Making communities matter

Even if you think this doesn’t apply to you – hang in there. This is interesting.

Last weekend I spent Saturday at IBM’s Southbank building with 24 other SAP Mentors and IBM’ers. The day is called InsideTrack and represents an opportunity for people in the SAP community to learn about leading edge or simply ‘edge’ technology and its application in business.

InsideTrack is unusual in that while it is organized by people associated with SAP, there is no direct SAP managment involvement. The company has no say in who comes or the content. In that sense it is wholly self organizing. It follows the ‘unconference’ model.

People arrive with proposals for sessions, these are put up on a whiteboard, others sign up for whatever interests them and a selection is made based on the popularity of the proposed sessions. It is entirely democratic yet competitive in a low key manner. Pre-planning is minimal but that doesn’t mean it is chaotic or randomly interesting.

Since these forms of meeting are non-commercial and dedicated to learning, the direct cost is minimal. |In this case £10 or £15, depending on when you chose to register. That allowed the organizers to cover basic expenses, including a bought in buffet style lunch and refreshments. SAP provided a modest amount of money to cover expenses.

Here is co-organizer Nigel James tips for such an event:

1. For an unconference you need three things. A venue, food and willing participants. There are a few other things like net access, wifi etc but without those main ingredients your event if not happening.

2. Don’t do it all yourself. Darren [Hague] and I split the work I did venue and signup – he did catering and managing the bills. Ideally we would have broadcast the event but this really needs someone dedicated to the task. It was great that Dennis was there to capture the video that he did.

3. This is up to you but I have found that if there is a small charge people are more likely to come. Last year we had a lot more signup but then not show up because it was free. This year we charged a small fee and we got the same numbers. What this did help with was with estimating the catering as we over catered last year.

As Nigel says, I used the opportunity to capture video (see above). I was especially interested in why people would come over – on their own dime – from Norway, Germany, Belgium Portugal, Spain, the US and India to a small event in London. The video above captures what the Mentors have to say. The bottom line?

SAP may be the name behind the the idea but this is about people who have a common interest coming together as friends to share experiences and knowledge they can take back to their work. IBM’s sponsorship and attendance was both vital and interesting. Their people wanted to understand something about what SAP means and what interests people associated with SAP.

In exchange, we learned about ProjectZero and sMash a way of fast tracking situational applications – those that may have a limited life or are needed for testing before being moved to a more robust environment. There is a video of Robin Fernandez explaining the concepts.

These events work at a number of levels. There is the opportunity to meet with people with whom you may have only had a connection in the digital world. That happens a lot with me! Then there is the opportunity to renew friendships – in my case to catch up with other members of the ESME development team. Then there is the learning. I’ve already mentioned ProjectZero. Owen Pettiford’s session on the SAP composition environment (with examples) was interesting because it is one of those topics that has the potential to impact TCO in SAP environment. This is something of a hobby horse of mine.

The SAP certification session run by Michael Koch was awesome. Again – it is one of my hobby horses. His survey results among freelancers and contractors are not only illuminating but a valuable addition to the certification debate.

Oliver Kohl’s WordPress Twitter plug-in discussion was a superb example of how low cost technology can solve a difficult problem.

It was especially gratifying to see a handful of women at this event. Women are poorly represented in the geek world (and in the profession) despite they are among some of the smartest people I know.

My abiding memory is of a group that is not only good natured but curious, enquiring and able to teach the business world a great deal about fast track problem solving. As time goes on I become increasingly convinced that IT should be an equal partner at the decision making table and this event provided yet another confirmatory data point.

What relevance does this have to professionals? We are well used to CPD as an opportunity to come together. We’re also used to tipping up at commercially organized events such as the 2020 shows. I wonder whether the commercial nature of these events pervents anything other than proscribed learning. I wonder whether the oportunity to consider alternative ways of doing things is lost along the way. There is no doubt in my mind that the unconference model works, allowing the development of a different kind of relationship to grow and flourish and where sharing is a natural activity.

While learning is the primary motivation to attend these events, I am finding that the more enjoyable the experience, the more information I retain. Unconferences form an important part of this process but how far should they grow? I’m guessing but I imagine the optimal number will be somewhere around the 50-75 attendee level. That allows everyone the opportunity to participate and present without overloading attendees. This level also allows for the kind of intimacy that is important for relationship building.

Tagged as: Oliver Kohl, SAP, SAP Mentors