SAPPHIRE: Initial Thoughts

I've now been on the ground in Orlando for approximately 18 hours; about half of which I've spent walking from the shuttle bus to our meeting rooms. In all seriousness, for those of you who have never been to the Orlando Convention Center, it's cavernous. Few places could host both Sapphire and ASUG (the user group) with thousands of attendees and yet it feels like you're inside a shopping mall just before closing in certain areas of the structure.

Upon arriving yesterday, I checked into my hotel then headed over to the Convention Center to get my first view of "Blogger's Corner." As I walked up to the Press and Analyst registration booth [something I've done many many times but never as a "blogger"], I had visions of being told I was in the wrong section. But not only were my fears unfounded, when the attendant asked, "Press or Analyst?" and I said, "Blogger," it was met with a smile and "we've heard a lot about you these last few days."

Entering the press room, our "Blogger's Corner" is, literally, a big section in the corner of the room with all the wifi, ethernet ports and power strips a bunch of laptop-crazed people could ask for. Niel, Prashanth, Zoli, Vinnie, Charlie and Ismael were already engaged in some spirited conversation on a variety of topics and I felt right at home from the start. Mike Prosceno, one of our sponsors at SAP, was there as well and helped crystallize for me the "best case" scenario of what this social media experiment will lead to within SAP itself [more on that in an upcoming blog].

Over the course of the night we were joined by Jeff, Ross, Erik Keller [of Wapiti Group and Gartner fame] and Julia French [a new addition to the Socialttext team] for cigars and drinks while we basically figured out the future of enterprise computing [or at least agreed to disagree].

Now that I've gotten the lay of the land out of the way, look for some substantive thought pieces on what I'm seeing and hearing in the coming hours.

P.S. If you're wondering the reaction we've been getting from different influencers...here's a quick synopsis [disclaimer: sarcasm alert]:

1) The Press and Conventional Media -- "I can't believe these bloggers are getting so much attention"

2) The SAP Employees -- "I got an email about you yesterday"

3) SAP Partners -- "You're not going to say anything bad about me are you?"

4) SAP Executives -- "If you say anything bad about us, give me a chance to respond."

5) SAP Exhibit Hall Participants -- "Would you like to profile our company?"

6) PR Reps -- "I can get you a demo, you absolutely must blog about my client!"

So far, so good.

SAP software sapphire06 sapphire enterprise 2.0 blogging socialtext jeff nolan woodrow

Note: At the time of this writing I, and/or funds I maintain discretionary control over, maintained a long equity position in SAP.

Comments

[Dennis Howlett]

I am sooooo green with envy - but here's the interesting thing. I'm finding here in Spain that exhibitors here are tsking a very similar approach to the pitch companies you guys are meeting. They welcome the bloggers. Even more interesting, mainstream media people I know well seem bewildered at how well connected some of uf are. Enjoy.