ABAPConf 2026 Behind the scenes

It’s a wrap. ABAPConf 2026 is in the books. We managed to live stream track 1 🔗 & track 2 🔗. The replays of both tracks are available on the ABAPConf YouTube channel 🔗. As not everyone could join us on-site in Mannheim - and yes, we are still an event with a very strong online focus - the live videos are a great way to participate. Whether online or later on demand. At peak, 268 people joined us for track 1 online, and 176 in track 2. Not our highest number. A possible explaination: watch parties. There were again several watch parties we are aware of. When 5, 6, or 10+ people join for a watch party, it conly counts as 1 person in the statistics. For those that want to access the presentations, most are already available on the GitHub repository 🔗. We already have 6,500 views for both live streams. That’s not bad and thank you to everyone that participated online or watched the recording!

Organization

Of course, this is only possible with the help of others. The track 2 live stream was mainly managed by Timo John. He already did an amazing job last year at ABAPConf 2025 in Hamburg. And without him, live streaming track 2 would have been so much harder. Thank you Timo! Föß and Domi were also busy running track 2. And on top, Föß also had to give a talk about visual filters in Fiori Elements. That’s next level. Running an on-site event also means booking rooms, taking care of catering, reception, room preparation, etc. It might sound like an easy task, but no. Without the help of the team of Brandeins Consulting, we won’t be able to offer this event on-site. Thank you to the Brandeis Team!

The catering worked very well. We had enough cool drinks that were highly demanded between sessions. Including a surprise ice cream for everyone. Breakfast, lunch and coffee break were a nice way to talk to other participants. From what I have seen, the speakers were approached and asked a lot of questions during these breaks. This is what ABAPConf is about. This kind of interaction without any artificial barriers is how it should be. Here, the Mafinex location offers a great benefit: all rooms are on the same floor, just a few meters apart. When leaving the main room (Audimax), you were already in the expo hall where sponsors showed what they offer, and food was served. No hiding, just valuable interactions.

What we cannot control is the weather, and yes, it was hot. A heat wave came over Germany and Europe right in the week of ABAPConf. The rooms had air conditioning, but with max capacity in the room and max temperature outside, it came to its limits. The room for track 2 came also to its capacity. The room situation at Mafinex isn’t optimal: one large room, and one smaller one makes it hard, if not impossible, to get the best for the speaker and the audience. Nevertheless, the audience was great. Despite the heat wave, people showed up and … were happy to get in contact with fellow developers, being able to attend high quality sessions. I have to say a big thank you to every participant.

Agenda

Once more, we had a packed agenda: 3 Keynotes, 10 sessions, and on top: track 3 with the opportunity to meet leading experts face to face and gain insights into the future of SAP development. In total, there were 26 speakers in track 1, 2 and 3, plus a few more from our sponsors Conduct and Nova Intelligence. The initial draft of the agenda included 2 more sessions, and would have extended the event by an hour. I guess having the closing keynote from Karl Kessler at 17:00 instead of at 18:00 was a good decision. His last keynote was very well attended and content wise, it was exceptional. Track 3, our online only experience, received mixed feedback. Some sessions were crowded, others rather empty. We’ll have to analyze in more detail why. Maybe it wasn’t 100% clear from the main agenda what gems were offered in track 3. But that’s the problem when you have a hybrid event: the agenda was targeted at the online attendees. The location offerings were communicated to the participants with information what additional benefit the onsite experience offers.

The idea behind the keynotes and how some sessions were selected will be covered in a separate article.

Website

The conference website will stay online. Some smaller changes will be done, like adding the recording links to the sessions and the session material. But in general, the site is intended to stay online for the years to come. This is done to provide people that might only discover ABAP, Fiori Elements or SAP development only in a few years the chance to explore older conferences. There is a lot of timeless content available since ABAPConf 2021 and it would be a shame to not make it easily available to everyone. Keeping the websites of previous conferences online is also a way to respect the speakers. They invested valuable time to prepare and present their session. Making it possible for them to reference their participation in their CV or online presence is the least we can do. All speakers will be added to our list of ABAPConf legends. We’ll have 8 new legends. The ABAPConf legends app hopefully makes it easier for speakers to reference their past contributions.

Charity

During the conference it was revealed the ABAPConf 2026 supports the German Cancer Aid - Deutsche Krebshilfe 🔗. A friend of ours was diagnosed with cancer and he had to withdraw his session submissions. To support him, and so many other people diagnosed with cancer, the decision was made to do something. And so a fundraising campaign for the German Cancer Aid organization was started. We are independent and no management approval or anything else is needed to start something like this. The goal was to raise 500€. We had 200 people registered for ABAPConf 2026. The minimum value for a donation is 5€. The idea was: when 50% of the registrants donate 5€, it is 500€. Expectation, of course, was different. And the expectation was surpassed. In total, 2,200€ were donated 🔗. We also got a certificate.

Certificate Deutsche Krebshilfe

Future changes

Yes, it was hot. Yes, having this event on-site wasn’t planned when the decision to have one more ABAPConf in 2026 was made. And yes, we have a strong focus on the online part. ABAPConf is the only event with a SAP focus that live streams all sessions, that makes them available for on-demand replay, and that keeps the event site of the current and previous events up and running, including access to the session material. When 200 people are on the registration list on the day of the event, and in the end, 160 (+/-) people show up, that’s a no show rate of >20%. We plan with this uncertainty, but this was the last time. Over the years, a huge list of no-shows was created. And this list is now being put in place. Doesn’t matter your title, company or community status: you didn’t show up, didn’t cancel or write a sorry, cannot show up today: do not sign up. Your ticket will be canceled.

Why? Imagine we try to host ABAPConf 2027 in a larger location? Maybe we plan for 300 participants? A 20% no-show rate would mean that 60 persons simply do not show up. From 300 people down to 240. To get to 300 participants, we would need to aim for almost 400 registered tickets.

The solution? Besides enforcing a block list, I guess we will opt to raise the entry barrier. Possibility is high that the no-shows are responsible that the next ABAPConf won’t be offered for free. Congrats.