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
Rance, Kaimar
Karu, Andrea 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 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.
