My Personal Take-Aways From the 3rd Annual ITSM Leadership Forum

The majority of participants at any special event produced by Pink are there to increase their knowledge of ITSM practices and resources, and improve their capabilities to lead change back at the workplace. For me, my objectives are a bit different. Firstly, and most importantly, I need to find out if what we're doing is hitting the mark. Are we meeting our customers' needs? Are they really learning new ideas, and are they going away feeling inspired to do something with that new knowledge? I also want to know if the venue we chose is making that primary objective possible. Some venues create an environment which makes learning and networking easier and more productive. Other venues might not be quite so hospitable. Finally, I want to find out what new trends may be emerging in our industry. I may already have some topics in mind, but I need to validate their relative importance with our customers. Are they interested in ISO or COBIT? Do they continue to see mobile and cloud as challenges? What about social media and the continuing consumerization of IT - are they perceived as threats to ITSM? So how did it go at this year's PinkFORUM14? There were lots of specific learning points from the dozens of sessions at this year's event. Looking through the agenda (with 3 tracks it's just not possible to attend every session) we clearly had some outstanding real-life experiences that were valued by our customers. Also our team of Pink Consultants continued to deliver practical and worthwhile advice for how to effect change. The anecdotal feedback we had on-site from some of our regular customers confirmed that our "session selection team" (Pattie & Fatima) did a great job once again. We had lots of remarks from customers saying that the content at this event was the best they'd ever experienced! In fact I recall talking with one individual who said she was really not too enthused about being there after her boss had basically said "You need to go!" Then, already after day 1, she said she was "blown away" by the amount of relevant content and the style of presentation. And let's not forget those other customers of ours - the sponsors representing the IT services community. Not only did they have some of their best thought leaders and visionaries there to impress our practitioner customers, but they themselves found the opportunity to network highly worthwhile. Their feedback was just as pleasing to us. One of our goals is to provide an environment where relationships can be built and improved, connecting people no matter what their purpose for being there. So our primary objective of delivering a valuable learning experience was clearly met. The venue - Omni's Montelucia Resort - got a big thumbs up from our customers. Our plan for no more than 200 attendees required a comfortable (luxurious even!) venue that promoted a feeling of quiet calm with minimum distractions. It also needed to be practical. Meaning meeting rooms, bedrooms and all essential facilities had to be in close proximity. The Montelucia met the challenge in all categories. Meetings rooms off a single lobby area, and no more than a 1 to 2 minute walk through beautiful landscaped gardens from even the most distant bedroom. There were a variety of bars and restaurants that provided enough diversity of choices for a 2-3 night stay. And I think one of the most popular features was the central pool area, which seemed to be well utilized late into the hot summer evening! So we'd have no hesitation going back to the Montelucia again. Having said that, there's other criteria our event planners have to take into account when planning and selecting venues, not least being the availability for our preferred dates - so we'll have to see! As for the confirmation, or otherwise, of emerging trends in our industry - there were no big surprises here (no one likes surprises anyway, right?) As we've noticed over recent years, US based organizations are not as charmed by the benefits of ISO as their counterparts elsewhere in the world. It has seemed odd to me that ISO 20000 - the standard for IT Service Management - has not garnered more interest in the USA. However COBIT, DevOps, Agile & Scrum get lots and lots of attention. Everyone continues to try and get to grips with mobile and the ongoing consumerization of IT technologies and services. For me, I think these are definite "leadership" issues. if we're losing some control of IT resources - because they're sourced externally - that does not mean we cannot exercise influence and promote knowledge of the risks and benefits. Overall then - we're delighted to report another successful Pink event! In fact, the post-event structured feedback we've gathered and analyzed seems to confirm what we learned anecdotally - this year's PinkFORUM event was the best yet, and is looking to be a permanent fixture in the calendar of ITSM leaders in the USA. Already we've had people asking us about next year's event. That's always a good sign! We'd be interested to know what you'd like to see next year. if you have suggestions for the type of content you need to see, and the way sessions are presented, don't hesitate to let us know.

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