The Channel Partners Conference and Expo wrapped up Wednesday at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Themed “Big Ideas, Solutions, Outcomes,” the March 16-18 event brought together VARs, agents, MSPs, and SIs from across the country.
Day one kicked off with a keynote titled “The Big Ticket: Real-World IT Business Decision-Making,” and featured panelists Tom Gessel, senior vice president and CIO, First Credit Union; and Luke Robinson, senior administrative 
†manager, Family Service Association.
The afternoon keynote, “What’s the Big Idea?: Scanning the Mobilization Horizon,” was presented by Sue Galvanek, vice president, marketing, pricing & product, AT&T Partner Solutions; and Janet Schijns, vice president, global enterprise, government and channels marketing, Verizon.
Syed Hoda, who leads the global marketing function for ParStream, an IoT analytics company, delivered a keynote on Tuesday titled “How Big is Big?: Sizing the Channel Opportunity in the Internet of Things.”†
And in the afternoon, Andi Mann, vice president, Office of the CTO, CA Technologies, presented “Cloud Computing’s Gold Lining: Channel Opportunities in the Era of Everything-as-a-Service.”
This year the conference and expo also featured revamped education tracks focusing on four hot topics: mobility, cloud, infrastructure, and security.
Also new in the Expo Hall was “The Big Stage,” where attendees could take part in featured events like Shark Tank, Q&A briefings, and Channel Partners Zone.
During a dinner and ceremony Monday night the Channel Partners 360∞ awards recognized 50 agents, VARs, dealers, systems integrators, MSPs, solutions providers and consultants.
News coming out the event included:
- IPitomy Communications LLC introduced an online ordering system for its SIP trunking and cloud PBX service, intended to save time and eliminate excess paperwork.
- Verizon Enterprise Solutions announced a metal level incentive. Agents, VARs, or MSPs who are part of a Verizon competitor’s channel program at a metal level (Silver, Gold, Platinum) will be mapped to a corresponding Verizon tier and receive the compensation and benefits that go along with that ranking.
- Comcast Business said its SIP trunks are available throughout its entire service area, covering 39 states and 20 of the nation’s top 25 markets. The SIP trunks complement Comcast’s voice portfolio.
- AT&T added new features to its two-year-old AT&T Partner Exchange initiative, including a simplified tier structure, new investment development funds, and the addition of Professional and Master tiers to its Certification Achievement Program.
- Telecom provider Broadvoice announced an April promotion of $22,500 in spiffs to the top three performing VARs.†
- CoreSite Realty Corp. announced the signing of Lifeboat Distribution. Lifeboat, a distributor of virtualization, business continuity and other complex technologies, now is offering CoreSite’s data center services to its resellers and MSPs.
- Intelisys Communications Inc. announced that LinkSource Technologies became the sixth partner to achieve more than $1 million in recurring monthly billing, and did so in less than two years, faster than any other sales partner yet, Intelisys said.
