Are you going to the annual Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS16) in London? It’s a free-to-attend IT service management (ITSM) and service desk event where not only do you get to see just about every ITSM tool vendor on the planet, and there’s a few, there’s also a wealth of great ITSM and service desk seminar content available to attendees. It’s not too late to register for the event, if you can get to London for the 8th or 9th of June.

I’m very pleased to be attending SITS again this year, it’s a great ITSM event, but the reality of attending has hit me – with so much quality seminar content to choose from, which sessions do you see and which do you sadly have insufficient time to make? At SysAid we call this “Sophie Danby’s choice,” that’s having to forgo quality presenters and topics due to the competing seminar streams. Unfortunately, it’s a common issue across the global ITSM event circuit that we never seem to be able to avoid.

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So Who and What Should You Plan to See at SITS16?

If you are a regular visitor to the SysAid and Joe the IT Guyblogs, then you’ll know that I’m not going to spend my 1000 precious blogging words trying to brainwash you into visiting the SysAid stand at SITS (but you are of course more than welcome to come by to say hello, and our swag this year is seriously top-notch!). Instead, I’ll be talking about the seminar presenters and content that stand out for me.

If you know the ITSM industry, and the commonly-seen speakers, well then this blog might just be common sense for you. But, if you are looking for impartial help in selecting sessions at SITS, then please let me offer up a few, okay eight, suggestions based on my previous experiences at industry events.

1. Digital Transformation: How Will It Impact Service Desks?

Time: Wednesday, June 8, 9:30-10:10
Speaker: Andrew White

Andy White is an ITSM industry thoroughbred, so any opportunity to hear him speak needs a good excuse in order to miss it. In this session, Andy will present research findings from 50 CIOs about how their digital transformation journey is progressing and what this meant for IT operations. Andy will specifically talk about the conflicts and disagreement surrounding the CIOs’ strategies, the importance of digitizing core IT operations, not just front-end apps, and what digital transformation ultimately means for the IT service desk/help desk.

2. The New YOU – What an ITSM Professional Will Look Like in 2020

Time: Wednesday, June 8, 10:30-11:10
Speaker: Matthew Hooper

What do the next five years hold for ITSM professionals? Matt Hooper, a globally-renowned ITSM thinker and speaker, will tell you what he thinks in just 40 minutes (he might even let you ask questions). So attend Matt’s session to understand how DevOps, Shadow IT, cloud, and other disruptive movements are changing the IT landscape, such that corporate IT in 2020 will bear little resemblance to IT as we currently know it. Matt will also cover the critical skills gap developing and the opportunities this offers to ITSM professionals.

3. What’s Trending in the World of Service Desks?

Time: Wednesday, June 8, 12:30-1:10
Speaker: Ollie O’Donoghue

Ollie is the Service Desk Institute’s (SDI) resident industry analyst, who regularly undertakes the SDI’s member research and writes many of its white papers. In this session, Ollie will talk to the service desk and ITSM trends that SDI members are currently experiencing/expecting, based on the latest SDI research, and what service desk and ITSM professionals should be doing about them.

4. Life on the Service Desk in 2016 (and How to Improve It)

Time: Wednesday, June 8, 2:30-3:10
Speakers: Simon Johnson and Stephen Mann

At the end of 2015, the SDI conducted member-based research into the service desk “state of the nation”. In this session, Simon and Stephen will present the SDI survey results, outline the main causes of service desk concern and friction, and offer up practical ways to tackle the most-common obstacles and issues. This includes the key pain points for service desk analysts, their top frustrations with ITSM tools and vendors, and the top service desk priorities for 2016.

5. Intelligent Disobedience: The Future of Service Management?

Time: Wednesday, June 8, 3:30-4:10
Speaker: Ivor Macfarlane

Firstly, my apologies to my good friend Stuart Rance whose SIT16 session conflicts with Ivor’s – hopefully he knows that his session will be “standing room only” no matter what I blog about.

Here Ivor, an ITSM industry luminary, will talk about the need for “intelligent disobedience” on the service desk. How, as self-service and automation soak up the routine calls, the issues hitting the service desk are increasingly about exceptional conditions – meaning that service desk staff need more innovation and improvisation to deliver solutions and end-user satisfaction. Importantly, Ivor will explain that getting intelligent and committed staff isn’t the biggest challenge – that instead it’s getting managers to create an empowered environment in which service desk staff can flourish.

6. Time to Rethink Your ITSM

Time: Thursday, June 9, 10:30-11:10
Speaker: Patrick Bolger

It’s Patrick Bolger!

If I were braver I’d leave my session description as purely that. I’m not though, so let me tell you that, in this session, Patrick will outline the lessons that corporate IT and support can learn from modern consumer technologies. In particular, how these can be leveraged to provide the service experience that our customers really want, while reducing the demands on busy ITSM teams.

7. The Pros and Cons of Public and Private Cloud

Time: Thursday, June 9, 12:30-1:10
Speaker: Sarah Lahav

Hopefully you aren’t going to think less of me for including my boss’s session in this list :-).

In this session, Sarah will talk about how, even though cloud is now a well-accepted way to host and provision IT services, businesses still struggle with the decision between using public and private cloud. She will compare the pros and cons of each approach, referencing the five key cloud characteristics as laid down by National Institute of Standards and Technology, and using real-world examples to ease the decision making process.

8. Is Change Management Success as Simple as ABC?

Time: Thursday, June 9, 2:30-3:10
Speaker: Paul Wilkinson

If you have never seen Paul Wilkinson present, then you are in for a real treat at SITS16, as he is very animated and funny too!

Paul will tell us how and why 70% of organizations don’t get the hoped-for value from organizational change management, with more than 50% ironically failing because of resistance to change. With ABC (Attitude, Behaviour, Culture) being the number one success or fail factor for ITSM organizational change management, Paul will be offering practical advice for removing the points of resistance that commonly stop businesses from progressing.

So that’s eight SITS16 sessions I recommend. Enjoy the SITS seminars, vendor demos, peer networking, and swag opportunities. Hopefully we will also get to see you at our stand; feel free to pre-schedule a meeting. I promise not to try to sell you anything (unless of course you want me to).