It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Ivanti at the IAITAM 2017 Spring ACE Conference!

In just a few short weeks, we’ll get the chance to see each other’s inner superhero at the IAITAM 2017 Spring ACE Conference. There will be batmen, supermen, wonder women, and our very own Hawkeye/Nick Furry hybrid casted by Patricia Adams.

In all seriousness, behind all those masks, capes, and tight spandex underwear will be hundreds of ITAM professionals networking and covering topics that affect virtually every company in the world. The IAITAM conference is one of the premier ITAM conferences of the year. It is a great opportunity to learn about best practices, future trends, and how companies can benefit from implementing top-notch ITAM programs.

There is one problem, though. Attendees quite often get energized at these conferences, but fail to successfully transform that energy into action back at their organizations. Roadblocks are encountered, funding gets scarce, and there’s just not enough time in the day. Unless your organization is fully invested in effective ITAM, it’s hard to take what you learn and apply it to your environment.

So what can be done to get the most out of this conference? Let me give three tips:

1. Come prepared with your top three projects to implement for the next year.

Decide what initiatives you're pursuing. A few common projects are:

  • Getting a grip on your hardware estate
  • Finalizing your product catalog
  • Standing up superb onboarding and offboarding policies and processes
  • Integrating ITAM with your CMDB
  • Overcoming pesky software audits
  • Refreshing outdated hardware and software
  • Centralizing procurement

Whatever major ITAM initiatives you’re interested in, choose only three! Figure out what success looks like for those projects and how you’re going to measure it. Keep it simple.

2. Listen and take notes on those three projects—and nothing else.

There will be plenty of content presented on other subjects, but try to focus only on those three projects. You will find that your mind will come up with some pretty amazing ideas for those projects, even if they weren’t mentioned in any of the sessions. These are the thoughts that turn a project into a truly innovative solution—and make you look like a “superhero.”

3. Share, execute, share—and then share again.

Take what you learned back to your team. Set up a meeting to review your notes and finalize your three projects. Then execute on those projects like superheroes dispatching villains. Track your progress and measure the value your project is creating. Share those results with your boss, their boss, their boss’s boss, their boss’s boss, and all the way up to the CFO and CEO. Then turn around and share it again with the rest of us. Too often, we fail to share what we learn and achieve along the way.

Use these suggestions as your "utility belt," and you, your team, and the ITAM community will get more out of the IAITAM 2017 Spring ACE Conference than great (if disturbing) memories of co-workers in tights. Hope to see you there. We’ll be at booth 4. Don’t be shy about chatting with us, about your ITAM projects, our solutions, or your favorite superhero!