Service North 2018 Review

The world’s only SIAM conference returned to Manchester on Nov 1st 2018. With a packed agenda, amazing sponsors, delegates from all over the world and the launch of the SIAM whitepaper, we had all the ingredients for an amazing day.

Our delegates

We had double the number of delegates compared to our first SIAM conference in 2018 – thank you to everyone who attended and made it such a good day. We had a very international audience this year with delegates from India, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and of course the UK. It was also good to see a mix of public and private sector organizations attending who could all share their experiences.

Our sponsors

This conference wouldn’t have been possible without our sponsors – thank you to you all! We are very grateful to platinum sponsor 4me, and our sponsors Ivanti, Atos, ITSM Zone, Cranford Group, Syniad IT, Van Haren, ServiceNow, Hippo Digital and Perspectium.

Our speakers

We had two tracks of speakers after our opening keynote. Covering SIAM from a variety of perspectives, we heard excellent feedback on the day about the stories that were shared. Our speakers included:

Cor Winkler Prins – CEO at 4me, Cor was our keynote and shared his perspective on successful sourcing for digital transformation
Steve Morgan – talking about the all important tooling to support your SIAM model
Anna Leyland – sharing her experiences of SIAM bids with tips for customer organizations and service providers
Damien Davis – sharing his tips about how to set yourself up for SIAM success
Alistair Philpott – talking about how to extend your SIAM ‘family’ of services
Martin Putwain – a local speaker sharing the University of Manchester’s SIAM journey to date
Markus Mueller – stepping in for us to replace Andrea Kis, Markus gave a very well received session about ABB’s SIAM journey
Ian Aitchison – talking about how automation is the key to SIAM and Ivanti’s perception of the growth of SIAM
Liz Whitefield – an interactive session on how language and words can get in the way of service delivery

We closed with a panel session, facilitated by Steve Morgan. Panel members Martijn Adams (4me), Charlotte Parnham (Atos) and Martin Putwain (University of Manchester) gave their reactions to the new launched SIAM whitepaper. The day closed with drinks and a last chance to network, sponsored by ServiceNow.

Our speakers have very kindly agreed to share their slides, which you can access here.

Our nominated charity

Part of this year’s profits will go to the Northmoor Community Association. Continuing our tradition to work with local charities for each conference, we chose Northmoor because of their work to combat digital exclusion and provide skills to local people. You can learn more about them here, and thank you to Fiona Gallagher from the charity who joined us on the day to talk about their important work.