The ChannelPro SMB Forum Southeast, the second of five in-person regional conferences planned for 2021, took place in Atlanta on July 8. Attendees from Georgia and surrounding states at the day-long event, which was also livestreamed for virtual participants, heard a stellar lineup of presenters reflect on challenges and opportunities in the IT industry and provide actionable advice for capitalizing on current technology trends. MSPs, IT consultants, VARs, and integrators who attended also had the opportunity to interact with panelists, network with peers, and browse the vendor expo.
“Coming off a year like no other, our 2021 SMB Forum events are all about learning from 2020’s challenges and profiting from future opportunities in cloud computing, security, managed services, and beyond,” said Rich Freeman, executive editor of The ChannelPro Network. “The ability to gather in person once again to exchange ideas and have casual conversations with MSP peers is something we appreciate even more now.”
The educational sessions included:
Secrets to Bigger Cloud Margins – Margins on cloud services, according to conventional wisdom, are always and permanently slim. Channel pros Corey Kirkendoll, and Jamison West shared how they are proving that stereotype wrong.
Peer to Peer: The New Normal MSP – What separates channel pros who struggled with last year’s recession from those who were ready for the challenge and are now thriving in the new normal? In 1:1 Q&As, top-performing MSPs Juan Fernandez and Peter Melby provided their perspective.
Principles of Zero-Trust Security – Everyone says a zero-trust strategy is the only way to secure work-from-home environments and everything else. What does that mean in practice though? Our panel of security experts, Lawrence Cruciana, Bruce McCully and Michael O'Hara, provided practical, concrete advice on building a zero-trust architecture.
Stump the Sales Pro – Sales expert Mike Schmidtmann provided real-time, real-world advice on the thorniest sales and marketing challenges from our audience.
The Channel Pro’s Strategic Roadmap to Success – Market-leading channel pros don’t get there by accident. Business coach Manuel Palachuk outlined the four steps best-in-class IT providers take to build and execute a winning business strategy.
