†The ASCII Group continues its march across the country with its most recent stop in Columbus, Ohio, for its IT SMB Success Summits 2014 tour. The tour is designed to help attendees discover new ways to build and retain recurring revenue by leveraging key research on SMB IT purchases and the latest marketing techniques. With 100-plus channel partners and dozens of sponsors on hand in Columbus, the event was another success for team ASCII.
The ASCII Group IT community is made up of a supporting network of more than 2,000 MSP/VARs worldwide. ASCII provides a portfolio of IT business-building services that range from turnkey marketing campaigns to a peer-to-peer business referral and lead network.
President of Bethesda, Md.-based ASCII Group Jerry Koutavas provided the welcome and keynote address, “ASCII Community—The Roadmap to Future Business.”
Other keynote speakers included Michael Kraft, sales engineer, AVG; Amy Luby, SVP, sales and marketing, JetStream Networks Inc.; Kelly O’Bray, regional sales manager, GFI MAX; Rich Papaioannou, manager, SMB channel practices, HP; Rob Rae, vice president, business development, Datto; and Jessica Turner, AVG CloudCare Ambassador, AVG.
Educational speakers for the Columbus stop included Gary Bixler, “2014 IT Industry Outlook and Trends to Watch.” Bixler is founder and principal consultant at Bixler Enterprises, focused on delivering marketing, channel, business, and strategy consulting to technology companies around the world. Gordon Tan, managing director of Valedus Group in Brisbane, Australia, and founder of Client Heartbeat, delivered an address titled “Retain and Generate More Revenue Through Better Client Intimacy—Strategies from Five of the World’s Most Successful MSPs.” And author and Forbes contributor Roger Dooley spoke on “Selling the Unconscious Mind Through Neuromarketing.”
An awards ceremony wrapped up the summit. Winners were:
- Best of Show and Best New Product, Datto Inc.
- Best Distribution Sales Support, SYNNEX Corp.
- Best Customer Support, AVG
- Best Partner Commitment and Best Channel Programs, HP
- Best Channel Incentives, CNET
- Best Revenue Generator, GFI
- Best Cloud Solution, Carbonite and JetStream (tied)
- Best Hardware Solution, Lenovo
- Best Software Solution, LogMeIn and StorageCraft (tied)
The next Success Summit is in the Atlanta area on June 18 at The Lodge & Spa at Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Ga., followed by a stop in the Providence, R.I., area July 31. Visit The ASCII Group for more information.
