ChannelPro-SMB, the premier source of business and technology insights for channel partners serving the small and midsize business market, kicked off its first ChannelPro SMB Forum event for 2016 in Dallas on March 2.
With a 2016 theme of “Channel Fitness Tour,” the forum is the first of four live events that 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 Tuesday, March 1, with an all-day MAX by LogicNow Pre-Day Workshop, followed by a welcome cocktail reception hosted by CompTIA.
On Wednesday, event sessions presented by well-known channel pros included:
- Pump Up Your Managed Service Revenues, with panelists Stephen Hall, Joshua Liberman, Peter Melby, and Vince Tinnirello
- Bottom-Line Finance-Strengthening Exercises, presented by Josh Peterson
- Cloud Sales and Marketing Fitness Secrets, with panelists Gil Cargill, Mike Schmidtmann, and Mark Woldman
- Business Process Optimization Lightning Round! presented by Karl Palachuk and Manuel Palachuk
- Gear Guide: 2016 Hardware Trends, presented by ChannelPro-SMB’s Matt Whitlock
In addition, Peer-to-Peer sessions were conducted by channel pros Stephen Hall, Cloud Sales and Marketing; and Peter Melby, Business Process.
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, Data Deposit Box Inc., Datto Inc., Eaton Corp., LogicNow Ltd., and StorageCraft Technology Corp.
Silver sponsors for the event included ASCII Group Inc., Autotask Corp., Bass Computers Inc., Buffalo Americas Inc., Cargill Consulting Group Inc., ChannelOnline, Clio, CloudPlus, CompTIA Inc., Crexendo Inc., Hostway Services Inc., Impartner, Manuel Palachuk International, Minuteman Power Technologies, My Digital Shield Inc., Ninja MSP, PartnerOptimizer, PineApp Ltd., RapidFire Tools Inc., SaasMax Corp., Small Biz Thoughts, SMB Nation, SMB TechFest, SYNNEX SMB Connect, Tigerpaw Software Inc., TruMethods LLC, Vertiscale Inc., ViewSonic Corp., Webroot Inc., and Xcellerate.
Gear Guide product sponsors included: Bass Computers Inc., Eaton Corp., Epson America, HP Inc., Intel Corp., Lenovo, and ViewSonic Corp.
The event concluded with attendees honoring vendor sponsors with the following awards:
- Buffalo Americas – Best Hardware Solution
- CloudPlus – Best Cloud Solution
- CloudPlus – Best Selfie Video
- Cytracom LLC†- Best Partner Program
- Cytracom LLC†- Best On-stage Presentation
- Data Deposit Box Inc.†- Best Solution Presentation (Platinum & Gold)
- Datto Inc.†- Best in Show
- LogicNow Ltd.†- Most Innovative Solution
- My Digital Shield Inc. – Best New Solution
- RapidFire Tools Inc.†- Best Solution Presentation (Silver)
- SYNNEX SMB Connect – Best Distributor
- Webroot Inc.†- Best Software Solution
The next ChannelPro SMB Forum event will be held in Anaheim, Calif., on May 4. 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 http://www.ChannelProForum.com.
“By participating in the ChannelPro SMB Forum, channel partners have a unique opportunity to learn about today’s top IT trends from colleagues who have learned by doing and paved the way for their success,” says Michael Siggins, publisher of ChannelPro-SMB and an event host. “They can also take advantage of the showcase of vendor solutions that will enable them to meet the growing IT needs of their SMB customer base.”
Interested 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.
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