Glenn’s Picks for the ITSM Fusion 09 Conference

I am off to the annual itSMF USA conference in Dallas TX, better known as Fusion 09. This is expected to be the biggest and best IT Servcie Management conference yet and the pinnacle of the itSMF USA organizations progress to date. I hope these predictions come true because I am an avid supporter of itSMF and its mission to promote service management excellence.

As one element of a new partnership between Forrester Research and itSMF USA, we will be holding one-on-one meetings between conference attendees and Forrester analysts. Both my delightful and brilliant colleague Evelyn Hubbert and I will be there and we look forward to one-on-one meetings with as many people we can fit in!

With all the wonderful sessions that will be happening at the conference, it is tough to pick favorites. Still, here are the sessions I hope to catch while I'm there.

Monday 21-Sep

7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
Ask the Expert – Service Strategy (522)
Majid Iqbal, Gartner
Majid may work for my competitor, but he is a good guy and is the main author of the Service Strategy book. Hear from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

8:15 AM – 9:40 AM
Keynote: BOOM! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors off Business-as-Usual
Dr. Jackie Freiberg, Best-selling author and thought leader
I can't say I know Jackie, but her bio and the abstract for her session tell me this is going to be a good one!

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Are Your People Ready for Change? (350)
Troy DuMoulin, Pink Elephant
Change is coming and coming fast! Troy is a brilliant guy and should give a great presentation on this topic.

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
The Right Stuff: Measuring IT Performance Using Business-Relevant Metrics (514)
Moderator: Evelyn Hubbert, Forrester
Scott Sorensen, Axios Systems
Corrine Seba, EMC
It’s all about the metrics! My colleague, Evelyn Hubbert, will moderate this panel of distinguished leaders. You don’t want to miss this!

2:15 PM – 3:15 PM
ITIL® Implementation: Qualitative Keys to Success (83)
Nancy Lee Hutchin, US Department of Transportation
This looks interesting. It’s always great to hear how someone else has “done it” and succeeded.

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Keynote: VROOM! Running IT Like a Business
David Coyle, Gartner

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Networking Reception & Exhibits (NETR1)
These are always good opportunities to network and see what the vendors have to offer.

7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
ITSM Tweetup
Many of the ITSM Twitterati will be meeting at the ITSM Tweetup at the Texan Station Sports Bar & Grille in the Gaylord Texan resort.

Tuesday 22-Sep

7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
Ask the Expert – Service Transition (524)
Ivor Macfarlane, Service Management Consultant & Evangelist,IBM
Ivor is wonderful! I always take advantage of the opportunity to see him present! He is always enlightening and always entertaining! Get up early to see this!

8:15 AM – 9:40 AM
Keynote: From Gloom and Doom to Bloom! The Power of Being Positively Contagious
Kirk Weisler, Chief Morale Officer and Master of Ceremonies
Kirk is one of those high-energy guys that can always inspire you to be more than you think you can be! He’s done this event for a few years and is always a huge hit!

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Teaming CobiT® and ITIL® for Improved Value and Service (209)
Robert Stroud, ITGI/CA
Rob is one of the top thinkers in our profession! You MUST attend this to hear some of the best pearls of wisdom to come out of this conference! Wrapping ITIL and Cobit into a more comprehensive body of knowledge about service management is a great thing to do. Learn how!

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
The Need For Trust: Building a Trustworthy IT (10)
Ken Wendle, HP/itSMF Intl.
Trust is one of the biggest challenges IT faces and we all better address it soon or find ourselves in a terrible predicament. Ken, one of the original itSMF founders, is a delightful guy who also happens to be one of the finest minds in ITSM!

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Frameworks: Driving ITSM Beyond Operations (175)
Terri Richards, Intel
One of my favorite aspects of ITIL v3 is that is helps demolish the walls that imprison ITSM only within the Operations organization. A full lifecycle approach is needed for any complex system, IT included. I am eager to see what Intel has done here.

3:15 PM – 4:14 PM
Delivering Customer Value from Outsourcing Your Enterprise IT Services — A Multi- Disciplinary Approach to Applying ITIL® (531)
Ashley Culbertson (Booz Allen Hamilton)
Jennifer Marie Parker (Booz Allen Hamilton)
Robert Whitkop (Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN), Dept of the Navy)
I’m interested to hear how this situation worked out because targeted outsourcing is becoming a bigger element of many IT organizations and therefore, more ITSM efforts.

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Top Process Improvement Lessons Learned at Largest Internet Companies (497)
Gene Kim, Tripwire
I really struggled with this time slot because Lawrence Sheets will also be presenting some great insight about how to align business drivers with ITSM. In the end, Gene won my preference because his presentations are always so informative and this topic is one that has some real merit. Internet companies have to do the same things we all must do. Their scale and genuine financial success are so heavily reliant on their ITSM maturity, however, that they are a good barometer for where the rest of the profession must go. If you want to know where you need to be in a few years, come see what these companies have already done.

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Networking Reception & Exhibits (NETR2)
More opportunity to network and check out lots of vendor offerings, all in one sweep!

Wednesday 23-Sep

7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
Evolution & Development – ITIL® Evolution/Growth & Certification Scheme (529)
Sharon Taylor, President – Aspect Group & ITIL V3 Chief Examiner, Aspect Group
Richard Pharro, Director, APM GroupBody
Some exciting new developments are coming for professional development in the ITSM domain. I expect Sharon and Richard to shed some light on this. Sharon, by the way is the Queen of ITIL v3, it’s chief architect! She always has something great to convey to the masses.

8:45 AM – 9:45 AM
The Journey to Service Catalog: You CAN Get There From Here (248)
Michele Bonner, Austin Energy
A service catalog is one of the most important building blocks for more advanced ITSM maturity. I am hoping to learn a lot about how Michele and her team have built and leveraged their service catalog.

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Does IT Measure Anything Useful? (117)
Ivor Macfarlane, IBM
More ever-important metrics discussion from the great Ivor Macfarlane! I really don’t want to miss this!

12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Keynote: Zoom! Carpe Diem: Moving Forward as Heroes of IT
Glenn O’Donnell, Forrester Research
Gee, I suppose I would be a bit remiss if I didn’t recommend my own keynote! I have a lot of important things to say, so I hope you can be there!

By Glenn O'Donnell

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