TechCon Unplugged, an annual event for techs by techs, took place over the weekend, September 20-22, in Grand Rapids, Mich. TechCon Unplugged brings together a community of IT business owners— from consultancies to break/fix firms to managed service providers—to learn from each other and bring home strategies to grow their businesses.
Paco Lebron, founder of ProdigyTeks and host of the TechLife podcast, and Jeff Halash, owner of TechNut Computer Repair and host of the The Computer Repair Podcast, opened the event Friday night with an intro and mingle session. All 60 attendees from throughout the country spoke during the opening, introducing themselves and their business. That was followed by dinner and a social for networking.
Sessions on Saturday included a managed services panel discussion; a presentation on HIPAA and compliance, plus forensics and breach response; a panel discussion on the pros and cons of hiring employees vs. subcontractors; as well as sessions on networking, VoIP, and cybersecurity. Attendees also had the opportunity to view demonstrations of hardware and software.
The featured speaker was Tim Conkle of Roland Technology Group and The 20, who talked about “Life in the Trenches of an IT Business Owner.”
On Sunday, Malwarebytes presented findings from the Annual State of Malware Report. Other session topics included network diagnostics, local online marketing, and cybersecurity tools.
TechCon Unplugged wrapped up with more war stories from the trenches, followed by a raffle and dinner.
