Several hundred people attended the event in Boston, and there\u2019s been lots of coverage, from the analysts and bloggers who attended \u2013 here\u2019s a small sample:<\/p>\n
- \n
- InformationWeek: SAP Outlines Five-Year Enterprise Plan<\/a><\/li>\n
- ITBusiness.ca: SAP Wants to Transform its ERP Image<\/a><\/li>\n
- SearchSAP: SAP: We\u2019re Serious about SAP On-Demand<\/a><\/li>\n
- InfoWorld: SAP plans to open up on-demand development platform<\/a><\/li>\n
- Ray Wang:\u00a0Event Report: 2009 SAP Influencer Summit – SAP Must Put Strategy To Execution In Order To Prove Clarity Of Vision<\/a><\/li>\n
- Oliver Marks: The Clear Path Forward for the SAP SuperTanker<\/a><\/li>\n
- Merv Adrian: SAP Promises Acceleration on a \u201cClear Path\u201d \u2013 Will it Be Enough?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Mark Smith: SAP Broadcasts New Enterprise Software and Applications Strategy<\/a><\/li>\n
- Michael Krigsman: SAP ByDesign: Taming the Multi-Tenant Beast<\/a><\/li>\n
- James Governor (@monkchips<\/a>)\u2019s post SAP: Out with the Old, Shrugging Off The Tag<\/a><\/li>\n
- And a whole collection of articles from the Enterprise Irregulars<\/a> and other bloggers<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
There was also a full virtual conference set up using the inXpo platform<\/a>. I\u2019ve used this platform several times in the past, when it has been used to recreate a \u201cvirtual show floor experience\u201d, and I\u2019ve found it to be a frustrating experience.<\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sapweb20\/2009\/12\/image.jpg?resize=340%2C193&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sapweb20\/2009\/12\/image1.jpg?resize=340%2C193&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/p>\nOn this occasion, I think it was used much more successfully, to show the keynote presentations live and to host \u201cask an expert\u201d sessions.<\/p>\n
But crucially, there wasn\u2019t any attempt to use the platforms closed communication tools \u2013 the backchannel was kept firmly in the open, where everybody could see it. There was a clear hashtag announced in advance (#sapsummit<\/a>), and attendees were encouraged to use it.<\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sapweb20\/2009\/12\/image17.jpg?resize=291%2C158&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
It was clear in advance that Twitter would be the key backchannel for the event. The Enterprise Geeks<\/a> did put together a public Google Wave for the event<\/a> and encouraged others to help summarize content. But as Mark Madsen<\/a> remarked<\/a>:<\/p>\n\u201cTried to use Google Wave at #sapsummit<\/a>, found that the UI is terrible, abandoned quickly\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And — at least at the time of writing this — the resulting Wave is a lot closer to a messy email thread than a tidy wiki page.<\/p>\n
Many of the invited attendees were Twitter users \u2013 in the Web 2.0 world, an active stream of Tweets is rapidly becoming considered essential part of doing business (at Le Web, technology evangelist Robert Scoble<\/a> got very<\/a> angry<\/a> when he heard French Tech CEOs were too busy to have a Twitter account).<\/p>\n
The #sapsummit conversation opened as people announced their travel plans, and quickly accelerated as the sessions opened on the first day. If you\u2019re interested, you can see all of the tweets here in an 8Mb pdf document<\/a>, from http:\/\/wthashtag.com\/sapsummit<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Rather than just being a discussion forum for the audience, SAP employees used Twitter to clarify points made by the presenters, monitor feedback, and reacting it. And as the presenters came on stage, several of them mentioned that they had been watching the feed, and then addressed any points that had come up. As I tweeted early on<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at twitter feed from #sapsummit<\/a>, I get the impression the “backchannel” is becoming almost the front channel…\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jonathan Becher<\/a>, SAP Executive VP of Marketing and host of the event gave his impressions in a blog post<\/a> about the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was asked to be the “official” blogger for the SAP Influencer Summit<\/a>, I assumed that it would end up following a similar flow as I used for SAPPHIRE 09<\/a> earlier this year.\u00a0 That is, I would write up some short observations after each of the morning’s keynotes and post them throughout the day.\u00a0 Later in the evening, I would provide some more general observations about the event, with perhaps some on-site tidbits to share with those that couldn’t attend in person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It didn’t turn out that way at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I wrote the initial post<\/a> [about the Summit] during the relative calm of the night before the Influencer Summit.\u00a0 I planned to write my second post during the break after Jim Snabe’s and Vishal Sikka’s morning keynotes.\u00a0 Since we expected that the influencers to be very active on twitter, I also decided to monitor the #sapsummit hashtag live during the morning keynotes.\u00a0 If specific issues came up, I could respond to them myself and, if anyone made any relevant comments, I could refer to them during my slots between the other presentations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I knew that I was going to be busy but I wasn’t quite prepared for the firestorm of tweets\u2026 [not] just from the attendees in the room but also from those attending virtually. All of this meant I had no time to write the second blog entry\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
![\"jonathan](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sapweb20\/2009\/12\/jonathanbecherandjohnschwarz.jpg?resize=687%2C390&ssl=1\" "\\"jonathan")
<\/p>\nDuring the Q&A session with John Schwarz (left in the photo above), Jonathan also had an earphone and an audio feed that could give him feedback of audience reactions.<\/p>\n
As I remarked on Twitter<\/a>,<\/p>\n
\u201c#sapsummit<\/a> is the first I’ve seen that comes close to using the possibilities of real-time Twitter\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And not just in real-time. The tweets themselves are a valuable resource that SAP can use to collect and study reactions to the presentations. As Vinnie Mirchandani (@DealArchitect<\/a>) mused<\/a> :<\/p>\n
#sapsummit<\/a> wondering if SAP or someone else is mining the huge tweet stream – lots of instant reaction from so many watchers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And he went on to hope that SAP would summarize the feedback as a follow up to the summit. One of the interesting opportunities in this area is sentiment analysis on top of Twitter, using SAP BusinessObjects Text Analytics<\/a> \u2013 here\u2019s a taste of what that could look like (demo data).<\/p>\n
![\"twittersentiment\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sapweb20\/2009\/12\/twittersentiment.jpg?resize=690%2C289&ssl=1\" "\\"twittersentiment\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd a couple of days after the event, Jonathan Becher tweeted on progress:<\/p>\n
Working on sentiment analysis for #sapsummit: OnDemand & ByD top mentioned terms, keyword with most positive mentions: BusinessObjects<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Le Web<\/h3>\n
The annual Le Web<\/a> conference in Paris is a much larger, general conference, focused mainly on consumer web technology. It also featured (excellent) live video-streaming of presentations (using USStream<\/a>), and also had a very active Twitter channel (#leweb<\/a>), with over 15,000 tweets from over 5,000 different people.<\/p>\n
But interestingly enough, there was a much clearer separation of the presenters and the audience. I didn\u2019t watch all the sessions, but the backchannel \u2013 although very active \u2013 seemed to stay firmly in the background. There was no obvious interaction between the people on stage and the people watching and tweeting \u2013 the closest I saw was the tweets that both Queen Rania<\/a>, and Nathalie Kosciusko Morizet<\/a> sent just before going on stage.<\/p>\n
Even sessions all about Twitter, such as the Twitter Apps Panel<\/a> didn\u2019t actually use Twitter in any way as part of the presentation \u2013 when it came to Q&A, they used an open microphone in the session room.<\/p>\n
The Future of Conferences<\/h3>\n
There\u2019s been a lot of interest recently in Open Space meetings<\/a>, Bar Camps<\/a>, and other types of Unconference<\/a>, where the audience takes a much larger role in the planning and delivery of conference materials. I suspect it\u2019s going to be quite a long time before these take over from the more traditional conferences, at least enterprise software.<\/p>\n
Both conferences included lots of real-time Twitter, and live video streaming. Attending conferences virtually becomes a real possibility \u2013 certainly compared to the hassle and expenses of actually being physically present. As Utku Can<\/a> put it:<\/p>\n
“Hello we’re the #leweb<\/a> attendees. We’ve paid \u20ac1500 to sit together and check Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.amazonaws.com\/twitpic\/photos\/full\/48774547.png\")
<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAlthough, of course, it can never completely replace the real thing. As\u00a0 Andy Bitterer<\/a> put it:<\/p>\n
- ITBusiness.ca: SAP Wants to Transform its ERP Image<\/a><\/li>\n