ChannelPro-SMB, the premier source of IT and business insights for SMB solution providers, gathered channel experts, top vendors, and IT solution providers on November 1 and 2 in Iselin, N.J., to discuss business strategies that can be implemented immediately to get channel partners on the quickest road to business success. It is ChannelPro-SMB’s fourth and final event in this calendar year.
With a 2017 theme of “Fast Lane to Success Tour,” these live events deliver the financial, sales, marketing, and operational insights to succeed in today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment.
The full-day event for channel resellers, integrators, consultants, and cloud and managed service providers offered interactive, in-depth conversations with some of the industry’s top channel pros and industry experts who have pioneered growth-oriented and highly profitable businesses. A showcase of SMB vendor solutions provided additional learning opportunities and enabled channel pros to get one-on-one advice on employing new technologies and services to better serve their clients and their own businesses.
“ChannelPro SMB Forum events are all about putting our audience in direct touch with some of the top minds in the industry,” says Rich Freeman, ChannelPro-SMB executive editor. “With their help, we send people home with a lot of actionable ideas they can use to enter new markets, improve efficiency, and grow their business.”
The event got underway on Wednesday, Nov. 1, with a half-day workshop by SolarWinds MSP on key industry trends and highlights of the company’s on-premises and cloud-based solutions, followed by a welcome cocktail reception for vendors, speakers, and attendees.
On Thursday, November 2, event sessions presented by well-known channel experts included:
- Profiting from Channel Convergence, on the convergence of the IT, telco, and print channels and how it can help attendees grow their businesses.
- Valuation-Boosting Business Management Secrets, in which experienced M&A consultants explained how businesses are valuated and the steps to take now to maximize your selling price when you’re ready to cash out.
- Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know about Customers … but Were Afraid to Ask, which delved into what clients really think of their IT providers’ advice and sales presentation skills and what can be done to gain more of their trust—and business.
- Specializing in Security, an exploration of the risks and rewards of creating a specialized security practice and tips on the technologies to employ.
- And a unique hardware-oriented game show that enabled attendees to showcase their knowledge of the current and near-future hardware market.
At the sponsor showcase, attendees discussed the latest solutions for their SMB clients with leading vendors as well as networked with their peers.
The 20, the event’s Premier Gold sponsor, presented the morning keynote. Gold sponsors for the event were Avast Business, Carbonite Inc., Cytracom LLC, Data Deposit Box Inc., Datto Inc., Eaton Corp., ID Agent, SolarWinds MSP, SYNNEX Corp., and Webroot Inc.
Silver sponsors included Autotask Corp., The ASCII Group, Axis Communications, Buffalo Americas Inc., CARVIR, Core 3 Technologies, Choice CyberSecurity, CrushBank, eDist Business, Egenera Inc., ELO Digital Office USA, Excel Micro, Equal Optics, Manuel Palachuk International, Marketopia, Mindmatrix, net2phone Inc., Ninja MSP, Ooma Inc., PC Matic Pro, RapidFire Tools Inc., Secure Infrastructure & Services, Secure Now!, SherWeb, Small Biz Thoughts, SMB Nation, SMB TechFest, SPC International Online Inc., Tech Data Corp., Technology Marketing Toolkit, Vertical Axion, Vijilan, and VIPRE.
The event concluded with attendees honoring vendor sponsors with the following awards:
- Best in Show - Datto
- Best Cloud Solution - Egenera and SolarWinds MSP (tie)
- Best Hardware Solution - Buffalo Americas
- Best New Solution - ID Agent
- Most Innovative Solution - CrushBank and Vijilan (tie)
- Best Partner Community - Datto
- Best Software Solution - SolarWinds MSP
- Best Revenue Booster - RapidFire Tools and SolarWinds MSP (tie)
- Best Add-on Product - Webroot
- Best On-Stage Presentation - Datto
- Best Solution Presentation (Platinum or Gold) - The 20
- Best Solution Presentation (Silver) - Axis Communications
- Best Distributor - SYNNEX
- Best Selfie Video - Vijilan
Next year the ChannelPro SMB Forum will be held in these locations:
- Dallas, March 7
- Baltimore/D.C. Metro, May 8
- Boston, September 6
- Long Beach, Calif., November 6
“Our team loves to produce these events as it is a way to bring the ChannelPro Network to life for a day,” says Michael Siggins, vice president and publisher of ChannelPro-SMB. "What an amazing end to a great year. In 2017 we had our strongest attendance and sponsor support ever, and we will ride that into 2018 with events in Dallas, Baltimore, Boston, and Long Beach.”
Interested parties should register immediately at http://www.ChannelProForum.com.
Interested sponsors should contact Joel Zaidspiner at 561-422-5119 or Lisa Sherman at 917-388-9531. More sponsorship info can be found at: http://ChannelProForum.com/sponsors/how-to-sponsor.
Image: Paulo Barcellos Jr.
