Darren Hague made my day with his Community Day Changed My Life post. It is not often in life that your vision and the hard work you put in with a team of great people gets a public recognition. Thank you Darren.
I commented at his post already, that we are only offering the opportunity to connect with some of the brightest mind and most passionate people with in the SAP world. He had the foresight to engage and really run with the opportunity.
It isn't the only case of Community Day changing life. Remember the Next Generation ABAP Development Book book? It started with a session at Community Day, which for sure changed Thomas Jung's and even more Rich Heilman's life.
For Blag it is his favorite day in the year. We have collected a whole page of quotes from happy Community Day participants.
Two weeks ago in Las Vegas, I bumped into someone at the end of TechEd who told me: In 2006 the SDN Day saved me thousands of dollars consulting fees from the things I learned then. It was worth the whole TechEd, and this year it was even better.
The more I am happy about these results, the more frustrated I get about another aspect of Community Day: It is still like pushing a Hummer up a San Francisco hill to get folks to actually come to the event, especially in Europe.
People are not lining up to ensure a ticket for next year. Looks like these happy participants keep their knowledge close to their chest, to guarantee a space next year.
Let's look at the numbers from last year: Almost 5000 people come to TechEd Munich and almost 6000 to the one in Las Vegas. Therefore Las Vegas had about 20% more participants than Munich.
At Community Day we had 160 in Munich and 280 in Las Vegas: Over 50% more people participated in Las Vegas versus Germany.
Some say it is the name of the event: Community Day is hard to sell to your boss. "Are they standing in a circle and singing Mary had a little lamb?"
Nigel James yesterday posted a great suggestion on twitter: Inside Track, it got picked up by Mark Yolton:
@njames: "InsideTrack: a Members Only Event" ... like it? @ccmehil + @finnern?
Other suggestions greatly appreciated, we will try something new next year.
One reason for the lower turnout in Berlin was suggested that the event is held in English, which for some native German speakers is not a language they feel comfortable to collaborate in.
I think the problem is, that the value/great opportunity of getting to know your fellow top contributors, SAP Mentors and SAP presenters on a deeper level, is less obvious to Europeans.
Community Day versus TechEd is like sitting at the computer or in front of the TV. One is a forward leaning active role and the second is a more backward leaning consuming role (hands-on sessions may be the exception, although there you are also following a script.)
I may be wrong, but in Europe people come to learn in sessions from the pros. They are less interested to bring people together to talk about something they feel passionate about, to meet folks that are working on the same problems and drive towards new solutions in that space.
I know Darren is the exception to the rule as he was in Munich. I think that this is unfortunate. My experience is, that these face to face meetings, discussions, working together on solving some common problem and having fun together in the evening, all this is weaving the familiarity and the trust, that is the foundation for successful global co-innovation projects like ESME.
May be you have another idea why Community Day is less popular in the old world. I really would like to know.
What hurts the most is to get stopped at TechEd day two or three by someone who says, I heard the Community Day was really amazing. I would have come if only I knew about it. Please spread the word.
