I’m really looking forward to speaking at the FUSION service management conference this year. FUSION will be running from 1-4 November 2015 at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, and if you’ve been before then you know that you’re in for a great treat. If you’ve never been before then do please think about joining us this time; it’s an excellent opportunity to learn from, and network with, other service management professionals.

Hope I’ve convinced you! So while you’re there, if you want to hear me talking about the role of people in service management, then come to Breakfast Briefing 07 at 7:30 AM on Monday November 2^nd. FUSION is so big that you can choose between seven parallel breakfast sessions before the first keynote of the day. In between the daily keynotes there are sessions for you to choose from. The sessions are organized in nine parallel tracks so you can decide what will give you the most value; the nine tracks include “The Beginner’s View”, “The Expert Focus”, and “Service Support and Operations”. In total, there will be more than 80 presentations and five keynotes to entertain, educate, and inform you. The hardest bit will be deciding which sessions to attend and which you’ll need to miss.

In between the sessions you can look round the expo hall, where exhibitors will be happy to show you their products and talk to you about service management. Even if you’re not looking for a new service desk tool right now, it’s good to see what people are offering because it might give you new ideas for configuring or getting more value out of tools you already use. As you walk around the show floor you can stop and talk to a wide range of people, and since everyone is there to learn and share ideas about ITSM, the chances are you’ll find like-minded people to chat with.

If you’d like to chat with me, I’ll be spending some time talking to people on the SysAid stand, so please do come by and say hello. You’ll find copies of my new white paper “We Don’t Do People” at the SysAid stand, so if you don’t manage to get up in time for the 7:30 AM breakfast briefing, you’ll still get the chance to find out what I think about this and get my tips. If you are not going to FUSION, you can find a brief summary of the ideas I’m covering in this blog post from earlier this year.

Any conference goers who aren’t totally exhausted by the end of the day can attend the networking reception at 5:30 PM on Monday, and the conference party at 7 PM on Tuesday. Both are brilliant opportunities to network with other service management professionals, or just relax at the end of a long day.

So – I really am looking forward to FUSION this year. Are you going to join me? I’ll be tweeting from the conference as @StuartRance, using the hashtag #SMFUSION15, so you can follow along even if you’re not there.