Tuesday 20 May 2014

SITS14 - My Experience and Takeaways ( 29th, 30th April, Earls Court - London)

I have been very much looking forward to presenting at this part of the world for 2 primary reasons.  ITIL’s humble origin at the OGC /Cabinet Office and this country hosting some of the elite and vibrant ITSM professionals whom I have always wanted to meet face-to-face.

I did plan my self-funded trip from Bangalore to London for 3 simple reasons:  a) leisure & sight seeing b) attend and present at the SITS14 conference 3) connect with ITSM people & friends

What surprises me is that, how do you get such great quality speakers and sessions free to the audience?  As a delegate, it would be a bonanza to hear & connect with some fascinating ITSM minds across globe.
I agree with what James mentions in his blog – This has more value than much of the paid conferences.

The breakfast briefing on day 1 that had Barclay facilitate a panel discussion on customer experience was quite stimulating and the panelists including Toby, Simone and David did a good job in articulating relevant examples which complemented the CX survey results.

Having Jeff from Gartner as Keynote Speaker marked the icing on the cake and was glad that he was able to entertain audience for both the days.

I would admit that the Tube strikes in London was little unfortunate as we did loose around 15 % of registrants. However it also meant that 85 % of who did register were so compelled they had made alternative arrangements to be a part of this event.

This year marked 20 years of success for the Service Desk & IT Support show and couldn’t be a better fit launching the ITSM contributor of the year award.  Barclay’s contribution to the ITSM industry, knowledge, teaching and consulting have had a huge fan following for him including me.  It was heartening to see him win the well-deserved award.  Watch here.

The whole event had a good bunch of Keynotes, sessions and hot topics for 2 full days and it was a tough challenge for delegates to pick and choose merely by the high quality speakers.

I particularly liked a lot of sessions and would be difficult to point them all, but one thing that I need to make a special mention is the Panel discussion on “Is ITIL going to die”?  We couldn’t have a better panel team than  Stuart RanceKaimar KaruAndrea Kis and Ian Atchison, facilitated by Barclay Rae.
Special thanks to all the people who took their time to attend my session on “Governance & Fragmented IT – must service desks let go?”  I am humbled by the comments and feedback that indicated it gave some take-aways for everyone who attended.

For me the highlight of the whole conference was to catch up with lot of ITSM professionals discussing various diversified interest and make that emotional connect.  I did make sure to take snaps with all those I interacted with and no wonder I landed up with 500+ photos of just ITSM people.



 - With the SDI team: Howard, David, Tessa, Paul and me in front of the ‘Big Red Tool Box’ stand.
I did tweet a lot about what I learnt, enjoyed and missed at #SITS14 and you should just do a quick search on twitter as to what has been everyone’s experience.
I could start writing raving reviews of SITS14 conference and the best bet would be to catch up on SITS14 podcast  at the ITSM review  that has a collective opinion from James, Melanie, Toby, Simon, Barclay here.

Running such a conference is not a child’s play. Toby Moore did indicate when we discussed during our SITS14 podcast, that it took a whopping 7 months effort to turn a piece of paper to a reality event.  The Organizers and particularly Laura Venables has done a fantastic job in managing this event to perfection.

I cannot believe that 2 days at SITS14 has come to an end.  What a terrific event this has been.  I have earned great friends and made strong emotional connect and will carry those pleasant memories.
We will miss Laura Venables next year as she moves to OZ later this year, but am sure that the Leader of the Ship has some great people who will adorn the show next year.


Finally, I am certain that this is the best conference that I have attended in almost a decade and will look forward to being again next year from 3-4th June 2015.

This was published at SDI  on May 9, 2014

No comments:

Post a Comment