2023 Feb 15 3:40 PM
So it's been 20 years since SAP launched the SAP Developer Network and wow what a journey we have taken!
We'd love for each and everyone one of you to share memories of that journey, whether it's an event, activity, first blog post, meeting your online bestie 🙂 whatever the case may be, please take a moment and tell us about it!
I've so many memories, so hard to pick one, in fact I may come back and share more but I think the first I will share -- my first time meeting @thomas_jung once I became an employee and attending my first SAP TechEd event in 2005 (as an employee) in Boston.
2023 Feb 15 5:16 PM
2023 Feb 15 6:21 PM
I'm going to spend days looking through photos and thinking back over the years I am sure 🙂 some of my closet friends like you and Tom are all because of this Community!!
2023 Feb 15 6:23 PM
Well, with this blog https://blogs.sap.com/2010/04/02/sap-project-management-path-to-hero-or-point-of-failure/ many moons ago, I was promoted from junior to expert blogger, with Jim Spath's help and Marilyn Pratt's advice to use more images in blogs.
Really there are so many memories! But this one I remembered first.
2023 Feb 17 5:00 AM
Two moments come to my mind:
- when I knew about the Community being with SAP Support forNetweaver 😉 and Technology; finally there was a 1:n channel that could make such a difference for the ecosystem!
- when I met the SAP Mentors for the first time F2F in Barcelona as a Support Manager; we learned so much about the demands, needs, possibilities of each other (and had lots of fun…)
Looking forward to the next highlights!
2023 Feb 19 10:05 AM
Having the most points in the Enterprise Portal forum (circa 2007) and getting to go to TechEd, and then having my laptop crash during a demo during Community Day at TechEd because I had to run the portal locally ... also "meeting" DJ for the first time (DJ doesn't remember for some reason)
2023 Feb 19 10:28 PM
I still remember publishing my first weblog (ok, weblog post, @qmacro) in 2006: https://blogs.sap.com/2006/09/12/quickly-find-needed-netweaver-information-on-helpsapcom/
I could not sleep the night after that 😩 and the first thing I did the following morning was checking how many snarky comments I got. There were none, to my surprise!
Other memorable moments were:
attending the first SAP TechEd Vegas in 2007...
...and being recognized as an SAP Mentor in 2011.
Just to mention 3 moments out of 20 years.
2023 Feb 20 1:32 PM - edited 2023 Feb 20 1:40 PM
Some of my favorite SAP Community memories are at TechEd. It is rewarding to catch up with colleagues, partners and customers to hear spectacular announcements, learn together as well as share ideas and also, for some fun!
2023 Feb 21 2:57 PM
Muchas gracias por esta gran comunidad, desde México les deseo mil años más de éxitos.
Saludos,
Erick Gómez
2023 Feb 21 4:29 PM
2023 Feb 21 10:40 PM
In 2017, I stepped in to support the TechEd social media program while Dianna DiSantos was on a fellowship. What a whirlwind experience! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting lots of colleagues from the Community team. This photo was taken with the "social media superstars" from the SAP Labs India team. Fun times😎
2023 Feb 22 8:22 AM
There have been so many highlights from the community and I mentioned earlier I'd probably share lots more, so here's another blast from the past @RichHeilman already mentioned 2005 being a year of connections and my initial post was about that as well. There was also Dan there in the 2005 and the 4 of us together with Ed created a podcast called the Enterprise Geeks...
Community started for me as a way to understand "how to install something called SAP," over the past 2 decades what I have learned is so much more, the connections made, the relationships built and the idea that each and every one of all of us is helping to shape the next decade moving forward!
2023 Feb 22 12:30 PM
Congratulations SAP Community on 20 years and still going strong 😊 - my favourite memories are a series of firsts!
Here's to many more years of networking, knowledge sharing, collaboration and fun!
2023 Feb 23 3:01 PM
Dug thru some old hard drives and found some fun artifacts from the very, very beginning of this journey. Never would have imagined we'd be talking about this 20 years on 🙂
SDN Launch in Basel, 2003
SDN at Launch
Original Ad for SDN
Original SDN team at launch
2023 Feb 23 3:08 PM - edited 2023 Feb 23 3:09 PM
Super nice! More memories to be built #sapcommunity #bettertogether
2023 Feb 23 3:09 PM
Hi Jeff. Nice hearing from you!
So, who are the people from that original SDN team? Would you share some names?
Cheers,
-Vitaliy
2023 Feb 23 3:13 PM
End of table, me and Michael Schwandt
Mark Sochan and Daniella Busse on the right
I'm gonna need more caffeine to try and remember all the other names 🙂
2023 Feb 26 10:36 PM - edited 2023 Feb 26 10:42 PM
Shay Barry is second from the left in that photo.
We should note the tech team that built the platform, Ran Cliff and team.
A significant group from SAP in Palo Alto, CA.
Another big group in suburban Philadelphia, PA.
Walldorf, Germany, of course.
Israel... India...New Jersey...
A lot of people dispersed/remote across the U.S. and around the world.
Amazing team supported by amazing people (customers, partners) in the community itself.
2023 Feb 23 3:56 PM
Great initiative @craigcmehil 😊
Oh yeah, I want to share my first blog post from 2018: https://blogs.sap.com/2018/06/19/my-first-year-with-sap-mentors/ 😀
Although my profile says I am a member since 2002 😜
This first post actually covers how my way via the SAP Mentors Program to SAP Community happened, how I love to be part of it and how even my family was involved 😅
So many familiar faces in this image from SAP TechEd 2017 in Barcelona - if you spot anyone familiar, let me know! 😁
2023 Feb 23 4:47 PM
For me SAP Community started for real in 2018 with my first blog Polish SAP Users Group
Then it has been going on and accelerating
2023 Feb 23 4:53 PM
My first community event in 2011: the SAP Inside Track in Milan 😍 with a lot of friends 🙂
2023 Feb 26 10:16 PM
Helping to build the SAP Community is the highlight of my career, in terms of impact on individual member careers and lives (including lasting friendships), on SAP's business, on the universe broadly ... and because we did it so carefully, and thoughtfully, and well, it is still standing, strong, and impactful 20 years later.
I was recruited in 2003 by Ziv Carthy with the idea to take his job as he moved elsewhere at SAP and to build the SAP Developer Network (SDN) into something viable and impactful. At the time, SDN was brand new, had fewer than 100,000 members, had competition in many forms, and was behind-the-curve of community leaders like MSDN, the Java community, open source communities, the Oracle Technology Network, etc.
Over the course of the next 10 years at SAP I proudly led and worked with an extremely talented and diverse crew to build up SDN, expanded it to include Business Process Experts (BPX), then broadened further to be the SAP Community Network (SCN), launched and built the SAP Mentors program, discussion forums, blogs, an elaborate points system to add gamification, the identification and encouragement of member contributions and expertise through levels and recognition with badges, built and attached the Ecosystem Hub (aka EcoHub) of partner solutions akin to the current Apple App Store, added and expanded SAP TechEd, and then SAP Tech Tours, local community-led meetups, during a global downturn we added a jobs/opportunities/career database to help qualified community members find jobs and for SAP customers to find employees, we had Harvard Business School case studies and articles and chapters of business books written about us, we contributed mightily to the growth and prosperity of SAP and its customers and partners, and we made important connections among companies and people worldwide ... and much more.
By the time I left 10 years later, the community was 3 million very active members (3 million!).
I'm proud of the work we did then, the impact it had, and the fact that it is still strong and impactful today.
2023 Feb 26 10:17 PM
When SDN was new, we were thrilled to be mentioned on stage at SAPPHIRE NOW by Shai Agassi. It gave us visibility and credibility.
2023 Feb 26 10:30 PM
After 10 years at SAP, I've got about a million photos! Here are just a few, especially highlighting the team that built the community, and the SAP Mentors who were so critically important to its success.
2023 Feb 26 10:32 PM
One more, with some of the OG's.
2023 Mar 10 12:18 PM
Happy anniversary to one and all! 🎉
I wrote up some memories of my own, to help celebrate this milestone 👉 SAP community memories.