The ChannelPro SMB Forum Heads to Chicago

The ChannelPro SMB Forum touched down in Chicago May 9-10, the third stop on the 2023 tour of regional in-person events. 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 for IT solution providers serving small and medium businesses.

The ChannelPro SMB Forum covers the top issues that MSPs 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.

“Chicago is always a great event for ChannelPro, and we’re happy to continue our tradition of providing local MSPs and integrators easy access to valuable information they can use to enhance their businesses,” says Michael Siggins, president and publisher of The ChannelPro Network. “Our events offer an opportunity 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.”

The event pre-day at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg on Tuesday featured an open peer networking session facilitated by ChannelPro association partner MSP-Ignite, a consulting and peer group organization, followed by a solutions workshop hosted by Dell Expert Network. The evening ended with a welcome reception.

New this year at all regional locations is a website makeover workshop led by channel marketing expert Kendra Lee (pictured left). This hands-on session is designed to help attendees turn their websites into lead-generation machines.

Other educational sessions on May 10 in Chicago included:

• Unsolved Mysteries: Building a Cloud-First Managed Services Practice – Inspired by a classic TV series and presented by cloud practitioners Chris Ploessel and Eric Weast, 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. Neal Juern, Paco Lebron, and Stanley Louissaint shared their growth advice in this fast-moving, game show-style session.
• The MSP Automation Bake-Off – Expert consultants Rayanne Buchianico, Bill Stucklen, and Will Young (pictured right) presented their “tastiest” recipes for automating business processes in RMM and PSA platforms, and the audience voted on which one provided the most ROI. 

In addition, Siggins presented Chicago business owner Paco Lebron of ProdigyTeks with the ChannelPro 2023 Peer of the Year award (pictured below), a yearly honor for MSPs and VARs who have shared especially powerful peer-to-peer business advice to the ChannelPro audience.

Attendees also voted to award Chicago sponsors the following:

• Best Cloud Solution – US Signal
• Best Hardware Solution – Carbon Systems
• Best New Solution – CyberFox
• Most Innovative Solution – Pia
• Best Partner Community – IT Complete, the Kaseya Platform and Pax8 (tie)
• Best Software Solution – Huntress
• Best Revenue Booster – NUSO
• Best Add-on Product – Mailprotector
• Best On-Stage Presentation – ConnectWise
• Best Expo Hall Presentation (Gold and above) – IT Complete, the Kaseya Platform
• Best Expo Hall Presentation (Silver) – SaaS Alerts
• Best Distributor – Pax8
• Best Product/Tech Support – Helpt
• ROI Lightning Round Winner – Helpt
• Best Vendor Participation – 1WorldSync ChannelOnline and Barracuda MSP (tie)
• Best in Show – IT Complete, the Kaseya Platform

“ChannelPro’s 2023 State of the Channel Survey found that channel pros are optimistic about 2023, even in the face of multiple uncertainties,” says Siggins. “All of ChannelPro’s in-person and online events deliver insight on the trends and technologies our attendees will need to take advantage of current and emerging opportunities throughout the rest of the year.”

Many thanks to Titanium sponsors Dell Expert Network and IT Complete, the Kaseya Platform; Diamond sponsor Cisco; Platinum sponsor Fortinet; Premier Gold sponsor Pia; and Gold sponsors Axcient, Beachhead Solutions, ConnectWise, CyberFox, CyberQP (formerly Quickpass), Hornetsecurity, Huntress, Mailprotector, NUSO, OpenText, Pax8, PC Matic, TD SYNNEX, ThreatLocker, Todyl, and US Signal.

And thanks to our Silver sponsors 1WorldSync ChannelOnline, Barracuda MSP, Carbon Systems, Epson America, Helpt, Infosec, Mindmatrix, MSPbots, Phin Security, Probax, SaaS Alerts, SOCsoter, and Zorus; and Bronze sponsor Hunter Artemis.

Next up on the 2023 ChannelPro SMB Forum tour is San Jose, Calif., on June 7-8. Register here. Additional dates and locations are:

• 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:

• Cybersecurity: Next Gen Now – July 18
• Managed Services and Cloud: Operational Excellence – Dec. 6

Finally, capping off the year is the all-new ChannelPro Defend: SMB Cybersecurity Strategies for IT Solution Providers, our first-ever in-person national cybersecurity conference in collaboration with CompTIA on 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.