Selecting the Appropriate ITSM Events and Training Courses For 2026  

With AI, automation and digital employee experience at the top of every IT conversation, selecting the right ITSM events and ITSM training courses could be the difference between a successful ITSM roadmap and a failed one.

Smart IT innovators are no longer seeing conferences and courses as single events or fun days, but as investments to help ensure that decision making around tools is well researched or that you’re able to sit back and reflect on the experience, efficiency and cost gains that can be achieved by practical ideas you took away from the event.  

This guide walks you through the selection of the right ITSM events, ITSM training and ITSM courses to help you achieve your goals and demonstrate their value back to the business.  

So Why Are ITSM Events And Courses Still Relevant Today For Service Desks?   

The Service Desk is not only about taking tickets anymore, it’s also about experience shaping. While having AI powered tooling, self-service portals, automation and ITIL5 revolutionise how IT teams work, people require focused learning and peer networking to support the theory to practice. ITSM events and courses provide the opportunity to take a step back from day-to-day firefighting and to re-think how your service desk adds value.  

For others, particularly in complex or controlled environments, ITSM training and courses can also be vital to keeping frameworks, certification and audit ready. The right balance of ITSM events, ITSM training and practical courses will help keep teams on top of vendor roadmaps, shifting user expectations and maturing best practice.  

Common Pitfalls in Selecting the ITSM Events and ITSM Training  

There are lots of teams that underutilise their ITSM budget due to the choice of the wrong events or courses. Typical mistakes include:  

1. Focusing on events, not outcomes, choosing events based on location or who else will be attending.  
2. Focusing on large, flashy conferences, rather than smaller ITSM courses or specific workshops that more closely reflect the challenges in the real world.  
3. Not taking in consideration if the agenda fits your roadmap – for instance, you want ITIL5 content, but end up in a “future of IT” session instead, or you want content on shift left and self-service, but end up in a generic session.  
4. Choosing the lowest cost ITSM course without verifying the credentials of the instructor, pass rates or support after the course.  
5. Not setting the criteria for success prior to sending staff to ITSM courses or ITSM training, which is difficult to provide evidence of the worth of next year’s investment.  

The first step to avoiding these pitfalls is to change the way you think about ITSM events and ITSM training, as purchasing an outcome, not just a ticket.  

Step-By-Step Process to Narrow Down the Right ITSM Events  

Follow this easy guide to create a short list of events, conferences and training opportunities that really fit your service desk.  

Define Objectives First 

When you are considering any ITSM event, list the issues or changes you wish to address for the coming year or two. For example:  

• Decrease the average resolution time or increase the rate of first contact resolution.  
• Enhance the adoption and utilisation of a knowledge base and self-service.  
• Apply real-world ITIL5 practices with regards to incident, problem and change.  
• Move from SLA to experience focused measures (XLAs).  
• Identify opportunities for repetitive work to be safely automated with AI.  

The objectives should be clearly evident in each ITSM event or ITSM course that you take into consideration. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t get on the list.  

Map Objectives to Event and Training Types 

There are various types of formats, each with its own specific purpose:  

• ITSM events and ITSM conferences with large numbers of attendees: Great for researching the marketplace, witnessing several tools, learning the broader trends and connecting with other professionals. Great for checking out tools, making strategy or finding new ideas.  
• Delivered ITSM Training and ITSM Courses that are focused: Ideal for in-depth study on a particular framework, or on a specific skill – such as ITIL5 Foundation, problem management, knowledge centred service or configuration of ITSM tools. Perfect for upskilling and for establishing a common language.  
• Workshops and masterclasses on ITSM: Ideal for smaller organisations requiring guidance on issues such as service desk maturity, automation design, experience management, etc.  
• Meetups in the community and user groups: Helpful for one-on-one support and useful hints on a regular basis, particularly when heavily dependent on a specific ITSM solution.  

One great idea is to offset an annual plan that includes at least one high value ITSM event in a small portfolio of ITSM courses and training sessions.  

Create a Basic Score Sheet  

Once you have a list of possible ITSM events and ITSM training options, score them against consistent criteria, such as:  

• Relevance of sessions or modules to your objectives.  
• Reputation of speakers/instructors.  
• Balance of practitioner-led content vs. sales pitches from vendors.  
• Opportunities to do practical exercise or lab.  
• Networking and knowledge sharing formats.  
• Cost, travel time and impact on service desk coverage.  

Using a simple spreadsheet that scores events and courses, and assigns a score of 1-5 for each event and course, will quickly provide a picture of which ITSM events and courses will likely provide the best return.  

Key Criteria to Evaluate for ITSM Events, Training and Courses  

When looking at agendas, outlines and course descriptions, here are some signs of quality.  

Depth in contemporary topics of ITSM: Look for references on AI assisted triage, knowledge centred service, swarming, self-service portals, automation design, experience levels agreements and integration with DevOps/Platform teams.  

Practitioner led sessions: Focus on ITSM events and ITSM training where practitioners (heads of service, ITSM architects and service desk managers) present real case studies.  

Hands on learning: Seek workshops, clinics and labs to practice frameworks and tools on real-life scenarios, rather than hearing about slideware.  

Assessment to measure and maturity tools that assess: Some ITSM events and courses will feature diagnostics or maturity assessments to provide you with an organised understanding of where you’re at and what you need to do next.  

Follow up resources: ITSM courses that provide high-quality content include post training materials and community forums or office hours to allow participants to integrate the material they’ve learned.  

If a vendor or organiser cannot clearly articulate learning outcomes and who each ITSM course is for, that is usually a red flag.  

What to Look for in ITSM Events for Service Desk Teams  

For service desk teams, what matters the most is what happens at ITSM events.  

There’s more to service desk leadership than just generic IT strategy content. When assessing service desk centred ITSM events and courses, be mindful of the following:  

• Front line realities sessions: managing queues, coping with peaks, multi-channel demand and reusing knowledge.  
• Real-world advice on how to create or enhance self-service portals, knowledge bases and chatbots to effectively deflect tickets without compromising user experience.  
• Deep dives into metrics and reporting to get into service desk metrics, beyond SLAs, into sentiment, experience and value measures.  
• Lessons learnt from case studies of organisations similar in size, sector and regulatory setting.  
• Showcase persons who understand your ITSM platform and where it integrates with other tools you might use that are in that immediate area.  

For UK and Europe based users, look for ITSM events and ITSM training that are relevant to your regulatory requirements, local networking communities and overall technology landscape.  

How To Make A Business Case For ITSM Events And ITSM Training  

However, when you know that an ITSM course or event will be beneficial, it can still be difficult to align the support of senior stakeholders. Here a business case is very helpful if it’s clear and concise.  

1. Provide a series of monitoring activities for each initiative to track attendance. 

Match each ITSM event or ITSM course with an existing or upcoming project, like implementing ITIL 4 practices, raising the self-service adoption or redesigning automation flows.  

2. Create a plan to achieve desired results.  

These can be such things as: “three actionable ideas to reduce ticket volume by 10%” or “learning how to implement problem management with existing tooling”.  

3. Quantify potential impact.  

Make educated guesses about how things might change if improvements are made, related to First Contact Resolution, Mean Time To Resolve, cost per ticket, or employee satisfaction. Even if it’s a ballpark estimate, it’s that much more compelling.  

4. Describe plans for knowledge sharing. 

Describe how you will disseminate knowledge about the ITSM event or course to the rest of the team by playback sessions, in-house training or revised documentation.  

5. Explain alternatives and costs. 

Include ticket prices, travel, time away from BAU work and compare it to alternatives that may be cheaper but less effective, like other ITSM training or courses.  

Approval is much easier when stakeholders understand the outcomes of an ITSM event and the impact the ITSM training course can have.  

Maximising ROI Before, During and After ITSM Events  

ITSM events and training are not about the ticket, but it is about how you use the ticket.  

Before the event or course  

• Agree objectives with attendees so they know what to focus on.  
• Shortlist sessions, tracks or modules that align with your roadmap.  
• Book vendor demos or 1:1 clinics in advance where possible.  
• Share a simple note taking template so people capture takeaways in a consistent way.  

During the ITSM event or training course  

• Encourage attendees to prioritise depth over breadth – better to attend fewer sessions fully than try to sample everything.  
• Capture specific ideas to test, rather than just interesting slides.  
• Use networking opportunities to ask other organisations how they approached similar problems.  

After the event or course  

• Run an internal playback session within one or two weeks, while the content is still fresh.  
• Turn insights into concrete actions: small experiments, process tweaks, or proposals for tool changes.  
• Create internal artifacts such as checklists, playbooks or mini guides based on what you learned.  
• Where relevant, repurpose non sensitive insights into external content – for example, thought leadership blogs or LinkedIn posts about key ITSM trends.  

This simple rhythm ensures your ITSM events and ITSM courses feed directly into continuous improvement, rather than being forgotten once badges come off.  

Deciding Which ITSM Courses, Training and Self-Directed Learning To Take  

In the world of information and content online, one might wonder when it is worth paying for paid ITSM courses or classroom training, versus investing time in self-directed learning.  

Typically, the decision to take paid ITSM training is a go/no-go situation when:  

1. Recognition – expected certifications like ITIL5 are needed to meet client and partner expectations and/or regulatory requirements.  
2. You have a significant change initiative and require a critical mass of individuals to communicate in the same language.  
3. You want direction and to have access to expert teachers who can answer questions in your context.  

Options that you can find on your own blogs, podcasts and community forums are great for regular top ups and keeping up with trends, but do not offer the depth, structure or accountability found in a formal ITSM course. Most high performing service desks are a mix of both in practice.  

Making This Your ITSM Learning Path  

Don’t make each ITSM event or ITSM course a stand alone choice, create a simple roadmap of events for the coming year. For instance, a medium sized organisation could:  

• Attend 1-2 major ITSM events annually to look ahead and talk to vendors.  
• Train key staff in ITIL 4 or topic specific ITSM training courses at quieter times in the business.  
• Conduct 1 in-house workshop each quarter to ensure new practices gained from external ITSM events and Course are introduced.  
• Enable individuals to continue to develop their own learning agenda through a combination of webinars, articles, and community involvement.  

This organised approach is a route to developing capability and enhancing service outcomes and more readily conveys continuous improvement to stakeholders.