hello and welcome to the service Ducks podcast I hum co-host James downs and I'm Rush here and we're here to chat about all things servicenow everyday life as a service now consultant new features implementation successes and perhaps more entertaining when it doesn't go quite so well [Applause] and welcome to the service Ducks podcast so this episode is going to be a bit different so well first of all we're live um second of all we're live from Vegas ish now Jim um Jim and I James Downes and I uh didn't manage to get a ticket this year uh sad face but we've managed to get two willing willing willing participants maybe to be our eyes and ears on the floor so if you want to listen to the highs the lows from the best keynote session to alabo who did the worst karaoke song then stick around and we'll find out Jim I'm excited man that was the black was how do is that all right that's very good I just had a little moment there because I had playing LinkedIn in the background so I handed you about two or three times I was like oh no what's going on oh no that's my bed this is the thing we're trying LinkedIn and YouTube so we're going to try and answer comments if we can um yes but yeah I'm pretty excited so right okay so let's get back to let's look at I guess let's introduce our guests right so we have got with us we've got Francis cabatuti so Francis is a lead developer I have to leave technical uh consultant will say from flyfall Network he's been in the game for about um on the platform six years um and got a passion for um user experience and get the best out of the platform well one thing he did know and wanted me to tell uh tell everyone is he doesn't like the main set so don't think you're wrong I think we could uh we've got what's that group for we hate the main step I've got a therapy group as well so it's okay we'll join um and on the other side of the fence we've got James Brown now James works for NTT data um again in the UK as a technical consultant James is a bit more of a veteran though you can tell by the kind of risk receding hairline [Laughter] Ian has been uh working on the platform since around about 2014 so he's got a few more gripes than most of us um Gents it's a massive pleasure and thanks for taking your time to to talk to us today oh Francis how is it that's busy very busy unbelievably there's another thing that sort of strikes you first when you're here the sheer volume of people and the size of the event is massive I've been taking little videos of walking around which I'm going to try and do uh um sort of like faster speed to play back to the guys back at life I'm gonna get back to try and give them a feel for the scale of it but it's gonna have to be like four times speed otherwise they are gonna get completely bored because there is a lot of square footage to cover in here it is massive really massive I bumped into Francis on Sunday out on the strip and he was wearing a very nice Panama Hat like the Del Monte man so he's looking nice I do say yes of knowledge 22 as well yes so it's perfect isn't it so I I saw the uh the selfie Francis you got with um you you you you peaked man quite early because I saw her on LinkedIn you got a selfie with Chuck the man himself yeah um pretty early on and you got you and your tie chucking his bow tie rocking out brilliant absolutely brilliant well he's the service now guy with the bow tie and I'm the service night guy in the suit and tie why not James bow hello um before you went to Vegas you spoke and you said you were going to do the helicopter ride didn't that you didn't do it you know it's so expensive out here is all I can say it's 15 it's 15 pounds for a beer so it's so expensive the helicopter ride uh the big one over the canyon was 600 pounds I can't expense it we didn't do that unfortunately there's a few things we haven't done that was on the list as the tourists sort of you know angle but we've done plenty of things and don't get me wrong a lot of mooching about on the strip and in other places but no helicopter are these I think it's um plenty of things that you can share on a podcast or they they're like [Laughter] yeah taken at the the sign it's quite a distance away I didn't realize how big it was yeah around here it's so big and so it takes us from the hotel we're in to walk just to Venetian where we are now in the corridors is a good 35 minutes from where we are Francis is in the same hotel that I'm in wow and that's just a part of the strip you've got a it's a long way so um yeah and it's in its heart so not in here as well because the buildings are just at such Grand scale when you look at it from Google Maps you've got to go oh that's you know a block of three three buildings I'll walk up there but actually those three buildings are all the size of massive shopping malls that you would have here in the in the UK and so or if not here there in the UK but yes it is massive I could I can see the sign from my hotel window if that does it for you but it's like a spec in the distance it's a bit like Francis we're struggling to hear bits of what you said I don't know whether you could bring your mic closer or go back to the Wi-Fi point he's literally just around they say they say dumb they don't work with what is it animals children and uh service now technical consultants and I fit all three of those categories yes but you know what what questions I was going to ask and I've resisted asking but I'm going to go in there because you mentioned the Italians right what's the weather like it is that's a very British thing to say isn't it no it's it's really nice it's really hot it's a I think the first day we were here it was 38 degrees but the problem you've got is that when you walk into places like the shopping malls and stuff like that it's so heavily air conditioned that you just instantly I mean I've got a jump run at the moment so yes it's beautiful really it's blue skies you can see the mountains in the background it's a great atmosphere I think we're lucky enough if we get 22 degrees I haven't broke out with George yeah shorts aren't coming out yeah so Francis I'll talk about a question in terms of so this is now what day three of knowledge so you're going into day three I guess um yes um so in terms of expectations so far I know we're probably going to go deeper into about you know the kind of topics that's come up and any kind of you know highlights and things like that but in terms of expectations so far I know you said before to us that you've I think you went to a London one before and this is probably your first big knowledge has it hit your expectations did you say so far yeah knowledge has got everything you needed from it so far as well I would say I would say definitely knowledge itself has been phenomenal uh yeah it beyond my expectations to be honest it's been really good uh like I said the sheer scale of it and the number of resources that you can just go up and have a chat with um you know uh spoiler alert csdm 5 is being announced here and so there's a draft building that I'm sure you've seen the other round but being able to go up and talk to to see uh to stop side who who actually wrote csdm and you know have an in-depth discussion with him it's just the sort of stuff that you can't do otherwise and and it's amazing it's really amazing and yeah the the all of the all the presentations and all of the labs and I was here also for the first two days and doing the night learning as well and so those courses are both very well put together very well delivered very happy I just made out csdm5 I don't know if you need to move anywhere but it's really difficult for example James is okay I think it's getting quite busy in fact it was a good point so csdm5 so literally an hour ago someone sent me a screenshot from Vegas that they'd seen off screen with csdm5 um it was quite topical the conversation I was having um what are you James though you've you've not been to knowledge before managed to get the golden ticket the golden ticket yeah no not being before it's uh it has met the expectations it's it's I think Francis was saying that it's the map people are here so you got 20 just short 20 000 people I think everyone's really here as it obviously as a partner or customer or employee of service now everyone's here for the same thing so whether I mean it doesn't really matter what your position is within the company what your role is everyone's sort of here to to see the new things but I think the key thing is is around just meeting people talking to people and being on the show floor and stuff like that that's to me that's been more value than being in some of the sessions um yeah you know the collaboration a bit of it and just being more or something with someone else like the show floor is amazing there's no doubt about it and you've got some really good sessions where it's like the now on now people so you can just wander in and have a look at whatever you want and someone's going to stand there and just tailor that demo to you and so yes yes yeah the shares scale of it is unbelievable though it really is and we just did this thing so let's check on let's talk sessions for a bit then so what what kind of um I I again I'm getting all that's kind of as it's happening from LinkedIn right of people taking pictures get all this kind of like Snippets to me yeah well Jacinda Arden yeah she's just in the keynote she's unbelievable she was really good and I didn't know she was on I'd heard a rumor um so yeah so keynote is well this is the third one so Third Day final day you've had um yeah quite a lot going on Bill McDermott on day one and stuff like that obviously he's he brings a lot of energy to the stage should we say um but yeah uh the right honorable Jacinda yeah um pretty pretty inspiring she did a good session she's extended her stay in Vegas just to do this apparently um so yeah so she was on just like what an hour ago maybe um what was what was the key note from the keynote and what was the main message of the last one uh so keynote is the word yes come on they're very like Windows 95 you know say yes we lost Francis by the way no no no he disappeared he's trying to roam around oh there we go he's in a different environment he's got Rogue Challenge yes go and tap the person behind you guys what we're talking about I think your Keynotes what was the keynote in the keynote and you said yes the main one yes yeah yes there's a lot of the expression let's lean in there's a lot of leaning in that's like that was a key thing let's lean into this let's lean into that obviously uh gen AI is obviously uh something like foreign but yes I want to talk about that just around the scale and what I think what you know what they're trying to do and trying to build and stuff like that it's uh yeah the key thing also is around the rise up I think so this whole million people yeah um and you know adding that with the Gen I gen AI stuff it's uh it's a bit worrying so gener AI as I understand it within the keynote yesterday right they did some a pretty powerful demo which I heard got some reaction is that right come on we need to hear more about that because I don't think I've seen that so it was quite well it was quite a high level I think what they were trying to share I'm trying to I think they're probably some of the sessions that you go to and the Keynotes they're not I mean the Keynotes 45 minutes an hour long but the sessions are some of those are only 30 minutes so you've got someone's trying to push a lot into 30 minutes so it's pretty high level um and they can't do anything other than that obviously unless you had a a day session and of course then you're only going to be able to get to three instead of nine or twelve or whatever you whatever you want to go to so I've had the term servicenow assist is that sitting in the same frame as the the generative AIS that the service now is I think AI model yeah that was CIS this is what it's called at the moment although now well I believe you can re-brand it or re-label it sorry yourself as and when it's launched I don't know oh yeah okay but that's that's what it's called and but they gave and if they mentioned like is it just for code generation is it for configuration as well uh are they kind of said like the use case yeah it kind of text the code and text to config so I think the two demos they did they did you know it can you basically just write in in English what you want it to do for a business rule for example it'll go and write it myself rough business rule that you can play around with yeah they can also do things like you know ask it to create a flow and send a notification and add a field to a form and you are literally just you're literally just typing in can you add a feel to the form call it this it needs to be a string value uh can you send a notification when uh whatever criteria is hit and you know so yeah it's pretty cool yeah wow yeah I I saw some mixed kind of reviews on on LinkedIn I think for me it's it's the path it's taking us down not necessarily where it is now it's like well where's it going you know what I mean all the possible now does it go Francis is going to take you back and it's a really good yeah is the audio okay do I look good yeah yeah Francis we'll give James a bit of a break from it but um we're just talking about uh gen Ai and and it's in Brazen uh weirdly popping up in the in the keynote sessions from the the other sessions that you've been to like the the labs um customer sessions is there any kind of highlights that you pick out that you thought wow that blew me away that was impressive or I'm going to take that back I've been to uh yeah a few different sessions have been put there I was quite impressed with the um app engine pieces that they they've brought in and so those are quite interesting some of those are already out there and they're available some of them are a future sort of like uh forward-looking items that they're looking to bring in but as um as James were saying hey this all then hooks in and the road map of how this will then hook into the Gen Ai and uh trying to leverage that because I mean ultimately the the thought processes I get it from what they don't I don't know if you've sort of covered this off already James but it's if they're just looking to take the like we're kind of a lot of it so you know it's kind of not going to replace people is what they're saying my concern is that people will get lazy yeah and so we'll just follow what the code says when you have um unicorns come up that you have to code for then it's going to be very difficult for people to then upskill themselves rapidly to be able to deal with that scenario which the current Library doesn't doesn't comprehend or doesn't know and so you're still going to have some people I think who will have to you know keep those skills and be very much skilled up and if anything they'll maybe become more valuable then so it might be a brilliant thing for us yeah you know as opposed to you know the Death Note for for all of the the developer world yeah absolutely from what I heard it it seems pretty exciting um gonna kind of flip that on its head slightly then Israeli sessions Francis is back at you right and we've got you we're going to take advantage of this advantage of the connection yes uh is there any sessions that you you thought probably I don't want to say waste no solid it's my podcast yeah you wasted your time with there there was a oh hang on before you before you finish we didn't put any money in the pound yard let's get it over and done with DXE NCD fly form up3 we're done right I've already named George Floyd already so yeah the only thing is you probably didn't hear it because of my audio connection but yeah so so sessions that I I thought were yeah not as great not directly myself to be honest the ones I've been in um some of them were a bit mediocre because um for example case studies of how people have implemented things and then when you're there they're kind of implemented yet as the book says it's nothing you know unique yeah like okay it is great it's really good to know that what it says on the tin is what you did and it's done what you said but it's nothing some new or taking me forward in any way um there were I know sort of comments from some of the other sessions about technical issues with with some of the uh name learning uh sessions but like I said my one delivered by Steve Schiller uh amazing guy really good session cmdb fundamentals um it's something I've worked Ryan phrases but I've never gone and sat the course and so when I start the course um yeah got thoroughly um you know upskilled by Steve and also learned that he's amazing at the harmonica and he was serenading us with the harmonica so I mean you can't you know a meal under show one more do you want yeah I I guess I guess what you said Perhaps Perhaps bad session but perhaps next time you just might pick your sessions differently dude I mean maybe not aimed at you and you think okay the agenda's maybe something I might not go to you next time yeah that's fair okay I think the comment just quickly on that the Common Thread that people are saying is the the sessions don't have uh enough description of what's going to be covered when you're picking them from the catalog a few people have said that so it might not be sort of pitched at the right level or it's not going to cover what you think it's going to cover or but it might cover more yeah I don't know so they could perhaps just do with a bit more of a description in that catalog yeah mid ah that that sounds like a man that's got a great question to be honest it was it is it I didn't have that graphic I've been hearing word on the street with the kids yeah right okay you know others are completely different type of session around uh was it singing or karaoke with Chuck I heard someone was up singing yeah I don't know if anyone's to elaborate on that well I did go to Chuck's uh karaoke session which he he's got a karaoke out but he's built um fully on the service light platform to just demonstrate that you can literally do anything it's a really cool app and it's also available for people to just use from home if you're gonna run a karaoke party you can bring it up and you can run it for free and it is it's amazing you just literally search the song you want and it will bring up a whole load of different ones that it that it thinks match what you're looking for is the song title and then you can pick the one you want and you get added to the queue and at the point that it's your go to go up it also queues up and and plays you know a karaoke track of what you're gonna sing with all the you know subtitles and everything underneath it which is uh yeah it's amazing but I got up there I thought I could sing um [Laughter] Let It Die but hey you you can now say that you play Vegas yeah residency was that was that a big crowd was that was that I've just got this vision of everyone with drinks going in the bee has been thrown around it was a modest crowd to start with by the time I finished it was always empty you know [Laughter] but you know you know what I look so heard well I didn't hear actually I saw it you put it in LinkedIn um oh no did you message me you've got what I would consider the the Charizard card of the the of service Narrows right you not only got Chuck but you spoke to him I did I spoke to you know the senior VP of the tomasi household and so yeah she's she's lovely ones and they were just ultimately thanking her for the fact that she puts up with us all stealing Chuck's time you know basically I thought somebody asked him did she wear an equivalent to the bow tie or rashina yeah she didn't she didn't go with the the Illumina screen show outside she wasn't doing that yet I've not even seen him I'm very disappointed I've not even seen him how have you not literally I I had this vision of because my LinkedIn went bang right and there was loads of selfies of Chuck coming through so I had this Vision that you got these MVP's like Lauren and chuckler stood there like Disney characters and you're in a big show it was a little bit like that but it wasn't quite a big cue poor old Chuck um when I got myself with him I do feel like a little bit bad about it because he was stood outside of the Keynotes as everybody was failing in on day one and he was clearly busily trying to send the message on his mobile and I walked up to him I said do you mind if I just think about it I'm not gonna take any more of your time and his response was so sweet he just went I'm just trying to send this message but yeah okay he's such a lovely guy he's such a lovely guy which doctor book to try and get a signature I did I did but I don't think he's here unfortunately I was I was hoping I think I haven't seen him did anyone spot um Tim Woodruff because he was handing out books as well walking around are they no I haven't not seen him either a lot of people Jennings where have you been at it so you didn't see Chuck if you if you caught up with her have you know he's been on the spinny thing have you seen that on LinkedIn as well seen Lauren shared that there's like a three of three camera what I'm about to I'm about to queue for that actually we we're gonna do one I've been on the NASCAR simulator as well which is pretty good um so oh awesome we've done quite a bit I've just not seen any of the of the key key players apart from Bill on stage and CJ on stage and stuff like that so and I'm not I'm not saying Chuck and I'm a little bit um upset so I'm going to keep looking now surely if you just stand that one just watch the crowd that'll be the headlight let's go let's go maybe karaoke you had Chuck you had Lauren yeah oh all of them were there is yeah it's really good this is making me feel really jealous guys I'm so close to you guys but I'm I'm also really really bitter um look talk to us about um these conversations kind of flicking around the place it doesn't matter talks about swag swag I heard they had anti-swagen yeah there is smoke yeah there is that mean I don't I don't think they're giving much away on the stores either as I decided on the booths why I think one of the reasons is because they want you to go to the servicenow store and spend 120 pound on the jumper that's a service now on it uh or a really 30 pound notebook or a six pound pen somebody called NTT data I got some uh Merchants [Laughter] I've got a cap and a little model uh NASCAR so we're not NASCAR model as we discussed the other day they're a bit more expensive if you uh pop by the dxc stands you know you might get some money it's got the man united branded on um so yeah so swag not so they've got the the knowledge 23 app and we're going to go around on the noise 23 app and you can scan QR codes and as you collect the QR codes you then get points and then you can go and redeem the points of the store to get yourself a hoodie or to get yourself a credit card t-shirt and these sort of things but you've got to have gone and done the events and scan the QR codes um yeah so yeah there is a there is also a raffle effectively in the top prize of the raffle is an e-bike so that's um also quite good and also tickets to next year's knowledge as well so come competition is fun so I was like so it's worth doing but none other people seem to be doing it because I'm uh I've not done that much effort on it and I'm a number 12 I just 600 and something people have registered so you know and yeah they're quite high of the list quite quick I think they did something similar at The Forum event in London in October you got you've got a card signed by the the the the vendors that you spoke to then you've got coffee at the end so I think it's a similar song what happened to this going up and blagging a pen for the sake you've been portable charger things that's what we want well you can buy one of them they got those in the store if you want to pay for it plus tax oh my God um James so what what have you got left today then um what's what's the last what's your plan well how are you familiar today to go into the the app so the app's pretty good actually uh if I'm honest yeah in your um agenda I think my next session is that's how it is I'm going to the product roadmap for CSN and I already did the icsm uh roadmap then we've got lunch and and then I think that's almost it everything seems to finish at about two half past two today it wraps up everyone goes on the show floor and then we're off to the hotel across the road for the One Republic closing celebration so they're headlining they're closing cerebral a celebration so that'd be good nice wow when do you fly back and you go by flying back later on tonight nine o'clock tomorrow night we'll be back so we get back into London right yeah same flight yeah yeah yeah in fact there's most of the UK servicenow Community seems to be on the same flight so I have us in Mass that's what they're doing yeah yeah but this is it right and this is something that that Francis I think you were trying to say before and and James you did say it but Francis we couldn't hear you it's not that we can't understand what you're saying for me it's like you two right uh you and you and Francis you you hadn't I don't think you've met before but you've kind of met now because you're all kind of we're all working towards the same thing we're enthusiastic about the same thing it's nice that you know yes background of partners that you work for doesn't really matter you know what I mean you're all enthusiastic about the platform no I like that yeah that's definitely there's a very joined up way of working I think it's very collaborative in that way it's it's the sort of thing that I'm sure you know C3 in our Partnerships are very nervous about um but yeah we're we're very happy about it hey and that's what I'm doing yeah you know you didn't mention the name nope [Laughter] okay so we're we're coming up to 30 minutes I'm conscious you guys have got a crack on and you've been so good um spending some time with us um I'm not only just saying that because I've got to get the kids to bed as well but that is a fact but have let me let me ask you this one question then we'll um James uh or Jim sorry mate you you can summarize for it but um talk to us about After parties this is really what we want to hear right after parties talk to us there's been there's been a few and so last night was the partner uh parties so every partner was having a party so there's a lot of customers getting invited to lots of different parties and I was obviously at the NTT data pounding uh party last night which is good and and there's been a lot of socializing it's been happening so there's been a WhatsApp group set up for the UK based people and settled by Dean Martin Francis is on there as well so that's been really useful to be able to meet people in this huge City and but yeah there's been quite a few different parties there was a bit of a servicenow reception um on the show floor on Tuesday night which is pretty good um yeah but we've I only went to the one one official partner party which was last night I don't know what Francis was up to yeah but we've done uh we've done a few that we've done um there was an emir when the reception obviously for all the Emir of Partners and customers uh so we went to that that was a service Now official one at the beginning of the week um also last night I went to one which was a partner organization who rhymes with slide past shall we say that you can you can work and we had some of our customers there as well so yeah that was a a yeah that was your classic Vegas lavish nightclub party that was amazing really amazing yeah DJs the rocking everybody out since yeah drinks on tap and yeah it was really good really really good wow that that was my next question which After parties had free drinks that's what people want to know yeah I think they all do I think if you're honest um right okay the Lessons Learned here if you ever get the chance to come if I'm lucky enough to come again is if there's a drink that's free and it's going you've got to take it because it is so expensive out here it is it is so expensive portion sizes on large but so is the Bill Dean Martin was just passing me now I'm on the service dogs podcast [Laughter] thank you [Laughter] yeah okay [Laughter] so just just before we close that again we really appreciate it what's your what's your key takeaways and what would message would you give someone that wants the golden ticket next year and that I guess I'll go to Francis first oh God then you can put me on the spot okay all right so key takeaways is um it's definitely breath coming and so and you can you can draw up a easily a good business case to those who might be sponsoring you to come along because of the values of the upstate battery organization there's no doubt about it the whatever your agenda is whatever your agenda is you will find the resources here to be able to give you some very powerful answers and some very powerful knowledge that you can take back to your organization so that's that um what was the other part of the question was it what I would do different or something yeah key takeaways and what advice would you give to someone that wants a Golden Ticket next yeah if that says you know just just work out what your what your agendas are and try and get you know back to your your stakeholders to to understand that this will be able to return that I don't know how I can really give any other advice on that because I was I was selected by my organization didn't even know I was I was being selected I got selected and very very grateful to be here to apply foreign and that's good um GM I think we've got our Christmas game sorted out in episode number 13 Francis said the word flights same question so what's your key takeaway from it it's uh what would you say to someone to go next year key takeaways so I think uh just assure sort of scale of the in the community of it it's nice to get back out and about obviously after the last few years we've had um it's it's an event you can't really you can just sum it up like that and I think it's a great experience there's a lot of benefit I think you can you know tell your leadership team or whoever needs to sign it off what the what the benefits are and you're going to learn a lot you're going to meet a lot of people you're going to see what's going down the line and I'm really grateful to entity data and everyone there um to our practice lead Safina and Jason Brook in particular and so for giving the opportunity and I hope I get the opportunity again in the future but yeah if anyone out there that's listening then if you've got a chance then yeah get that business case in and get over here awesome thanks James Jim would you like to summarize from what I've kind of I've been listening intently and and yeah it's really interesting to know you know what what you'd be expecting if we were to go next year for example Russ you know um it's great to get that kind of insight you know it's great to see what what to expect I think some of the big takeaways I've kind of heard from is you know even though it's over 40 degrees still bringing jumper um get in early if you want to see Chuck or Lauren or one of the big you know big hitters um you know I think you have to put you have to plan your time wisely it sounds like I know you had the app and it kind of helps out with that sort of thing but yeah planning your time sounds like quite a big thing um and you know the lack of Swag I mean yeah by the way in private parties so some people really put themselves out there and put some amazing performances in I was I was I know you weren't there Francis on that night it was the night before that I met you on the um Fremont Street which seems to be the old part of Vegas the best part and but yeah there's a karaoke bar there and there's some individuals belting out some songs it's pretty good there I think we're going I think I was probably up there after the uh after party yes all right guys um Jim we're gonna try and do this and see if it goes well right let's see if they catch on um guys it's been an absolute pleasure really appreciate you spending some time with us um Talk us through it and I'm so um chuff who have managed to go and including us whoever's listening or uh we'll listen to the podcaster later today yes we've live streamed it but we'll be on Spotify and Google and all the other podcasting type things at some point so you can just list a little bit later and you can and what I do is send it to the kids sometimes James and they have a bit of a laugh and mock me about it brings up the view cam is your mom watching it um but you know I really appreciate it and it just reminds us to say I've been Russ I've been jim I've been Francis I've been James that's all for today's podcast thank you for listening and if you want to get your question answered by the service Ducks get in touch through talk to the doc at service hyphandux.com or just use one of the links below [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]