Service Management Fusion Conference 2014

As we ring in September, we also ring in the start of the fall conference season.

It's hard to believe but the itSMF/HDI Fusion 2014 conference is next month!   

As always, members of the ITSM crew will be among the many experienced service management professionals sharing insight, knowledge and experiences at the event.

Donna Knapp will be co-presenting with Anthony Orr at a Breakfast Briefing: How to Pass Your MALC Exam on Monday, October 20th at 7:30 am

I will be leading Session 606: Practical Problem Management: The Courage to Ask Why on Tuesday, October 21 at 2:45 PM.

I will also be participating in Session 704: Expert Focus on Practical DevOps with Brandon Gillis of Bank of NY Mellon on Wednesday, October 22 at 9:00 am.

You can register for Fusion14 at https://www.servicemanagementfusion.com/purchase.

Hope to see you there.

Top Ten Take Home from Fusion 13

Just got back from Fusion 13 in Nashville.  It was a good time seeing old friends, making new friends and basking in the service management glow.  Learned a lot, shared a lot, laughed a lot.

Our team collected their Top Ten Take Homes from the conference which have been collected into a slide deck.  Lisa and Donna even made some videos.

To learn more about our Top 10, please visit Lisa's "LisaLand" blog at http://mylisaland.com/2013/10/30/fusion-13-top-10-take-homes/.

Fusion 13 Speaker Selection

I am happy to announce that ITSM Academy has been selected to deliver three sessions at the Fusion 13 conference in Nashville in October.

Donna Knapp, our Curriculum Development Manager and a frequent conference presenter, will be discussing The Service Desk State of the Future in Session 106 on Monday, October 21st from 10:14 to 11:15 am.

Michael Cardinal, a Senior Instructor and another frequent presenter, will be presenting Measure Twice, Cut Once: Improving your Improvement Through Better Metrics in Session 302 on Monday, October 21 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m

We are very excited about the new Expert Track . This track will be particularly valuable for those that have been involved in service management for a while and are looking to go to the next level.  I have been invited to join some of my favorite industry colleagues (Gene Kim, Lisa Hodges and Hank Marquis)  to provide Expert Insight on DevOps, Agile and ITSM at Sessions 404 and 504 on Tuesday, October 22 from 10:00 am to 12:15 p.m.  

Hope to see you there.  Promises to be the best conference yet!

 

FUSION12 Wrap Up

To those of you who were able to join the #ITSMCrew at FUSION12, it was great seeing you all!  And for those of you who were not able to attend, we’ve put together our Annual Wrap Up.  The team all contributed their conference highlights, which we’ve mixed all together and voila - it’s the ITSM Academy TOP11 of FUSION12.  View Now and Enjoy!

The ITSM Academy guide to surviving Fusion 2012

Since 2004, the ITSM Academy team as been sponsoring and attending the itSMF Conferences.  After all the years, we know a thing or two about navigating the event and ensuring all of our bags arrive on time (great stories about past mishaps, if you want to stop by and hear them!) 
 

It’s our hope that this quick and easy guide to Fusion will help facilitate a more enjoyable experience.

• Things to Pack
• Transportation
• Accommodations
• Things to do in the Area

What should I pack?

Here at the Academy, we make it easier on ourselves, and all attend as a cohesive, color coordinating crew.  

With the average temperature in Dallas in October at 79 degrees (perfect!), what do you need?  Comfortable traveling clothes and shoes, business casual for the days and something nice for the evening – you expect these.  But what should you bring besides the essential clothing items?

• Business Cards
• Refillable Water Bottle
• Comfortable Tote Bag
• Sweater – it can be cold in there!
• Aspirin/Ibuprofen
• Granola Bars 
• Foot Rejuvenating Cream
• Fuzzy Socks

Another tip from our team, after a rough day on your feet, apply a liberal coating of foot cream, slip on the fuzzy socks and turn in for the night. This can make the difference between a good day and a bad day at conference. 

Getting around the area

For travel to and from the airport, the Gaylord does not provide free shuttle service. They do provide a few options on their site for transportation to and from DFW International and Love Field. [see here] 

The Gaylord is within a short distance of many dining and activity options in Grapevine, but none within walking distance. 

 

To reach these, you might consider renting a car or taking advantage of some of the transportation at the hotel. 

Where do you want to stay?

The Gaylord is a beautiful hotel, with many on location facilities, such as restaurants, bars and shopping. It may be too big and noisy for some, or just not the right fit for others. Great Wolf Lodge is a similar option, that might be more appealing to those traveling with families and children. In the near vicinity, there are a few other options, Embassy Suites, Hyatt Place, Homewood suites, Spring Hill Suites and others are located nearer the Grapevine Mills Mall. 

Things to do in the Area

Once Fusion gets up and running, they will keep your schedule pretty jammed packed.  Depending on when you arrive / depart you may have time to do some fun things in the area: 

• Wine tastings! Grapevine celebrates the love of wine each year with a grape festival where the local vineyards offer tastings of their latest wines. Many of the vineyards offer tours and walk-in tastings for those who really want to get to the source of their favorite red or white.
• Grapevine Mills Mall is a shopping Mecca. Tons of stores, restaurants, Lego Land and Sea Life which is an aquarium complete with a shark tunnel.
• For the outdoor lovers, go to the Bass Pro Shop and enjoy a taste of nature indoors. The store features a waterfall and natural catfish pool, as well as a duck pond and rustic café if you need a break from shopping for your next bicycle.

Hope to see you at Fusion!

If you haven’t registered yet, you can still use our discount code: VFUSION12 [register here]

 

Be sure to visit us on the floor at Fusion in booth 626. You can follow us on twitter under the hashtag #ITSMCrew, join us for some interactive games and enter drawings for free seats to our public classroom.

 

Follow @ITSMAcademy or the team members on Twitter.

Reflections on Fusion 2011

While the itSMF/HDI Fusion 2011 conference has come and gone, I thought I would share my perceptions on the state of service management in North America.  

There were lots of questions about the updates in ITIL 2011, although I did not find it to be the predominant theme of the week.   Leadership, organizational change management, service catalogs/ portfolios, business relationship management and metrics seemed to generate the most interest and buzz.

For the past seven years, presentations about operational processes such Incident, Change, Problem and Config were center stage.  And while those processes are still critical and addressed, it is gratifying to see a bit of a paradigm shift;to more emphasis on leadership, people and relationships.  Everything else is just theory.

Here are  some of the underpinning messages from Fusion 2011

• Leadership is vital to service management success
• Everyone can be a leader and change agent
• People execute process – not tools or flowcharts
• We work with Human Beings, not Human Doings (Deborah Monroe)
• Attitude, Behavior and Culture (ABC) is the number one success or failure factor (Paul Wilkinson)
• Don’t hinder creativity. If you want to grow your business, grow your people (Erik Wahl)
• Be an opportunity manager, not a crisis manager (Daniel Burrus)
• Good governance is better than good technology (Glenn Leclair)

Ironically, these same messages are at the core of the ITIL 2011 update.  The “new” processes are very people and relationship focused: strategy management, design coordination, transition planning and business relationship management.   The Service Catalog takes on a more prominent role as the “glue”  that holds the service lifecycle and business relationship together.  Metrics are being gathered and analyzed for continual service improvement.   Is this being driven by the challenges of managing services in the Cloud?  I’m not sure, but I like the way the winds are blowing.

Are we there yet?  No.  But as a whole we are definitely moving up the maturity ladder.  Can’t wait to see what happens in 2012.

Fusion Conference 2011 is Almost Here!

It is hard to believe that the Fusion conference is just a week away at the Gaylord National in Washington, DC. There are several innovations this year that promise to make it a standout event including the partnership between itSMF and HDI.  This relationship is particularly significant as it represents an evolving trend of unification within the industry. 

The agenda this year places a stronger emphasis on topics such as the Service Catalog, governance and organizational change management.  The tracks offer opportunities for a variety of roles, sectors and areas of interest:

• The People Factor
• Business Services and IT Processes
• Service Operations
• Service Catalog and Portfolio Management
• IT Governance and Security
• The Executive View
• The Government View
• The Beginner’s View

ITSM Academy is presenting at two sessions.  Michael Cardinal, a Senior Instructor, will be delivering Session 303: Effective Questioning for ITSM on Monday, September 26^th at 3:00 p.m.   Asking the right questions at the right time to the right audience is a learned skill and Mike will be offering practical techniques for becoming a proficient questioner. 

I am very excited to be discussing the value of having two distinct but related Service Catalogs in Session 605: The Best of Both Worlds: Creating a Business Service Catalog and Technical Service Catalog on Tuesday, September 27^th at 2:45 p.m.     Too many organizations struggle with the proper scope of service definition (either too technical or not technical enough) and I will be presenting ITIL's very flexible and practical solution.

Looking forward to seeing you there.  Please stop by our booth 720 to say hello.