SAP Inside Track - what is it about?

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An SAP Inside Track (SIT) is a local grassroots community event where SAP Community members come together to share knowledge about SAP related topics. The event is driven/organized by the community, low-cost or even free and very informal: everyone who is interested may participate. Everyone can benefit or contribute: act as presenter, take part in discussions, exchange information, realize networking or enjoy the social get-togethers in the evening. But there are not only SAP Inside Tracks out there. In this overview you see many different event types to only name a few. You don't have to stick to these names but of course the community knows those already very well. 😊

Read more about the SAP Stammtisch event in my other blog post.

What are the benefits of a community driven event?

• It's a great opportunity for casual networking with like-minded peers out of the online community in real life.
• Meet your technology experts, exchange ideas with industry colleagues, learn from other's stories, and join discussions that focus on your unique business challenges.
• Leave your comfort zone and share your story in an unconference environment.
• Get inspired by the feedback and the questions of the participants.
• Understand the technological vision, insights, education, and best practices you need to simplify your business and gain a competitive edge.

Organizing an SAP Inside Track may seem like a big task, but with the help of this article and some SAP Community friends, it can be done with relatively little effort and with a large impact. Everyone can organize a SIT event, independently if you are SAP Partner, Customer, Consultant or Developer, it doesn’t matter. There are no rules, but below guidelines and recommendations can help you to set up an SAP Inside Track more easily.

First of all, we would love to hear from you! Let us, the SAP Community Team, know about your intention to organize an SAP Inside Track. As the SAP Community offers some monetary support for your event (maximum 500 € per year and SIT Event), this will be the request for it as well and should be done at least 4 weeks prior to the event. This financial support can be used for food, room bookings, and technical equipment, but not for travel expenses.

Let me give your further details on the following steps how to start organizing an event:

1. Location

• Check with local sponsors or SAP offices to supply the event space.
• Connect and collaborate with a co-host (if needed).
• Get your employer to sponsor conference rooms if needed; they will receive positive recognition from the SAP Community.
• Initiate a meet-up in your city with people who are willing to help make the SAP Inside Track happen. You can initiate while posting a discussion in SAP Community, maybe in an already existing location group.
• Visit the SAP Community Event Calendar to see the dates of already announced community events or visit the SAP Inside Track calendar directly.

2. Content

• Content can be pre-determined depending on the target audience
• Criteria for choosing content for SITs could be:
  • Suitability of content for the determined target audience
  • Availability and quality of the speakers that are invited as experts
  • Relevance of content for location of the event and participants

3. Speakers

Announce your SAP Inside Track to invite speakers: 

• On an external level through a post in the SAP Community.
• Create a “call for speaker”: Write a blog post in SAP Community and ask people to propose a presentation topic (example post: Barcelona). 
• If there is already a location group, post it in the respective city group, e.g. Bengaluru.

4. Attendees

Announce your SAP Inside Track to invite attendees, too. You can use the same channels as for reaching out to your speakers:

• On an external level through a post in the SAP Community.
• You are also encouraged to reach out to potential attendees directly.
• Post it into your location based group, e.g. Brussels.
• Use Social Media to promote the event as well (Twitter: Use #SIT #SAPCommunity, #SAPInsideTrack, LinkedIn, blog posts in the SAP Community, etc.)

5. Sponsorship

Find one or more sponsors for your event. SAP Community supports SAP Inside Tracks with up to 500 Euro for Catering, room bookings, and technical equipment. If you want to take advantage of this, please send an email to SAP Community at least 4 weeks prior to the event. You will receive a confirmation and instructions how to reimburse the expenses. Deadline for reimbursement is end of the following month after the event.

This is mostly not enough and external financial support often is required and welcomed. The contacts for receiving sponsorship are frequently:

• Your employer (for location, food, beverages, etc.)
• An SAP Partner hosting the event
• SAP local offices

One great SAP partner that you could reach out to is SAP PRESS which would provide 10% discount on all books for SAP Inside Track attendees as well as a few free books to give away during the event!

6. Badges in SAP Community

You can earn a badge for organizing, attending, or speaking at a community driven event. Prerequisite for organizer and speaker badges is providing a list of SAP Community Profile URLs of these. The badges can only be assigned to valid community profile links, and only, if they have been sent by end of the following month after the event. 
Attendee badges will be automatically assigned to everyone, who left the RSVP of the respective event in the SAP Community Event calendar.

You see, there is a lot to take it but it's worth. Here are some more tips & tricks to have a successful event on-site:

• You might want to provide name tags for speaker and attendees. These can also be simple stickers with the written name on it.
• Have someone on-site who monitors the registrations.
• Test all technical equipment before the actual event; this includes: live streaming, recording, Wi-Fi,
  projectors, presentation slides, demos, and even power outlets.
• A 'time keeper' is helpful to stay in schedule.
• Don't miss to take a 'family picture': a photo of all event attendees, speaker and organizer to share in Social Media.

I hope this information helps you to understand more about SAP Inside Track or to organize your own one!