ChannelPro-SMB, the premier source of business and technology insights for channel partners serving the small and midsize business market, convened channel stars and business sessions of all stripes near the nation’s capital on September 14, in Herndon, Va. It was the third of four events being held this year.
With a 2016 theme of “Channel Fitness Tour,” these live events aim to deliver the sales, marketing, and operational insights attendees need to turn their businesses into lean, mean, money-making machines.
The full-day, live 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 who have pioneered profitable and “fit” businesses from cloud and managed services. 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 customers.
The event kicked off on Tuesday, September 13, with an all-day MAX by LOGICnow technical training workshop, followed by a welcome cocktail reception hosted by CompTIA.
On Wednesday, event sessions presented by well-known channel pros included:
- Pump Up Your Managed Service Revenues, with panelists Steve Hall, Stanley Louissaint, Ed Mana, and Ronnie Parisella
- Bottom-Line Finance-Strengthening Exercises, presented by Gary Pica
- Cloud Sales and Marketing Fitness Secrets, with panelists Manuel Palachuk, Gary Pica, Herman Pool, and Mike Schmidtmann
- Business Process Optimization Lightning Round! presented by Karl Palachuk and Manuel Palachuk
- Gear Guide: 2016 Hardware Trends, presented by ChannelPro-SMB‘s Matt Whitlock
In addition, Peer-to-Peer sessions were conducted by channel pros Steve Hall, Cloud Sales and Marketing; and Rayanne Buchianico, Business Processes.
At the sponsor showcase, attendees were able to discuss the latest solutions for their SMB clients with leading vendors as well as network with peers.
HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise presented the Platinum sponsor keynote. Gold sponsor presentations were given by Cytracom LLC, Clover Imaging Group, Data Deposit Box Inc., Datto Inc., Eaton Corp., Ingram Micro Inc., LOGICnow Ltd., Mailprotector, and StorageCraft Technology Corp.
Silver sponsors for the event included ABC Solutions LLC, Aditum, ASCII Group Inc., Autotask Corp., Beachhead Solutions Inc., Buffalo Americas Inc., CloudConnect LLC, CloudPlus, CompTIA, Crexendo Inc., ELO Digital Office Corp., Evault from Carbonite, ICCS & Co., IT Glue, Manuel Palachuk International, The Neat Co., Ninja MSP, Pax8 Inc., RapidFire Tools Inc., SaasMAX Corp., Secure Infrastructure & Services (SIAS), Securematics Inc., Small Biz Thoughts, SMB Nation, SMB TechFest, SYNNEX SMB Connect, Tech Data Corp., Tigerpaw Software Inc., TruMethods LLC, and Vertical Axion.
Gear Guide and Tech Trends product sponsors included: Bass Computers Inc., Eaton Corp., HP Inc., Intel Corp., Lenovo, and ViewSonic Corp.
The event concluded with attendees honoring vendor sponsors with the following awards:
- Best in Show – (tie) Eaton, LOGICnow
- Best Hardware Solution – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Best Cloud-based Solution – Datto
- Best Selfie Video – CloudPlus
- Best Partner Community – Cytracom
- Best On-Stage Presentation – Cytracom
- Most Innovative Solution – (tie) IT Glue, StorageCraft
- Best New Solution – (tie) Data Deposit Box, Mailprotector
- Best Distributor – Tech Data
- Best Software Solution – LOGICnow
- Best Solution Presentation from a Silver Sponsor – Neat
- Best Solution Presentation from a Gold or Platinum Sponsor – Cytracom
The next ChannelPro SMB Forum event will be held in the Boston area on November 3. To ensure that everyone at the ChannelPro SMB Forums can freely participate in the conversation, seating at each event has been limited. Interested parties should register immediately at www.ChannelProForum.com.
“Participants in the ChannelPro SMB Forum have an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the IT market from colleagues who embraced emerging trends and new business methodologies early on and are willing to share the secrets of their success,” said Cecilia Galvin, executive editor of ChannelPro-SMB. “They also can learn about cutting-edge solutions from experts in the vendor showcase to help meet the growing IT needs of their SMB client base.”
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.
