Feature by Jeanette Rohr November 8, 2022
2022 is a special year for SAP, with the enterprise software giant celebrating its 50th anniversary. This year’s SAP TechEd, November 15-16, offers a special review involving innovative technologies to mark the occasion.
An NFT (non-fungible token) drop offering 15 pieces of digital art designed specifically for the event and the anniversary will be made available via digital codes during the sessions.
“Those registered for SAP TechEd may participate in the NFT drop during the live event and collect 15 NFTs,” Marcus Krug, head of SAP Innovation Center Potsdam, explains. His team developed and implemented the NFT drop.
Registered SAP TechEd participants will receive access to a Web app, including a collector’s album for NFTs. “The album appears as a timeline of SAP’s history,” Krug says. “There’s a lot of fascinating stuff to learn about our company while being introduced to NFT technologies in a gamified way.”
In live keynotes, online or onsite workshops, virtual lectures, and breakout sessions, attentive participants will spot QR codes and short links in announcement windows that can be used to claim NFTs. After the event, participants can transfer the NFTs to their private digital wallets.
“And for those who discovered and collected all 15 NFTs, an additional surprise is waiting,” Krug says.
But what will participants actually be collecting?
NFTs – non-fungible tokens – are digital assets managed by a blockchain network. Usually, they are representations of a digital or physical asset, very often artwork.
“Non-fungible” means the asset is unmistakable and cannot be reproduced. This process of creating the asset on the blockchain is called minting. A smart contract on a public blockchain ensures the unique value of a digital piece of art.
NFTs can be bought and sold online, often with cryptocurrencies. For this purpose, there are specific NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea and Rarible on which thousands of artists and collectors are hosted.
The NFT drop for SAP TechEd was initiated by Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, who had explored the emerging technology earlier in the year as a fun private project.
“It’ll be interesting to see whether NFTs gain relevance in the enterprise context,” Mueller says. “Already today, digital proof of ownership for digital or physical assets is useful for customer brand engagement with luxury goods such as jewelry or sneakers. On a broader scale, this digital proof of ownership could also be leveraged in the area of supply chain management to provide a single source of truth to all stakeholders.”
Usage scenarios such as the latter are still some time off. Still, NFTs are being leveraged for various digital and physical assets such as videos, sports highlights, artwork, and music.
The collector’s album is a Web application running on a standard Web browser for desktop or mobile.
When participants register for the NFT drop, the album shows placeholders already pointing to the most critical milestones in SAP history. The details become visible once the NFT has been collected via a QR code or link.
“In principle, the NFT drop is a technological elevation of the sticker album that most of us still know from childhood,” Krug says. “Duplicates may be swapped, of course.”
The 15 NFTs trace SAP’s path from a five-person startup in 1972 to a multinational enterprise with 110,000 employees in 2022. The NFTs from SAP TechEd cannot be sold or purchased.
“These NFTs are only available at SAP TechEd 2022, exclusively for participants,” Krug stresses. “It is a unique opportunity to win a lasting piece of SAP history, captured artistically.”
Register here for SAP TechEd. To create your own collector’s album and gain a piece of SAP heritage, visit the NFT drop Web app.
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