We have been holding the SAP for Utilities event for the past eight years now and I have had the pleasure of attending all eight SAP for Utilities events. This October will be my ninth event and as a former Utility Customer, this is one of my favorite events and Huntington Beach is one of my favorite locations.
Just south of Los Angeles, Huntington Beach allows the traveller to discover the best of Southern California culture. Offering the authentic surf lifestyle, coupled with 10 miles of uninterrupted coastline, Huntington Beach can truly be called Surf City USA. Warm weather and year-round sun offer the perfect setting for outdoor activities such as beach bonfires, beach yoga, volleyball by the pier, biking along Ocean Strand, stand-up paddle boarding in Huntington Harbour, or strolling down Main Street.
While Huntington Beach is a great place to visit as a tourist, it is an even better place to be from October 9th to 12th, 2016 when you can unite with the next generation of utilities professionals for the 9th annual SAP for Utilities event - a collaboration between the Americas’ SAP Users Group (ASUG), Eventful Conferences and SAP.
In my role at ASUG as part of a team of Community Advocates and as a “Community Builder and Evangelist”, I work very closely with the Utility Community and helping drive our Digital Transformation Program.
In this blog I share insights from past conference attendees relative to what the upcoming SAP for Utilities 2016 event is all about, why you should attend and how to maximize your return on investment as an attendee.
THE THEME - " THE REIMAGINGED UTILITY”
As the utility industry continues to transform and evolve the way it interacts with customers, data and assets, it is more important than ever to hear solutions and expertise from your peers on how to drive success with new technology and digital innovations. SAP for Utilities is the most comprehensive SAP for Utilities conference in North America uniting over 1,000 utility professionals from across North America and the globe. Join your peers from all sectors of the industry—including power generation, transmission, distribution, retail, gas, water, waste, recycling and more—to embrace innovative solutions, fresh ideas and thought-leading insights to improve your business performance. Come and participate in hands-on workshops, in-depth interactive sessions and SAP expert presentations.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE - THE INSIDE SCOOP FROM THOSE IN THE KNOW
Here is a sample of some of the great feedback from attendees over the past eight years. Participants keep on coming back and most importantly have experienced a great return on investment from their participation. A great ROI even makes “ Three Perfect Days “ even more perfect.
Before sharing with you the details of this itinerary, it is important to understand how this program was created for you.
OUR PROGRAM - HOW WE DETERMINED WHAT " THREE PERFECT DAYS” WOULD LOOK LIKE
This year Eventful Conferences along with SAP and ASUG conducted an extensive research project with multiple utility industry ecosystem stakeholders. The project included North American customer focus groups with 60 customers and 25 utility organizations, as well as multiple one-on-one conversations. The goal was to understand the most pressing challenges and opportunities that Utilities are facing in 2016. The viewpoints and topics from these research groups are summarized in the hot topics report.
We then had a committee made up of 15 utility organizations representing both large and small utilities including public sector help us determine what our program would look like.
Special thanks to the following participants:
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As a result of this research, the highlighted topics outlined below were identified for the 2016 SAP for Utilities conference agenda.
OUR EVENT EXPERIENCE - WHAT YOU WILL EXPERIENCE DURING OUR " THREE PERFECT DAYS "
At this event you will tap into the collective wisdom of experts, senior leaders, decision-makers, business process owners, analysts, super users, support teams, solution providers and more from the utility sector.
OUR EVENT - YOUR " THREE PERFECT DAYS " PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE
At the SAP for Utilities event you will connect with a network of professionals and experts who you can call on year-round. It’s time to reimagine the industry!
Our program includes an excellent lineup of keynotes speakers:
Learn how utility organizations are disrupting the industry
- Disrupting the Utility Industry & Addressing Today’s Transformational Energy Challenges Mary Anne Brelinsky - President, EDF Energy Services
- Utilizing an Agile Methodology to Challenge the Way Utilities Do Business Paul Caffery - Senior Director Enterprise Mobility Strategies, PG&E
Understand how to prepare for the threat of cyber security (one of the top 5 issues from our customer research)
- You’ve Been Hacked: How to Protect Your Company, Employees & Shareholders Mark Weatherford - SVP & Chief Cybersecurity Strategist, vArmour; First Deputy Under-Secretary for Cybersecurity, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Practical Implementation of Threat Based Security Operations Scott King – Director, Information Security, San Diego Gas & Electric
Develop overall leadership & well-being practices
- The Professional Advantage of Mindfulness Joe Burton - Founder & CEO, Whil Concepts, Inc. and Rudy Wolf - Director, Enterprise Change, PG&E will join Joe to share how PG&E is using some of these practices at their organization
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less Greg McKeown - CEO, THIS Inc Best-selling author
Our Schedule
Day 0
- Welcome Reception and Networking, Jumpstart Keynotes
Day 1
- Keynotes , Exhibition Hall, Evening Reception
- Four Track Streams Covering: Customer, Operations, Finance, Technology
- ASUG Community Roundtables
Day 2
- Keynotes, Exhibition Hall
- Five Track Streams Covering: Customer, Operations, Procurement, Data & Analytics, Organization
Day 3
Four Full Day workshops:
- Asset Data Management: Deep Dive into Master Data, Asset Intelligence Network & Spatial
- Essential Strategies & Solutions That Business & Operations Managers Need to Know to Successfully Engage the NEW Energy Customer
- Mobility Workshop
- Agile Development & Analytics: The New Way of Doing it with HANA Cloud Platform
OUR MANY SUCCESS STORIES - YOUR " THREE PERFECT DAYS " SHARED LEARNINGS NOT TO BE MISSED
Attend the conference to hear numerous customer success stories including:
- Integrating SAP Hybris Billing for Non-Utility Product Billing & Invoicing Zankhana Kapadia - Manager, Billing Solutions & Muneesh Narakula - Architect, TXU Energy
- Integrating SAP ISU/PM & ESRI GIS by Utilizing SAP’s Geographic Enablement (GEO.e) Technology Tommy Acers II - ERP Technical/ Functional Analyst, SAP, Metropolitan Utilities District Omaha
- Change Leadership & the Mindset Shift… It’s Bigger Than You Think David Hilario - Change Leadership Consultant & Traci Krueger - Change Leadership Consultant, PG
- Spectra Energy’s Success Story Deploying Ariba’s eSourcing & Contract Management Christopher Collins - Manager Procurement Systems, Spectra Energy
- An Inside Look: How a Cloud-Based CIS will Support Sharyland Utilities’ Business, Now & Later BJ Flowers - Director, Operations Intelligence & Charlie Bratton - Director, Customer Operations, Sharyland Utilities
OUR EXPERTS - YOUR " THREE PERFECT DAYS " TOUR AND LEARNING GUIDES
Joining us are 57 customer speakers including 9 international speakers. All of our stories this year will focus on actionable practices that lead to returns on investment for attendees.
OUR " TOWN HALL " - YOUR GATHERING PLACE IS OUR SOLUTION SHOWCASE
Every town has its community meeting place and ours is theSolution Showcasewhere you will find leading technology and service providers who have setup shop at our event. In our SAP for Utilities meeting place you will find the " who's who " of the SAP Utilities ecosystem featuring SAP, Utegration, SUS, HCL, PwC, KPIT, Vertex One, Cognizant, Avertra and many more.
The Americas' SAP User Group (ASUG) will also have a booth in theSolution Showcase. Definitely be sure to visit the ASUG booth to learn about the power of the ASUG Network.
With all of these impressive SAP and SAP Utility experts in the solution showcase there is no better place to learn about solutions to help your business and it's also a great place to stop by booths for what I like to term "free" onsite consulting – an opportunity to pick the brains of leading experts to get your questions answered.
One of my favorite parts of the event is connecting with Henry Bailey who heads up the SAP's Global Utility Industry Business Unit and his team of experts that are in attendance every year. I enjoy heard their insights not just on SAP solutions but on what they are seeing in both other Utilities and Utility markets around the world.
OUR EVENT - " THREE PERFECT DAYS " AT OUR CONFERENCE VENUE - HYATT REGENCY HUNTINGTON BEACH
If you are interested in learning more about “ The Reimagined Utility “ as well has how to digitally transform your utility, Huntington Beach is the place to be for Utility professionals from October 9 – 12, 2016.
I hope that you can join me there along with the other members of the SAP Utilities Community at what should be a transformative SAP for Utilities event.