When I con­sid­ered what ​“view” I want­ed to express and what ​“voice” I want­ed to bring to this col­umn, to be deliv­ered to you as some of us pre­pare to attend SAP Sap­phire & ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence in May, many things came to mind.

Top of mind is excite­ment! For those of us com­ing togeth­er in Orlando…

For ASUG com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers attend­ing the vir­tu­al edition…

And for every­one to whom ASUG has already begun to deliv­er SAP Sap­phire & ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence-relat­ed con­tent and infor­ma­tion, as we will con­tin­ue to do in the weeks ahead….

Last year, we were ​“accel­er­at­ing” back to in-per­son events after a long pause. This year, we are excit­ed to be togeth­er in per­son for our ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence. This impor­tant con­fer­ence is a major oppor­tu­ni­ty to embrace the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty as one, like we have done for many years. 

We are hap­py to have thought lead­ers and sub­ject mat­ter experts com­ing togeth­er on the ground, to con­nect and to share their expe­ri­ences with SAP pro­fes­sion­als, SAP part­ners, and SAP customers. 

At SAP Sapphire/​ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence this year, we are proud to be once again kick­ing off the con­fer­ence pre-show, with 10 pre-con­fer­ence ses­sions that allow our atten­dees to deep dive and strate­gize on the key strate­gic top­ics that have brought them eager­ly to Orlando. 

We are also excit­ed to be offer­ing 23 Pow­er Peer Groups in the ASUG Hub. These Pow­er Peer Groups, which we intro­duced last year, were so pop­u­lar among atten­dees, and so suc­cess­ful in their mis­sion, that we are bring­ing them back. These are not sim­ply pre­sen­ta­tions but also open con­ver­sa­tions through which you can meet and con­nect with oth­ers in the SAP ecosys­tem to share your ideas, expe­ri­ences, and stories.

This year, on the keynote stage, I am excit­ed to show SAP users, SAP part­ners, and SAP as a whole how to embrace the ener­gy of the ASUG com­mu­ni­ty to build strong net­works — and strong careers — with SAP. On the keynote stage, our Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer Car­olyn Dolezal, along with four of our ASUG board mem­bers and lead­ers in the SAP ecosys­tem, will be join­ing me to share peer-to-peer sto­ries and to authen­ti­cal­ly dis­cuss busi­ness outcomes. 

If you attend the event, you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to: 

1. Get smart fast by gain­ing valu­able insights from the lat­est research, best prac­tices, and expert per­spec­tives on cur­rent SAP issues and solutions.
2. Expand your net­work by con­nect­ing to inno­vate with oth­er SAP-savvy pro­fes­sion­als and by ben­e­fit­ing from rel­e­vant, real-life expe­ri­ences of peers with­in your industry.
3. Get pre­pared to lead by col­lab­o­rat­ing with oth­ers to solve busi­ness challenges.

And while ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence and SAP Sap­phire are impor­tant, they are just one mea­sure of the val­ue and expe­ri­ence that ASUG con­tributes to our com­mu­ni­ty every year, every day, every minute. We are here to con­nect SAP pro­fes­sion­als with one anoth­er, so that you can learn from each oth­er. Ulti­mate­ly, we are here to help you — to grow your careers and to become even bet­ter-equipped as SAP pro­fes­sion­als. And we are here to stay — to grow along­side you as we solve the busi­ness chal­lenges of tomor­row, together. 

This is a lit­tle of my view before the jour­ney… Check back for more sto­ries, views, and voic­es in the com­ing weeks.

Geoff Scott is CEO & Chief Com­mu­ni­ty Cham­pi­on at ASUG.