while more subdued than in the late 90s, Sapphire is still the most important IT event every single year. Yes Comdex used to bring bigger crowds, and Gartner Symposium/ITxpo still brings together large numbers of mid-level IT professionals, but Sapphire brings out major CIOs and top execs of most of SAP's hardware, services and other partners. It reeks of big IT money.
One of the other things I used to really enjoy at past Sapphires was an hour Dr. Hasso Plattner, the former CEO of SAP religiously allocated to Gartner analysts. He would charm us, scold us, market test us. While his PR handlers would faint at some of the stuff he told us, the rule for that session was Las Vegas: "What is said here, stays here"
Heard the Ellison "mooning" story - two versions one reported by WSJ and BusinessWeek
and a different perspective in Sailing World . He had told us about the incident at a Sapphire 4 years earlier.
Sapphire is still the industry's Paris Air Show.
