"We are back in a much bigger way"

BANGALORE: Looking from the eyes of people who worked day and night to make the SAP TechED 2004 a success, it was a dream come true. Challenges were many, as last year's event was the first one of its kind to be held in APAC; the event was a huge success and India was the only location that over achieved its target.

"We are back in a much bigger way" say Georg Kniese and Martin Prinz, joint managing directors, SAP Labs India. "We had about 1500 delegates for the SAP TechEd last year, this year we are expecting the numbers to scale up to 2500 delegates," says Georg. "The theme for this year's event is 'Learn to Innovate', and would provide all the SAP partners and customers an opportunity to learn and discuss all that is possible by adopting the SAP NetWeaver technology framework and Enterprise Structure Architecture. This year's TechEd, is a part of the three-year roadmap that SAP has chalked out to increase the adoption of NetWeaver," added Georg.

Rolled out of the sprawling lawns of SAP Labs Campus at Bangalore last year, the event will be held at the Bangalore Trade Centre from 5^th to7^th of October, this time.

Talking on the significance of holding the event in India Martin said, "TechEd is an educational event and in that respect it is not any different from the ones that are organized in the other parts of the world. Last year's overwhelming response has been a key motivator behind bringing the event back on to the Indian soil. It is a good reflection of the size of the Indian opportunity as well as the strong market potential that our customers have. It is also a great knowledge sharing opportunity for our partners."

"Last year there was a restriction in terms of demo booths. Attendees could not see live demos of applications, this time we have demo booths showcasing real-life applications built upon SAP NetWeaver platform," informed Uma Rani T M, Development Manager with SAP Labs. "There are about 200 speaker sessions, and about 1000 people can attend hands-on workshops, this is much more than what it was last year," added Uma.

Speaking on the SAP Certification opportunity, Uma said, "the pattern remains the same as last year, however, this year we have increased the number of exams from 14 to 20. The attendees have a wider basket to choose from."

The SDN Clubhouse is expected to be a big crowd puller. "SAP Developer Network (SDN) has been very well received by the Indian developers. Over the last year more than 4000 developers from India have registered with SDN. Top ten contributors at SDN are also from India. Attendees should watch out for the Birds-of-a-Feather session at the SDN Clubhouse. These are informal sessions designed to bring the SAP community members together to exchange ideas and share thoughts on topics of common interests. Attendees can pick-up tips from the Demo Jam sessions where SAP experts will present technical demos."

"We are laying a lot of importance to the Enterprise Services Architecture this year. We want all our partners to adopt ESA as quickly as possible and are helping them to move from the traditional SAP application domain to the SOA domain," informed Uma.