Dear community, the ABAPConf took place on December 5th, 2024 for the 4th time. To briefly summarize the conference: great people, great presentations, interesting discussions, beautiful location and great food. What more could you want at the end of the year? So a big thank you to the organizers Tobias Hofmann, Sören Schlegel, Johann Fößleitner and Domi Bigl.
A special highlight this year: you could not only participate virtually, but also on site in Mannheim (Germany) or Vienna (Austria). That was a real novelty. Since I gave a German-language presentation on the various form technologies in the SAP universe together with Frank Engert from Softway AG, I was on site with him at the MAFINEX in Mannheim.
Definitely a good decision, because I was able to listen to many of Channel 1’s presentations live. Björn Schulz started off by giving a practical and more than relevant presentation entitled “ABAP Cloud – A life after the report”.
In his entertaining talk “Quo vadis ABAP Devs?” Sören Schlegel showed us a core problem of our time: Many ABAP developers were last at the cutting edge of technology in the 1990s (the crazy new thing called ABAP OO). Since then, they have made little to no progress. This is a problem for everyone and I come across it all the time in my daily work. When I talk about Unit Tests and everyone in the room thinks that I am an interior designer for tent settlements on future Mars missions, then you know what’s going on…
There was plenty of time between the presentations to talk to the other participants. Some of them asked me about Frank and my podcast. That was great feedback – so we’re reaching someone out there.
What remains now: I still have to watch the recordings from Channel 2 and 3. There was definitely a lot of cool stuff there. I’m also looking forward to the next ABAPConf. The organizers talked about the format change at the end of the day. Please join the ABAPConf LinkedIn group for further news. In any case, the ABAPConf should now always be in the summer. That makes more than sense for Europe, because drinks simply taste better then. Plus, you can sit outside and the trees still have green leaves.
Another personal thing: ABAPConf has been around for 4 years and I have been there 4 times now (see ABAPConf Legends). Let’s see if I can make a contribution next year too. The call for speakers will be open from January 2025. So pay attention, if you have something interesting, apply. ABAPConf lives through the community. So thanks again to everyone who made this possible.
Have fun and stay healthy
Michael