ServiceNow’s annual user conference, Knowledge, is coming up very quickly. If you don’t have plans to attend yet, you better get on it or you’re really going to miss out. I’ve missed some Knowledges, I’ve presented at Knowledges, I’ve assisted with labs at Knowledges, and I’ll be at Knowledge 17 at the Orlando Convention Center from May 6 – 12*.
(*Knowledge also has Pre-Conference events, and a Post-Conference tech-focused CreatorCon. The core sessions and exhibition are on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week.)
Based on that experience, I’ve come up with my top 3 reasons why you absolutely should plan to go.
Top 3 Reasons Why You Can’t Skip K17
1. It’s one of the largest gatherings of IT professionals, regardless of tool or company.
If you’re the type to nerd out over Incident management best-practices, and best-of-breed SLA targets, you’ll find yourself well at home in Orlando. Heck, how refreshing would it be just to be in the same room with people who know what “incident management” and “SLA targets” even mean?
ServiceNow is expecting 15,000 people this year (Attendance at the annual Knowledge conference has grown exponentially year-over-year). There are certification training classes offered, speakers, live labs where you get to do something hands-on with ServiceNow, Fortune 100-sized IT executives sharing their stories, and even a custom app building competition.
A IT professional can actually get an incredible experience at Knowledge without even doing anything related to ServiceNow itself. Imagine the volume of information shared in those few days.
2. Meeting the community. ServiceNow is more than a tool. It’s more than a software suite. It’s more than a business enablement platform. It’s an ecosystem. And with any ecosystem there are real people that make everything work. Knowledge 17 will bring together service desk agents, CIOs, project managers, technology partners, JavaScript developers, report writers, process consultants, software executives, and just about every other type of person with any association with business or tech. You probably don’t know what you don’t know what you can do using ServiceNow and there’s no better place to talk to people to find that out.
There will be formal speakers, informal round-table discussions, a vibrant ExpoNow area with the different types of partners showing their solutions, and all the random interactions with peers and professionals that will happen in hallways, elevators, and bars. (You’ll find some attendees at Knowledge enjoy the occasional adult beverage.)
Knowledge 17 is the one shot you’ve got to be a part of this and spend a couple great days with those moving the entire ecosystem forward and happy to include you.
3. You are NOT getting as much as you could from your ServiceNow deployment. You’ve invested your time and talents in learning the ServiceNow platform (and your company has invested real dollars). Yet, I’m shocked at how much of the platform most customers aren’t even using yet. Incident, Change, and Service Request processes are very common and usually where new customers start with their deployment. But, have you seen Project Management? I guarantee that every company using ServiceNow is using Microsoft Project or another cloud-based project management tool like Mavenlink or SmartSheets. And those apps are being paid for and supported by your IT group. Why not consolidate and use ServiceNow for that? It’s easier, cheaper, and probably better for your users.
Don’t even get me started on what ServiceNow lets you automate with GRC-IT, Document Management, or options for facilities and HR management, but the magnitude of scale and savings are huge.
Knowledge 17 is a great opportunity to learn about what you can consolidate into the platform as a true system of action. And even if you “get it“, Knowledge 17 would be perfect to show a colleague or boss the same advantages and vision.
See You There
Hopefully, if you were already planning to attend, this article just helped you get that much more excited, and if you haven’t registered yet, this article helped convince you. Either way, I hope to see you there and we get to chat about ServiceNow. Be sure to look me up.
