April is a busy month for IT service management (ITSM) industry events. We've already had the annual HDI conference in the US and the end of April sees two more: the Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS) in the UK and Knowledge14 in the US — with a combined attendance of over 10,000 IT professionals. An audience that is amplified globally through streaming and social media. I for one will be watching the SITS twitter stream, #SITS14, while tweeting from #Know14.
So if you attend either event please tweet any ITSM nuggets you hear, people want to read about more than just vendor booth numbers and giveaway prizes. Remember that for every one person that will read a tweet at the event there are potentially thousands more not there who would love to read, and even retweet, your nuggets.
I'm oddly reminded of some advice from Prince — please tweet your nugget not your booth number — it's childish but oh-so relevant. But this blog is actually about the value of attending SITS …
The ITSM world continues to shrink
And by this I don't mean that there are fewer ITSM professionals or fewer vendors offering ITSM solutions. In fact it's quite the opposite, and the latter is where SITS really excels — it's a great event for seeing where the ITSM tool marketplace is and is going.
What I actually mean is that we are all so much closer to each now other thanks to technology. And that technology includes air transport — while I stated that SITS is a UK event, in reality it is anything but. There will be attendees from outside the UK (mainland Europe in particular), obviously ITSM tool vendors from all around the world, and internationally-renowned speakers such as Gartner analysts, Barclay Rae, Noel Bruton, and Kaimar Karu too.
Take a look at the SITS:
The latter of which range from safely selecting a new ITSM tool through to improving knowledge management or as I prefer to say — improving knowledge exploitation.
But SITS also offers a wealth of networking opportunities
With so many like-minded people at SITS, over 4,000 over the two days last time I was told, it's a great place to network. Whether it be on the expo floor, after the presentations, or while a having a swift, after-hours pint in one of the many local drinking establishments.
At SITS the world is your oyster or, as it's in London, the world is your cockle or jellied eel. There's so much opportunity to talk to your peers about industry issues, trends, and best practices. In particular what others are doing to improve their IT service delivery and service experience.
SITS majors on the available ITSM offerings — so get a demo or two
Yes there will be great presentations from those internationally-renowned presenters and great networking opportunities, but SITS is somewhat unique from an expo perspective — the expo is open from the start to the end of the day. Unlike many events, where booth babes such as myself get to sit down between the time-boxed expo time slots, SITS is relentless for those working on the booths (and wearing high-heels a booth-rookie mistake).
But it's great for the attendees who can talk to as many, or as few, ITSM tool vendors as they want, and when they want. From memory that's any time between 9am and 5pm. But be warned, the Earl's Court security guards are a little precious, they will be actively chasing you out of the building at 5pm sharp.
So get a demo as well as a chat from the vendor or vendors of your choice. There will be ample time over the two days, SITS should be treated as so much more than a vendor-swag-grabbing opportunity even if you aren't currently looking for a new ITSM or service desk tool.
Oh, and did I mention that SITS is free to attend?
Vendor sponsorship of everything from the exhibition booths through to the lanyards that support your name badge all contribute to making SITS a free event for enterprise attendees. So what's stopping you attending? Other than Knowledge14 of course. SITS is a great event for ITSM professionals and I for one will be sad to miss it this year.
The good news is that my ServiceNow colleagues will be there. Fielding questions about what we offer and, more importantly, what our customers are doing to improve their IT and other corporate service provider operations (think HR, facilities, and more) and how customers deliver improved service experience in light of consumer-driven expectations.
So come see ServiceNow at SITS. I'll not give you the booth number given my cheekiness above, just look out for a stand similar to the one above.
