Dave's Adventures in Business Intelligence

Wow, a five day conference (more specifically four days + Community Day) makes for a long week. Yesterday I had lunch with Giles Farrow (from Business Objects an SAP Company). Those that have been speakers in the past might recognize his name as he has been the coordinator for the Insight conferences these past few years. Giles used to work for Guinness (the beer company, not the book of records people) and tells some interesting stories. It was nice to catch up with him.

After lunch I went to the Community Clubhouse where I talked with Brian Bischof for a while. I had been introduced to Brian the night before; he is a well-known author, having published several books on Crystal Reports. He also has a series of articles on his web site (end of post for link) that talk about his experiences with self-publishing that I found very enlightening. I enjoyed the talk.

Continue reading “SAP TechEd Day … Something. Where Am I Again?”

So I find myself typing this post on my Blackberry because the wireless at the convention center is so bad… 🙄 … Mostly that means this post will be short. I am sitting in a Universe Design session. Why? Because nothing else at this time looked familiar or interesting. Why is this post-worthy? Because of all of the sessions I have observed, this one had the longest waitlist. It seems that SAP folks are starting to “get” that universes are where it’s at. 🙂

Unfortunately today I had several conference calls and some client work that had to get done, so for the most part I was unable to attend any specific events. I did have some great conversations with people in the hallways of the convention center, and that’s one of the primary reasons why I am here.

But not much to report as far as specific track sessions, I’m afraid. So you, too, my blog audience, have the day off from the conference as well. Hope you were as productive as I was. 8)

We have to get this for the Business Objects conference! This was a lot of fun. They called it American Idol for Geeks. 😆

Continue reading “SAP TechEd 2008 Day 2 Part II: Data at Demo Jam!”

It has been interesting to look around during some of the presentations and see what everyone is doing. I see some folks on twitter, some folks working on blog posts (I recognize the WordPress blog edit screens as I use it myself), some folks having IM conversations… and people are barely paying attention to the presentations. I try to watch and absorb and remember (I take a few notes) and then blog later.

For example, the InnoCentive information I posted about just a little while ago came out on other blog networks while the general session was still going on! So I guess my “live” blogging is not nearly as live as it could be. When I went to the first-ever phpBB (the software used for BOB) conference in London I did live blogging from the main session room because there really weren’t any breaks. Here there is a separate (private) room for bloggers to set up and do their thing, so I’m not sure why (other than being “first to market”) they feel the need to blog during the actual presentation.

Not much time to check facts or add references that way either. 🙂

After Lunch

After the Xcelsius session wrapped up after lunch we made our way back to the larger ballroom for a question and answer session with Jimmy Wales. I don’t know if you know who that is (I did not, until I read his bio). He is the founder of Wikipedia, and he was really interesting to listen to. This session was a bonus; he was also to be the guest speaker at the opening keynote later this evening but as a part of Community Day we got him to ourselves for a while. This was probably my favorite part of the day… and it didn’t even have anything to do with SAP or Business Objects or anything. 🙂 The idea behind bringing him in is that he’s made a top-ten internet destination out of a huge community project. Since today was “community” day it certainly made sense to hear what he had to say.

Oh, and my “technical issue” that I mentioned earlier, about not being able to get hooked into the wireless network at the convention center? It wasn’t a technical issue. I just need new glasses. The network access instructions (including the password) were printed on the back of my conference badge. 😳 Despite this, I didn’t take the time to get my laptop out during the rest of the afternoon as I was getting more benefit from talking to people around me.

I have to say that I have been given an extremely warm welcome here. It seems like everyone I meet or am introduced to knows about BOB and our own little community, and everyone seems genuinely glad that I’m here. I finished out the day with a very warm and fuzzy feeling. And if you’re wondering, yes, that’s a good thing.

Continue reading “TechEd Community Day Wrap Up”

I am beginning to get an idea of what things would be like if BOB had over a million members. 😆 The “Community Day” is the pre-cursor to the full TechEd event, and the entire day is built around community members. The opening session was … interesting. They gave out harmonicas to everyone entering the room, and at one point we were all asked to join in a symphony of sorts. You can imagine the noise. 😉

Continue reading “TechEd Community Day Part I”

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. We had the formal launch of the Global Business Object Network (see the new website at www.gogbn.org) and I want to talk more (much more!) about that in some future posts. We also concluded the BOB Member of the Year voting process so I got to notify the winners and interview Michael Welter, one of the top three finishers this year. I started the BOB Member of the Year process last year as a way to celebrate the anniversary of BOB as well as provide some well-deserved recognition to members of the BOB community.

And during all of this (along with client work) I got an extremely wonderful complement myself a few weeks ago: I have been recognized as a member of the SAP Mentor program. What the heck is that? That was my initial question. 😆

Continue reading “GBN Launch, BOB Member of the Year, SAP Mentor Program, and Off to TechEd”