By Freya Purnell
International SAP superstars and local leading lights will gather to share their insight at the upcoming SAUG Summit, taking place on 3-5 August at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, with the event agenda released last week.
As the biggest SAP event in the Asia Pacific, this year’s event is themed ‘Enabling Innovation across the SAP Community’.
SAUG operations manager Kim Salter said, “We look forward to a successful SAUG Summit 2010, sharing trends in technology and knowledge to help Australian businesses profit. Expected attendance is already larger than last year’s registrations and we anticipate that number to grow considerably. The Summit isn’t just a one-off annual event, but an extension of the best practice sharing and educational sessions that are part of the year-round SAUG community.”
Open to SAUG members as well as non-members, in addition to the usual information sessions, there will be influence meetings, workshops, roundtables and plenty of opportunities to expand business networks. There will also be a full-day CIO Forum, 26 exhibitors, an SAP BusinessObjects specific stream and SAP customers sharing their learning with attendees.
“Each delegate will have access to discussions with C-level executives and industry thought leaders, benefiting from their experience, and gaining knowledge not commonly found in most forums,” Salter said.
Among the key speakers at this year’s event are:
* Georg Verdaguer, business intelligence architect, TeliaSonera Sweden, giving the opening keynote;
* Glenn Wightwick, director and chief technologist, IBM;
* Phil Mumford, chief executive officer, Queensland Motorways;
* Dave Curran, executive general manager, core banking, Commonwealth Bank of Australia;
* Joe Marsella, ITS director, Asia-Pacific, Kimberly-Clark;
* Jeff Word, PhD, vice president of product strategy, Office of the CTO, SAP AG (USA);
* Ray Wang, enterprise strategist and disruptive technologies expert, Altimeter Group;
* Eric Schemer, director solution management, SAP AG;
* Mark Jones, founder and director, Filtered Media; and,
* Paul Hawking, director of SAP Academic Programs, Victoria University.
Session speakers from industries including utilities, healthcare, technology, mining and metals will also discuss how their sectors are using SAP products to support core business processes and ultimately reduce their trade costs. Live interviews of key speakers will also be streamed into the exhibition area.
“Both the keynote and session speakers at the SAUG Summit will provide insight based on the business challenges that they, as SAP users, have experienced in this changing market,” said Salter. “Issues that are top-of-mind for IT teams through to senior level executives will be examined – from consolidation and management best practices, to driving the TCO and keeping workers’ skills in check.”
Also on the agenda are the SAP Partner/Customer Awards of Excellence, SAUG’s first ever Demo Jam, and the SAP-sponsored Gala Dinner and fundraiser for RedKite.
To view the full agenda for the SAUG Summit 2010, visit www.saug.com.au/CIOs_CIOSummitInformation.aspx.
