Channel Futures & Channel Partners Announce Key Initiatives for 2021

After a year of change for all, Channel Futures and Channel Partners are seizing the 2021 opportunity to lead the industry forward with a unified voice focused on partner success. With this, comes big initiatives to better serve the channel community this year and beyond.

Channel Futures, Channel Partners Come Together as One

Driven by an accelerated evolution of business models focused on 5G, cloud, communications, information security and emerging technologies, Channel Futures and Channel Partners are coming together as one technology channel destination on or around April 1. As the information needs of telecom agents and technology providers converge, we will lead channel partners forward during a new era of growth, changes in strategic partnerships and a focus on customer experience. With news commoditized and executives looking for meaning in a world of unrelenting information flow, one site allows Channel Futures to lead channel partners with fresh voices, analysis, context, research, lists, and insight from the most diverse collection of influential leaders on all sides of the tech spectrum.

This mega site, to debut on or around April 1 at channelfutures.com, will feature news and analysis around everything you’ve come to expect from Channel Partners Online and Channel Futures, including channel program updates, cutting-edge technology, business advice and more. At the core of it all will be a focus on how our channel communities are coming together. For those who aren’t ready to fully embrace channel convergence, there will continue to be an easy way to access content by partner type and by technology. For our loyal sponsors, there will be opportunities to target the specific partners you seek. We expect to meet the needs of all agents, VARs, MSPs and other partners — as well as the vendor community.

This transition started in January, when we debuted a new platform for our Channel Partners Conference & Expo website. That’s our new home for all event-related content, including show previews, videos and post-event analysis.

The Channel Futures 2021 MSP 501

The Channel Futures MSP 501 is the definitive listing of the most influential, important and fastest-growing providers of managed services in the technology industry. The standard of success in the tech sector today is the ability to build a business around recurring revenue, especially in the security marketplace. The 2021 MSP 501 will examine not only the dramatic growth of security solutions but the impact of cloud and other emerging technologies. We are now accepting applications for the 2021 list. Among the new MSP 501 initiatives will be the debut of a quarterly confidence poll of MSP 501 executives that further extends Channel Futures franchise.

Announcing the MSP Summit, Launching This Fall

In 2021, Channel Futures will host the largest MSP Summit to date. With our Channel Futures MSP 501 awards, we will recognize the year’s top-performing managed services organizations and executives, so bestowing upon them the honor they deserve and a platform to broadcast their accomplishments. In addition, Channel Futures is expanding its content platform to provider peer-led and subject-matter expert insight that will help not only the MSP 501 but every managed and cloud services provider unleash their potential.

“What’s great about this event is that Channel Partners really recognized a need from MSPs for an event where they can gather and collaborate in this unknown business climate — and it really shows their commitment and dedication to this industry, as well as their determination to help everyone succeed and do so in the best way for their business,” said Chris Wiser, founder and CEO of The Wiser Agency. In addition to that, their single focus on growth and scalability as we transition MSPs to a new way of selling is a clear indicator that this will be a truly fantastic event.”

The MSP Summit and MSP 501 awards will be co-located at the Fall Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas. You can now sign up to get updates for the MSP Summit.

A Continued Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Following the deaths of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd in the spring of 2020, Channel Futures and Channel Partners worked to better utilize their channel media and event platforms to support Black Lives Matter, human rights and the critical nature of diversity and inclusion in the channel. They united with a coalition of vendors, distributors, analysts, consultants and partners to help guide them in creating and deploying a consistent message with actions to educate the channel community on the issues surrounding diversity; this was the birth of Allies of the Channel Council (ACC).

To expand upon the work this group is doing, Channel Partners events will be launching a series of diversity, equity and inclusion workshops each quarter to focus on the business benefits of having a diverse workforce. These one-day workshops will feature business leaders who are investing in DEI and sharing case studies on how this is improving their businesses from recruitment resources and research to networking and innovation.

In addition, they’re launching a list dedicated to honoring and celebrating under-represented minorities in tech channels who are senior-level or future leaders. The contributions of these individuals are changing the face of the technology channel. The list will be comprised of IT professionals from the largest organizations to startups and everything in between. Channel Futures will soon be accepting applications on its website.

Lastly, Channel Futures will launch a DEI Community Group that will keep the conversations, education and networking running consistently through the year and house all the content and resources created by the ACC and from the workshops accessible to the channel community year-round.

As Channel Futures and Channel Partners works to diversify and unify the channel community they serve, they invite others to join. For further information, please contact Brittany Watts, brittany.watts@informa.com, 480-518-2371.

About Informa Tech
Channel Futures, Channel Partners Online, Channel Partners Conference & Expo, The MSP Summit, Channel Evolution Europe, and the MSP 501 Awards are part of Informa Tech, a market-leading B2B information provider with depth and specialization in the Information and Communications (ICT) Technology sector. We help drive the future by inspiring the Technology community to design, build and run a better digital world through our market-leading research, media, training and event brands. Every year, we welcome 7,400+ subscribers to our research, more than 3.8 million unique visitors a month to our digital communities, 18,200+ students to our training programs and 225,000 delegates to our events.