Who Do You Want To Learn From & Be Inspired By?

Welcome to the Spark25 exclusively for the SDI Community. Find out what fun we have in store for you over the next 48 hours!

Welcome to the SDI Conference! This is your chance to explore new ideas, share experiences, and connect with like-minded professionals passionate about service excellence. Together, we’ll tackle industry challenges, embrace innovation, and shape the future of IT support. Take full advantage of the sessions, workshops, and networking—your insights and energy make this community thrive. Let’s make this an inspiring and valuable experience for you and your teams.

This entertaining, energising, inspirational, though provoking and unforgettable keynote performance will show you how we can all spread joy, positivity and to encourage change in society's approach to mental health.

Transforming lives for the better…one dance step at a time!
This is a keynote performance you will NEVER forget!

The workplace technology landscape is evolving faster than ever, and IT leaders are at the forefront of this transformation. According to the latest forecasts, organisations are making record investments in digital transformation, yet many still grapple with fundamental operational challenges.

In this session, we’ll examine the critical priorities shaping IT leadership in 2025, uncovering key insights from The State of Resilience 2025. Together, we’ll explore:

• Technical debt: Its impact on innovation and your organisation’s competitive edge
• Service disruptions: Managing the costs and consequences of frequent outages
• Digital revenue: Why IT is no longer just a support function—it’s a core driver of business value
• Employee experience: The staggering price tag of getting this wrong

Join us to break down the numbers, identify the biggest opportunities for IT teams, and explore actionable strategies for building a resilient, future-ready organisation that drives business success through technology.

Employee productivity is now a top priority for organizations, and understanding how end-users experience IT and services is critical to making targeted improvements. Human-centric experience data is key to aligning IT services with evolving business needs and driving XLA (Experience Level Agreement) success. But how do you effectively advance IT Experience Management initiatives?
 

In this session, Mark will discuss the pivotal role of experience data in driving impactful changes. Traditional metrics and feedback methods often fail to capture the true challenges faced by end-users. You’ll walk away with actionable steps to kickstart your journey toward human-centric IT experience management, along with common pitfalls to avoid. Additionally, get an exclusive preview of the 2024 Global IT Experience Benchmark, highlighting top trends in the UK.
 

Key Takeaways:

1. Human-centric IT experience management prioritizes understanding employee sentiment and what drives their efficiency, shifting focus from traditional IT  metrics to employee experience (the "watermelon effect").

2. Experience data offers a different perspective, enabling more informed decision-making that prioritizes what matters most to employees and aligns with business outcomes.

3. The most common pitfall is focusing on the loudest complaints or overlooking critical improvement opportunities due to inadequate metrics

For decades, we keep hearing and saying: technology teams should focus on value. We know about value metrics, and value networks. We build value chains and optimise value streams.

We get the idea. And yet, again and again, we find our teams and organizations focused on local improvements, on metrics and targets. We consistently fail to collaborate and promote visibility. We repeat the same well-known mistakes. We chase new shiny solutions, continually ignoring the old good principles.

Why? What can we do to break this vicious circle?

In his presentation, Roman will share the recent findings, insights, and recommendations from the ITIL team that may, if applied properly, help remove the obstacles from the road to value.  Join this presentation to learn how to make stakeholders happier, and your team’s work more effective. 

In this fireside chat hosted by Matt Beran, Prashant shares his vision for how Gen AI and automation can change the service desk vision. Imagine if every service desk analyst had a co-pilot? What would your service desk look like then?

What sets world-class teams apart? Great teams are built on many positive habits—but some stand out as particularly transformative. In this session, Dr. Josh Nelson focuses on four foundational habits that can accelerate your team’s growth and performance. Discover how fostering consistency, deepening understanding of customer needs, encouraging a proactive mindset, and supporting team members at every level can strengthen your organization’s culture, value and impact.

We would welcome attendees who would like to talk about how best to lay the foundations for successful digital transformation using AI, in an informal round table setting. You will be joined by guests have the experience of developing the right mix of people, process and technology to succeed.

When your Service Desk feels like a black hole for energy and innovation, it’s tempting to blame the framework. But what if ITIL isn’t the problem - it’s how we’re using or misusing it?

Let’s get real about the frustrations leaving us jaded and explore how a human-first approach to ITIL turns disillusionment into capability. Through the lens of Industry 5.0, we’ll explore how ITIL’s guiding principles amplify human creativity, unlock innovation, and create a human-centric service management culture.

This isn’t just about fixing what’s broken—it’s about designing a future where human-tech collaboration delivers meaningful experiences. That’s CX + EX = CEXy. Let’s turn burnout into breakthroughs, rediscover the ‘human’ in ITIL, and leave ready to rethink, laugh, and take action!

In a world driven by rapid digital transformation, the demand for high-performing, resilient IT teams has never been greater. But what does it take to not only meet expectations but redefine what excellence in service delivery looks like?

Join me, as I share proven strategies for building Service Desk teams that embrace innovation, push boundaries, and consistently exceed organisational goals.

Through the lens of digital transformation, this session will explore how to foster resilience, drive adaptability, and inspire innovation in your service delivery approach. Gain actionable insights and practical techniques to elevate your team's performance, ensuring they’re ready to thrive in today’s fast-changing landscape.

Join Nia for an insightful presentation on overcoming inefficiencies in IT Service Management!

Processes themselves aren’t inherently inconsistent, but challenges arise from their absence or deficiencies in design, documentation, governance, communication, measurement, and adherence. Many organisations struggle to establish well-defined, well-governed, and effectively measured processes—leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies.

Nia will share her experience on how chaos was removed, through adopting best practice process design and governance, resulting in operational excellence and customer success!

Shaun shares their real-life experience management journey, emphasizing the "humanization of IT." Initially focusing on a managed service provider (MSP), he then expands his insights to internal service providers and the broader cultural impact. If you have experienced an outsourcing project that has affected IT's reputation, let's explore how IT Experience Management (ITXM) can be transformative. While it involves significant cultural and behavioural changes, ITXM fosters greater team collaboration and motivation towards a unified goal, continually enhancing the IT experience for end users and the businesses IT supports.

Manual onboarding and offboarding processes can have significant security risks if not automated and secured. In today’s evolving threat landscape, addressing insider threats and compromised identities is also critical. This session demonstrates how ServiceDesk Plus automates the end-to-end of the employee onboarding process to eliminate security gaps and enhance workflow integrity.

What's in it for you?

• Explore the potential security risks in unstructured employee onboarding processes through a real-world scenario.

• Understand how workflow automation acts as a safeguard and enforces onboarding and offboarding policies.

• Build a resilient and scalable onboarding workflow that can handle large recruitment drives.

• Learn how ServiceDesk Plus can automate every step of your service delivery processes.

Come & meet some of the ITSM industry's most eminent thought leaders. Inlcudes early book signing with Martin Sadler for VIP guests.

Improving service delivery across the enterprise through digital transformation, using Automation and AI, doesn’t happen without ensuring the right foundations are in place. You can’t support what you don’t know you have, you can’t change unless you understand the dependencies within your services, and you can’t drive efficiency and productivity gains through AI without the right data.

In this live podcast, we talk about how to make sure you have the platform to allow you to delight your customers in an agile, scalable and efficient way. Come and listen in!

The gap between AI hype and reality has left IT leaders questioning how to adopt AI without compromising cost, security, and measurable outcomes. In this session, we’ll explore how to strategically approach, adopt, and operationalise AI to achieve tangible benefits that extend beyond cost and operational challenges.

Key Takeaways:

• Align AI initiatives with business goals to address critical problems and deliver measurable value
• Track AI success with both quantitative and qualitative metrics to assess productivity and operational impact
• Optimise AI investments by refining models and adjusting strategies based on performance insights

Gain actionable strategies to bridge the gap between AI promise and reality, ensuring sustained value for your organisation.

Ever wondered how your brain processes reality vs. imagination? Did you know that your brain can’t actually tell the difference?!  In this talk I’ll bring hard evidence to the session, showing how our thoughts shape our reality and how we can rewire our brains to thrive in high pressure environments.  Sharing strategies to help employees and leaders harness the power of their minds to reduce workplace stress and build resilient, empowered teams.

Join Sophie as she walks through the practical application of introducing new & maturing existing ITIL-based processes & practices. The session will include real world examples, featuring what has gone well, things to avoid with tips & advice on how to support your organisation and clients to utilise service management frameworks to support the delivery of service excellence, creating value for the business.

Key takeaways:

• An understanding of how to adopt & adapt service management frameworks to achieve value

• Real world examples of when it has gone well, as well as some pitfalls & challenges

• Pragmatic steps and actions that can be used to continue your service management journey

In this session, PeopleReign CEO and host of the popular AI and the Future of Work podcast Dan Turchin will reveal insights from 300 conversations with academics, futurists, investors, executives, and technologists. Learn what the world’s leading AI authorities say is required to thrive in an era where humans and machines co-exist in the workplace—and how AI can actually humanise work in ways that improve employee experience.

IT departments are under significant pressure to implement proper experience metrics and to move from SLA to also XLA but how can they do this? Are they clear on what experience and XLAs are? What are the steps to success?

This session is a practical step by step guide built from years of experience in hands on XLA and Experience Management implementation programmes and will enable delegates to learn from real life projects and stories and know where to start and what steps to take as they progress on the XLA journey. The session will answer:

What is experience, the experience economy and a real XLA?

What are the common pitfalls to avoid?

Is there a step-by-step guide to follow?

The session will outline a repeatable journey that has been built from the good and bad experiences of delivering hundreds of XLA design projects, providing the audience a practical guide through the challenges of implementing XLAs in real life!

Discover how to elevate service desk operations by integrating Knowledge Management and ITIL best practices. This presentation equips managers with strategies to streamline incident, problem, and change management while improving first-contact resolution and reducing resolution times. Learn to align knowledge processes with ITIL frameworks, foster continuous improvement, and boost team efficiency. Packed with actionable insights, this session empowers service desk managers to drive excellence, enhance customer satisfaction, and deliver measurable results.

Get ready for an exciting journey into the future of service desks with AI copilots! In this lively session, Sally will uncover how these digital sidekicks are set to revolutionise the way we handle service desk operations. Imagine AI copilots taking over mundane tasks, offering instant support to agents, and making customer interactions smoother than ever. Sally will dive into real-world use cases, highlighting the benefits but also looking at potential pitfalls. We have been talking about the impact that AI is going to have on the Service Desk for such a long time but it finally feels like it is coming and we will all soon be using AI to elevate the service experience to superhero levels. This will be a fun and insightful look at how AI is gearing up to become the ultimate game-changers in the service desk world. Don't miss out on the future – it's going to be a blast!

This talk explores how principles from human-centered design, human-computer interaction, and ludology (game studies) can be combined to help create innovative enterprise service management solutions that improve customer experiences. By leveraging empathy, usability and game mechanics organisations can facilitate and design enterprise service management solutions that are both valuable and engaging. Attendees will leave with practical insights and a high-level framework to use these techniques to help reimagine enterprise service management solutions.

Key Takeaways:

Human-Centered Design, HCI, and Ludology Share Core Principles: All three disciplines prioritise understanding user needs, providing intuitive interactions, and fostering engagement.

Games are More Than Fun—It Drives /p>

Blending These Disciplines Yields Powerful Service Solutions: The combination of collaborative design and usability-focused solutions creates service experiences that are both effective and delightful.

If you’ve ever had a service improvement or digital transformation initiative rejected by senior leaders, this session is for you. Learn from Barclay what CIOs truly prioritise and how to position your transformation or improvement project for success.

We'll explore how business knowledge, shared taxonomy and presentations skills are essential. Also, how key tools like Target Operating Model (TOM) for ITSM and ESM can drive meaningful change. Discover why Problem Management is a game-changer and how AI and Digital Employee Experience (DEX) can help overcome long-standing challenges.

This session will also highlight real-world examples of how organisations are leveraging ITSM data as a foundation for business value and how Service Desk Certification is pushing high-performing organisations to present data in ways that resonate with leadership. Expect practical insights, user stories, and actionable takeaways to help you secure that all-important "yes" from decision-makers.

Key takeaways:

1. TOM drives service transformation – Align ITSM & ESM with business goals for leadership buy-in.

2. Problem Management is key – AI & DEX can unlock its full potential.

3. ITSM data sells your case – Present insights that resonate with leaders - using business not IT criteria

Tired of the same old service desk grind? In this session I'll be sharing a radical new approach that will revolutionise how you support your users. Get ready to break the mould! Discover a fresh perspective on IT support that will transform your team, create happier users and boost your organisation's success.

Experience Level Agreements (XLAs) are all the rage. They have been at the crest of the Gartner Hype Cycle for the last few years. Everyone is talking about them. Most ITSM practitioners now know what they are. Many know how to develop them. Some have implemented them. A few have realized genuine experience improvement from them.

However, one of the unfortunate truths – as with many new approaches and emerging methodologies – is that what they ARE NOT is far too often overlooked. This simple fact leads to poor design and implementation, which can result in perceived failure. And as the saying goes, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.”

Join multiple award-winning CX thought leader and XLA evangelist, Doug Rabold, for this session - derived from multiple XLA implementations - which serves as a cautionary tale about the flip side of XLAs: what not to do or expect. Learn from the experience of others so you can avoid the potential pitfalls in the design and implementation of XLAs.

Takeaways:

1) Differences between SLAs and XLAs

2) Overview of XLA elements

3) What to avoid in XLA creation

4) Insights into constructing effective XLAs

AI is transforming the way organisations operate, but too often, its adoption is seen as solely the responsibility of IT. In this session, we’ll explore how IT leaders can champion a culture of AI innovation across the entire organisation – leading by example, and channelling creativity to empower teams, encourage creative use-cases, and embed AI where it adds real value.

Using insights from Rethink Mental Illness, we’ll share how AI is emerging as an critical tool for both behind the scenes to enhance operations and efficient business operations, and on the frontline to deliver quality, impactful services to those who need them without losing the human touch. Through an interactive discussion, we’ll examine practical use cases, break down common misconceptions, and challenge attendees to think beyond traditional IT-driven AI implementation.

Join us to discover how IT can lead the way - not as gatekeepers, but as enablers of AI adoption that benefits the whole organisation.

Technical debt can erode IT operations, reducing efficiency and increasing costs if unmanaged. In this talk, Scott Everett, an ITIL 4 Certified Master, explores the technical debt lifecycle and links it to ITIL’s Continual Service Improvement (CSI) practices. Attendees will gain practical strategies to address debt, balance short-term deliverables with long-term value, and adopt governance frameworks to sustain service quality. Learn how mastering technical debt supports CSI and drives sustainable success in IT service management.

Thinking about breaking up with your ITSM tool? Before you start swiping left, join John Noctor and Mike Kyffin for a candid and insightful look into what makes or breaks your ITSM relationship.

In this session, we'll cover the key stages of evaluating, deciding, and transitioning your ITSM tool. From setting realistic expectations and avoiding common pitfalls to building a lasting, successful partnership, we’ll help you avoid the drama and make sure your next tool supports your organization’s growth.

Whether you're stuck in a toxic relationship with your current tool, or gearing up for a fresh start, we'll guide you through every stage, offering actionable tips and real-world insights on tool selection, data management, and long-term success.

Key Takeaways:

• Identifying the root causes of your dissatisfaction with your current ITSM tool
• How to develop a roadmap for success and continuous improvement
• Setting realistic goals and managing expectations for your next tool
• Ensuring your new relationship supports your future growth and maturity

Don't go through this alone—come for the advice, stay for the laughs, and leave with the knowledge to build a better ITSM tool relationship.

Step into the future of IT service delivery with Alex Harding, Head of IT Services at Runshaw College. In this inspiring session, Alex will show you how to revolutionise your service desk by putting people at the heart of your strategy. Through a blend of human-centred design, persona development, and agile methodologies, you’ll gain the tools to deeply understand your customers and create experiences that truly resonate.

This session isn’t just about ideas—it’s about outcomes. Walk away with actionable strategies to:

• Redefine your service desk as a trusted partner to your users.
• Deliver more personalized, efficient, and impactful interactions.
• Boost customer satisfaction and empower your team to thrive in today’s dynamic IT landscape.

Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your service desk into a driver of excellence and innovation.

CIO Martin Sadler outlines a fresh approach to digital leadership and offers a proven approach to leading, managing and improving Digital and IT services. Topics include team building, improving workplace culture, supplier management, introducing great processes and building incredible customer service. This keynote will help you and your team create a service that is the best it can be.

Your chance to meet Martin and buy a signed copy of this book. Photo opportunities available!

With thanks to our Official SDI Awards Sponsor - PeopleCert