I was planning to post this blog little ahead but finally managed to get it out just before TechEd Bangalore starts. This will be my sixth straight TechEd at Bangalore and has become my "annual pilgrimage" something not to be missed. Why you may ask - over time the idea of attending TechEd has changed. Initially it was to meet fellow Community (good old SDN those days) Members in person and learn about SAP stuff by attending lecture sessions.
In recent years the learning part is still there but has moved from attending lecture session to a couple of focused Hands-on Session based on my area of interest and then joining Q&A sessions at the pods, not so much at lecture sessions. As a SAP Mentor we do have few meet-ups with Product / Solution Managers, evening workshops that brings in learning with a different approach - more discussion oriented and engaging that a regular lecture session. But nothing can substitute a lecture session if you want to get an overview of a technology or a hands-on session if you want to get some technical depth.
This year's TechEd Bangalore has mind-boggling number of 450 sessions (including Lecture and Hands-on) surely there is enough breath to cover someones interest for all 2.5 days (remember Wednesday first half is Keynotes and evening is DEMOJAM) and the time will just fly past. The great thing this year (probably our strong feedback last year to content management leaders) is the fact all session presentations and handout/exercises are already available for at least one week now. So if you are really interested in a session goto Agenda Builder - open up the session and then download the presentations. This also means one can be better prepared before going to hands on session as the overview as well as exercise is already available for review.
The other part of TechEd is "Networking" - not for the strict sense of getting contacts for possible job opportunity :grin: but definitely to meet people in person with whom you have interacted in the forum discussions, blog posts and comments or in special cases someone from development or IMS/AGS teams who helped you with a fix / sap note. Networking also means engaging in discussion with someone in your area of interest and then following it up in future over email / phone etc.
So what are your TechEd plans - if you do not have a plan yet then here is my suggestion.
1. Attend keynotes - hearing SAP executive (ok Vishal is not there this year) gives a different perspective of SAP as you might be knowing through work
2. Definitely come to DEMOJAM - you will be exposed to cool stuff from 7 teams in the shortest possible time - guaranteed! BTW do cheer for winners from this weekend's InnoJam who have built a solution for Bangalore's current bane - Waste Management
3. Enjoy time at Clubhouse (you can get only good and free coffee there) while networking with fellow SCNers, Community Managers and SAP Mentors.
And if you have time :wink: look up Agenda Builder for the sessions you may be interested in. If you have Full Conference pass definitely use your Hands-on Workshops - don't let that opportunity of learning go waste.
So what do I plan to explore at TechEd this time - Predictive Analysis (signed up for AP264 on Friday morning) and SAP's Technology Highlights - Putting Them All Together (4 hours hands-on - hopefully I shall be able to digest and concentrate full time). From lectures I have found only one directly related to my area of work - TEC231 SAP SCM Applications for Steel Industry and another MOB212 SAP Mobile in Action: Learnings from Real-world Projects presented by my senior colleague Rajesh Ray who is IBM GD SAP SCM Product Lead. Apart from that I am interested in CD202 ABAP For SAP HANA: Building Business Applications Optimised for In-Memory and AP102 Data Discovery with SAP HANA and SAP Visual Intelligence. Next couple of days I am going to blog about my takeaway from these sessions and finally a wrapup of TechEd Bangalore. This is not just to share my views of TechEd but over the years as I go through my old blogs gives me a recap of how SAP's technology has moved on, what are the key themes (remember HANA from 2010, Mobile and Cloud in 2011 and looks like NeO and SAPUI5 this year) over time. But one thing has not changed only the name has SAP R/3 to ECC to ERP to LOB / On Premise it still remains the foundation of enterprises around the world.
Have a great TechEd Bangalore 2012!!!
Read my Impressions from TechEd 2012 blog posted now.
