The ChannelPro SMB Forum headed to the Washington, D.C., area just ahead of cherry blossom season to host the second stop on the 2023 tour of regional in-person events on March 8-9. The two-day conference series, with seven locations this year, features workshops and educational sessions presented by industry-leading experts and channel professionals designed to provide actionable, business-building advice.
The ChannelPro SMB Forum purposefully curates content that addresses the top issues managed service providers, IT solution providers, consultants, and VARs who serve small and medium-size businesses care about—operational and business excellence, cloud services, cybersecurity, growth strategies, automation, marketing, and more. The sessions are delivered in interactive, informative, and fun-filled formats attendees won’t find at any other industry event.
“ChannelPro is always happy to meet attendees from the metro D.C. region and nearby states, continuing our tradition of providing local MSPs and integrators easy access to valuable information they can use to enhance their businesses,” says Michael Siggins, president and publisher of The ChannelPro Network. “Our events offer an opportunity to grow their peer networks and get up-close looks at the technologies and solutions that will allow them to prepare their SMB customers for the future.”
The event pre-day at the Hyatt Regency Dulles on Wednesday featured an open peer networking session facilitated by ChannelPro’s association partner MSP-Ignite, a consulting and peer group organization, followed by a solutions workshop hosted by Dell Expert Network. The evening ended with a welcome reception.
New this year at all regional locations is a website makeover workshop led by channel marketing expert Kendra Lee. This hands-on session is designed to help MSP attendees turn their websites into lead-generation machines.
Other educational sessions on March 9 in Washington included:
Unsolved Mysteries: Building a Cloud-First Managed Services Practice – Inspired by a classic TV series and presented by cloud practitioners Chris Ploessel and Eric Weast, this session covered the tools and techniques required to turn cloud consulting and management into a cutting-edge, high-profit core of an MSP’s business.
What a Formula 1 Crash Can Teach Us About IT Incident Response – Security and compliance expert Mike Semel gave attendees an insider’s look at the crucial facts about incident response that racing teams know and channel pros should too.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – Attendees eager to learn the secrets of becoming a $1 million MSP, and then reaching $3 million and beyond, heard from two business owners with firsthand experience. Stanley Louissaint and Lisa Shorr shared growth advice in this fast-moving, game show-style session.
The MSP Automation Bake-Off – Expert consultants Adam Bielanski, Rayanne Buchianico, and Will Young presented their “tastiest” recipes for automating business processes in RMM and PSA platforms, and the audience voted on which one provided the most ROI.
Attendees also voted to award Dulles sponsors the following:
- Best Cloud Solution – US Signal
- Best Hardware Solution – Carbon Systems
- Best New Solution – GlassHive
- Most Innovative Solution – Pia
- Best Partner Community – Pax8
- Best Software Solution – Huntress
- Best Revenue Booster – Hunter Artemis
- Best Add-on Product – Hornetsecurity
- Best On-Stage Presentation – Pia
- Best Expo Hall Presentation (Gold and above) – Quickpass
- Best Expo Hall Presentation (Silver) – Phin Security
- Best Distributor - Pax8
- Best Product/Tech Support – Dell Expert Network
- ROI Lightning Round Winner – Nodeware
- Best Vendor Participation – Zorus
- Best in Show – Pia
