FUSION14: Bringing the ITSM Community Together for the Greater Good

In the words of Peter, Paul, and Mary (or, if you prefer, John Denver), “All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go …” for SysAid’s first visit to FUSION – an annual IT service management (ITSM) conference for ITSM professionals and IT leaders, brought to the ITSM Community by:

• itSMF USA – a member-driven organization, and the United States chapter of the itSMF international organization, organized into local interest groups (LIGs) and special interest groups (SIGs) located in over 43 major metropolitan areas; and
• HDI – a professional association and certification body for the technical service and support industry, serving a community of more than 120,000 technical service and support professionals.

We’re pretty excited about being there, meeting friends old and new, and learning more about ITSM in the conference track sessions on the 20-22 October 2014.

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Socially Yours

If you can’t make it, but still want to hear what’s happening, you can follow the Twitter stream using #smfusion14 or follow the accounts of people I know will be tweeting there (some of them way too much):

• Charles Araujo
• Mauricio Corona
• John Custy
• Ken Gonzalez
• Suresh GP
• Jayne Groll
• Matt Hooper
• Joe The IT Guy
• Andie Kis
• Stephen Mann
• Michael Slabodnick
• Rob Stroud
• Doug Tedder
• SysAid and some of the other ITSM tool vendors
• Me

And hopefully many more people. Sadly there will be no Patrick Bolger there this year though. Even though he works for a competitor, we still love him.

Content Is King

FUSION is renowned for the breadth of its session content. This year is no exception with the nine tracks covering:

• The Beginner’s View
• Continual Service Improvement
• Emerging Technologies
• The Expert Focus
• Industry Insights
• IT Governance and Security
• The People Factor
• Service Support and Operations
• The Strategic View

With so much content it’s hard to choose which sessions to attend, but here are a few I’m looking forward to.

Sophie’s Choice

In no particular order other than date and time, I’m hoping to attend the following sessions amongst others:

Monday, October 20 | 10:15am-11:15am
SESSION 106: HOW TO ESTABLISH YOUR ENTERPRISE GENIUS BAR
Speaker:  Jarod Greene (Gartner)

Which unfortunately clashes with:
SESSION 108: SUPPORT CENTER 2.0: LEADING THE CHARGE FORWARD
Speakers:  Roy Atkinson (HDI), Cinda Daly (Focus Events), Jenny Rains (HDI)

So I’m looking into cloning technologies.

Monday, October 20 | 11:30am-12:30pm
SESSION 202: PROBLEM MANAGEMENT: MAKING IT WORK FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION
Speaker:  John Custy (JPC GROUP)

Which clashes with:
SESSION 209: COBIT AND ITIL SELF-ASSESSMENTS: ARE THEY FOR ME?
Speaker:  Dr. Mauricio Corona (BP Gurus)

Monday, October 20 | 03:00pm-04:00pm
SESSION 304: EXPERT FOCUS: CONTROL SHIFT: HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS ABOUT MANAGING SERVICES
Speaker:  Hank Marquis (Global Knowledge)

Tuesday, October 21 | 10:00am-11:00am
SESSION 406: BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS BETWEEN LEVELS OF SUPPORT
Speaker:  Rae Ann Bruno (Business Solutions Training Inc.)

Tuesday, October 21 | 11:15am-12:15pm
SESSION 505: TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS
Speaker:  Robert Stroud (CA Technologies)

Which clashes with:
SESSION 506: UPGRADING TO THE SERVICE DESK 2.0
Speaker:  Aale Roos (Pohjoisviitta Oy)

Tuesday, October 21 | 02:45pm-03:45pm
SESSION 601: ITSM NEXT
Speaker:  Matthew Hooper (ISM)

This one clashes with a number of other great sessions from industry luminaries Ian Clayton, David Cannon, and Jayne Groll in particular.

Wednesday, October 22 | 10:15am-11:15am
SESSION 803: CRASH AND BURN: HOW TO SCREW UP ITSM AND STILL CREATE AN ITSM FLIGHT PLAN
Speakers:  Adrienne DuBrul (AC Group International), Chris Jaquay-Williams (AC Group International)

So I’ve some tough decisions to make before the sessions start.

All Hail the Chief

Finally, Charles Araujo will be stepping into the itSMF USA President role at FUSION. We, especially Joe The IT Guy, would like to wish him all the best for the forthcoming year. We may have a special surprise to follow…

 If you are attending, please search us out – we’ll be hanging with Joe The IT Guy and we love to talk ITSM, IT service delivery, and IT support.

Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening.