Setting the Stage: Preparing the right conditions for ITSM Tool selection

Drawing on 10 years of experience in implementing and developing service management toolsets, Misha Macinski shares his insights on how to set your organisation up for real success before a single tender goes out. Too many organisations rush to buy a new ITSM tool, only to find it delivers far less value than expected. In this session, Misha explores why the right conditions matter more than the right software, and why technology is only one piece of the puzzle. People, processes, and the right partner are just as critical to achieving your organisational goals. Misha will help you ask better questions, avoid common pitfalls, and lay the groundwork that makes everything that follows easier. This session is part 1 of the Pink Elephant Road to Success Series.

Speakers:

Misha Macinski

Pink Elephant

Director

Less Friction, Fewer Tickets — A Better Service Desk Starts Upstream

Most service desks see only the tip of the iceberg. Every ticket is a moment a user decided the problem was worth reporting. And behind every reported problem sits a much larger volume of unreported friction: the workarounds, the quiet ten-minute losses, the frustrations vented to a colleague but never logged. This invisible layer is where digital experience is actually shaped, day to day, and where service desk demand is silently generated. ITIL5 has formally recognised Experience Management as a discipline in its own right. But naming a practice and doing it are very different things, and Experience Management starts at a point most IT organisations are not yet equipped for: knowing where the friction actually sits. That requires more than excellent ticket registration; it requires a deliberate measurement discipline for the problems users never report. This session offers the practical foundation: a model that connects friction measurement, user adoption, and service desk demand into one picture, and that ITSM leaders and MSP owners can use to intervene where the leverage is greatest. Drawing on patterns across Dutch enterprises, it offers a vocabulary, a method, and a business case for working upstream rather than scaling support. This is not a tools session. It is about turning a framework ITIL has just named into something that lives in your service desk on Monday morning: starting with the friction you can't yet see.

Speakers:

Jan Massier

BePresent - improving Digital Experience together

Digital Experience Expert

How does the Service Desk Job look like 2030?

AI is closing tickets, triaging incidents and writing knowledge articles faster than most teams can. So where does that leave you? In this hands-on workshop we map together which service desk skills AI cannot replicate, what your role looks like by 2030, and how to get ahead of it now. Detailed Description * Is the Service Desk still a job in 2030, or will AI do it all? It's the question most IT support professionals aren't asking out loud yet. They should be. This is not a lecture about AI trends. It's a working session built for the people actually sitting behind the queue. Together we look at where AI is already handling first-line resolution, ticket routing, and knowledge management, and what that means for the humans left in the loop. We explore three realistic futures for the service desk by 2030. Then we get specific. Which skills become more valuable because of the shift, not despite it? Where does the human judgment, empathy, and contextual thinking that AI cannot replicate actually live in daily ITSM work? Participants build a personal skill map in the session. They leave knowing what to invest in, what to stop doing, and what the service desk professional who thrives in 2030 looks like compared to today

Speakers:

Maurits van der Plas

Van Haren Group

Director Learning Solutions

Why your AI agents clock out at five (Sub: And why you see so little value from them defying all the promises and potential)

Redesigning for agentic AI is not the same as automating what is already there Most organizations are making the same mistake with agentic AI. They map their existing value stream, find the slow or repetitive steps, and automate them. The architecture stays the same. The handoffs stay the same. The accountability model stays the same. And so does the bottleneck. What they are missing is that proper use of agentic AI does not just change the speed of the work. It reshapes how decisions are made, how work flows, and where accountability sits. That requires a redesign, not an automation project. And the gap between the two is more visible than most leaders realize. Agents do not sleep. They do not have time zones or Slack notification settings. They can run continuously, at full capacity, every hour of every day. But in most organizations right now, they are waiting. For a review, an approval, a decision sitting in someone's queue until Monday morning. Not because that is their limit. Because the humans they hand off to are. If you have designed your value stream so that agents are gated by human availability at every handoff, you have not built a hybrid model. You have built a human workflow with faster individual steps. The organizations that figure this out first will have a structural advantage that compounds. This session is about how they are doing it. Not inserting agents into what already exists, but redesigning the full value stream, from discovery and planning through to deployment and learning, around what agents can do natively and where human judgment is irreplaceable. Drawing on the Agentic AI value principles, a practical framework for evaluating whether a hybrid model is built correctly or just built fast, the session maps each function of the value stream against three layers: fully agentic execution, collaborative decision-making, and the human-essential work that must stay with people because accountability and long-term capability require it. A significant part of the session is spent on where agents genuinely prove their value and where they quietly create new risks. It addresses what breaks if you do not measure what agentic AI is doing to your teams. DORA metrics, velocity charts, and adoption dashboards were not designed for this environment. The organizations flying blind on the human dimensions of performance will see short-term gains and miss the slow erosion of the capabilities that determine whether the system is sustainable.

Speakers:

Rik Farenhorst

DASA

CEO

How Not to fail with ITIL again? Reverse the order!

Most IT organizations adopt ITIL with the intention of creating customer value. Yet many become trapped in governance, complexity, process overhead, and organizational immaturity. As a result, ITIL often fails to deliver the value it promises. The hard lesson is this: ITIL does not fail because the framework is wrong. ITIL fails because organizations implement solutions that are too complex for practitioners to apply and too difficult for leaders to manage. Why ITIL Still Fails 1. TIL describes an ideal model—not an operational solution. ITIL provides a comprehensive, well-documented, and valuable reference framework. However, many organizations struggle to translate its guidance into operational practices that are simple, executable, and sustainable. 2. The gap between consultants and operations is too large. Transformation programs are often designed by people who are too far removed from those responsible for delivering and supporting services. 3. Process and practice adoption becomes the objective. Organizations begin measuring framework compliance instead of operational performance and customer value. 4. Practitioners are sent on a "mission impossible." Teams are expected to execute practices that are overly complex, insufficiently supported, or disconnected from operational reality. 5. Organizational change is underestimated. Leaders expect practitioners to change their behavior without changing the organizational system in which they work. In short: We organize what should be done instead of what can be done. Despite many valuable improvements, ITIL 5 still does not fundamentally solve this challenge. The Solution: Reverse the Order Organizations that truly want to benefit from ITIL and other valuable frameworks need a different, results-oriented implementation approach. An approach in which people, operational reality, and both realized and perceived customer value are the starting point as well as the ultimate outcome. Instead of trying to make the organization fit the framework, we should build organizational change on the foundation of operational reality. As I often say: "An IT organization is as good as it behaves—not as it is designed or managed." In This Presentation Drawing on more than three decades of experience in data-driven, results-oriented organizational transformation, I will explain: - Why organizations struggle to implement ITIL successfully. - Where transformation initiatives typically fail. - How Reversed Service Management (RSM) provides a practical implementation approach. - Why People First is not a slogan, but a prerequisite for sustainable business improvement. Two principles underpin this approach: - Organizational debt precedes technical debt. - Operational reality precedes successful transformation. Three Key Takeaways - Value is created only at the operational level—when users create value by applying services delivered by practitioners. - Organizational debt precedes technical debt. The digital system is rarely the cause - Don't organize what should be done; organize what people are actually capable of doing, and grow from there.

Speakers:

Wim Hoving

Servitect

Chief architect ISM Method

Hybrid Intelligence: Unlocking AI Value

Let’s be honest, we’re all guilty of it: jumping on the AI bandwagon. Who can help it when the possibilities seem endless! But the reality is that AI initiatives often fail to deliver the promised value and ROI. So, what’s going wrong, and which approach is needed to turn AI investments into value whilst ensuring AI is deployed in a responsible way? This session introduces Hybrid Intelligence (HI), a new approach to AI which has been developed by top AI researchers from 8 renowned Dutch universities. HI focuses on designing AI systems to augment human intelligence, not replace it - unlocking value as never before.

Speakers:

Catholijn Jonker

TU Delft / Leiden University / VU Amsterdam

Full Professor Artificial Intelligence at TU Delft, full professor of Hybrid Intelligence at VU Amsterdam, full professor of Explainable AI at Leiden University

Suzanne Galletly

EXIN

Digital Skills Director

Inwork Awards

ITSMF chapter

Speakers:

Eddy Peters

itSMF Belgium

Principal Consultant

Stephan Brendel

itSMF International

Vice chair

Patrik Solc

itSMF Czech Republic

Chairman Of The Board

Suzanne Galletly

EXIN

Digital Skills Director

From Idea to Impact: Building Europe’s Next B2B Tech

Europe’s next wave of growth will be shaped by B2B technology: practical, mission-critical solutions that help companies become more productive, secure, compliant and competitive. In this session, Henk Kok explores where the strongest opportunities are emerging — from AI and digital infrastructure to data sovereignty, automation and skills-based ways of working. The session focuses on what makes B2B tech succeed in a European context: solving real operational pain, understanding regulated markets, building trust, and creating technology that fits into complex enterprise environments. Attendees will gain a practical view on how Europe can move from promising ideas to measurable impact through focused execution, strong teams and a deep understanding of customer needs.

Speakers:

Henk Kok

Xablu Venture Studio

Founding Partner

Next Generation of Tech Talent

During this session, I will share insights from EVG Start’s recent research on the evolving demand for digital talent and what it means for the future of work in IT and technology-driven organisations. The presentation is based on conversations I had with IT decision-makers from nearly thirty organisations in the Netherlands, combined with broader labour market analyses showing a rapidly growing shortage of digital professionals. While the numbers highlight a significant challenge, the research also shows that the real issue is not only the quantity of talent, but the type of talent organisations need to remain future-proof in a constantly changing technological landscape. Rather than focusing on traditional job profiles or technical skill sets alone, the session explores the shift towards underlying competencies that determine long-term success. Four key themes will be discussed: The growing importance of thinking ability over specific technical knowledge The increasing weight of personal qualities such as curiosity, ambition and coachability The critical role of communication and collaboration in creating impact with technology The importance of learning ability as a core predictor of future readiness I will connect these insights to the broader question of how organisations can better prepare for a future in which a large share of skills will change within just a few years. The goal of the session is to offer a fresh perspective on tech talent: not as a fixed set of technical requirements, but as a dynamic combination of adaptability, mindset and human potential.

Speakers:

Sophie Hogewoning

EVG Start

CEO

Uncertainty: engineer away with AI, or embrace what makes us human?

Failing could very well be, one of the most human things we do. For every single skill we obtained in our lives, we rely on our mistakes to educate us on what doesn’t work, and what might be better avenues to pursue. We experiment our way through our lives, and accept that failing is part of what makes the journey so much more interesting than the destination could ever be. We still might not like the uncertainty that comes with our human journey, but we accept it, and with wisdom, even learn to welcome it. But in our work, we start to shrink, shorten, or even deny uncertainty, and we try our very best to avoid failing all together. Our professional endeavours are all about the destination and how fast we can get there. As if we forget, or even engineer the journey away, despite knowing, how much joy that journey usually gives us. And with AI being an increasingly bigger presence in our lives, our productions become even more polished, in an attempt, to reach the most perfect destination, as soon as inhumanly possible. Paradoxically acknowledging, that dealing with increasing levels of uncertainty, is one of the most valuable human skills to keep developing in this digital era. Allow me, a lifelong student and lover of failing and uncertainty, to make a case for embracing uncertainty and failing intelligently. From experience and research, I hope to share with you in the celebration of what makes us human, so we can enjoy our journeys more and learn faster.

Speakers:

Annemarie Wolfrat

Whakamana

Leadership team coach & crisis manager

What top-sport performance psychology teaches us about building the MSP of the future

Transformation isn’t just about adopting AI or new business models. It starts with the leader’s mindset. Drawing on her journey as a world champion athlete and tech leader, Hendrika Willemse reveals how high-performance psychology can help MSPs evolve into the MSP of the future. Expect a no-nonsense, inspiring session that blends personal stories with practical lessons on how to lead yourself, your team, and your business beyond the ordinary.

Speakers:

Hendrika Willemse

StoryYo

Kick-Ass Speaker | Moderator | V/Podcast Host | StoryYo | Author | Performance Strategist | Karate | She in IT |

Bridging ITSM and Engineering Teams towards Coordinated AI Adoption

With organisations researching or piloting AI possibilities, the majority of ITSM professionals (62%) still find the AI integration difficult (SDI, 2024). Emotional resistance and coordination gaps are among the challenges. Other roles within the organisations are facing similar challenges. Most notably, the engineering teams and their managers, who have had to navigate the uncertainties in their work and professional identity. When Matej (Engineering Manager) and Irene (Mental Fitness Coach) met during a conference last year, their passion for mentoring developed into a collaborative journey centered around this complex challenge. Seeing the rollercoasters of emotions through the AI adoption process in his department, Matej with mentoring from Irene, delivered a series of Hopes & Fears workshops with his teams and peers. We discovered a powerful finding that helped reframe the resistance: engineers are grieving the craft they built their careers on, what initially seemed like resistance was an identity crisis. In this dialogue-style talk, we unpack what happened next from both sides of engineering and mental fitness: - How recognising the roots of their hopes and fears gave the team a shared language. - How good mentoring from the leader helped people move from fear to action. - How engineers redefined themselves, as problem solvers, AI orchestrators and champions. By presenting this case study, we aim to build bridges between servicedesk/ITSM professionals and engineers. At the heart of the AI adoption challenge is the empowerment of the humans in working together as partners and collaborators. We hope to engage in clarifying discussion and encourage cross-team collaboration towards coordinated AI strategies, boosting adoption, and contributing to building resilient organisations.

Speakers:

Matej Strašek

Exoticca

Engineering Manager - Customer Service

Irene Anggreeni

Whole Person Leaders

Mental Fitness Coach

The Future of MSP M&A: What Buyers Want and What Owners Need to Know

Most MSP owners will only go through a sale, acquisition or investment process once, yet the decisions that shape business value are often made years before a deal ever takes place. This panel brings together MSP owners who have successfully navigated acquisitions, investment or exit events, alongside advisors and industry experts, for an open discussion on what it really takes to build a valuable and attractive MSP business. The conversation will explore the factors that buyers and investors scrutinise most closely, including recurring revenue quality, client concentration, contract maturity, operational maturity, profitability and leadership structure. Panellists will discuss the metrics that influence valuation, from net revenue retention (NRR) and revenue per employee to gross margin performance and reducing key-person dependency. Attendees will also gain practical insights into what "exit readiness" really means, including financial discipline, process maturity, leadership development and creating a business that can scale beyond its founder. Whether you're considering an acquisition, planning for future growth, or simply looking to build a stronger MSP, this session will provide practical perspectives from across the MSP and advisory community. **Key takeaways:** The factors that most influence MSP valuations and buyer interest Common pitfalls that reduce value or delay transactions Practical steps MSP owners can take today to build a more valuable and resilient business

Speakers:

Koen Galjaard

Riverdam

Investment Manager

Pieter de Wit

Fellowmind

Lieke van Aarssen

Banning Advocaten

Hendrika Willemse

StoryYo

Kick-Ass Speaker | Moderator | V/Podcast Host | StoryYo | Author | Performance Strategist | Karate | She in IT |

René de Jong

Anno1982

Founder & M&A Specialist

From Pricing to Profit: Building MSP Offers That Convert

During this session, I’ll share the classic mistakes in MSP offers and what to do instead to ease the sales process, increase conversion rate and average deal size thanks to higher prices or better cross-sell/upsell. I’ll also share the right add-ons strategies and how to upgrade existing customers to an upper package.

Speakers:

Laurent-David Hostyn

Givemefive

CEO

The Rise of the Outcome-Based MSP and Why They Are Winning

As customer expectations shift from service delivery to measurable business impact, a new breed of MSP is emerging — the Outcome‑Based MSP. This panel brings together senior leaders from across the channel who will break down how the outcome based model is reshaping the MSP landscape sharing first hand insight. Exploring how MSPs are moving beyond traditional SLAs and ticket volumes to deliver outcomes that directly support their customers’ strategic objectives. They’ll discuss the catalysts behind this shift, the operational and cultural changes required to support it, and why those who embrace outcome‑led delivery are seeing stronger margins, deeper customer loyalty, and long‑term differentiation in an increasingly competitive market. Attendees will gain practical perspectives on how to define, package, and measure outcomes; how to align internal teams behind this new approach; and how forward‑thinking MSPs are already using this model to win new business and elevate their position as trusted strategic partners.

Speakers:

Jenna Vreugdenhil

Kaseya

Channel Development Manager

Barber Brinkman

Real Solutions Haarlem

CCO

Katrin Giza

GTIA

Community Manager

AI is Not the Product: How MSPs Actually Make Money from AI

AI is dominating the conversation, but most MSPs are struggling to turn it into real revenue. Clients are asking about AI, yet projects often stall, expectations are misaligned, and the commercial value remains unclear. The core issue is not the technology, but how it is positioned and delivered. Treating AI as a standalone product ignores the reality that most organisations lack the structured data, processes, and visibility required for it to work effectively. This session reframes AI as the final layer of a broader system. It introduces a practical, operator-led approach that starts with eliminating manual processes through automation, builds visibility through reporting, establishes reliable data foundations, and only then applies AI where it can drive measurable impact. Using real-world examples from operational environments, the session will show where MSPs can create immediate value, how to avoid stalled AI initiatives, and how to package services in a way that aligns with how businesses actually operate.

Speakers:

Daniel Cavanagh

Brigital BV

Managing Director

If you don’t own adoption, you don’t own the customer

MSPs love to talk about security, cloud and AI. But if customers do not actually use what you implement, your value stays invisible. In this session, Carina challenges MSPs to rethink adoption, not as a soft add-on, but as a strategic lever for customer loyalty, differentiation and business growth. Because when you ignore adoption, you leave a gap in your customer relationship and someone else will fill it. The real question is not whether adoption matters. The real question is: who owns it?

Speakers:

Carina de Vries

Workspace Heroes

Adoption Expert

More Tools Won’t Scale Your MSP

Most MSPs are doing what they are supposed to do. They invest in tools, implement processes, and introduce automation to improve performance and scale their services. Yet scaling often remains a challenge. In my experience, the issue is rarely the tools themselves. It is what happens in between. How teams collaborate, how decisions are made, and how aligned people actually are in their day to day work. This is the layer that is often overlooked. In this session, we challenge the assumption that better tools lead to better performance. Because in practice, adding more tools often increases complexity instead of solving the real problem. We will explore where scaling actually breaks down, why adoption rarely works the way it is designed, and what it takes to create a way of working that truly sticks. Expect practical insights, relatable examples from real IT environments, and a perspective that is simple, but not easy. If you are looking to scale your MSP without adding more overhead, this session will give you a different lens on growth.

Speakers:

Tzoe Keat Chiam

Collabtitude

CEO

Turning Threat Intelligence into Action: How MSPs Can Stay Ahead of Attackers

Even with so many threat intelligence available, many institutions still struggle to operationalize that intelligence beyond briefings and indicator feeds. Modern attackers operate with discipline: they share intelligence, automate techniques and continuously test their tradecrafts. Defenders, however, rarely share procedural threat intelligence. They silo purple teaming, detection engineering, and threat hunting into disconnected activities. This talk introduces a practical framework for integrating: Cyber Threat Intelligence as structured, actionable input and actually focused on adversary behaviour, rather than generalized tactics and techniques Continuous Purple Teaming as validation and focused on threat-informed simulation attacks which are actually relevant to you. Detection & Response as Code as the operational backbone. No more reports and waiting several weeks for implementation. Immediate detection-as-code ready to implement in your environment. And how relevant is a detection rule without a response rule? Threat Hunting to proactively search for intelligence-aligned behaviours or hypothesis-driven hunts. We will explore how intelligence on sector-specific threats like ransomware groups, payment fraud actors, supply-chain compromises and state-sponsored actors can be translated into detection hypotheses, adversary simulations, and codified detection logic that is version-controlled, testable, and continuously validated.

Speakers:

Nick Maeckelberghe

Crimson7

Managing Director