Neither rain, snow, sleet, or hail—or a Texas-size ice storm—could keep the ChannelPro SMB Forum from kicking off its 2023 tour of regional in-person events in Dallas on February 1-2. The two-day conference series, with seven locations this year, features workshops and educational sessions presented by industry-leading experts and channel professionals designed to provide actionable, business-building advice.
The ChannelPro SMB Forum purposefully curates content that addresses the top issues managed service providers, IT solution providers, consultants, and VARs who serve small and medium-size businesses care about—operational and business excellence, cloud services, cybersecurity, growth strategies, automation, marketing, and more. The sessions are delivered in interactive, informative, and fun-filled formats attendees won’t find at any other industry event.
“ChannelPro is excited to launch the first of 2023’s in-person regional events in Dallas, continuing our tradition of providing attendees with valuable information they can use to enhance their businesses, and an experience that allows them to grow their peer networks and get up-close looks at the technologies and solutions that will allow them to prepare their SMB customers for the future,” says Michael Siggins, president and publisher of The ChannelPro Network.
New this year at all regional locations is a website makeover workshop led by channel marketing expert Kendra Lee. This hands-on session, which Lee delivered remotely to the Dallas crowd due to that Texas-size ice storm, is designed to help MSP attendees turn their websites into lead-generation machines.
Other educational sessions on Feb. 2 in Dallas included:
Unsolved Mysteries: Building a Cloud-First Managed Services Practice – Inspired by a classic TV series and presented by cloud practitioners Eric Long and Chris Ploessel, this session covered the tools and techniques required to turn cloud consulting and management into a cutting-edge, high-profit core of an MSP’s business.
What a Formula 1 Crash Can Teach Us About IT Incident Response – Security and compliance expert Mike Semel gave attendees an insider’s look at the crucial facts about incident response that racing teams know and channel pros should too.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – Attendees eager to learn the secrets of becoming a $1 million MSP, and then reaching $3 million and beyond, heard from three business owners with firsthand experience. Stanley Louissaint, Dave Seibert, and Lisa Shorr shared growth advice in this fast-moving, game show-style session.
The MSP Automation Bake-Off – Expert consultants Rayanne Buchianico, Bill Stucklen, and Will Young presented their “tastiest” recipes for automating business processes in RMM and PSA platforms, and the audience voted on which one provided the most ROI.
Attendees also voted to award Dallas sponsors the following:
- Best Cloud Solution – Axcient
- Best Hardware Solution – Carbon Systems
- Best New Solution – Pia
- Most Innovative Solution – GlassHive
- Best Partner Community – Kaseya IT Complete and Pax8 (tie)
- Best Software Solution – Pia
- Best Revenue Booster – Hunter Artemis
- Best Add-on Product – Mailprotector
- Best On-Stage Presentation – Quickpass
- Best Expo Hall Presentation – Kaseya IT Complete
- Best Distributor – Pax8
- Best Product/Tech Support – US Signal and Fortinet (tie)
- ROI Lightning Round Winner – Carbon Systems
- Best Vendor Participation – Hornetsecurity
- Best in Show – Kaseya IT Complete and Pax8 (tie)
“From all industry indicators, channel pros are optimistic about 2023, even in the face of multiple uncertainties,” says Rich Freeman, executive editor of The ChannelPro Network. “All of ChannelPro’s in-person and online events deliver insight on the trends and technologies our attendees will need to take advantage of the opportunities in the year ahead, and the enthusiastic response from the Dallas audience who braved the icy roads was evidence of the ROI our events provide.”
Many thanks to Titanium sponsors Dell Expert Network and Kaseya IT Complete; Diamond sponsor GlassHive; Platinum sponsor Fortinet; Premier Gold sponsor Pia; and Gold sponsors Acronis, Axcient, ConnectWise, Devolutions, Hornetsecurity, Huntress, Mailprotector, OpenText, Pax8, QuickPass, TD SYNNEX, ThreatLocker, Todyl, and US Signal.
And thanks to our Silver sponsors Arista Networks, Barracuda MSP, Buffalo Americas, Carbon Systems, D&H Distributing, NUSO, Syncro, Talentscope, and Zorus; and Bronze sponsor Hunter Artemis.
Next up on the 2023 ChannelPro SMB Forum tour is Dulles, Va., on March 8-9. Register here. Additional dates and locations are:
- Chicago (Midwest) – May 9-10
- Bay Area, Calif. (West Coast) – June 7-8
- New Jersey (Northeast) – Aug. 9-10
- Boston (New England) – Sept. 6-7
- Atlanta (Southeast) – Oct. 10-11
And don’t miss the upcoming ChannelPro Online Summits (register here):
- Cybersecurity: Risk and Reward – Apr. 18
- Cybersecurity: Next Gen Now – July 18
- Managed Services and Cloud: Operational Excellence – Dec. 6
Finally, capping off the year is ChannelPro’s first-ever national cybersecurity conference in collaboration with CompTIA, which is scheduled for November 1-2 in Southern California. To register, go here.
If you are an IT integrator, managed services provider, consultant, or VAR serving small and medium businesses, these events are for you! For information on all ChannelPro events go here.
