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Here I am, on a plane flying back from Code Connect at the SAP headquarters in Germany. I'm still processing everything, mentally replaying some of the sessions I had attended, eager to watch the ones I couldn't. Stuck on a plane isn't fun, so I decided to write about my experience at the event. I won't talk about the content presented because anybody can watch it online once available. I want to talk a little bit about how it felt being there.
If you don't know what Code Connect is, here's a brief intro. It's the merge of 3 different conferences (reCAP + UI5con + ABAPconf) with a whole day dedicated to a single technology. It was dabbed as the "new TechEd" by the attendees. I've heard it sooooo many times!
Short comments on the days and a brain dump on everything in between...
Day 0, CodeJam, started with a hands-on workshop on CAP conducted by the legend DJ Adams. Man, he's a walking geek encyclopedia and master of the random geek fun facts.
Day 1, reCAP, was all about how CAP is so f* powerful and simple at the same time (sorry, I couldn't find any better word). In my humble opinion, it cemented the idea of CAP becoming the framework people will use to build most of the custom things SAP-related.
Day 2, UI5con, showed that UI5 can do much more than Fiori Elements apps. It's modern, solid and can render fast!
Day 3, ABAPconf, I can summarize with: ABAP is not dead! It's not going anywhere. Actually, it's going to the cloud. So many new tools and techniques to make RAP better and easier to work with.
For 4 days I soaked up knowledge shared on the stages, and most importantly, the invaluable experiences and real-life challenges shared in conversations throughout the day.
I met old friends, I made new friends, I met people that I’ve known for ages, but have never seen in person. Some were not as tall as I was expecting (sorry man 😜). I saw great ideas, I saw captivating speakers, and I saw smart code, which makes me even more nervous when presenting because they're far ahead of my limited capabilities.
The common feeling is that we were part of a large community, full of people from all backgrounds and skill levels, but with one thing in common: the love for SAP technology. We all belonged there. It was the Woodstock of SAP! Without the LSD, but full of talented people, good music and LOTS of fun! A unique moment that may spark a renaissance of the SAP community itself because I do believe people will contact each other to collaborate on new projects.
Code Connect was a beast packed with actionable insights and lessons from the sessions. Each day was focused on one technology only. There was no "this feature will be available next Christmas". Everything shared in those 3 days was possible to play with straight away. For instance, after my session, people told me they would test that out once they got to their homes. On the following day, somebody said they had implemented some of the suggestions. Bloody hell!!!
The same happened to others. All sessions shared this one little thing: no vaporware, just real code. Even the sessions touching genAI, the biggest buzzword ever, showed real applications that anybody could test today.
You could see people chatting around, sharing what they are doing, the projects they are working on. Some of the things that I heard: what they like in CAP (easy to learn, higher productivity), how they are adopting ABAP Cloud (more on BTP than the embedded one), hackathons are still the best way to learn new tech in house. These conversations would get even better in the evening as we sat outdoors listening to good music, playing some games and having some drinks. Every night I'd leave the premises around 10pm and people were still there... If they kept the place open and the music playing in a 24h old LAN party style, people wouldn't leave.
Whoever had the idea to combine forces and bundle these 3 conferences in a blockbuster event deserves all the accolades from the SAP community at large. The people behind the event are definitely onto something special. Keep up the awesome work!!! And please, please, please... Keep SAP marketing and sales at bay. They already have their events, let us have ours. As the ABAPconf sign stated: “by developers for developers”.
I just want to say thank you to the organisation, and to everyone behind this magnificent event. Thank you to all the speakers who invested time in preparing the sessions, for sharing your knowledge and experience. Thank you to all the attendees because without you the event would be nothing. And thank you to the sponsors for funding such a large, complex and beautiful idea.
It might be unfair to the others, but I must mention some people, not from the organisation, but from the community...
Svea and her team for being there listening to the community. They could hide themselves in a room and avoid the negative feedback for the infamous new platform they knew they'd get, but they didn't. It requires courage and I respect it. We all hope to see the changes being implemented sooner rather than later.
The crew from Portugal which I believe was the biggest group representing a customer there! They even had their own CAPs 🧢
The Ned Kelly Gang from Down Under! +20 hours on a plane to attend an event because they want to, not because they were told to speaks volumes. You (we?) guys rock!
PS: hear me out now... Add an extra day for SAP BTP in the Code Connect (BTPconf?) and we definitely have something better than TechEd 😜
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