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SAP TechEd 2008 kickstarts @ Bangalore
By Vimali Swamy
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Thursday, 13 November 2008, 23:47 IST |
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Bangalore: SAP today kick started the SAP TechEd 2008 in Bangalore - an annual technology education and business process conference. Aimed at bringing together the best minds from the Indian technical community to harness the collective knowledge and resources of the SAP ecosystem, this year's conference was based on the theme "Connect, Collaborate, Co-Innovate". The event buzzed with an active participation of about 6000 techies, including IT managers, business analysts, system administrators, SAP partners, consultants, independent software vendors (ISVs), evaluation and implementation specialists, and business intelligence consultants, who see this as an opportunity to enhance their skills and provide value to their companies and businesses.
Delivering the inaugural keynote address, Peter Zencke, Member of the Executive Board of SAP AG said, "The SAP TechEd event series is the destination of choice for members of the SAP ecosystem across the globe. The Bangalore event is of particular importance, as the SAP community in India is thriving. Attendees will have the opportunity to share their learning and experiences, while also tapping into the collective knowledge of the larger SAP ecosystem."
To be held from November 1214, 2008, the three-day event will feature the latest innovations in technology, applications and services that can enable IT to respond rapidly to development changes of companies expand capabilities and maximize business impact. TechEd is one of SAP's premier annual events held across the world. Earlier on this year SAP had conducted the event at Las Vegas and Berlin as well. This year's sessions will delve mainly into SAP NetWeaver technology platform, the SAP Business Suite family of business applications, service-oriented architecture (SOA), business process management, end-to-end solution support and lifecycle management, Java and ABAP. SAP also saw took the event as an opportunity to mark the inaugural appearance of Business Objects as an SAP company, and feature new sessions on Business Objects topics.
A day before the event, SAP held the 'Community Day', a pre-conference program where it invited top 200 Indian contributors in SAP's community network to share successes, identify needs and discuss the tools that can help users increase efficiency and impact. "India is the largest contributor in the Asia Pacific region and the second largest contributor worldwide in SAP's community network. This can be judged in terms of membership, which currently stands to 1.5 million members and active contribution in the various community activities," said Mark Yolton, SVP SAP Community Network while speaking to siliconindia. The company is now working towards creating more value by reaching out to the technologists and business heads and bringing them together under one roof. "Expanding the activities of SAP's community network, the company has launched new initiatives like Eco Hub and Innocentive that will act as a market place for all technologists and business enthusiasts to share their knowledge and learn from each other. The company will also host series of power packed competitions via these initiatives and challenge the brightest of the minds to come up with coolest solutions to many of prevailing industry problems, technical and business likewise," said Michael Bechauf, VP - Industry Standards, Global Ecosystems and Partners Group, SAP Labs.
TechEd is one of SAP's premier annual events held across the world. Earlier on SAP had conducted the event at Las Vegas and Berlin as well. Unlike the increased number of participation in event in the two cities, the event at Bangalore did not see any rise in the number of attendees. This could be due to the toll the global economy has taken on the industry. However, most attendees claimed at at the increase in the quality of content. A first time attendee, Ashok P, a software developer from TCS who came to TechEd with 150 other colleagues and found the event to be an enriching and knowledgeable experience and immensely. "We work on many of the SAP's products and the event allowed us to connect to various SAP professionals understand about the company's different offerings," he said.
Apart from the line up of some intensive technical sessions for the next few days, TechEd 2008 also has a volley of activities to retain up the high energy and enthusiasm of the attendees. The Demo Jam competition, a regular highlight of SAP TechEd, will feature demonstrations on the latest SAP-related technology projects, presented by customers, partners and SAP employees. The event also has the Community Clubhouse, which features a networking lounge where attendees can meet face-to-face with mentors, peers and event speakers to share information about SAP's various programs and initiatives. There were also gaming zones with miniature golf pitch or Nintendo Wii that allow the attendees to simply enjoy and unwind.
