It was 11-00 PM on a Monday night when the CWG Virtual Conference had its kick-off. But that late start, sitting at my laptop was very different for me when I normally attend the live event. For the live event, it normally is front-ended with 25 - 35 hours of planes, trains and automobiles! So for me, this time it is luxury.
But it is different of course, and better in some ways, a challenge in others. I take my hat off to all those people in the organising committee who decided to not just cancel the conference but to pivot to the virtual event. That is incredibly hard to do, in a short time, and knowing that there are going to be challenges and many unknowns that will present themselves as they moved along the transition path. Well done!
In the opening Zoom meeting for the president's address and discussions, there were over 130 attendees, and it is my understanding there are now over 210 attendees and more still registering. That is a lot more than what we get at the physical conference, and there are many more presentations.
Just to give you an idea of how this conference works and what you need to do to register these are my bullet points.
1. Become a member of the CWG. https://www.configuration-workgroup.com/node/1850 It is FREE to join
2. Register for the event (you need to do step one first if you are new to the CWG) $99 EUR + VAT.
3. Enjoy the access to all the presentations - most are prerecorded as movies with the presenters narrating
4. Keep enjoying these for at least 3 weeks and it sounds like it could be up to 6 weeks - decisions are being made to suit the circumstances
5. Post questions and comments in the forum against each presentation and these will be responded to both in the forum and also in some live sessions.
6. Live sessions will happen on at least 6 sessions that seem to be an increase over the original 3 sessions planned. These will be Zoom sessions and allows for a chat and live questions from my understanding.
7. Reach out to presenters and organisers. We are here to help and grow the community.
I have had a look at some presentations already and the topics are broad, wide, detailed and comprehensive. SAP always provide details of recent updates and planned directions, many customer stories are shared with journeys, approaches and challenges with VC, detailed "How To" presentations, and a few on aspects of VC and the broader landscape.
This is a golden chance to access the virtual conference - particularly if it is not possible to get to a live event due to travel and cost. I try to get to the Live ones, and this one as a virtual conference is a special opportunity. Radiant Think is a sponsor once again, as we believe in its importance. Just remember - this is a community group - not an event that SAP organises. So this means you will get real responses and opinions and customer experiences.