The ChannelPro SMB Forum touched down in San Jose, Calif., the fourth 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.
“ChannelPro always looks forward to getting to the West Coast and continuing 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.”
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 June 8 in San Jose 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 Long, 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, Chris Ploessel, and Dave Seibert (pictured below right, with host Matt Whitlock) shared their growth advice in this fast-moving, game show-style session.
The MSP Automation Bake-Off – Consultants Rose Avila and Allen Edwards and MSP Karl Bickmore (pictured at top) 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 San Jose sponsors the following:
- Best Cloud Solution – Dell Expert Network
- Best Hardware Solution – Carbon Systems
- Best New Solution – Conceal
- Most Innovative Solution – CyberQP
- Best Partner Community – Kaseya IT Complete
- Best Software Solution – ThreatLocker
- Best Revenue Booster – ConnectMeVoice by Cloudli
- Best Add-on Product – Mailprotector
- Best On-Stage Presentation – Kaseya IT Complete and OpenText Cybersecurity (tie)
- Best Expo Hall Presentation (Gold and above) – Kaseya IT Complete
- Best Expo Hall Presentation (Silver) – MSP360
- Best Distributor – TD SYNNEX
- Best Product/Tech Support – ThreatLocker
- ROI Lightning Round Winner – Syncro
- Best Vendor Participation – Wildix
- Best in Show – Kaseya IT Complete
“ChannelPro’s 2023 State of the Channel Survey found that channel pros are optimistic about 2023, even in the face of multiple uncertainties, and based on our San Jose attendees’ enthusiasm, that is holding true through midyear,” 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; Gold sponsors ConnectMeVoice by Cloudli, ConnectWise, CyberQP (formerly Quickpass), Hornetsecurity, Mailprotector, OpenText, TD SYNNEX, ThreatLocker, Todyl, and US Signal.
And thanks to our Silver sponsors 1 WorldSync ChannelOnline, ASI, Barracuda MSP, Carbon Systems, Conceal, Cynet, D&H Distributing, MSP360, Nodeware, Ooma, Probax, Scale Computing, Syncro, Wildix, and Zorus; and Bronze sponsor Hunter Artemis.
Next up on the 2023 ChannelPro SMB Forum tour is Parsippany, N.J., on August 9-10. Register here. Additional dates and locations are:
- Boston (New England) – Sept. 6-7
- Atlanta (Southeast) – Oct. 10-11
And don’t miss the upcoming ChannelPro Online Summits (register here):
- 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 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.
