If you’re pay­ing atten­tion, you know that tech­nol­o­gy is advanc­ing at a rapid pace. There’s no short­age of con­fer­ences and sum­mits designed to help us keep up. But what makes SAP­PHIRE NOW and ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence the one event you shouldn’t miss?

Lori Fos­ter, senior direc­tor, busi­ness enter­prise cen­ter of excel­lence for Mallinck­rodt Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals talked to us about her expe­ri­ence as a first-time attendee and first-time pre­sen­ter at the 2018 con­fer­ence. She has spent the last 24 years work­ing in var­i­ous roles in sup­ply chain man­age­ment and com­plet­ed her first SAP imple­men­ta­tion in 1996. She explained, ​“I signed up with ASUG in 2017 to take advan­tage of the user group con­nec­tions and the vast amount of edu­ca­tion and cus­tomer sto­ries avail­able to its members.”

Con­nec­tions, cou­pled with edu­ca­tion, are what set the ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence apart from all oth­er events you can attend this year. We sat down with Lori to ask her about her per­son­al expe­ri­ence at the event. Here’s why she thinks you should attend:

Sharon: Lori, can you tell us a lit­tle more about your back­ground and your work with SAP products?

Lori: I com­plet­ed my first imple­men­ta­tion of an SAP sys­tem, which was the ERP Cen­tral Com­po­nent (ECC) R/3, in 1996 as the team lead for a man­u­fac­tur­ing plant. After that imple­men­ta­tion, I went into var­i­ous sup­ply chain lead­er­ship roles where I was an SAP user for anoth­er 10 years. In 2009, I led a large SAP trans­for­ma­tion project as the glob­al pro­cure to pay lead. That project last­ed two years as we imple­ment­ed SAP and numer­ous bolt-ons in 36 coun­tries. For the last two years, I was the pro­gram direc­tor for two sep­a­rate SAP projects, which includ­ed an upgrade to SAP S/4HANA as well as a green­field imple­men­ta­tion of SAP S/4HANA.

Sharon: You’re already an SAP vet­er­an. Why did you decide to attend the 2018 SAP­PHIRE NOW and ASUG Annu­al Conference?

Lori: I want­ed to attend in 2017 but couldn’t due to an SAP launch I was work­ing on. I did, how­ev­er, watch the live stream as much as I could. In 2018, a col­league and I decid­ed that even though it was only a month after our green­field SAP S/4HANA imple­men­ta­tion, we would sign up to present our sto­ry. I had nev­er attend­ed before, but I heard so many peo­ple say how great it was. I want­ed to take part in that experience.

Sharon:This was a com­plete­ly new expe­ri­ence for you. Did you have any hes­i­ta­tions or con­cerns? How would you describe what it was like?

Lori: It hon­est­ly wasn’t until the first day of the con­fer­ence that I real­ized the mag­ni­tude of it all. When I rode the esca­la­tors down to the main hall, I was in awe of the event. As a first-time attendee and pre­sen­ter, I couldn’t have had a more amaz­ing expe­ri­ence. It was every­thing from the vast amount of infor­ma­tion that was avail­able, to the sup­pli­er booths, the ASUG pre­sen­ta­tions, and most impor­tant­ly, the abil­i­ty to present. All of it was part of some­thing that you can only get by being there in person.

The ASUG por­tion of the event was so well done. Aside from hav­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present, which was great in and of itself, hear­ing the sto­ries and use cas­es that oth­er com­pa­nies shared was phe­nom­e­nal. What I heard most from oth­er atten­dees was their deep desire to learn from their peers. Peer learn­ing and bench­mark­ing are what make the resources and con­nec­tions you gain from ASUG so valu­able. These can real­ly help you be successful.

ASUG News: Can you share more about the peer learn­ing experience?

Lori: Peer learn­ing is the key to avoid mis­takes. Some­one will always go first. Some­times they make mis­takes and some­times they are suc­cess­ful. We need to learn from both. It could be a tiny nugget of infor­ma­tion shared that makes the biggest difference.

I made some great con­nec­tions with peers at last year’s con­fer­ence. Those con­nec­tions have opened doors to engag­ing with indus­try lead­ers and pre­sent­ing at oth­er con­fer­ences. I also learned that so many com­pa­nies are fac­ing the same chal­lenges. There is no sense in going at any­thing alone. ASUG pro­vides a net­work and forum that is extreme­ly valu­able. I know if I am ever stuck with an issue, I can reach out and find some­one with the answer.

ASUG News: Aside from peer learn­ing, what were some oth­er take­aways for you?

Lori: The con­fer­ence pro­vid­ed me a plat­form to learn about emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy. Busi­ness­es are going to be chal­lenged to adopt new sys­tems. This is the are­na to learn about what’s com­ing next and have the right con­ver­sa­tions with the right people.

ASUG News: What would you tell first-time atten­dees to do to pre­pare for the conference?

Lori: Use the app and abstracts to help you deter­mine the ses­sions you would like to attend. It’s a resource, so use it. Try not to go alone. Make sure that oth­ers in your com­pa­ny attend and make sure that your busi­ness col­leagues are going along with the IT teams.

We sent a mix of busi­ness col­leagues and indi­vid­u­als from the IT depart­ment, and because of that, we were able to divide and con­quer as much as we could. We would meet at the end of each day and debrief on what we learned. I spent most of my time attend­ing the ASUG tracks because SAP does a great job of record­ing the oth­ers, which meant I could watch them on my own time.

For my sec­ond go at this con­fer­ence, I will be study­ing the agen­da care­ful­ly, look­ing at the abstracts to seek out the best ses­sions to attend. I usu­al­ly lean toward the cus­tomer sto­ry ses­sions, so there will be many of those on my radar this year. I was so excit­ed about my own speak­ing expe­ri­ence last year that I vol­un­teered to review con­tent and abstracts for the 2019 event.

Sim­ply put, tar­get areas that are of strate­gic val­ue to your com­pa­ny, net­work, and enjoy the experience!

ASUG News: What about those who are con­sid­er­ing attend­ing, but haven’t made a deci­sion yet?

Lori: You are miss­ing out if you don’t attend. Even after 20 years of using and imple­ment­ing SAP prod­ucts, it was still an amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty for me. Con­sid­er­ing the pace at which tech­nol­o­gy and SAP are advanc­ing, you need to stay cur­rent. This con­fer­ence not only gives you insight into emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, it’s a plat­form to net­work and learn from your peers.

Save your spot at SAP­PHIRE NOW and ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence. Reg­is­ter today for our biggest event of the year.