TechEd 2017 & Las Vegas

This is my fifth TechEd in the eleven years of my SAP journey. Over the past decade, I have attended and presented at many conferences: TechEd, DKOM, SAPPHIRE, ASUG’s, TEDx, 1 million cups and Incubator programs. As you can see, I have been on both ends of the spectrum – the nerd world and the entrepreneur world. Of all the conferences I’ve attended, TechEd stands out as my favorite. I’ve visited TechEd in different roles & capacities – as a speaker, conducting the hands-on workshop and delivering lecture sessions and expert networking sessions, and as an attendee: representing SAP customers and now on the partner side.

The energy at TechEd is outstanding. It’s like the best of the SAP world put together under one roof. What makes it unique is people discussing real-world enterprise problems and seeking solutions to make their enterprises run better. I like the spirit of everyone coming together and with the goal of making the world a better place (that sounds like a Tech Crunch pitch, but it’s true).

TechEd and Vegas together bring unique flavor to the experience. One could attend the sessions and relax in between in their suite at the Venetian & Palazzo. If you are a foodie like me – I don’t need to mention the countless options for dining in the Grand Canal Shoppes alone. After a long day of learning one could unwind at the blackjack or craps table in the casino. Of course, this is another compelling reason to visit TechEd in Vegas.

What’s new this year at TechEd 2017? – Discovery Pass

SAP has taken the experience a step ahead by introducing the ‘Discovery Pass’. For those who are interested only in networking and visiting the Demo Jams, this is what you need. I guess it also makes it easy to create a business case as you would save $1600.

The full conference attendee pass is still available for those of you who would like to reap the maximum benefit from the event. This year you could choose up to three ‘hands-on-workshops’ which is icing on the cake.

Overwhelming Sessions

A total of 1318 sessions in 4 days is of course overwhelming… there is so much to learn. I wish I had superpowers to soak up all the energy and information from TechEd.

Until a few years ago the only way you could get a session material was to attend each session. People would team up to divide and conquer to cover as much ground as possible to collect the material, or look through SAP laptops to find their way to a shared drive to download all session materials. I never understood why SAP was restrictive about the material when we live in an open source world. I am glad they finally took steps toward digitization by getting rid of paper-based materials and making everything available online.

After applying a few filters to the session catalog, I brought down my list to 313 sessions. Even that is a lot for 4 days.

Three hands-on Workshops instead of two!

As I mentioned earlier, with the full conference badge each attendee receives admission to three hands-on workshops instead of two. Since hands-on workshops are at a premium, grab your favorites ASAP.

Once I narrowed down my focus to Digital and Innovation streams the next step was to sort through the session titles and add all the interesting ones to the agenda. It is not uncommon to find that the most interesting sessions happen in parallel. Pro tip: go ahead and add them as conflicts to your schedule. This way, you have a list of alternatives in case your current session turns out to be boring or simply Powerpoint overload.

Here’s my calendar after adding all interested sessions –

Poking TechEd App – Design Flaws 🙂

If you are an app person – there is more excitement. Download the TechEd 2017 App and you will be able to view your agenda, list of events, attendees, on-site guide, and more. This is one tool I highly recommend. Spend some time browsing through the app, as it has a lot of potential for networking

 

Being a design purist, I couldn’t stop myself from poking around and calling out some design flaws – when you click on the export button in the above screen and you see a pop-up but it is kind of blurred with the background and you cannot see the buttons.

Also, the phone icon for ‘My Messages’ is confusing. However, this isn’t a design review, so I would leave the app in its current state at this point.

My top picks for TechEd

My focus for this year’s TechEd is Machine Learning, Leonardo, Fiori, and IoT. I ended up choosing 63 sessions (off-course, with multiple conflicts). Here are a few of my top picks/recommendations

Hands-on-Workshops

• DX152 – Design Thinking with SAP CoPilot: The Total Package. Speakers – Matthias Kruse | Michael Falk | Vanessa MicelliSchmidt | Megan Zurcher
• CPL269 – Build a Digital Twin and Develop an IoT Application for Industrial Assets – Speakers Martin Ebert | Tim Back | John Astill
• CPL270 – Connect and Manage Every “Thing” – Speakers – Michael Ameling | Marco Ertel

Innovation Talks

• IT117 – Artificial Intelligence that Reads Science. Speakers– Maria Ritola
• IT200 – Build the Intelligent Enterprise with SAP Leonardo Machine Learning. Speakers – Markus Noga

Roadmap

• CPL811 – Road Map for SAP Leonardo IoT Foundation and SAP Leonardo IoT Edge. Speakers – Sindhu Gangadharan
• CPL805 – SAP Web IDE: Road Map and Q&A. Speakers – Avi Guzansky

Lecture Sessions – My list for this is section is exhaustive but will limit to top 2

• CPL103 – Blockchain and SAP: Use Cases, Scenarios, and New Solutions – Speakers- Torsten Zube
• DX213 – AR and VR for Business Users: The Immersive Experience Framework. Speakers – Philip Miseldine

After party networking

The best part of TechEd at Vegas is the after-party networking. The best one I could think about is the UX Customer Appreciation event. Register here to network with Industry thought leaders on UX and design thinking – https://sapscreenpersonas.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f2b231819df40e42a334b477d&id=f759c991cf. Hosted by Peter Spielvogel from SAP.

Of course the Yardbird Southern Table & Bar and the casino in the Venetian is my next go-to, where I randomly run in co-attendees and we end up discussing everything under the sun.

Unwind in the Venetian & Palazzo

Finally, now that you have filled your brain with knowledge, don’t forget to treat yourself to the relaxing environment in the Venetian & Palazzo. For first-timers, don’t miss the Volcanos at Mirage, the Bellagio, the restaurants in the Wynn and the strip.

 

Time to enjoy the TechEd 2017 conference!!!

 

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