HDI Philly September 2026 Chapter Meeting

Join the HDI Philly Chapter on September 16 at Swarthmore College for an interactive networking event with fellow IT professionals. Connect, collaborate, and explore ways to elevate IT’s impact on the business while building stronger teams.

Lunch will be provided - Sponsorship opportunities available!

We would like to thank Swarthmore College for letting us use their facility for the meeting. 

Meeting Location:

500 College Ave

Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA

Parking - TBA. 

This month we will be joined by two speakers:  Steve Leaden and Keith Andes.

Steve Leaden, President, Leaden Associates, Inc. 

Steve is Founder and President of Leaden Associates, Inc., an independent communications and IT advisory firm with more than 30 years of helping enterprises navigate complex technology decisions.  For over three decades, Steve and his team have helped advise organizations architect/assess, procure, implement, and facilitate lifecycle optimization for mission-critical CX, Contact Center, Agentic AI, LLM, Unified Communications, VoIP, converged networks, and cloud solutions. Steve’s team is independent and accept only fees from the clients he and team serve, without vendor bias and with a relentless focus on measurable business outcomes and ROI. Steve’s team focus is not simply on technology—it is on aligning communications architecture to core business strategy, driving operational efficiency, and enhancing customer and patient experience.

Leaden Associates supports enterprises across healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, financial services, publishing, and government, helping leadership teams execute large-scale communications and CX transformations while minimizing risk and maximizing ROI.  Steve is a nationally recognized industry authority and frequent speaker at Enterprise Connect and other major industry conferences, a contributor to No Jitter and UCStrategies, and serves as President of the Society of Communications and Technology Consultants (SCTC), an international association of independent consultants whose membership requires strict adherence to ethics, objectivity, and vendor neutrality.

In an era defined by AI acceleration and CX transformation, Steve and team are known for independent guidance that protects enterprise investments and delivers tangible results.

Topic: Beyond the Ticket: Elevating Customer Experience in the AI-Enabled Contact Center

Customer expectations are now higher than ever, and AI can help if used strategically. A Help Desk can now be used with AI to improve CX and to improve ROI. In this session, you will learn

• What's actually driving CX outcomes today, and where AI genuinely moves the needle in the Contact Center vs. where it's still marketing hype
• Where AI delivers proven ROI today
• Those best practical use cases for AI in a Help Desk world

You’ll take away a better understanding of leveraging the best CX experience using humans and AI and how best to deploy in your own organization.

Keith Andes, Head of Product Marketing, EasyVista

Keith is Head of Product Marketing at EasyVista and a former Gartner analyst with nearly a decade in the ITSM industry. His work spans market research, product strategy, and industry analysis, with a current focus on AI’s role in service management. He lives and works full-time from an Airstream, traveling the United States."

Topic: How ITSM Buyers Misuse the Gartner Magic Quadrant and How to Actually Use It

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is widely used to evaluate ITSM vendors, but it is often mistaken for a product ranking. Drawing on his experience as a former Gartner analyst and Magic Quadrant author, Keith Andes will explain what the research actually measures, how it fits into the broader Gartner BuySmart process, and how to use it to make a more informed ITSM purchasing decision."

Save these dates in 2026:

• December 4 - Awards and Leadership Conference