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SAP TechEd is a sprawling conference with over 600 potential learning sessions. Plan your sessions to navigate the conference better—and don’t forget to try out the new Hands-On Learning Labs. Remember to bring staples like comfortable shoes and business cards. Finally, determine which restaurants and fun activities you want to participate in during your stay in the city.
SAP TechEd is the place to be for professionals who want a chance to brainstorm alongside the best and brightest in the industry and figure out the best steps through hands-on sessions, speaking engagements, and other similar events. SAP will be offering up intelligent business solutions at this massive conference that will be a hotspot for professional networking on September 24 through September 27, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A conference as huge as SAP TechEd can be bewildering at first if you don’t have a plan of action. After all, with 32 learning journeys and over 600 sessions, there’s a lot of the hustle and bustle you need to wade through to get to what will help you and your organization most. That’s why we’ve aggregated our best tips on how to survive SAP TechEd in Las Vegas. Good luck!
Hands-On Learning Labs
SAP is offering a new format for learning at this year’s TechEd conference—Hands-On Learning Labs. These special sessions are a first-come, first-served set of training that occurs each day during a four-hour period of the conference.
These self-paced learning labs cover a variety of topics, so it’s best to check the schedule in advance. You can add these labs to your conference agenda on the SAP website, as well as other courses and events. Don’t miss out on anything you find important during these few days.
Some topics available as Hands-On Learning Labs include:
- Develop and Deliver Cloud-Native Extensions for SAP C/4HANA
- Collaborative Business Planning with SAP Analytics Cloud
- End-to-End Application Development for SAP HANA
- Master SAP Analytics Cloud
Each lab has expert help available to you in case you have any questions.
Hot Topic Sessions
As you’re creating your agenda, choose a pre-made learning journey from one of the 32 available options direct from SAP. Doing so ensures that you get the most bang for your time and money. These journeys are divided into six key session tracks to help you narrow down your desired path. They also have the option to choose directly from the catalog in order to build a custom learning journey that’s perfectly suited to your needs.
Among the session tracks available are:
- Explore the Intelligent Suite
- Integration Out-of-the-Box
- Digital Transformation and Cloud Application Architecture
- Applied Intelligence
- Next-Gen Data Management and Artificial Intelligence
- User Experience
- Security by Default
Then, in each of these session tracks are journeys. For example, some of the available journeys in the Applied Intelligence track include:
- Transform your business processes with intelligent technologies
- Develop, extend, and embed SAP Analytics solutions
- Connect your Enterprise through Collaborative Enterprise Planning
Which sessions you find most worth your time will be entirely dependent on your job and the stage of digital transformation of your company as well as the size of the business. Some hot topics to be on the lookout for are SAP Data Hub: Data Integration with Enterprise Applications and Develop an End-to-End Intelligent Process for an Intelligent Enterprise. Both of these are included in the “Master integration technologies uniting your intelligent suite” journey in the Integration Out-of-the-Box session track.
There are a lot of ways to learn at SAP TechEd, from demo-rich lectures, lightning talks, strategy talks, coding sessions, strategy sessions, and more. It is very important to look ahead of time at what you’d most like to do and what will be beneficial for your company in order to flesh out your agenda. Otherwise, you’ll likely do a lot of walking around trying to figure out where to go and what to do next.
How to Navigate the Conference
The most critical step in figuring out how to navigate SAP TechEd is setting your agenda ahead of time, which you can do on the SAP conference website. Once you have a fully fleshed-out schedule, you’ll be able to quickly check your map near the end of a session and make a path to your next course.
It may also be helpful to have a printout of your agenda and a highlighter with you so you can verify where you’re at in your journey, what’s next, and the best path to get there (especially in case your phone dies—which we’ll cover in just a moment!)
Remember, though, to leave yourself time to stop and network if that’s relevant to your business goals! Similarly, there will be time and social activities after the conference to further your connections.
Conference Must-Haves
Things you don’t want to contend with during the conference because they could waste highly valuable time and opportunities: shoes you can’t stand to walk in and a dead phone battery.
If you bring nothing else to SAP TechEd, be absolutely certain you pack these three things:
- Comfortable (yet professional) shoes
- A portable phone charger—make sure to remember to charge it before you leave, because they can take a while to charge completely. You can usually get battery backups at any of the big box stores as well.
- Business cards—you do not want to be trying to jot your contact information on a slip of paper (or, worse yet, someone’s hand) when you’re trying to network quickly. Similarly, see item number two, in case you need to jot a quick note and don’t want ink on your own hands.
Other relevant items to bring include:
- Folder. You may receive documents, worksheets and other similar paperwork. Rather than shove them all in your bag, tuck them neatly into a folder for safekeeping and later review.
- Notebook and writing utensil. If you want to jot a quick note either about a learning session or a new contact, you’ll be happy to have some paper and a pen quick at hand.
- Business card holder. You have the potential to make a lot of new connections at SAP TechEd. Keep them organized and contained, and you’ll have an extra second to jot a quick note about your newfound contact.
- Professional, comfortable clothes. First impressions make a big difference. You want to look professional, but you similarly don’t want to be fussing with your clothes the whole time. Wear something you don’t need to readjust constantly or fidget with. Spend your focus on networking and learning, instead. Remember to bring a few spares too, in case of spills or other mishaps. Also, if you have something wrinkle-proof, you’ll save time wrestling with the iron each morning. Remember to pack a jacket or sweater too, in case the conferences are chilly.
- Carrying bag. Whether a purse, computer bag, tote, or similar, you’ll thank yourself for this. You’ll want somewhere to stow your supplies, and papers and business cards you receive, your map, water bottle, phone, etc. It’s no fun trying to fumble through a handshake or a hands-on lab if you’re juggling all your gear.
Dining and Extra Fun In The Area
After a long day at a conference, it’s nice to be able to de-stress over a delicious meal. Similarly, it’s a great way to cement new bonds with potential partners and other business contacts. In the fine dining realm, you have Kabuto, Edge Steakhouse, e by Jose Andres, Ferarro’s Italian Restaurant, and many more.
If you’re looking for something a little more affordable, you’ve got Juan’s Flaming Fajitas, Omelet House, Mr. Mama’s, and Fat Tuesday. With plenty of local fare and chains alike in Las Vegas, you’ll have plenty of options available at any price point.
Plus, if you want to get get some exercise and give back to the community, you can show up a couple of days early on Wednesday, September 25 for the Diane Davis Memorial 5K Fun Run/Walk.
Of course, Las Vegas has plenty of opportunities for fun, from museums and exhibitions to its notorious casinos, so it’s great to look ahead to see what tourist sites might attract your attention while you’re in town.