ADTRAN’s Partner Summit is being held this week from Nov. 10 to 12 at its campus in Huntsville, Ala. Out of 3,800 partners nationwide, ADTRAN selected the top tier (65-plus partners) to participate in this two-day ADTRAN Partner Summit.
The Partner Summit, themed “Evolve, change, grow” is designed to grow ADTRAN’s partners’ business by arming them with the latest information on ADTRAN products, industry trends, and how it all impacts their business models. It also gives partners a chance to interact one-on-one with ADTRAN product managers.
ADTRAN is a global provider of networking and communications equipment. ADTRAN’s products enable voice, data, video, and Internet communications across a variety of network infrastructures. The company’s solutions are currently in use by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations, and millions of individual users worldwide.
Gary Bolton, vice president marketing, opened the event with a welcome for the attendees. He spoke about how today the demand for bandwidth is infinite, and users demand everything instantly. He cited the education market as an example of change, noting that Gigabit networks are poised to disrupt and transform the way students learn. ADTRAN†is adapting and moving with the changes, he said.
General Manager Rick Schansman addressed attendess after Bolton. His address was followed by a presentation from Vice President of Sales Ted Cole, who discussed the transformation in the market and how partners will have to look at offering services and changing their business model. He noted that ADTRAN is the market leader in business gateways with over 70% market share.†
The opening day keynote was “Winning Sales in the New Economy: How to Capitalize on the Changing Economy to Grow your Business,” given by Mike Schmidtmann, a member of 4-Profit, an organization dedicated to the education, growth, and profitability of solution providers in the IT field.
In the afternoon attendees had the opportunity to go to technology sessions and browse the solutions showcase.
Today the summit opens with an ADTRAN Executive Roundtable with Schansman, Cole, Bolton, VP of Engineering Paul McElroy, and VP Customer Service Tim Saunders.
The keynote is on “Leveraging Explosive SLED Market Growth,” given by John Halpin, vice president, strategy and programs, Center for Digital Education, eRepublic, a media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.
ADTRAN has six events held each year at its campus in Huntsville. This has been the second Partner Summit ADTRAN has hosted, and plans are to host them regularly from this point forward, according to the company, which adds that the event has been very well received. Learn more about the ADTRAN partner program here.
