Atlanta was the most recent stop on The ASCII Group’s IT SMB Success Summits 2014 tour. The Atlanta Success Summit took place at the Lodge & Spa at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga., on June 18 and 19. The tour is designed to help attendees discover new ways to build and retain recurring revenue by leveraging key research on SMB IT purchases and the latest marketing techniques.
President of Bethesda, Md.-based ASCII Group Jerry Koutavas provided the welcome and keynote address, “ASCII Community—The Roadmap to Future Business.”
Other keynotes included:Schneider Electric, “The Next Generation of IT: Service Is King”; HP, “Make it Matter”; Datto, “How the Most Successful MSPs Are Positioning Continuity and Winning Business”; LogMeIn, “LogMeIn Elevate Channel Program 2.0”; Comcast, “How Will You Capture the Power of the Cloud?”; GFI Max, “Insights into the State of the Market and How to Drive Revenues”; JetStream, “Delivering Premium Security, Compliance, and Email Hosting Services to Your End Users—How to Do It Right”; Lenovo, “Lenovo 2014 Driving Innovation”; StorageCraft, “Beyond Backup”; and AVG, “Expand Your Offering, Boost Your Revenue!”
Educational keynotes were given by Raj Singh, “Retain and Generate More Revenue Through Better Client Intimacy—Strategies from Five of the World’s Most Successful MSPs”; and author and Forbes contributor Roger Dooley spoke on “Selling the Unconscious Mind Through Neuromarketing.”
The day also included a panel discussion on “The Commoditization of IT.”
An awards ceremony wrapped up the Atlanta summit. Winners were:
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Best Channel Incentives: Lenovo
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Best Hardware Solution: HP
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Best Channel Programs: HP
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Best New Product: JetStream
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Best Partner Commitment: AVG
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Best Cloud Solution: Datto
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Best Customer Support: LogMeIn
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Best Revenue Generator: Datto
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Best Distribution Sales Support: ASI
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Best of Show: Datto
The Success Summit best of show votes from all stops on the tour†will be†tallied and combined toward the ASCII Cup winner for 2014, which will be announced in October at the Atlantic City event. †
Following the full day agenda on June 19 was an “ASCII Members-Only” meeting in the evening. It was a roundtable discussion where members were†free to discuss any topic. Members from the ASCII team†were in attendance, but more as observers than participants.†
“I attended the ASCII members-only meeting, which is a carve-out of the general sessions, and the unscripted interchange between members on pain points in their businesses was considered extremely valuable by all who attended,”†says Alan Weinberger, CEO and founder of The ASCII Group.
Similar roundtables will be held at all summits in future cities.
Summing up the Atlanta tour stop, Koutavas says, “It never gets old to see the interaction and energy that takes place at the events; everyone walks away with something that is beneficial for their business.“†
The ASCII Group IT community is made up of a supporting network of more than 2,000 MSP/VARs worldwide. ASCII provides a portfolio of IT business-building services that range from turnkey marketing campaigns to a peer-to-peer business referral and lead network. The next Success Summit is in the Providence, R.I., area July 31. Visit The ASCII Group for more information.
