Har­ness­ing the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty to help our mem­bers learn, con­nect, and grow has long been a key part of the ASUG promise, and our in-per­son events could not be more essen­tial in ful­fill­ing that promise. 

From indus­try-spe­cif­ic events — like our fast-approach­ing Dal­las con­fer­ence for oil, gas, and ener­gy and our Chica­go con­fer­ence for util­i­ties—to the SAP Sap­phire and ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence in Orlan­do, at ASUG, we are com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing in-per­son oppor­tu­ni­ties for our mem­bers to come togeth­er to dis­cuss their own sto­ries and lis­ten to oth­ers. As we know, there is no sub­sti­tute for the ener­gy, enthu­si­asm, and extra­or­di­nary insight that these com­mu­nal expe­ri­ences can unlock. 

We’ve always seen SAP TechEd as a go-to event for devel­op­ers, prac­ti­tion­ers, enter­prise archi­tects, and glob­al IT lead­ers in the SAP prod­uct ecosys­tem. At ASUG, we’ve been eager par­tic­i­pants in this event. When SAP decid­ed against host­ing an in-per­son TechEd event for its North Amer­i­can user base this year, we saw a tremen­dous oppor­tu­ni­ty to lead the way with an edu­ca­tion­al, in-per­son expe­ri­ence of our own: ASUG Tech Con­nect.

With our inau­gur­al ASUG Tech Con­nect event in New Orleans this Novem­ber, we are com­bin­ing two of our areas of exper­tise — tech­nol­o­gy and com­mu­ni­ty — and col­lab­o­rat­ing close­ly with the devel­op­er com­mu­ni­ty to design an in-per­son expe­ri­ence tai­lored to the North Amer­i­can tech audi­ence. What do you want to learn? Who do you want to meet? At ASUG Tech Con­nect, we’ll place a pre­mi­um on knowl­edge-shar­ing and skills-build­ing by cre­at­ing space for you to immerse your­self in edu­ca­tion, net­work­ing, and training. 

Gain insights from IT lead­ers who can answer your burn­ing ques­tions. Meet devel­op­ers and prac­ti­tion­ers on trans­for­ma­tion jour­neys sim­i­lar to your own. Par­tic­i­pate in hands-on, inter­ac­tive train­ing ses­sions with prod­uct experts. Think of ASUG Tech Con­nect as our com­mit­ment to reimag­ine TechEd through the ASUG lens, putting our mem­bers first so that you can make bet­ter-informed deci­sions, learn how to use new solu­tions from SAP, and con­tin­ue to mature the skills you’ve been devel­op­ing for years. 

Let’s be clear: We are active­ly build­ing ASUG Tech Con­nect around the cur­rent needs of the user, around the present real­i­ty of tech­nol­o­gy for our mem­bers and cus­tomers. We are focus­ing on pro­vid­ing expe­ri­ences informed by where you are now and what you do today, rather than sim­ply focus­ing on prod­ucts you could be using. We are not walk­ing away from on-premis­es solu­tions, nor are we leav­ing behind ABAP devel­op­ment. You will learn how to be sup­port­ed today as well as set up for the future. 

ASUG Tech Con­nect is about get­ting empow­ered to improve and move for­ward, which means embrac­ing new tech­nolo­gies and new solu­tions but also lever­ag­ing your cur­rent tech­nol­o­gy envi­ron­ments to the fullest extent. In launch­ing this first-of-its-kind con­fer­ence, we’re eval­u­at­ing every step of the way what’s in it for the user, for the cus­tomer. As we secure a robust array of SAP cus­tomers to share their sto­ries, as well as experts from SAP and its part­ner com­mu­ni­ty, we are ask­ing, and will con­tin­ue to ask: ​“How will this help you get the most out of your exist­ing tech­nol­o­gy investments?”

This is a ques­tion we’re always com­mit­ted to answer­ing for our mem­bers, which is why the ASUG Tech Con­nect event will also fea­ture in-per­son oppor­tu­ni­ties for our year-round com­mu­ni­ty alliances, so you can share your SAP chal­lenges with peers and solve them togeth­er while learn­ing more through vir­tu­al round­ta­bles, pan­el dis­cus­sions, and direct feed­back ses­sions with SAP to help influ­ence its prod­uct roadmap. ASUG Tech Con­nect is one stop of many that is avail­able to you through the ASUG community. 

And, of course, ASUG Tech Con­nect will take full advan­tage of the in-per­son expe­ri­ence by launch­ing in New Orleans, where a con­flu­ence of mod­ern enter­pris­es, star­tups, and tech tal­ent has forged a new meet­ing place for the bright­est minds in tech­nol­o­gy. It is our con­vic­tion that the thriv­ing cul­ture of New Orleans — its music, its archi­tec­ture, and of course its unpar­al­leled cui­sine — will com­bine with its grow­ing stature as a tech­nol­o­gy hub to pro­vide an unique­ly mem­o­rable and inspi­ra­tional expe­ri­ence for our attendees. 

On behalf of ASUG, I can­not wait to wel­come you to ASUG Tech Con­nect. Join us at Ernest N. Mor­i­al Con­ven­tion Cen­ter – New Orleans on Nov. 7 – 9, as we come togeth­er to cov­er the chal­lenges most crit­i­cal to you today.

Geoff Scott is CEO & Chief Com­mu­ni­ty Cham­pi­on at ASUG.