ASUG British Columbia Chapter Meeting - 09Mar2011
Last week, Micheal and I traveled to Vancouver for the British Columbia ASUG Meeting. The event was held in Burnaby at the BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) from 8-12.
AccM was a sponsor and we co-presented with FortisBC (formerly Terasen Gas). We had been looking forward to presenting since the FortisBC TOP® implementation last fall. It is always great to speak in front of the home crowd and a fantastic opportunity for FortisBC to show off their recent name change and successful project. After all, FortisBC found AccM thru the British Columbia ASUG network.
As expected, it was raining hard on Wednesday morning. We had to drive around the BCIT campus for a few minutes looking for our designated parking section and then spent some time looking for the right building, but thanks to campus hospitality we quickly found it. Others were also delayed by the rain, so the crowd trickled in over the first hour. There were around 20 attendees from several companies and most knew each other from previous meetings. It was a small setting which allowed for plenty of networking and Q&A.
The agenda kicked off with a Company Update section. This is the first time I’ve seen this at an ASUG meeting. It was informative to hear from the companies in attendance and their current SAP/IT projects. It was great to see several public sector companies and also a few first timers.
BCIT followed with a presentation describing their usage of SAP in their Business Operations Management courses and their involvement with ASUG. They are even trying to start a Student ASUG group! Sam and Monica were full of energy and started the meeting off on a good note. They both graduate in May and are excited to demonstrate their Business Management and SAP skillsets in the “real-world”. They are also trying to build professional relationships with local companies for ongoing internship programs.What a great concept!
The next 2 topics covered Xcelsius and Talent Management. I don’t have much experience in either topic, but both were interesting and gave me some more background. Maybe someday, I’ll be able to point a client in the right direction in these areas by guiding them to a presentation or contact.
Kirk and I finished up the meeting with our presentation on TOP®. We had some great questions and received positive feedback. We wrapped up right at noon and Sheila was able to give away the ASUG prizes before everyone returned to work. By the time we cleaned up and went out to the car, the rain had let up and the sun was making an appearance. Another successful ASUG visit is in the books. Next stop on the ASUG tour is Southern California in April.