Any other year, around September you would find me posting a blog and excitedly sharing my SAP TechEd agenda, as well as tips on where to find good and cheap food in Las Vegas. 2020 is no ordinary year though. Among many new and different things, this year no one will be traveling to Vegas or Austin, to Barcelona or Bangalore to a TechEd conference. Instead, we will be at home, in our pajamas, joining SAP TechEd online next week, December 8-10.
We might miss networking and making those rare human connections, finally getting a chance to shake hands with another person whose blogs we read many times or whose answers helped guiding our projects. But humans are resilient, we try to get the best out of any situation. In one aspect, SAP TechEd this year will be no different than others: to take full advantage of it and to have a good time, we need not just bring an open mind but also plan what sessions or workshops you’d like to attend. This is where I come to help.
Keynotes
The conference keynotes tend to be something to endure rather than enjoy. In his tenure as SAP CTO, Björn Goerke set a different standard for the SAP TechEd keynotes by making them not just informative but also entertaining. Traditionally, there has been just one keynote at TechEd and Goerke’s team would go all-in delivering remarkable presentations using the popular movie themes. (If you are not familiar with the keynotes of the Goerke era, watch a replay of this iconic 2017 Star Trek themed one, where yours truly makes a surprise on-stage appearance around 1:09 mark.)
Last year, new SAP CTO Juergen Mueller chose not to compete with the predecessor’s showmanship and delivered a simple, business-like TechEd keynote. This year, I expect the same style to continue. But the single keynote tradition will be broken with two executive keynotes (one on December 8th and another on December 9 th ) and a new Developer Keynote presented by the SAP Developer Advocates. Similar to the Oscar-viewing parties, a virtual “Keynote Viewing Party” could be a fun event for your team. Keep an eye on the #SAPTechEd tag on Twitter for the live commentary!
Building Your Agenda
If you have not registered for the event yet, make sure to do so here. At this time, many sessions (especially the hands-on workshops) book fully, quickly. After registering, visit Session Catalog where you can check “Seats Available” checkbox to find the sessions that can still be added to your agenda. Note that some sessions will be present live and may include some interaction. However, others will be available on demand. The filters in the session catalog can help to find the right session type.
The long list of sessions (445 total, with 272 still having seats available) can be easily overwhelming. But fear not, you can take advantage of the suggestions from SAP Community members who share similar interests. For example, ABAP developers should take a note of the recommendations by legendary Rich Heilman and the ABAP platform session list prepared by Carine Tchoutouo Djomo.
In his blog Marius’ SAP TechEd 2020 Guide for UI Folks, SAP Developer Advocate Marius Obert shares excellent recommendations for anyone interested in the UI/UX subject. This year, UX theme at TechEd includes not only the “usual suspects”, such as SAP Fiori and UI5, but also newly launched SAP Work Zone product.
If you are interested in everything open source, look no further than this excellent blog by Ulrike Fempel from SAP. Ulrike noted the sessions that involve Kyma, Open UI5, and mysterious Project “Gardener.”
My personal approach to the session-picking has always been to include something that I could apply right away, something that I might get to use in a few years, and something completely “out of the box”. Another SAP Developer Advocate Maximilian Streifeneder shared a blog that helps with getting out of our comfort zone and points out the sessions on Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (iRPA), and SAP Cloud Platform.
SAP TechEd is not just for the developers and architects. IT and ERP managers should also take advantage of it to understand SAP strategy and road maps, to see what technology can be available to the teams they are leading. Well-known SAP educator Thomas Jung offers in his blog the session recommendations from the developer manager perspective. And the blog by SAP Champion Michelle Crapo that highlights several TechEd sessions involving the amazing women of our community (including her own interview) deserves a special mention. Kudos, Michelle!
Learning Hub
As an SAP TechEd attendee, you will also have access to SAP Learning Hub, Event Edition from December 1st through March 31st .
Learning Hub is primarily a platform for the SAP certification. First time this year, SAP offers a 50% discount on the purchases of 2 SAP Global Certification exam attempts. Discount is valid only for purchases through December 1-31 and is subject to availability.
The exam attempts are valid for a year after the purchase. While browsing Learning Hub discussions, I have noticed there was a lot of confusion about this offering. This Wiki page contains many helpful details (note that you need to be logged into Learning Hub first in order to open the link).
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Even though I do not miss the long plane flights and hotel beds, it is hard not to miss the excitement, the rush, and even the inevitable post-TechEd withdrawal syndrome, so familiar to many event veterans. Perhaps this open and unifying, global and digital TechEd with “no badges, no bags, no queues” and no four-digit ticket price should become part of the regular SAP conference rotation.
I look forward to meeting you all, even if only virtually, next week!
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