The world’s only dedicated SIAM conference returned to the Manchester Conference Centre on September 12th, 2019. This was the third year for the event, and it has been brilliant to see it grow year on year, with more delegates, more sessions, and our wonderful event sponsors. This year saw the publication of the second global SIAM survey (the 2018 survey was sponsored by 4me and 2019’s was sponsored by Kinetic IT) providing a wealth of information for the SIAM community about skills, benefits, challenges and more.
Our Delegates
This year we had over 100 attendees, with a quarter of them attending from Europe. The countries represented in addition to the UK were Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Finland and the Netherlands. It was brilliant to have such a mix of experience and opinion, allowing our attendees to learn from experiences in different geographical areas. This year’s SIAM survey reflects this global interest in SIAM, with over 40 different countries responding to the survey.
Our Sponsors
Good quality conferences just aren’t possible without sponsors. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Kinetic IT for sponsoring the whitepaper and providing two speakers all the way from Australia, as well as BCS, ITSM Zone, Syniad IT, 4me, Syamic, Hippo Digital and Solutionize Global. This was Syniad IT’s third year of sponsoring Service North – thank you!
Our Speakers
This year featured an opening keynote plus two tracks of speakers. One track focused on 25 minute ‘high impact’ sessions in a traditional presentation format, and the other track was dedicated to hour long interactive workshops. Both session types got great feedback, which we’ll use to help shape our agenda for 2020. Our speakers were:
- Cheryl Stevens (Deputy Director and Head of Identity and Trust at DWP Digital) – Cheryl focused on the service integration challenges they are facing at DWP as part of building effective and proportional solutions and services to support citizens
- Caspar Miller (Westergaard) – Caspar talked about how service integration is MAGIC, and shared some practical experience based tips
- Kylie Fowler (ITAM Intelligence) – Kylie looked at the software asset management challenges that can arise in a SIAM ecosystem
- Gareth Yates (Ward Hadaway) – Gareth is a technology lawyer and his session looked at some of the contractual and commercial considerations that support a SIAM model
- Steve Morgan (Syniad IT) – Steve shared his experiences building SIAM operating models including 8 key tips
- Karen Brusch (Nationwide) – Karen’s talk focused on how DevOps, SIAM and Agile can work together
- Martin Putwain (University of Manchester) – Martin joined us for the second year in a row and shared some updates about the university’s SIAM journey
- Reni Friis (Valcon) – Reni ran an interactive session looking at how to integrate DevOps and SIAM
- Liz Whitefield (Hippo Digital) – Liz’s interactive session focused applying user centred design to SIAM challenges
- Michelle Major-Goldsmith and Simon Dorst (Kinetic IT) – joining us all the way from Australia, Michelle and Simon ran a version of their SIAM game (SIAMEase) to help bring SIAM concepts to life
Our Nominated Charity
This year our nominated charity is the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. We chose this charity in memory of SIAM author Chris Taylor-Cutter, who sadly passed away this year. We are donating 20% of this year’s profits to the charity and you can learn more about their work here.
The Global SIAM Survey Whitepaper
This year’s conference was also the launch of the 2019 Global SIAM Survey results. We discussed the results at the conference in a panel session chaired by David Agutter, joined by Martijn Adams, Michelle Major-Goldsmith, Karen Brusch and Simon Dorst. Sponsored by Kinetic IT, you can download your free copy here.
