ChannelCon “2.0” by the new GTIA – Global Technology Industry Association appears to be a significant improvement, addressing past issues and introducing some new features. This leads to a broader discussion about the need for an independent, unbiased entity to unify the fragmented IT industry. GTIA may be the catalyst for bringing together all communities so the synergies can be better leveraged by all.
Too many collaborations often feel one-sided, with each partner seeking to extract value without reciprocation. Successful partnerships require a mutual exchange of value and respect between members and organizers alike. By sharing and leveraging all communities, we can disseminate the information better and help more people. At least, that’s the hope of GTIA to become the community of communities.
I know our eChannelNEWS community has always been open to supporting other communities as we are now supporting GTIA’s new mission.
For us, the highlight of ChannelCon was the opportunity to interview diverse individuals, from exhibitors and speakers to MSPs and even a young girl from Black Lemonade (one of the GTIA-supported charities). Listen to what she said as this may be the secret to unlocking the younger generation to enter the industry.
Gathering diverse perspectives is vital for grasping the industry’s current state and for broader audience engagement and sharing.
Thanks to all those who did an interview to share their insights and to the many awesome people who did the very hard work of organizing the event. Special thanks to Marie Rourke, Suzanne Collier, and Myra Austin for their assistance in coordinating everything.
Today, almost all channel events focus on Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and business automation. Hundreds of vendors at ChannelCon brought their A-Game on a variety of topics but we also need more MSPs to attend and participate. As news media, we can help to amplify the message to the channel beyond the event, but plan to attend in-person next year!
If you want to get a good taste of what vendors showcased, check out the interviews as we publish them over the next few weeks! There are a lot of opportunities to be discovered!
Here are just a few highlights from the conference:
With two decades of experience, we’ve consistently innovated our channel events to offer attendees the latest trends and best-in-class experiences. The insights shared by panelists, especially MSP Andy Larin , CEO of AllCare IT, Rex Frank of Pax8 and Dawn Sizer of 3rd Element Consulting, were particularly valuable as it validates what we have been doing with our events. Recovering post-pandemic has been a challenge for all event organizers, and we’re delighted to be back, even larger than before. That said, channel events in Canada continue to face disproportionate investments and support as compared to the U.S., with even Canadian vendors investing more in the U.S. market.
The ultimate outcome from any event is to discover something new and to take away at least one significant opportunity to grow business. One very big challenge is sharing the information from the event effectively with your teams. It’s why we are about to reinvent the way information is shared from any event. We are releasing an independent and secure AI-powered event platform that records, curates, summarizes, and instantly distributes content from all sessions. Event apps are losing their effectiveness as they have essentially become a glorified directory for spamming and a tracking device.
Of course, having a fun networking experience with your peers is always a critical requirement as without that human interaction, why attend any in-person event. With the rise of virtual everything and AI, it seems like in-person events will become the primary workplace of the future (and employee recruitment grounds).
All event organizers must listen to their MSP attendees and have them share their insights on stage. It was great to see that at ChannelCon. I know that we always highlight a variety of leading MSPs at our events like Mike Pearlstein, Michael Contento, CEPA , Simon David Williams, Erez Zevulunov, Barbara Paluszkiewicz (just to name a few). I could never thank them enough for sharing their valuable knowledge with the community. Listening to what other MSPs are doing to grow their businesses is one of the most important values that any event can deliver.
The discussion on AI was also great. Noelle Russell (Microsoft MVP, AI) did a solid presentation and West McDonald is doing a great job to help MSPs on their AI journey (Check out my interview with him and I plan to do one with Noelle soon). What can I say about the AI feeding frenzy that has not already been said a thousand times? AI is for everyone and everyone needs to find ways to interact with each other’s AI. My best advice after listening to so many experts and being a curious student, you need to build your ecosystem of AI resources (both human and tools) and customize them for your world. Always be listening and learning! Every day I learn something new about AI. If you are just not sure how to win with AI? Explore the 15 AI services we have released so far. We are definitely one of your AI channels so tune in!
The discussion with GTIA leadership during the press session was insightful. Dan Wensley, MJ Shoer and Carolyn April shared their vision of GTIA and answered questions. It’s only been 200 days since the new organization got rolling and it seems like they have already come a long way. The mission is on point and the vibe is building. ChannelCon was the first major showing of what’s to come. In time, I am confident that their team will make the right decisions. Again, check out the eChannelNEWS interviews I did with many to get the inside scoop!
I was able to catch a bit of the certification session on Channel Management. This may need a bit more work as it may be looking back at how things were done in the past and not enough to where it’s headed in the future. I think Kathryn Rose may be on the right track and could help – check out our interview. Training more people to enter the channel workforce is important. I just wonder why so many are being laid off – is it because of AI or market conditions?
I do not want to burst anyone’s bubble, but things are morphing so fast these days that I guarantee that best practices yesterday will not be best tomorrow. People empowered by AI are becoming sort of super-humans and I am so excited and afraid at the same time to see how the status quo will be disrupted and limits pushed.
Beyond ChannelCon, GTIA’s broader contributions include research, cybersecurity standardization efforts and charity support. As a member you get access to a lot of resources. Now with sufficient funding, GTIA appears well-positioned to help strengthen the IT channel. Everything looks promising and we wish them the best of luck to keep making the IT channel bigger, better, stronger and smarter.
There was a lot of talk about GTIA creating the “vibe” of the channel, but it may not be something that can be created. However, If they continue to do the right things, that “vibe” may create itself!
Maybe they will invite eChannelNEWS again next year to be their news media partner so we can help add to the vibe :o). We did bring our own cowboy hats!
Watch out for all of the news interviews coming soon on www.e-channelnews.com And, if you want to explore how we do events, check out ChannelNEXT!
