4 Lessons Learned By the Channel Strong Road Warriors

Tiring of nothing but virtual meetings? The vendors you do business with are too. All the online community gatherings and one-to-one video calls they’ve been holding with partners during the coronavirus pandemic have helped keep them in touch with what channel pros are going through these days, but they’re no substitute for speaking face to face.

Eventually, in fact, seven of those vendors reached their limit. “We got to a point where there was Zoom fatigue,” recalls George Bardissi, CEO of unified communications software maker BVoIP. “People got sick and tired of it.”

That frustration soon gave birth to a bold scheme: the Channel Strong tour, a three-week, 7,000-mile road trip aimed at bringing representatives of Acronis, BVoIP, Compliancy Group, ConnectBooster, Liongard, Pax8, and SOCSoter in safe but direct contact with MSPs around America.

Roving the country in a rented bus designed for traveling rock bands, Bardissi and his colleagues have already visited Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Phoenix, Temecula (in California), Houston, and San Antonio, with more destinations to come. At each stop, following all the latest local and CDC guidelines including face masks and appropriate physical distancing, the Channel Strong team has met with up to 20 MSPs to discuss what they’re seeing on the front lines of managed services.

“We’re trying to find out how things are in each city and region that we go into,” Bardissi says. Here’s a peek at some of what they’re learning.