Our team is back from exhibiting at ChannelCon 2017 and we’ve got some highlights to share with you!
ChannelCon was held July 31 to August 2 at the JW Marriott in Austin, Texas and put on by CompTIA, one of the IT industry’s top trade associations. The channel tech conference was attended by 1200 of the industry’s leading solution providers, vendors, distributors, IT professionals and media, with over 150 exhibitors. Here’s our recap:
Notes from the Conference Floor
We really enjoyed the executive interview with Alyssa Fitzpatrick (GM of worldwide channel sales at Microsoft), Todd Thibodeaux (CEO of CompTIA), and Joe Panettieri (Editor at ChannelE2E). Among other hot topics, Microsoft’s “partner first” strategy was discussed. Fitzpatrick said that Microsoft is now, “putting the partners’ success first in front of what we are doing from a measurement, metrics and management perspective.” In working towards this, Microsoft has taken steps to simplify how partners interact with Microsoft and enhance the partner experience. This really resonated with our Channel team as they work to grow ImagIT’s partner community.
ChannelCon’s 1200 attendees came from various tech backgrounds, with 85-90% of attendees comprised of mid-sized to large MSPs. The attendees at ChannelCon 2017 were a captive audience and very knowledge driven. Although the booth exhibition hours were shorter than we would have liked (only two hours per day), this created a sense of urgency and those hours were well attended.
Networking Opportunities
ImagIT attended two conference-sponsored networking events and co-hosted a private event. On Monday night ImagIT co-sponsored a Beer Pong Tournament at Shakespeare’s Pub. There was a great turnout for this event and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive! The official ChannelCon event on Tuesday at Banger’s on Rainey St. was a nice time with outstanding live entertainment, complimentary cowboy hats, and famous Texas BBQ. Our team had some great conversations with both current and new prospective partners. The official “Wine Down” event on Wednesday provided another great platform to network with the quality attendees.
Next Up
Overall, we really enjoyed ChannelCon and are already seeing the fruits of our “labor”. If you missed us but are attending Channel Partners Evolution in Austin on September 25-28 lets schedule a time to meet! Drop us a line and we will get something on the books. We will also be hosting an invite-only party on the evening of Monday, September 25th.
Email to book a meeting or for party details.
Thank you to CompTIA for putting on a great event, we look forward to the next one! We also want to thank our party co-sponsors: Green House Data, Fortrust, Vonage, and Unite Private Networks.
ImagIT Solutions specializes in providing comprehensive IT services for channel partners, MSPs, and enterprise-level organizations. Our expansive engineering team is carefully vetted and trained to meet your every IT need. Whether its proactive support, an emergency call, long-term projects, or project management, ImagIT will deliver a solution that is customized to best fit your organization. Interested in learning more about working with ImagIT? Contact us today!
