A Release Manager in Vegas - Part 2 - Narrowing down Hands-On Sessions

See my first blog, "A Release Manager in Vegas" for the background.

As I stated in my first blog post, I started by marking the ~150 sessions.  Out of these, I had 14 hands-on sessions. 

My first round cut out sessions where there was something else going on that I wanted to attend more.  My second round picked the three (one extra due to blog contest) I thought would be the most important.

Sessions I considered during Hands-on times are below, and the sessions that bumped them off are indented below.  The lists of bumping sessions in italics were previously listed as bumping another session.  Session names are my abbreviations.

The Hands-On sessions I signed up for:

• ITM162 (HANA Transports)  Out of all the Hands-On sessions, this is most important one to me.
• ITM264 (Scope and Effort Analyzer).  This is also an important subject, and one where I feel my knowledge is a bit lacking.  A strong contender.
• ITM261 (Solman from bus. req. to solution).  I'm not sure about this one, and it's four hours long.  However, there aren't a lot of other sessions I want to attend during this time, and I have a late enough flight I could make it.  Plus, at least if I'm typing I can mostly stay awake. 

The Hands-On sessions that made the first cut, but didn't end up on my list:

• ITM161 (Proj. Mgmt. w/ ChaRM).  This made the first cut because this is a piece of ChaRM I'd like to better understand.  However, I am doubtful we'd implement this in the near future, so it ultimately fell by the wayside.
• ITM262 (Retrofit).  This is an important subject for me, but I'm not sure what else I can learn about it.  Plus, there are lots of other good sessions at the same time. 
• ITM361 (CIA & Test Scope Opt. w/ BPCA)  This is another one that's an important subject, but I already feel I understand it pretty well.

The Hands-On sessions I decided against attending:

• INT263 (Google apps) - Of personal interest to me, but not something I could find a reason I'd ever use. 
  • Tuesday 11:15-1:15  ITM100 (IT Mgmt. for hybrid solutions - Plus it has John K.), ITM110 (HANA Lifecycle Mgmt), or DEV814 (HANA Cloud Q&A).
  • Wed 4:30-6:30  ITM825 (Solman Roadmap), ITM212 (Cloud-based w/ Solman), ITM361 (CIA & Test Scope opt. w/ BPCA), ITM209 (Solman for HANA Operations)
• ITM163 (HANA Operations) - Again, of personal interest to me.  This is one I could do with some background on, but I don't need it so much that I should take a precious hands-on session.  Plus, there's a lot going on at the same time as this one. 
  • Tuesday 2:00-4:00  ITM262 (Retrofit hands-on), ITM303 (SolMan ALM Focus at Terumo BCT), UXP200 (Overview about SAO UI Technologies) ITM825 (Solman Road Map), ITM105 (Change Control Management for Hybrid Scenarios), ITM209 (Solman for HANA Operations), ITM300 (How to plan changes). 
  • Thursday 10:30 - 12:30 DEV204 (Prep code for HANA), ITM101 (HANA Landscape), ITM108 (Test automation), ITM202 (Setting up Fiori)
• DEV264 (Custom ABAP ready for HANA) - Another personal interest one that I could use background on, but not sure I should go for a precious hands-on.  Plus, it's competing with
  • Wednesday 8:00-10:00 ITM162 ("Managing and Transporting SAP HANA Objects.")
  • Thursday 2-4  ITM109 (TAO), ITM215 (ITSM Best Practices), ITM262 (Retrofit), ITM263 (Custom code in hybrid landscape), ITM162 ("Managing and Transporting SAP HANA Objects")
• ITM263 (Managing custom code in hybrid landscape) - I'd like to go to this, but the first time I'd prefer other sessions at these times.
  • Wednesday 8:00-10:00 ITM162 ("Managing and Transporting SAP HANA Objects.")
  • Thursday 2-4  ITM109 (TAO), ITM215 (ITSM Best Practices), ITM262 (Retrofit), ITM263 (Custom code in hybrid landscape), ITM162 ("Managing and Transporting SAP HANA Objects")
• UXP263 (Personas) - Another personal interest dropped due to conflicts with sessions more closely related to my job. 
  • Wednesday 2-4 ITM110 (HANA Lifecycle mgmt), ITM161 (Project Mgmt integration w/ ChaRM), ITM208 (Customer Transports)
• TEC160 (Tech. Hightlights) - Nice, but not required, and it's four hours long. Four hours is too much commitment for me to make on something that isn't a main focus for me.
  • Wednesday 2-4 ITM110 (HANA Lifecycle mgmt), ITM161 (Project Mgmt integration w/ ChaRM), ITM208 (Customer Transports)
  • Wed 4:30-6:30  ITM825 (Solman Roadmap), ITM212 (Cloud-based w/ Solman), ITM361 (CIA & Test Scope opt. w/ BPCA), ITM209 (Solman for HANA Operations)
  • Thursday 8-10 ITM102 (Provisioning in Hybrid World), ITM207 (0 Downtime Maint), ITM213 (HANA, Mobile & Hybris w/ Solman), TEC116 (SolMan to innovate)
    
  • Thursday 10:30 - 12:30 DEV204 (Prep code for HANA), ITM101 (HANA Landscape), ITM108 (Test automation), ITM202 (Setting up Fiori)
• ITM363 (Design IT Services in SolMan) - Interesting, but I don't think we're going to use this and there are other good sessions
  • Wed 4:30-6:30  ITM825 (Solman Roadmap), ITM212 (Cloud-based w/ Solman), ITM361 (CIA & Test Scope opt. w/ BPCA), ITM209 (Solman for HANA Operations)
  • Friday 10:30-12:30 - ITM261 (Solman from bus. req. to solution)
• UXP163 (Fiori Launchpad in action)  Another personal interest one that I could use background on, but not sure I should go for a precious hands-on.  Plus, it's competing with
  • Wed 4:30-6:30  ITM825 (Solman Roadmap), ITM212 (Cloud-based w/ Solman), ITM361 (CIA & Test Scope opt. w/ BPCA), ITM209 (Solman for HANA Operations)
  • Thursday 8-10 ITM102 (Provisioning in Hybrid World), ITM207 (0 Downtime Maint), ITM213 (HANA, Mobile & Hybris w/ Solman), TEC116 (SolMan to innovate)

Next up, getting rid of all those pesky conflict warnings in the agenda builder.