There’s mounting excitement in the service management community about the return of itSMF UK’s in-person annual conference, after two years online during the Pandemic.
Taking place this year on 14-15 November at the Madejski Stadium, the home of Reading FC (two of the breakout rooms overlook the pitch!), the conference offers an unparalleled range of topics across three tracks, exploring every angle of practical service management.
Despite the convenience of Zoom, nothing compares with the face-to-face experience, and at ITSM22 the emphasis will be firmly on networking and interaction. We know that not everyone will be comfortable with close contact in a post-COVID world, and that’s why we’ve introduced or traffic-light badges to let others know whether to greet you with a hug or an elbow.
But whether you wish to mingle or keep your distance, we’ll be providing every opportunity to interact with other attendees. From the informal reception when you arrive on Sunday evening, to our panel discussion on skills and new talent and themed tables at lunchtime, ITSM22 is all about two-way communication.
We’re very pleased to welcome Linda Moir as our opening keynote, a great motivational speaker with a passion for inspired customer service. Among other things, Linda has served as head of Event Services for the London 2012 Olympics, was employed by Virgin Atlantic with a remit to “make flying fun”, and helped steer NATS from public to private ownership. So look forward to a thought-provoking start to day 1!
One of the highlights of ITSM22 is the wide range of case studies and war stories from our corporate members. We have subject matter experts from organisations as diverse as Danske Bank (asset management), the Ministry of Defence (value stream mapping), Legal & General (value during a pandemic), BT Enterprise (problem management) and Vodafone (DevOps/ITSM integration). Then there’s Vitality (service agility), Kingfisher (journey to mature ITSM), cinch (service without the faff), DFS (putting people first), the Home Office (delivering new blue passports), Experian (portfolio management) and the University of Oxford (root cause analysis).
No service management stone is left unturned, as Roman Jouravlev brings us up to date on ITIL 4, Claire Agutter and Michelle Major-Goldsmith reveal the State of SIAM in 2022, Barry Corless helps us to penetrate the C-suite, Rob Akershoek focuses on hybrid management, and Suzanne Galletly asks whether AI will take away our jobs!
But it’s not all about the process and product. Several of our sessions consider whether we’re really looking after our people as well as we should. We hear from Katrina Macdermid on humanising IT, Claire Drake and Rosemary Gurney are back by popular demand to discuss mental health in the office, Helen Morris joins us to consider menopause management in the workplace, and Simone Moore covers living in ebb and flow – something that most of us have experienced over the last three years.
We are of course indebted to our sponsors – ServiceNow, PeopleCert, Happy Signals, CGI, KTSL, 4me and SITS – without whose support our annual gathering would not be possible. You can hear from them all in the course of the two days, as well as visiting them in the networking zone to find out more about their plans and directions.
Last but not least, the PSMA awards dinner will be back in its rightful place this year on the Monday evening of Conference. Once again our aspiring finalists in the Team of the Year, Service Innovation, Young Professional, Ashley Hanna Contributor of the year, and Thought Leadership categories will be gathering to hear the judges’ decisions. Check out the list of finalists and look out for their nomination videos on the website in the next few weeks.
We hope you can join us at ITSM22 and enjoy the in-person experience once again. Further details at https://www.itsmf.co.uk/itsm22/
itSMF UK
itSMF UK is the country’s leading membership association for service management professionals – with members ranging from individual service management practitioners to large multi-national organisations.
We have spent the last three decades helping ITSM professionals both to be better and to do better. As the first of an international network of itSMF chapters, we continue to enrich the working lives of our members through our conference and events, professional guidance, focused content, annual awards, competency management, leadership council, member groups, and new communities of practice.
View our membership video or visit us at www.itsmf.co.uk
