There are a lot of IT and IT service management (ITSM) events on the industry calendar. They range from the traditional global "grand slam" of "most-attended" ITSM conferences namely Pink, HDI, SITS, and itSMF USA and HDI's joint FUSION conference — through to other popular events such as SDI and country-chapter itSMF events, vendor customer conferences, regional ITSM technology bake-offs, local itSMF events, special interest groups, and local user groups. In fact I could probably write this blog as a list of global and local ITSM-related events, but instead I'll focus on what I see as the big issue — the value side of the event attendance equation.
Industry events cost, money changes hands, and considerable travel time and costs are incurred, but is there an ROI? Yes, attending an IT or ITSM industry event is an IT investment. Have you ever thought about the ROA — that is, the return on attendance? We often hear of the costs incurred but where are the real benefits to the employer?
Desperately seeking value
"This was the best ITSM event I've ever attended" doesn't wash it for me. Was the content smart (but maybe not usable in the workplace)? Did you meet lots of interesting people? Was it good to be somewhere warm for a few days? Or would saying that an event was poor preclude further attendance at this and other events? I'm sure it has happened many times.
What will you do differently as a result of attending this greatest-of-all-ITSM-events? What will your company do better or maybe even stop doing because you went to this event?
I understand your difficulty, getting approved to attend industry events can be like a corporate version of Game of Thrones so that is where the focus is …
Looking after numero uno
As an individual, it can be difficult to work out which events to attend. And this is in addition to getting the OK to even go to these events. Not only from a financial funding perspective, but also based on workplace limitations — spending time away from the workplace has an opportunity cost. After all, work doesn't stop just because you aren't there.
Thus an event attendee has to feel that the time spent (invested?) away from the workplace exceeds the opportunity cost, no matter how much fun is had at the sponsored bars and BBQs. And I don't want to appear overly cynical in finally reaching my ROA point, attending events can be great for employees (and their CIOs):
- Even before attending, it can make employees feel valued. Event-attendance is often now seen a reward and recognition initiative, replacing the IT soft-skill training budgets that have eroded over time.
- Attendees can learn about hot IT or ITSM topics, new technologies, and the ITSM technology landscape — especially where big-boothed software vendors have "subsidized" attendees through their sponsorship.
- "Basic" ITSM topics can be revisited — for example problem management continues to be in vogue, albeit not so much back in the workplace — and the "how to" stuff continues to be popular.
- The proverbial networking with peers.
But where is the corporate ROI or ROA?
Yes, employee attendance is potentially good for morale. Yes, employees will learn new stuff or will better understand things that they are unsure of. But how much of it:
- Actually leaves Las Vegas or any other event location?
- Makes it out of brains, notebooks, napkins, and iPads when back at the ranch?
- Is brought to bear in the workplace?
How much of the three-day, say, event makes its way back to the workplace and is considered for use-in-anger? Or more pointedly, how did the employee attending the event make a difference to IT and business operations?
There is an obvious parallel with IT training
Last year at the itSMF Norway annual conference (which is a great ITSM event BTW), Paul Wilkinson of GamingWorks delivered a popular (I can call it popular because he was asked to repeat his previous year's session) presentation on the value of ITIL training. Or, more specifically, the lack of corporate insight into the value of the training.
According to research, only 3% of companies evaluate the value delivered by their investment in training. And it was 2% in the room Paul was presenting to in Oslo last year. So how many evaluate their investment in event attendance? I imagine a similar percentage. That is those that go beyond having an "event justification form" to compare post-event business outcomes relative to the cost of sending one or more employees to the event.
So which IT and ITSM events should you invest in this year? … It really does depend …
As with consumer technology, what was very relevant and popular five years ago might not get your money now. I've politely refrained from mentioning a couple of mobile handset vendors, with whom I was happy to spend my hard-earned cash until I realized that there were other, more-modern, handsets that, while more expensive, delivered better "value" based on my personal needs.
So not all events were nor continue to be born equal. Nor do they all continue to evolve and grow over time — just look at the number of events that suffer from one or both of: a low repeat-attendance percentage figure, or a continuing drop in attendee numbers as newer events battle for the limited attendee funds (and personal availability).
But, most importantly, what are you and your team trying to achieve through attending an event or events? What are you wanting to gain for yourself, your colleagues, and customers?
Event planning 101: what does your business actually need to achieve?
If you are looking for a new ITSM tool then certain events will be better than others. If you are looking for high-level IT and ITSM thinking from industry though leaders then that too will point to certain events.
However, if you are looking for real-world, real-people enterprise success stories that haven't been filtered through a consultant's dictionary then it can be problematic. Especially given the high proportion of consultant, or co-presented, sessions at industry events. They can be good, bad, ugly or great but do they really leave attendees with something that can be applied back at the ranch? Instead you might need to be inspired at customer conferences.
But customer conferences often don't have the same kudos as industry events (with notable exceptions such as Dreamforce, Oracle OpenWorld, and VMworld). Nor do they necessarily have the volume and mix of attendees that make the events "valuable beyond the keynotes." But, as per these examples, some do …
Knowledge14 has grown beyond a customer conference, it's now an industry conference
And part of me feels bad for saying this.
Knowledge14 is about our customers. It's about the successes of our customers — past, present, and future. But calling it a customer conference undersells its power. It undersells its magnitude. And it undersells its value to attendees and their CIOs (and we will have many CIOs in attendance too).
Consider this. There will be 6000 attendees, up from 4000 in 2013, making Knowledge14 one of the largest annual global ITSM events. And prior to this, each Knowledge event has achieved a doubling of attendees every year:
So consider Knowledge14, or any other learning event, in terms of business outcomes
What's keeping you and your customers awake at night? Where do you need help in upping the enterprise IT organization's ability to meet current and future employee, supplier, partner, and customer needs?
Make your event outcomes relate to these needs: "I want to know how others have solved this issue," or "I want to know how our people will need to change …" or "I need to know how this trend is going to impact us." Or you might just want to collect the ammunition to drive a larger business transformation around people, process, or technology.
You will hopefully be exposed to so much more though, maybe even to things that you didn't even know you needed to learn — Knowledge attendees usually do. But you as a minimum you will return to the workplace with a number of solutions to the issues that require them. You will also return with the ability to justify your attendance and hopefully your attendance at future events too. As with most business decisions, event attendance is all about the return on investment.
