29 August 2025 - SSG25 Natalia Sullivan
I recently attended the UCISA SSG25 conference in Liverpool, a conference I was most excited to attend as it was my first IT related conference since beginning my career in the industry.I was looking forward to the chance to network with likeminded individuals, the opportunity to interact with suppliers and see what services are offered and the chance to build up some knowledge in areas I may not have had too much exposure to while working on the Service Desk in my university.
I was also looking forward to visiting a city I had not yet been to, and Liverpool was such a diverse and cultural city that it was definitely worth the visit!
Over the three days I was there, I learned about services that other universities had deployed or were working on and it was interesting to compare their progress on these (such as automation with follow up emails, password resets etc) to where my university currently are. I managed to jot down numerous ideas and processes that I could bring back to my team and discuss, to see where we can also implement new things to make our own service better.
I learned a lot about AI and the pros and cons after watching a debate on it, I also learned a lot about automation after attending a fireside discussion where multiple conference attenders shared their stories.
Engaging with suppliers was also interesting, there were some I hadn’t previously heard of, so I was keen to find out what they provide. The small breaks between sessions were perfect for that.
I met and networked with a lot of new people, some that had been in the industry for decades and others who were fairly new to it like myself. We had sessions to encourage this networking, working on a table full of people I’d never met before was a great way to get us talking (and I also got more ideas from that too!)
If anybody in my university were to ask me if I recommend attending next year’s conference, I would absolutely agree it’s worth going to. It was an insightful, friendly, and knowledgeable event to attend. The location was perfect, being in the Hilton along the riverside close to many restaurants and tourist attractions, so that was the added bonus.
If the opportunity arises for me again next year, I will also definitely attend. I would love to see how far other universities have come with their plans as opposed to where they are now/where they presented to be at the conference.
