It’s Vegas baby! As media partners, we’ll be attending the event, tweeting, live blogging and carrying out interviews with all the movers and shakers of the ITSM world so without further ado, here’s our review of Day 1 of Pink16.
Pink16 Opening Keynote – Martin Short
The conference was opened by Emmy & Tony Award Winning Actor, Comedian, Writer, Singer & Producer and all round legend, Martin Short. The conference room was packed and the sense of excitement was palpable. Martin shared his life story of loss and how he came out the other side stronger, refusing to be a victim. Here he is in action:
Keynote speaker for #pink16 is the hilarious Martin Short. pic.twitter.com/DAPWSgTYgc
— Barbara Lopez (@barlop123) February 15, 2016
Martin’s session was a funny, inspiring and insightful story of loss and empowerment. He also shared some very important life lessons:
"It's all fun and games until the banjo comes out." #martinshort on #stevemartin & #chevychase friendship #Pink16
— _Impossible_Girl (@_Impossible_GRL) February 15, 2016
“Balls of Steel are earned, not grown” @MartinShort_ #Pink16
— Ian Aitchison (@IanAitchison) February 15, 2016
Martin Short – When your met with fire early in your life you develop a certain Teflon quality #Pink16
— Troy DuMoulin (@TroyDuMoulin) February 15, 2016
Wow – @MartinShort_ has a metrics based, continual improvement, KPI, Balanced Scorecard approach to his life. #Pink16
— Ian Aitchison (@IanAitchison) February 15, 2016
The Best Of The Best; Blending AGILE, DevOps, LEAN UX & ITIL – Andrew Humphrey, Head of Service Management, Auto Trader
The first practitioner session of the day was @4ndyHumphrey‘s take on all things ITIL, Agile, Lean and DevOps.
Next up is @4ndyHumphrey on blending ITIL Agile, DevOps and LeanUX for Auto Trader UK #Pink16 #vegasbaby pic.twitter.com/rlOYeCp16Y
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) February 15, 2016
Andy talked about the importance of effective Service Transition:
"Service Transition can be a key enabler for your company, or it can hold you back." ~@4ndyHumphrey #Pink16 #106 pic.twitter.com/sXpj2l9crI
— Amy (@knappst3r) February 15, 2016
Bonus points to Andy for using a picture of cute huskies to demonstrate that very point:
Cute husky pic alert! @4ndyHumphrey demonstrating how a strong ITSM mgt team is everything #Pink16 #vegasbaby pic.twitter.com/3BLlFHEHmy
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) February 15, 2016
Andy explained that by having smaller releases, the process becomes faster and safer. As the success rate grows, you can look to reduce the time spent on Change freezes or at least reduce their duration. Andy shared some practical advice on streamlining processes explaining “we used to have a two hour CAB attended by every department. Now we have a ten minute stand up meeting over a Trello board”. He also shared the pizza team model:
. @4ndyHumphrey talking about the 2 pizza model "if you can't feed your teams in 2 pizzas then they're too big" #Pink16 #vegasbaby
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) February 15, 2016
The result? A total shift in working culture; instead of rigid project cycles or contractor armies, both operational and technical issues were highly valued and operational responsibility within each squad was greatly improved.
Zap The Zombies & So Much More – Michelle Kerby, Sr. Director For ITSM, BMC Software
Up next? Zapping the Zombies with Michelle Kerby of @BMC_ITSM #Pink16 #vegasbaby pic.twitter.com/kXRna0bxrr
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) February 15, 2016
Next up was @michellekerby of BMC on the impending zombie server apocalypse. A recent study by BMC found that over ten million zombie servers globally wasted more energy than eight large power stations; a worrying thought, as well as the environmental implications, there are also risk and compliance issues to address as well. Michelle demonstrated how BMC Asset Management can effectively identify and reduce zombie servers:
Some of the benefits of an effective server virtualisation strategy #Pink16 #zombieserverapocalypse #vegasbaby pic.twitter.com/KBP1nZhnLp
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) February 15, 2016
In the event of any zombie apocalypse – this is my plan:
Pink16 News – ITIL Practitioner Course Announcement – Pink Elephant AXELOS & PeopleCert
After a quick lunch, I caught up with the guys from Pink Elephant ,AXELOS & PeopleCert to talk all things practitioner related. Troy DuMoulin from Pink explained the reason for the course stating that it will bridge the gap between the theory of the Foundation and Intermediate courses by giving delegates a solid business skills overview around CSI, Organisational Change Management, Communications and Measurements and Metrics. I for one can’t wait to do the course when it becomes available as I think anything that gives course attendees more practical skills can only be a good thing.
How To Be A People Magnet – It’s Easy Peasy! – Allan Pease, Author & Motivational Speaker
The final session of the day was run by motivational rock star @allanpease.
We're going to learn how to be a people person now will @AllanPease pic.twitter.com/2qvcGSqu9m
— Pink16 (@20YearsPinky) February 15, 2016
Allan gave us an insight into how important body language, emotional intelligence and non verbal cues are when dealing with people.
“Based on the ability to read situations and apply EQ 68% of sales people are now women” @AllanPease #Pink16 pic.twitter.com/QBPdKG4zSZ
— Troy DuMoulin (@TroyDuMoulin) February 16, 2016
His advice?
If you want to be confident in front of a crowd, keep yourself open & don't cross your hands in front of your body @AllanPease #Pink16
— Pink16 (@20YearsPinky) February 16, 2016
Well that and not getting locked out of your hotel room in the middle of the night when you’ve forgotten to pack your pyjamas but that’s a story for another time!
That’s all for now, come back soon for our coverage of day 2!