ChannelPro-SMB, the premier source of business and technology insights for channel partners serving the small and midsize business market, teamed channel stars and business-building sessions†on November 3 in Newton, Mass., outside of Boston.†It was the fourth and final event held this year.
With a 2016 theme of “Channel Fitness Tour,” these live events aim to deliver the sales, marketing, and operational insights attendees need to turn their businesses into lean, mean, money-making machines.
The full-day, live event for channel resellers, integrators, consultants, and cloud and managed service providers offered interactive, in-depth conversations with some of the industry’s top channel pros who have pioneered profitable and “fit” businesses from cloud and managed services. A showcase of SMB vendor solutions provided additional learning opportunities and enabled channel pros to get one-on-one advice on employing new technologies and services to better serve their customers.
The event kicked off on Wednesday, November 2, with a SolarWinds MSP (formerly LOGICnow) workshop, followed by a welcome cocktail reception hosted by CompTIA.
On Thursday, event sessions presented by well-known channel pros included:
- Pump Up Your Managed Service Revenues, with panelists Ronnie Parisella, Karl Palachuk, Paul Smith, MJ Shoer
- Keynote: Bottom-Line Finance-Strengthening Exercises, presented by Gary Pica
- Cloud Sales and Marketing Fitness Secrets, with panelists Manuel Palachuk and†Gary Pica
- Business Process Optimization Lightning Round! presented by Karl Palachuk and Manuel Palachuk
- Gear Guide: 2016 Hardware Trends, presented by ChannelPro-SMB‘s Technology Editor Matt Whitlock
In addition, a peer-to-peer session on business processes, which dovetailed with the Business Process Optimization session, was conducted by Rayanne Buchianico of ABC Solutions.
At the sponsor showcase, attendees were able to discuss the latest solutions for their SMB clients with leading vendors as well as network with peers.
HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise presented the Platinum sponsor keynote. Gold sponsor presentations were given by Cytracom LLC, Clover Imaging Group, Data Deposit Box Inc., Datto Inc., Eaton Corp., Ingram Micro Inc., SolarWinds MSP, Mailprotector, and StorageCraft Technology Corp.
Silver sponsors for the event included ABC Solutions LLC, Aditum, ASCII Group Inc., Atomic8Ball, Autotask Corp., BluPointe Digital, Buffalo Americas Inc., CloudConnect LLC, CloudPlus, Compliancy Group, CompTIA, Crexendo Inc., ELO Digital Office Corp., Evault from Carbonite, IT Glue, Manuel Palachuk International, MSP Foundry, The Neat Co., Neverfail, Ninja MSP, Pax8 Inc., RapidFire Tools Inc., SaasMAX Corp., Small Biz Thoughts, SMB Nation, SMB TechFest, SPC International, Tech Data Corp., Tigerpaw Software Inc., TruMethods LLC, Vault America, Vertical Axion, and Webroot.
Gear Guide and Tech Trends product sponsors included: Acer, Bass Computers Inc., Eaton Corp., Epson America Inc., HP Inc., Intel Corp., Lenovo, Linksys, and ViewSonic Corp.
The event concluded with attendees honoring vendor sponsors with the following awards:
- BEST in SHOW (tie)
- Solarwinds MSP
- CloudConnect
- Best Cloud Solution
- CloudConnect
- †Best Hardware Solution
- HP Inc.
- Best New Solution
- Data Deposit Box
- Most Innovative Solution
- RapidFire Tools
- Best Partner Community
- Datto
- Best Software Solution (tie)
- StorageCraft
- ELO Digital Office
- Best Revenue Booster
- StorageCraft
- Best Add-on Product
- MailProtector
- Best On-stage Presentation
- Datto
- Best Showcase Presentation (Platinum or Gold)
- Solarwinds MSP
- Best Showcase Presentation (Silver)
- CloudConnect
- Best Distributor
- Ingram Micro
- Best Selfie Video
- ITGlue
The next ChannelPro SMB Forum event will be held in Atlanta on March 2, 2017. To ensure that everyone at the ChannelPro SMB Forums can freely participate in the conversation, seating at each event has been limited. Interested parties should register immediately at www.ChannelProForum.com.
“Participants in the ChannelPro SMB Forum have an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the IT market from colleagues who embraced emerging trends and new business methodologies early on and are willing to share the secrets of their success,” said Cecilia Galvin, executive editor of ChannelPro-SMB. “They also can learn about cutting-edge solutions from experts in the vendor showcase to help meet the growing IT needs of their SMB client base.”
Interested 2017 sponsors should contact Joel Zaidspiner at 561-422-5119 or Lisa Sherman at 917-388-9531. More sponsorship info can be found at: http://ChannelProForum.com/sponsors/how-to-sponsor.
Photos by David Bruno Photography
