Wow - what a ride 2012 was!

© Giovanni Cancemi - Fotolia.com

On the first day of 2013 I can reflect on a 2012 that has truly changed my life.

I started the year with a job I loved, despite the frustrations that working for a voluntary board can bring, with a great team of volunteers who were determined to help us share the wisdom of the itSMF global community. A gathering of chapter representatives in Warsaw in April showed how enthusiastic the itSMF community was to see their members have an outlet to share their expertise on a global stage. The energy at this meeting, like the previous one in Amsterdam in 2011, was inspiring and showed us that we were doing the right thing. Sadly, at this meeting, it was also obvious to see that the writing was on the wall for publishing at an international level for itSMFI as the International Board struggled with what they saw as a need to cut costs.

The next few months was spent with a constant feeling that there was an axe poised above my head and I was just waiting for it to fall, which it did in August, when I was given three months notice on my contract as Chief Editor for itSMF International. I will never regret the three and a half years I spent in this role and I am very proud of the accomplishments that we achieved during that time, publishing six outstanding books and establishing a truly international magazine dedicated to IT Service Management in 'At Your Service'. I will probably always feel a bit sad that my service to the organisation, which went well above what I was paid for, was terminated via email without any personal communication from the board I had worked with for so long, and that when the role finished on November 16 there was no official word of thanks from the organisation.

But that is all water under the bridge and it has bought me opportunity and hope rather than despair. The people I have met and established relationships with during my time in this role make everything worthwhile. There are some wonderful people in our little world of service management who have given me strength, courage and friendship and I thank you all!

I would have to say that my watershed moment for 2012, and probably for my professional life (and to some extent, my personal life), happened on August 19 when I sat in +Chris Dancy's Digital Literacy workshop at the itSMF Australia LeadIT event on the Gold Coast. To say that what I learned here, and over the following days, weeks and months of talking with Chris, inspired me would be an understatement...it radically changed my way of thinking and allowed me to let my digital persona flourish in a way that has really turned my world upside down. I will be eternally grateful that Chris saw something in me that was worth encouraging and nourishing, and the plans I have for 2013 are directly attributable to his support...so thank you from the bottom of my heart!

© Redshinestudio - Fotolia.com

I started this blog at the beginning of September and it has now attracted over 6,000 unique visitors - a number that both amazes and pleases me! Thank you for reading and interacting with my thoughts, I appreciate how scarce a commodity time is, so the fact that so many of you have decided that my writing is worthy of your precious time is something that I am humbled by.

That month I also worked up the courage to submit a talk to TFT12 - The Future Today, a virtual 24 hour conference on ITSM featuring 24 crowd-sourced speakers from around the globe. Being selected as one of the 24 speakers was terrifying and amazing, and then being asked to host the Oceania portion of the event gave me an experience that I will always be grateful for, interacting with the inspirational speakers who took part in this event was a true pleasure. This event was another milestone for me and will be one of the things that helps to shape my 2013. Attracting over 1.2 million interactions within the first 48 hours, I think we can safely say that TFT12 was a huge success - bring on TFT13!

So, what will 2013 bring? Definitely something big, something that I, and those I am lucky enough to be working with, believe will change and influence the IT Service Management community on a global level...for now I will just say 'watch this space', there are exciting developments in the pipeline and I am working with some very clever, driven and inspirational people who will ensure that we can make it happen.