With Knowledge17 fast approaching many people ask why they should attend Knowledge? We believe you will learn how to deliver business services faster with 400+ sessions customized for you—and 80% of breakouts delivered by your peers. This is the most efficient and fastest way to get practical advice, in‑depth training, and access to 13,000+ community experts driving the future of shared services and digital transformation.

Being big fans of peer-to-peer collaboration we thought it would be great to hear your perspective on "Why Attend Knowledge". Feel free to answer one or all the questions by commenting on this blog. To kick-start this we've gotten some of our MVPs to provide their perspectives and I'll be updating this blog regularly with their insights.

1. How many Knowledge events have you attended?

2. What has been your favorite thing about attending Knowledge in the past?

3. Why would you encourage others to attend Knowledge?

4. What are you most excited about for Knowledge17?

5. What is one of the most pressing questions/issues you see in service management today?

6. What one thing do you want to learn at Knowledge17?

7. If you could choose a band to perform at Knowledge who would it be?

MVP Brian Dailey's Perspective:

1. How many Knowledge events have you attended?

Knowledge17 will be my fourth in a row. I went to Knowledge14 as a prospective customer and got my first hands-on experience there in the labs. Loved it, and never looked back.

2. What has been your favorite thing about attending Knowledge in the past?

I love the breadth of exposure to topics. The wiki (and now docs) is GREAT for self-training, but only if you know what to look for. For me, the labs are where it's at… getting exposure to new ideas, and sometimes a little nudge over that first hump of the learning curve with something new. Then later, I can push through on my own using the documentation and some experimentation.

3. Why would you encourage others to attend Knowledge?

Again… for exposure to new ideas on what is possible and ways to use the platform, this is the broadest and most cost-effective training experience you can get. Compared to taking a regular training course, this is a steal.

Obviously, it's not as in-depth as the regular training, but a great way to get started on a self-training binge for a wide range of focused topics. For perspective, I've had one Admin training course, and three Knowledge events... and had never done any web-based programming previously.

4. What are you most excited about for Knowledge17?

Labs, Labs, Labs… I'm looking forward to exploiting the newer capabilities. Service Portal and Angular, Automated Testing Framework, etc.

Also, I love to see what exciting stuff may be coming down the pipeline. I remember previewing features before (such as Speech-to-Text-to-Ticket using VoIP integration) that can really make you start looking ahead. And interesting focus groups are a definite possibility, getting to see some neat stuff that not everyone gets to hear about yet.

5. What is one of the most pressing questions/issues you see in service management today?

Selling the vision for a singular system of engagement. I can feel the potential and possibilities because really, I don't see anything that can't be done using the platform. The freedom to create, manipulate, and extend leads me to believe that the limitations you run into will most likely be external to the platform and often, human-derived. Convincing the upper echelons to put both feet in the boat is where I find the greatest challenge.

6. What one thing do you want to learn at Knowledge17?

I would like to attain a level of mastery with AngularJS and the Service Portal application. I am fairly satisfied with my logic and data skills, so UX is where I've committed to pushing myself right now. I've been doing the self-training bit with Service Portal, and it simply blows the doors off of CMS/Jelly.

7. If you could choose a band to perform at Knowledge who would it be?

Wow… this may be dating myself a bit, but I never got to see my favorite band live. And to see them now would take more conflict-resolution than a platform upgrade, but I'd nominate Van Halen (with Sammy or DLR, take your pick… just not that other guy)

MVP Michael Fry's Perspective:

1. How many Knowledge events have you attended?

This will be my 7th year for attending. New Orleans 2012 was my first one.

2. What has been your favorite thing about attending Knowledge in the past?

The pre-conference training is excellent. It's not too fast paced, and always plenty of teacher helpers around to help answer questions. The labs are also fantastic.

3. Why would you encourage others to attend Knowledge?

The training is invaluable, and the partners are great. If you spend time talking to the partners, meeting and greeting other developers, Servicenow employees, you can find solutions to open items you might have in your instance. You might find a better way to do something.

4. What are you most excited about for Knowledge17?

My company is expanding exponentially and we have initiates under way for HR, and Performance Analytics, with future plans for Finance, and probably ServiceWatch soon as well as several integrations. While I've touched most of these apps, I could use some extra knowledge so I can make sure things get setup correctly the first time.

5. What is one of the most pressing questions/issues you see in service management today?

The platform makes it easy for other departments/groups to get connected, integrated, and/or onboard. The problem occurs when several departments want to integrate their app with Servicenow. You might have a plugin or vendor specific download, but is that the right want? Or should we get something like Event Management that works with several 3rd party apps and be farther away in the future. I have 3-4 integrations pending until planning is done.

6. What one thing do you want to learn at Knowledge17?

Performance Analytics

7. If you could choose a band to perform at Knowledge who would it be?

Flo Rida

MVP Goran Lundqvist Perspective:

1. How many Knowledge events have you attended?

Knowledge 17 will be my third knowledge I'm attending

2. What has been your favorite thing about attending Knowledge in the past?

All the knowledge that is gathered in one place. It really gives you the perfect opportunity to learn more about what you really want to. And you can decide if you want to listen to others how they did it, or more hands on with labs.

3. Why would you encourage others to attend Knowledge?

For me, this was the gold mine where I really started to understand the power of ServiceNow and how to do it. Don't forget the pre-courses which gives you a pre-start of the conference.

4. What are you most excited about for Knowledge17?

To meet all the people from the community and get a real face on all those nicknames.

5. What is one of the most pressing questions/issues you see in service management today?

How to take the next step, many companies have been going pretty good in the ITSM sphere. Now many of them are wondering how to get to the next level. It might be taken the step outside of IT, or how to really get automation in IT and leverage the real power of ServiceNow.

6. What one thing do you want to learn at Knowledge17?

A crash course in regex would be something I really would need. But I hope to dig deeper into Service Portal and the magic there.

7. If you could choose a band to perform at Knowledge who would it be?

This is real hard. I would love to see Skrillex perform

MVP Berny Alvarado Perspective

1. How many Knowledge events have you attended?

K17 will be my third Knowledge conference. Looking forward to it!

2. What has been your favorite thing about attending Knowledge in the past?

There's many things.... Keynotes, Networking, Playing foosball with old and new friends! It's hard to name just one thing.

3. Why would you encourage others to attend Knowledge?

Before going to a Knowledge conference people have a very limited perception of what ServiceNow is. Once you attend the conference you'll learn everything that ServiceNow represents as a platform, as a company and even as a family. I have found that people are amazed and greatly embrace ServiceNow after attending a Knowledge conference.

4. What are you most excited about for Knowledge17?

People. Looking forward to share and learn from such a diverse and rich group of people that attend the conference every year.

5. What is one of the most pressing questions/issues you see in service management today?

Inability to embrace an Agile / Continuos Improvement mindset.

6. What one thing do you want to learn at Knowledge17?

What's coming next!! What will be ahead for ServiceNow in the future releases.

7. If you could choose a band to perform at Knowledge who would it be?

Juan Luis Guerra