Three fas­ci­nat­ing keynote pre­sen­ta­tions, a vibrant drum­line per­for­mance, an engaged audi­ence of more than 700 SAP pro­fes­sion­als — but what res­onat­ed the most with me at ASUG Tech Con­nect? The gen­uine sense of ASUG mem­bers com­ing togeth­er, embody­ing the essence of com­mu­ni­ty in action.

As the emcee for our inau­gur­al edi­tion of this con­fer­ence for the SAP com­mu­ni­ty, held across three jam-packed days in New Orleans, I had the priv­i­lege of observ­ing atten­dees from a unique angle. Much like a con­duc­tor guid­ing a sym­pho­ny, I not only got to engage with speak­ers, cus­tomers, and event part­ners, but also was able to help orches­trate the har­mo­nious blend of diverse per­spec­tives and inno­v­a­tive ener­gies that char­ac­ter­ized the event.

What stood out the most to me was how impor­tant it was that we brought this group of SAP pro­fes­sion­als togeth­er when we did and how we did. In the rapid­ly evolv­ing world of tech­nol­o­gy, where vir­tu­al inter­ac­tions often replace face-to-face con­nec­tion, ASUG Tech Con­nect pro­vid­ed a tan­gi­ble reminder of the sig­nif­i­cance of fos­ter­ing in-per­son com­mu­ni­ty. 

Metic­u­lous­ly timed and strate­gi­cal­ly planned to fol­low SAP’s vir­tu­al TechEd event, and tai­lored to a North Amer­i­can SAP user audi­ence, this first edi­tion of ASUG Tech Con­nect promised each attendee the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ​“become an SAP super­hero.” And, true to that theme, we saw heroes from all around the SAP ecosys­tem unite in their quest to obtain peer-dri­ven insights and expert guid­ance, learn­ing from one anoth­er and shar­ing hard-won wis­dom on how best to nav­i­gate busi­ness and tech­nol­o­gy challenges.

From dis­cus­sions between influ­en­tial ASUG and SAP lead­ers — includ­ing ASUG CEO Geoff Scott, SAP Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer Juer­gen Mueller, and Max Wes­sel, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent & Chief Learn­ing Offi­cer at SAP—to authen­tic dia­logues with cus­tomers, there was a con­tin­u­ous exchange of con­ver­sa­tion and inno­va­tion. The ASUG Hub served as a nat­ur­al set­ting for much of this activ­i­ty, com­ple­ment­ed by vibrant exchanges dur­ing the Pow­er Peer Group ses­sions. How­ev­er, some of the most inspir­ing moments were wit­ness­ing the shar­ing and prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion of lessons learned and best prac­tices dur­ing hands-on ses­sions, which gave atten­dees action­able insights and strate­gic pri­or­i­ties they could bring back to their businesses.

The pow­er of learn­ing, con­nec­tion, and growth that I observed from the keynote stage, as well as unfold­ing in cus­tomer-led break­out ses­sions and net­work­ing activ­i­ties, empha­sized the vital role that com­mu­ni­ty plays in pro­pelling inno­va­tion. It served as a reminder of the pow­er of a shared expe­ri­ence and under­scored the irre­place­able val­ue of phys­i­cal­ly bring­ing togeth­er like-mind­ed indi­vid­u­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly for this com­mu­ni­ty of SAP professionals.

Through our year-round com­mit­ment to in-per­son events like ASUG Tech Con­nect, ASUG rec­og­nizes and embraces the need for SAP tech­nol­o­gists to con­gre­gate and lis­ten to their fel­low cus­tomers share sto­ries of deter­mi­na­tion and inge­nu­ity. At this con­fer­ence, atten­dees also had a front-row seat for break­ing roadmap updates from SAP on cru­cial top­ics like gen­er­a­tive AI, clean core, and SAP Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Plat­form. And, of course, the event gave atten­dees an invalu­able oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with part­ners and learn which ser­vices and solu­tions will best sup­port their trans­for­ma­tion needs. 

Ulti­mate­ly, the suc­cess of ASUG Tech Con­nect was­n’t just mea­sured by the num­ber of atten­dees or the cal­iber of the pre­sen­ta­tions. It was defined by the pal­pa­ble spir­it of com­mu­ni­ty that rever­ber­at­ed through­out the premis­es. This event reaf­firmed the impor­tance of cre­at­ing spaces where pro­fes­sion­als can unite, share ideas, and col­lec­tive­ly shape the future of tech­nol­o­gy — indeed, becom­ing true SAP superheroes. 

In com­ing togeth­er to suc­cess­ful­ly plan and exe­cute ASUG Tech Con­nect, our com­mu­ni­ty plant­ed the seeds for ongo­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion, inno­va­tion, and cama­raderie that will undoubt­ed­ly con­tin­ue to flour­ish in 2024 and for years to come. As Bob Bucy, IS Busi­ness Ana­lyst, Sup­ply Chain at bio­Merieux, ASUG Car­oli­nas Chap­ter Chair, and long­stand­ing ASUG vol­un­teer stat­ed on stage dur­ing the day-two keynote, ​“Every­body here has some­thing that they can share, and some­body that needs to hear it.” I, for one, can’t wait to see what’s next for this com­mu­ni­ty. Togeth­er, there’s no lim­it to what we can achieve. 

Kel­ly Dowl­ing is Direc­tor of Con­tent Strat­e­gy at ASUG.