Five Tips on Dishing up a Delish K15 Abstract (before Dec. 31!)

[angelaburk]

I say it often: I have one the best jobs at ServiceNow, running the Voice of Customer program. On a daily basis, I have the pleasure of working with customers to find ways for them to share all they've done with the platform publicly.

Over the past few weeks, I've brainstormed with many customers around their K15 speaking submissions and I want to share a few takeaways that will help you submit a compelling abstract in the next 2 weeks. Remember the deadline is Dec 31!

1) Trust in the fact that you do have something of value to share.

As I work with customers many of the calls start out the same way: "Oh, you know, we've really not done anything exciting with ServiceNow". What follows is beyond thrilling and I find myself barely able to contain my giddiness. Trust that others will be interested in hearing about your experiences, how you are using ServiceNow in unique or unexpected ways, what's worked well for you or your lessons from the trenches.

2) Title helps. Get Creative!

Try to come up with a catchy, funny or exciting title — this helps draw someones attention in. Things that include a take-way, an outcome or a funny/clever play on words do get people's attention.   Here are some of my favorites from last year:

* Reality - Causing Sudden Shifts in IT Strategies

* Up and Running in 90 days

* Employee Onboarding - Scaling On Demand

* Succeeding with Asset Management, a process and data-driven best practice approach

* The Perfect Storm: Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery

* Diary of an ITSM Initiative

3) Focus on quality, not quantity.

In a world of 140 characters or less, you can say a LOT in a small number of words — so don't feel you have to go into a ton of detail within your abstract. Be descriptive, clear and concise and take the pressure off thinking you have to write a short novel!

4) Don't show your entire hand.

As you put together your thoughts, don't give away all the good stuff but do include a few specifics to let the reader know there's more coming. So, if you have an exciting outcome or metric, throw that into the abstract but don't talk about all the detail behind it - that will come in your session!

5) Ingredients matter.

Think about how to flow together your ideas just as you would if you were pulling together ingredients for a meal: a little of this and a little of that get the right taste! Details including a description of the company, the problem/s you have solved for your organization with ServiceNow, the road you took to get there, what lessons you've collected along the way and the outcomes you are achieving make for compelling submissions.   And the best recipes include a picture of the completed dish so you want to give readers of an idea of what they will walk away with from your session.

And most of all, if you are stuck with writer's block, let's brainstorm.   Good luck cooking up your creations!