November 26, 2026
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The Service Desk & Service Management World 2026 is the annual flagship conference for IT service management professionals in the German-speaking market, held on 26 and 27 November 2026 at the Handelsblatt Media Group headquarters on Toulouser Allee in Düsseldorf, with a digital live-stream option running in parallel. Organised by Euroforum Deutschland GmbH in cooperation with Handelsblatt and net!IT e.V., the event is the central industry gathering for service desk leaders, ITSM managers, IT operations professionals, and enterprise service management decision-makers. The 2026 edition is themed "Automate Everything? Die neue Balance im Enterprise Service Management," addressing the critical question of where AI-driven automation creates value and where human involvement remains essential. The event is curated with the support of an advisory board including practitioners from Herbstrith Management Consulting, Haufe Group, ESC Deutschland, and the Next Generation Service Desk initiative. The Service Globe Award is presented at the event, recognising outstanding achievements in service management.
The event is designed for senior IT service management leaders and practitioners across German enterprises and organisations. The target audience includes Heads of Service Desk, Helpdesk, and Service Centre; Heads of IT Support, IT Service, and Desktop Service; IT Operations Centre leads; IT Managers and ITSM Managers; Process Managers for Service Operations; and members of executive management with IT service responsibility. Confirmed speakers for 2026 include Mag. Helmut Niessner PhD, AI solutions specialist; Alexander Pinker, innovation profiling expert; Sven Schleicher, Head of IM Service Management at Festo SE & Co. KG; Larissa Wissmann, Head of Digital Enterprise Solutions at Haufe Group; Stefan Brutscher, sparring partner for IT leaders; and Andreas Heideck, Founder of Impossible Security. Advisory board members include Mag.a Monika Herbstrith-Lappe, CEO of Impuls & Wirkung Herbstrith Management Consulting; Thorsten Rehahn, IT consultant and project lead for Next Generation Service Desk; Stephan Schramm, CEO of SMC and board member of net!IT e.V.; Alexander Wachtel, CEO of ESC Deutschland and Microsoft AI MVP; and Larissa Wissmann.
The two-day hybrid programme runs from 9:00am on 26 November through to 14:00 on 27 November, combining in-person sessions at the Handelsblatt Media Group campus in Düsseldorf with a simultaneous digital live stream. The programme features keynote presentations, practical case study sessions, panel discussions, and interactive exchange formats structured around the central theme of the right balance between automation and human service. Day One covers the strategic and technological dimensions of AI-driven enterprise service management, including agentic AI deployment, security in the service desk context, and AI governance for service processes. Day Two addresses the practical transformation of service operations, the future role of service desk teams, and leadership through organisational change. The Service Globe Award ceremony is held during the event, with the award recognising outstanding innovation and performance in service management. All approved content is made available on demand following the event for both in-person and digital participants.
The 2026 agenda is anchored by the tension between comprehensive automation and the preservation of human-centred service interactions. Key themes include the design of AI agents as structured digital roles with defined mandates, knowledge bases, boundaries, escalation paths, and success criteria; the practical application of AI in ticket triage, knowledge management, service owner functions, and internal decision support; the security vulnerabilities inherent in the service desk as a central point of access to identities, permissions, and internal processes; the use of OSINT, social engineering, and AI by attackers to construct credible service desk attack scenarios; AI governance in service processes and the question of which rights, boundaries, and controls to apply to agentic systems that actively intervene in service workflows; building tailored AI solutions using enterprise-specific data; the identification of which service processes must be fully end-to-end automated and which require continued human involvement; leading service desk teams through the transition to AI-augmented operations; and measuring and improving user satisfaction and service quality in an increasingly automated environment.
The Service Desk & Service Management World 2026 concludes on 27 November at 14:00 at the Handelsblatt Media Group headquarters in Düsseldorf, bringing two days of peer exchange, practical case studies, and strategic debate to a close. The event's hybrid format ensures that both in-person and digital participants leave equipped with concrete frameworks and real-world examples to navigate the evolving balance between automation and human service in enterprise IT operations.
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