The 'Camp' Concept

The 'camp' concept is based upon the concept of 'BarCamps', where professionals with a common interest, and any level of experience gathered to help each other overcome the challenges of the day.   Over time, several common principles emerged for 'Camp' events, driven by its grassroots origins and volunteer styled participation.  These are reflected in the ServiceCamp™ ground rules:

• The event generally follows the 'Open Space Technology' format and organizational operation, generally;
• The primary objective is to help you as a service professional, help your organization provide better service, more efficiently;

• The event is free to attend, participants just have to pre-register to help plan the logistics;
• Everyone is a participant and expected to contribute in some way;
• Information sharing is expected and encouraged, prior, during and after;
• The core themes are preset and all discussions must relate to these themes;
• Discussion items are proposed by attending participants and presented in the form of a question;
• The questions are the basis for each session or workshop, the proposer of the question leads the session;
• Participants are allocated a number of votes and use these to select which sessions they want to occur;
• Each session is in the form of a group discussion or workshop, hosted at a table, not a room;
• You can attend any session and the "2-foot" rule applies, if you feel you'll get more out of a different session, use your own "two feet" to move
• No networking during sessions, only at formal icebreakers and scheduled breaks!
• No selling of products and services, those who do will first receive a 'yellow card' warning, then a 'red card dismissal'!
• All thoughts, ideas and comments are collected and available during and after to each participant;

Because ServiceCamps are held at convenient times, typically outside of normal working hours, participating is sometimes a personal investment.  You give up your time and energy, and in return gain recognition by helping your peers, and likely a better understanding of what represents excellent service, and the elements of a successful service excellence program.

What Attend a 'Camp'?

The only investment is your time and energy

Has your travel budget been cut?  Do you feel industry conferences have become too "sterile" or dominated by big vendors, or lack true practitioner content?

Do you want to learn from peers outside your company?  Have you presented at a conference and want to share again your opinions or experiences with a local audience? 

Have your ideas been turned down as a topic at a conference and yet you feel they offer valuable help?  Are you unemployed or under-employed, and seeking employment or career development opportunities?

Do you want to meet others who are passionate about service excellence and service management?   Would you like to be recognized in your community as knowledgable, and someone that helps "get things done"?  Are you looking for informal ways to "meet-and-greet" your professional peers and exchange experiences?

If the answer is “yes” to any of these, you should participate in ServiceCamp

As an attending participant you will receive a briefing on how the ServiceCamp operates, how you can suggest and influence topics, and the best ways of ensuring you get maximum value out of your investment in time and energy.  As a registered participant, you can propose your own session topic, vote for sessions you favor, and attend any number of sessions proposed by others.  You are encouraged to vote for what you need and then again with your feet..

Core Themes

At ServiceCamp we tend to discuss the following topics related to the following core themes:

• Customer/Service Excellence: What it is, why it matters, the elements of a successful program;
• Customer/Service Expectation Management: How expectations are formed, negotiated and managed;
• Customer/Service Experience Management: How experiences are designed, the role of front-stage actions and actors and  required skillsets;
• Service Delivery Management: How to discover and apply better 'best practices' to the task of performing back-stage actions to enable and support the front-stage;
• Service Support Management: How to discover and apply better 'best practices' to design and operation of supporting processes, such as request, asset, change, incident, and configuration management;
• Continuous Improvement: How to establish and sustain an initiative to continuously improve all aspects of a service provider organization's operations.

The ServiceCamp event helps you design a blueprint for a service excellence program that you can adapt to meet your needs, and the needs of the organizations you work for, or support.

Format

ServiceCamp, like its 'Camp' origins, follows an interactive, unscripted, unconference format. A ServiceCamp leverages the traditional BarCamp and Open Space Technology principles, and has the following general format:

• The number of participants is limited by the size of the available venue;
• All sessions take part in a single room to allow the 2-feet rule to be applied easily;
• There are a set number of session slots, or time periods of 45 minutes when discussions and workshops take place;
• Prior to the scheduled event, registrants can post proposed topics on the local ServiceCamp site;
• The event starts with a rules primer and introduction of all pre-posted session topics;
• The organizers distribute the template forms for posting questions and facilitating sessions;
• Each attending participant receives a voting card, set number of votes, and instructions on how to use;
• The agenda forming session begins and each attendee may post their own topic/s on the open space agenda;
• All candidate agenda sessions are checked for relevancy and related to one core theme;
• The voting session begins, and each attendee can vote on what sessions they prefer;
• Vote are tallied, the organizers are the final arbiters, the agenda as voted is set and published;
• The organizers introduce how the discussion rounds will operate and start the first discussion round,
• Session leaders facilitate the discussion and collect and aggregate all feedback and information generated;
• General participants may apply the 2-feet rule and involve themselves to any degree in any session;
• Organizers keep time and offer assistance to ensure discussion sessions are open, transparent and of value;
• Organizers help collate the end of round information and post on knowledge bank ' wall';
• Conditionally, the agenda sessions may be subject to a round of voting, or continued as-is;
• The discussion round is repeated as necessary until the entire agenda of session topics is exhausted;
• The discussion rounds end, or are halted as agreed by participants, all information collated, and information disseminated on how participants can obtain access subsequent to the event;
• The participants discuss their experiences, an optional reward ceremony can occur for best topic or session;
• The participants discuss how the event might be improved, and candidate topics and timing of next event.

You don't need to attend to benefit from the activities, all registered participants receive a copy of the collated results, and if wireless or Internet services available, can take part in real-time via social media technologies such as Twitter.

Sponsorship

The success of a ServiceCamp hinges on the willingness of everyone involved to invest time and energy.  Remember, the goal is a free event.  Sponsorship is highly valued and encouraged, and can take many forms, from providing a facility, refreshments, t-shirts, badges and lanyards, to plain volunteering to help setup and tear down the event.  A special sponsorship program is available for those wishing to donate funds in return for prominent representation at the ServiceCamp website.  Please contact us if you wish to sponsor a ServiceCamp event or the principle at large.

Organizers

Ian M. Clayton
Outside-In Service Management Thinker with 35 years IT experience and approved ITIL Instructor to Expert level with ITIL Expert Diploma V3, ITSM Master, ITIL Service Manager V2 with Distinction.
Author of Universal Service Management Body of Knowledge (USMBOK), Service Management Master™ Award Recipient 2008 and Co-Founder itSMF USA, Co-Founder Service Management Society.

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Kenneth (“kengon”) Gonzalez, CSMP, CLSP
Outside-In Service Management and Lean Consulting Professional, Author, Speaker with over 25 years IT experience. Service Management Master™ Award Recipient 2008, Co-Founder Service Management Society.