The ChannelPro SMB Online Forum West, the last of six regional conferences planned for 2021, took place on November 16. Attendees at the day-long event heard a stellar lineup of presenters reflect on challenges and opportunities in the IT industry and provide actionable advice for capitalizing on current technology trends. In addition, MSPs, IT consultants, VARs, and integrators had the opportunity to interact with panelists and browse the virtual vendor expo.
“We focused our 2021 SMB Forum events on learning from 2020’s challenges and exploring new strategies and technologies for the future,” said Rich Freeman, executive editor of The ChannelPro Network. “As we look ahead to 2022, our events will continue to provide programs that reflect current trends, so our audience is armed with the best insights to serve their customers and grow their business.”
The educational sessions included:
Secrets to Bigger Cloud Margins – Margins on cloud services, according to conventional wisdom, are always and permanently slim. Channel pros Corey Kirkendoll, Ro Kolakowski, and Jamison West shared how they are proving that stereotype wrong.
Peer to Peer: The New Normal Customer – Channel pros who not only survived last year’s recession but continued to thrive are those who figured out how to serve customers well in a time of changed needs and expectations. In 1:1 Q&As, top-performing MSPs Juan Fernandez (pictured right) and Peter Melby shared tips on how to engage with, sell to, and protect today’s SMBs.
Principles of Zero-Trust Security – Everyone says a zero-trust strategy is the only way to secure work-from-home environments and everything else. What does that mean in practice though? Our panel of security experts, Rebecca Herold, Bruce McCully and Michael O’Hara, provided practical, concrete advice on building a zero-trust architecture.
Stump the Sales Pro – Sales expert Mike Schmidtmann provided real-time, real-world advice on the thorniest sales and marketing challenges from our audience.
The Channel Pro’s Strategic Roadmap to Success – Market-leading channel pros don’t get there by accident. Business coach Manuel Palachuk outlined the seven proven predictors of success in managed services.
“Despite the lingering uncertainties we faced in 2021, ChannelPro was happy to connect both in-person and virtually with local MSPs, integrators, and other channel pros throughout the year, and we’re grateful for the sponsors that made that possible,” said Michael Siggins, president and publisher of The ChannelPro Network. “As we look with hope toward a post-pandemic future, ChannelPro remains committed to presenting top-notch, meaningful events designed to help attendees with all aspects of their business.”
The ChannelPro SMB Online Forum West concluded with attendees voting to honor vendor sponsors with the following awards:
- Best in Show – Huntress
- Most Innovative Solution – Acronis
- Best Partner Community – Datto
- Best Revenue Booster – RapidFire Tools
Many thanks to our Titanium sponsor Dell Technologies/Dell Expert Network; Platinum sponsor ThreatLocker; Sapphire sponsor Datto; Premier Gold sponsors Huntress, The 20, and WatchGuard; and Gold sponsors Acronis, Cytracom, Graphus, RapidFire Tools, Sophos, and Webroot/Carbonite.
And thanks to our Silver sponsors Armor, The ASCII Group, CompTIA, Perimeter 81, SYNNEX, Untangle, and US Signal.
ChannelPro is hosting one more event in 2021 on December 8: the Managed Services and Cloud Solutions Online Summit: Best Practices for Accelerated Success. Find out more here.
For more information on all ChannelPro events, go here.
