I had the great pleasure to spend a lot of my TechEd experience exploring Design Thinking, it was during these workshops, exercises and presentations that I was told that I was in a 'Safe Environment'. Upon hearing this most people, like myself, immediately put up the shutters and nervously peek round the edges to see what embarrassing fate is to befall them. Although, knowing the person who had made the statement - marilyn.pratt I really had no need to put up the shutters.
It was during the evening workshop of 'The role of Empathy in Design Thinking' that I reflected a little more on Marilyn's statement and what it meant in a wider context. Here I was in Las Vegas, with 3 friends, 2 of whom were complete TechEd newbies and I could see that they were having an absolutely wonderful time. I myself had just come from the Drumming event and sang 'Learn to Fly' with steinermattin front of a large group of strangers, something I know many people in my everyday life would not quite believe. So there I was at the event and I thought about SAP TechEd some more and how it in itself was a 'Safe Environment', for a number of reasons
The best example of TechEd being a safe environment and having a strong community is of my 2 TechEd newbie friends - both had never been to TechEd, Vegas and certainly not an InnoJam. They participated in the Innojam and were introduced into a wild ride of technology, Design Thinking, Community and lack of sleep. The strength of the implicit permission within TechEd to explore new technologies and the art of the possible was exemplified by my friend Tobias, a GRC consultant, in 1 day he learnt how to design a UI, something he had never done, using a tool he had never used before. He had an amazing time, won the Red Eye Prize, loved working on Mobile UI's, wants to become more involved with the community and present at TechEd next year. My other friend, David, has had the same desire to contribute to the community and enhance his experience within SAP, without the lack of sleep.
Of course there is the flip side to this implicit permission turning your SAP TechEd experience into an amazing one, the return to work and the occasional drudgery of normal work (no matter how interesting your job, there is always drudgery) - it is called Post TechEd decompression or Post TechEd Withdrawal, this is where all the art of the possible begins to fade a little, like a really nice dream you had the night before. Real life intrudes on your dreams and wild plans to build the next Facebook on NW Cloud and use HANA as the datastore, but it only lasts for a week or so - if you continue the conversations you began at TechEd and continue to work on your evilplans then your next TechEd could be even better.
Anyway, I thought I will leave it there, and let you reflect on whether you agree with me on the fact that TechEd has an implicit permission to explore the art of the possible, as much as a requirement to learn about new things. All that remains is for me to thank a lot of people, you know who you are - I had a brilliant TechEd, learnt an awful lot and again experienced a place and a group of people that make me feel welcome and normal when so far away from my loved ones.
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