Episode 259

In this episode of the Unscripted podcast, host Sarah Nicastro fills listeners in on some exciting changes they can expect to notice with the podcast, some improvements as the former Future of Field Service Podcast hits a milestone, and what the live event landscape will look like for 2024.

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Sarah: I think the biggest opportunity in the name change is to help us in reaching more people for whom the content is relevant. One of the things that happens if I reach out to folks on LinkedIn that I don't already know or don't know me, they sometimes can say, well, I'm not in field service, where that might be the case, but the content is still very relevant to what they do, or what they might be interested in, if they're a guest that I would like to have on, etc. So I would say no foundational changes to be expected from the content, just a bit of a name change to better represent the things that we have been talking about for quite some time. 

Sarah: Welcome to the Future of Field Service Podcast. Actually, we're gonna talk about that in a minute. I'm your host, Sarah Nicastro. I am flying solo today to share a little sneak peek at a few bits of exciting news with you. So first and foremost, as I alluded to, we are changing the name of this podcast. We are doing a little bit of identity update and beginning soon, the name of the podcast will be Unscripted, discussions on what matters most in service, leadership, and business transformation.

So let's talk about why the change. I have spent over 15 years covering field service, and field service is very near and dear to my heart and always will be. And I want those of you who have been here along the journey to rest assured that you're not really going to notice a whole lot of change other than the name. But let me explain then why is a name change necessary. So, when I started in this space, field service was very much its own identity. And it still is, but it's far less siloed than it was all of those years ago and far more an integral piece of a company's business strategy, business operations, and business differentiation. And so, along the years that I've been doing this, a lot of the conversations have started to really branch out into things that aren't necessarily categorized as field service. So we're always looking at those things from the lens of the field service leaders that we interview. But we often find ourselves talking about things related to talent and company culture, leadership, and business differentiation, and revenue growth, and technology trends, and digital transformation. So when we think about what that means for the podcast, it's really an issue of the name just not necessarily being representative of the breadth of topics that we cover. And that is why we decided to update it. So, I don't expect that those of you who have been here and have enjoyed the content will notice a whole lot of change. It's still going to be mostly an interview-based podcast, still going to be focused on interviewing service leaders, and still talking about all of those things, field service and the elements that bleed into leadership topics and business transformation.

I think the biggest opportunity in the name change is to help us in reaching more people for whom the content is relevant. One of the things that happens if I reach out to folks on LinkedIn that I don't already know or don't know me, they sometimes can say, well, I'm not in field service, where that might be the case, but the content is still very relevant to what they do or what they might be interested in if they're a guest that I would like to have on, etc. So I would say no foundational changes to be expected from the content, just a bit of a name change to better represent the things that we have been talking about for quite some time. The website is still futureoffieldservice.com; 'Unscripted' will be housed there from a website perspective. And then obviously the podcast will continue to be available on Apple, on Spotify, all of your favorite podcast platforms. So hopefully you find that exciting. There will be a new look and all of that that you will see soon. If you do have any questions, feel free to reach out, we will be sharing more details, and we will make sure to share on social, share in The INSIDER, and on the website so that people understand that what has been the Future of Field Service podcast is now the Unscripted podcast.

So that is the first piece of news. The other piece of news goes along with that change, but it's just a little bit of an aesthetic update to the Future of Field Service brand itself. So you will see soon that we will have a new logo, a bit of a new look on the website, a bit of a new look on our social media pages, things like that. We're also going to take the opportunity to pair this bit of a brand refresh with more options for community engagement on LinkedIn, things of that nature. It's really hard for me to believe, but Future of Field Service as a brand launched more than five years ago. And so it's just maybe time for a little bit of an update. I absolutely loved working with the team that created the initial look for Future of Field Service and have also really enjoyed working with the team that has created the new look. So we believe really strongly in staying true to our core mission, of course, but we are always looking for ways to continually improve, and doing a little bit of an update to our look seemed to be a welcome change for five-plus years into doing this. There are a few people who work behind the scenes on Future of Field Service that are just incredible and have spearheaded a lot of these efforts. So I want to say, a huge thank you to them, as well as the partner that we worked with on the new look. So keep your eyes peeled for all of that. And hopefully, you will like the new appearance.

The third piece of news that I wanted to talk about today is to share that we have officially announced the information for the 2024 live events. So if you've been here a while, if you remember back in 2022, we did five events. In 2023, we did six events. And this year we are doing three. So there are a number of reasons for that change. But for those of you who maybe were hoping for an event in one of our former locations that we aren't visiting this year, rest assured that 2025 will likely bring a fuller schedule again. But for 2024, we will have an event in Stockholm on May 21st at the Volvo Studio, which looks to be a very cool venue. On June 13th, we will be in Cologne, Germany. And we are planning special participation in IFS's Unleashed conference, which is in Orlando, the 14th through 18th of October. And we will have more details on that soon. The information on the agenda items for Unleashed, the venue, and all of those things is available now at ifsunleashed.com. What we are working on is more details that we'll share soon on some of the Future Of Field Service-specific aspects. So we will make sure that there are content opportunities and networking opportunities, specifically for people that are there to engage from a Future Of Field Service perspective. I will say the Stockholm and Cologne events are similar to the events that we have hosted in the previous years, they're free events. There will be a day of content that consists of interview-based sessions with some round table discussions, networking opportunities, that sort of thing. The Unleashed event will be a bit different. It's a big event. It is a very lively, very exciting event. Tickets are required. So you will want to look at all of that information if you decide to come along at ifsunleashed.com. But like I said, we will make sure that we have some more intimate future of field service opportunities within those days as well. So really exciting stuff. I am hoping to see as many of you as possible this year. We're already quite a way into it, which is just crazy. But I hope that these changes are received well. The podcast name, the brand refresh, the event series, they are all things that we've been working on to, like I said, continually improve. And I hope that we can see as many of you as possible. And always look for ways to keep things exciting, to better serve our community, and to make sure that the work we're doing and the content we're putting out reaches as many people that it can help as possible.

So as always, I welcome your feedback. If you have thoughts on anything, questions on anything, feel free to reach out anytime. And you can find more always at futureoffieldservice.com. You can sign up for the Future of Field Service Insider so that you will get a monthly recap of our content delivered to your inbox. And as always, the Future of Field Service podcast is published in partnership with IFS. You can learn more at ifs.com. Thank you for listening.