Similar things I hear from the Community Day presenters. Often scary at first, but once it is going a great conversation with likeminded people develops and the 50 minutes are over way too fast. Try it out.
By the way, if on the 31st of July you have collected over 2000 points since last contest, aka 1st of August 2007, you get a free entry to a Community Day of your choice. Much easier is to suggest a session in the wiki. If there are more session suggested than we have space for, there will be a selection process. Really looking forward to seeing you all at one of the magic Community Days.
For your convenience here are the links to the different locations:
- Community Day at SAP TechEd 2008 Las Vegas Monday September 8th
- Community Day Berlin 2008 Monday October 13th
- Community Day Bangalore 2008 Tuesday November 11th
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