The IT service management (ITSM) event season has kicked-off again, and it’s time for myself and the rest of the SysAid clan to jet off to the annual FUSION Conference – which this year is being held in fabulous New Orleans. I’ve already packed my saxophone.

Taking place from the 1^st – 4^th November, we’ll be joining over 1,500 delegates to “roar into the modern age of service management.”

What to Expect at FUSION

Well despite the “roaring” part, I’m assuming that there are not going to be real lions involved (can someone please verify this for me?).  Unless of course Roy Atkinson is planning on serenading us with a version of the Lion Sleeps Tonight, in full costume, during one of his many presentations (I have it on good authority, from the very honest Sophie Danby, that he has been known to thrown down a tune or two while sharing his ITSM wisdom at events). Roy – please give us a heads up if this is going to happen, I will need to bring my camera!

What you can actually expect to hear and see at FUSION is presentations from a wide range of industry-renowned speakers on a variety of ITSM-based topics such as:

• Change Management
• Incident Management
• IT Asset Management
• Problem Management

That’s right, we’re not just focusing on the ITSM basics anymore – we’re playing with the big boys.  In fact, this year the FUSION team is also introducing a brand new co-located event: DevOps FUSION.  Who can guess what the topic of this event is going to be?

My personal recommendations on the sessions to attend from this side of the FUSION party include:

• The Radical Impact of DevOps on IT: Get Ready – by the man who’s beard makes me really jealous that I can’t even grow a bit of stubble, Charles Betz
• Culture Hacking: Fast IT is Here to Stay – by the man LANDESK gave a sexy job title to, Matthew Hooper (word to the wise: don’t ask him about the “end-user vs. customer” debate)
• Stories, Scrums, Sprints, and Speed – by ITSM extraordinaire (and lion-costume-wearing chanteur) Roy Atkinson

By the way, if you’re not sure how DevOps fits in with ITSM and you can’t wait until (or can’t attend) the conference, then I highly recommend checking out this introductory DevOps whitepaper from Barclay Rae.

Modern-Age ITSM

Over the course of the last year we’ve definitely witnessed more “modern age” topics creeping into the world of ITSM events, but this is the first time (to my knowledge) that there has been such a heavy focus on this “new wave.” For that reason, I think it’ll be very interesting to see whether or not this convergence of events and change of topic focus is successful.

I’m a big fan of all things DevOps and Agile, and the benefits they can provide to any given organization, but is the wider world of help desk and service desk managers ready for it yet? Are their organizations mature enough to benefit from these “new” (let’s face it we all plug it as “new” but DevOps isn’t new my friends) ways of working? Or is likely to be too overwhelming? Are we just adding fuel to the fire? Despite the sexy nature of these topics, I know for example that if I write an article over on my blog site about incident management, it receives more than double the amount of attention as a blog on say, Lean IT. What do you think? I’m interested to hear your thoughts.

Go Listen to My Good Friend Stuart Rance

The only thing better than seeing Roy Atkinson dressed as a lion is a presentation by the one and only Stuart Rance. You can catch Stuart’s breakfast briefing on “We Don’t Do People” at 7.30am on Monday 2^nd November.  Focused on the people issues of IT, Stuart will be sharing his advice around the ABCs of IT (that’s attitude, behavior, and culture). Want to get an idea of what might be covered? Check out his blog on the same topic.

If you decide to attend (you should), be sure to say hi. I’ll be the groupie in the front row shouting “Stuart, Stuart, Stuart.” I really love this guy.  I’m hoping my colleague Dena Wieder-Freiden might join me in the cheerleading – she’s a massive Stuart fan too.

Come Play with SysAid

While I’ll most certainly be wandering into the DevOps event along with our CEO Sarah Lahav at some point; we’ll primarily be found with the other SysAiders entertaining delegates over on the ITSM side of the house. Discussing ITSM best practices, showcasing our software solutions, giving away the best swag (portable chargers, plus a “Conference in a Box” focused on customer experience), and just generally being the life and soul of the exhibition floor (as always).

Last year, we also ran a short three-question survey on the future of ITSM. This time around we’ll be asking you about your thoughts on customer experience (and you can take the survey now if you like!). No need to leave your name, details, and blood type – the survey is completely anonymous. Unless of course you’d like to win an Apple iWatch, in which case you can leave us your business card for our prize draw (or if you’re a cool kid who doesn’t carry business cards you can write your details on a piece of paper).

Rest assured though, once the winner has been picked your details will be heading into the bin rather than our marketing database. We’ll only add you to our mailing list if you specify interest in our product or request general information about SysAid. That said, we can’t promise that some of the other naughty vendors who favor scanning quantity over quality won’t dip their hands into the bin for the information afterwards…. Just kidding!

Enjoy, Learn, and Drink Lots in the Bar

As always, it’s bound to be an excellent event – if not even more so this year with the introduction of the co-located DevOps conference.  If you’re planning on attending, be sure to look me up on Twitter. Talking of Twitter, don’t forget to keep your eye on what is bound to be an interesting and informative Twitter feed by checking out the #SMFUSION15 and #DevOps15 twitter streams. This is also where you can typically find the latest meet up of industry luminaries (usually at one of the hotel bars).

Not convinced whether or not you should attend? Check out our overview of last year’s key takeaways to see what you’re missing. It’s my personal favorite of the three major US-based ITSM events (PINK and HDI being the other two) and in my opinion, one not to miss.