Getting Technical

Darren Hague and I had a odd idea two years ago.

“Why not run an unconference for SAP developers and consultants in London.”

So we did. We have run what has become known as SAP Inside Track in London twice now. On 19 June 2010 we will be giving it its third outing.

This year we tried to mix it up a bit by heading up to the midlands but the venue was proving a little tricky so we have gone back to IBM Southbank. Many thanks to Zoe Slattery for all the logistical assistance with the venue.

So you know the date and the venue, but you also need to know there is a small charge to cover the lunch.

There are several SAP Mentors coming to the event from around Europe and the UK. These guys like to get their hands dirty on real SAP systems. You wont be hearing vaporware or marketing speak from them.

The list of sessions that we have already is impressive. We have James Farrar from the SAP Sustainability Team. James recently presented to the SAP Mentors at SAPPHIRENOW in Frankfurt about the SAP Sustainability report.

Ant Phillips from IBM will be presenting a session on Enterprise Patterns.

Dennis Howlett will be leading a topic on Marketing. We have people from inside SAP and consultants and it is well worth getting down to IBM to listen to a bunch of really smart people talk about SAP and Enterprise Technologies.

The other sessions planned for the day are on the SDN Wiki.

If you are into twitter then follow along with the fun at @SAPInsideTrack.

One final thing to say is that the great people at Keytree have agreed to put some money behind the bar so we can have a drink after the event at one of the local pubs.

WORLD CUP NOTE: I am aware of the England game the night before and Australia and the Netherlands are both playing on Saturday so set your recorder and come along to a great day of information and networking.

So, put your name on the wiki page, pay your tenner for lunch and we will see you there.

[Picture of SAP Inside Track 2009 courtesy of Yojibee]

Earlier this year we (a couple of SAP Mentors) put on an Inside Track event in London. As the SAP TechEd series of events is coming around now I am starting to think about what we could do for next year. Here are a few questions for you:

Did you enjoy the event this year?

Would you recommend it to a friend?

What went well?

What could we improve?

Given there is an event in Bonn in the first half of next year would you come to both?

What dates work for you?

What topics would you like to see covered?

Answers in the comments please.

For more information about the SAP Inside Track series of local events follow http://twitter.com/sapinsidetrack/

Note for the lawers amoungst us: SAP Inside Track is a community run event organised by SAP Mentors in various cities around the world. It is not officially endorsed as an official education channel by SAP AG or any of its local subsiduaries. Having said that the people who come to these events know what they are doing and you 1. might learn something and 2. might meet someone. You should come.

Darren Hague and I had a odd idea last year.

“Why not run an unconference for SAP developers and consultants in London.”

SAP Inside Track London 2009

We had both been to SAP Community Days and thought we could pull something off. So we hustled together a venue and a wiki page to handle the signups and sessions.

It was a lot of fun. So much so that this year we are repeating the whole process.

This year we have managed to secure IBM Southbank as a venue. Thanks to a lot of help from Zoe Slattery. 

The date is April 4 and there is a small charge of £10 to cover the lunch. (Signup quickly in March for the early bird rate. In April it will rocket to £15!)

There are several SAP Mentors coming to the event from Europe so it is a great chance to hear from them and particularly the ESME team.

Ant Phillips from IBM will be presenting a session on connecting SAP up with Project Zero, the community version of Websphere sMash. The other sessions planned for the day are on the SDN Wiki.

One of the  sessions is a discussion on certification. This has been a hot topic in the SAP community lately. New Mentor Michael Koch is currently running a survey on how certification relates to contractors. You can complete this survey here and it would be great to see some good results from that survey at the unconference.

You can follow the fun in twitter at @SAPInsideTrack.

One of the great benefits of these days is the networking and conversations with people in trenches.  In credit crunched times such as today these can be even more valuable than official training sessions and (dare I say it) certification.

If you would like to come along to meet the mentors, participate in the sessions, run a session for yourself there is still time to signup.