TechEd Bangalore 2012 was my first experience of attending such a big conference. I was attracted to this event by reading many blogs on TechEd at different locations by participants. In India it's a three days conference and the overall experience is good. I arrived at the location well on time and had a very much smooth registration process. I must say volunteers were very supportive in resolving any registration issues.
Keynote session:
I remember, when I had entered the conference room before the keynote session, the very first time, looking at the arrangements I had a great feeling and it added to my excitement of attending the conference. I was lucky to get a front seat very much near the centre stage to attend the keynote session. Keynote revolved mostly along three hot topics and can be guessed easily; database technology, mobility and cloud. It was fascinating to see demo's related to these topics. To be at a front seat is both advantageous and disadvantageous. Advantage is you get to see the stage activities precisely and disadvantage is I could see how frequently the keynote speaker had to look on screen to see what was his next statement. This was not good to observe as it distracts the attention of participants. There was no new big announcement done in keynote session. Vishal Sikka's recorded session was full of big words like empathetic systems, empowering end users etc. etc. and certainly around HANA. These big words no more enchant me, without any reason. It was also good to see that human values or design thinking was part of every session. However there was no demonstration of any product where design thinking was applied and which added to the value of the product. At the time of partner keynote session, most of the front-seaters had already left the place. However, IBM had a good demonstration of using technology to solve real world problems.
First day sessions:
I had booked two hands-on workshop for the first day. First was ABAP on HANA and second was on Business by Design to build mobile apps. ABAP on HANA was a lovely session. The speakers were very charged and very clearly explained how to control HANA database with ABAP. It was clearly shown that to move to HANA is non-disruptive. It was great to see the huge time differences when the program ran on HANA than on traditional database. It was great. However, I could not do anything practically owing to time constraints. This session was a hit for me. I would not emphasize more on the fact that better could have been done in terms of arranging a working computer for all the participants.
Business by design to build mobile apps too had good speakers and they were very patient with the participants. Coding was done in C#. Expectation was the app would run on any mobile device. Unfortunately it did not run on my ipad.
Demojam:
Demojam was certainly a hit. It showed many beautiful apps developed by participants in six minutes. It was strange to see that the winner was decided by the amount of support given by the audience. However, the winner had developed an app for smooth commutation of ambulances in India. There were many other great apps as well.
V.V.S Lakshman:
This was exciting.
TechEd party:
I did not attend this and hence can't write about it.
Second day:
I did only attend design thinking workshop on the second day and have shared my views on SCN.
Third day:
Third day had an exciting beginning for me as I was interviewed by Jason Lax regarding SCN. This can be found on online TechEd link. I planned to visit the many booths on the third day. I visited Capgemini stall and they showed an app that they had made using HANA and mobility. It was good.
I then moved on to HANA booths and again could see different kinds of charts. However I realized that those booths were more for marketting purpose than giving a presentation to attendees.
I attended two hands on session on the third day. First was building user interfaces in the cloud using SAP UI5. It was interesting to follow steps and at last see an working model.
Second was ABAP on Eclipse. This session was again a hit for me. Speakers were good and they clearly highlighted the improvements in ABAP on eclipse. There were many times when speakers said, this is in JAVA and is now available in ABAP as well. Time for this session was sufficient and enough.
Conclusion:
TechEd Bangalore is good to attend. It is very necessary to keep your agenda ready else one may end up in confused state during the event. It is particularly beneficial for people who would like to know about a new product by SAP or roadmaps of technology by SAP. People have to be specific about their aim of attending TechEd.
Keynote session:
I remember, when I had entered the conference room before the keynote session, the very first time, looking at the arrangements I had a great feeling and it added to my excitement of attending the conference. I was lucky to get a front seat very much near the centre stage to attend the keynote session. Keynote revolved mostly along three hot topics and can be guessed easily; database technology, mobility and cloud. It was fascinating to see demo's related to these topics. To be at a front seat is both advantageous and disadvantageous. Advantage is you get to see the stage activities precisely and disadvantage is I could see how frequently the keynote speaker had to look on screen to see what was his next statement. This was not good to observe as it distracts the attention of participants. There was no new big announcement done in keynote session. Vishal Sikka's recorded session was full of big words like empathetic systems, empowering end users etc. etc. and certainly around HANA. These big words no more enchant me, without any reason. It was also good to see that human values or design thinking was part of every session. However there was no demonstration of any product where design thinking was applied and which added to the value of the product. At the time of partner keynote session, most of the front-seaters had already left the place. However, IBM had a good demonstration of using technology to solve real world problems.
First day sessions:
I had booked two hands-on workshop for the first day. First was ABAP on HANA and second was on Business by Design to build mobile apps. ABAP on HANA was a lovely session. The speakers were very charged and very clearly explained how to control HANA database with ABAP. It was clearly shown that to move to HANA is non-disruptive. It was great to see the huge time differences when the program ran on HANA than on traditional database. It was great. However, I could not do anything practically owing to time constraints. This session was a hit for me. I would not emphasize more on the fact that better could have been done in terms of arranging a working computer for all the participants.
Business by design to build mobile apps too had good speakers and they were very patient with the participants. Coding was done in C#. Expectation was the app would run on any mobile device. Unfortunately it did not run on my ipad.
Demojam:
Demojam was certainly a hit. It showed many beautiful apps developed by participants in six minutes. It was strange to see that the winner was decided by the amount of support given by the audience. However, the winner had developed an app for smooth commutation of ambulances in India. There were many other great apps as well.
V.V.S Lakshman:
This was exciting.
TechEd party:
I did not attend this and hence can't write about it.
Second day:
I did only attend design thinking workshop on the second day and have shared my views on SCN.
Third day:
Third day had an exciting beginning for me as I was interviewed by Jason Lax regarding SCN. This can be found on online TechEd link. I planned to visit the many booths on the third day. I visited Capgemini stall and they showed an app that they had made using HANA and mobility. It was good.
I then moved on to HANA booths and again could see different kinds of charts. However I realized that those booths were more for marketting purpose than giving a presentation to attendees.
I attended two hands on session on the third day. First was building user interfaces in the cloud using SAP UI5. It was interesting to follow steps and at last see an working model.
Second was ABAP on Eclipse. This session was again a hit for me. Speakers were good and they clearly highlighted the improvements in ABAP on eclipse. There were many times when speakers said, this is in JAVA and is now available in ABAP as well. Time for this session was sufficient and enough.
Conclusion:
TechEd Bangalore is good to attend. It is very necessary to keep your agenda ready else one may end up in confused state during the event. It is particularly beneficial for people who would like to know about a new product by SAP or roadmaps of technology by SAP. People have to be specific about their aim of attending TechEd.
