Recently I asked Lisa Schwartz , "Why is the flamingo ITSM Academy's mascot?"   "Franny has a long history at the Academy . At our very first conference, we were just two ladies with a dream, traveling to Long Beach CA for an early it SMF show. The frame to our booth came - think silver scaffolding - but the beautiful art panels I designed and ordered, didn't arrive on time.   Time travel to 2023 to read about Franny's 19th birthday party in Vegas! Because we are in South Florida, our booth theme was Beach, and the giveaways were koozies, beach balls, etc. I also had ordered a somewhat sizeable inflatable flamingo, which I bought because it was 50% off.  Well, we just had the silver scaffolding, so what's a girl to do?  I blew up all of the inflatables, including the flamingo,  who we immediately named Franny.  I shoved the beach balls into the silver frame and hung Franny from the top, using a conference lanyard.* Thinking, Klassy with a K . Sadly - and