ChannelPro-SMB, the premier source of business and technology insights for channel partners serving the small and midsize business market, headed west for the second stop on the The ChannelPro SMB Forum 2015: Channel Therapy Edition tour. 
The day-long event on May 5 in San Jose featured some of the top SMB resellers and managed service providers in the country who shared their insights on the hottest tech solutions in the SMB marketplace today.
The Channel Therapy Edition tour started with a cocktail reception on Monday evening, May 4, sponsored by MAXfocus.
On Tuesday, the event sessions included:
- Managed and Cloud Services Checkup—with panelists Robert A. (Bob) Nitrio, CEO, Ranvest Associates; Karl Palachuk, president, Small Biz Thoughts; Dave Seibert, CIO, IT Innovators; and Erick Simpson, vice president and CIO, SPC International Inc.
- Managed and Cloud Services Operations Lab—presented by Karl Palachuk
- Managed and Cloud Services Marketing Lab—presented by Herman Pool, owner, Vertical Axion
- Managed and Cloud Services Sales Lab—presented by Gil Cargill, founder, Cargill Consulting Group Inc.
- Tech Trends: Hardware Lab—presented by ChannelPro’s Matt Whitlock, online director and technical editor
At the sponsor showcase, attendees were able to browse the latest technologies and network with peers.
HP gave the Platinum sponsor keynote. Gold sponsor presentations were given by Datto Inc., Eaton Corp., F-Secure Corp., MAXfocus, Samsung Business, StorageCraft Technology Corp., and ViewSonic Corp.
Taking a different approach than other channel events, event attendees interact with presenters at all the sessions. New this year, attendees can respond to questions from the presenters using their PC or smartphone, and take self-assessment questionnaires on the various disciplines discussed in the sessions.†
The event concluded with vendor sponsor awards:
- Most Innovative Solution – RapidFire Tools
- Best HW Solution – HP
- Best SW Solution – StorageCraft
- Best Partner Community – MAXfocus
- Best Partner Program – Eaton
- Best Cloud Based Solution – MAXfocus
- Best New Solution – F-Secure
- Best in Show – Datto
Two additional ChannelPro SMB Forum events are planned for later this year: the Chicago area in September, and New York City area in November. Interested attendees can preregister at www.ChannelProForum.com.
Silver sponsors for the event were as follows:†ASCII Group Inc., ASI Corp., Asus, Autotask Corp., Beachhead Solutions Inc., Cargill Consulting Group Inc., ChannelOnline, Cloud9 Real Time, Collobos Software Inc., CompTIA, Crexendo Inc., Data Deposit Box, Equilibrium Consulting LLC, †Intel Corp., The Neat Company, OKI Data Americas Inc., RapidFire Tools Inc., SaasMax Corp., Small Biz Thoughts, SMB Nation, SMB TechFest, SPC International, SYNNEX SMB Connect, Tigerpaw Software Inc., VDI Space Inc., and Vertical Axion.
Product sponsors included: Asus, Eaton, Edifier, Griffin, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Synology, ViewSonic, and Western Digital.
