CompTIA has rebranded its popular Breakaway conference as CompTIA ChannelCon (July 29-31, Orlando, Fla.). Breakaway had been on The VAR Guy’s Top 100 Channel Partner Events list. ChannelCon replaces it. So what’s behind the name change at the conference, which is overseen by CompTIA Senior VP Kelly Ricker? Here are some clues.

CompTIA and Breakaway both have undergone a multi-year transition. CEO Todd Thibodeaux arrived in 2008 and immediately shook up the organization’s certification, training and events initiatives. Many of the changes began to take hold by 2011, but the evolution has continued.

Under Senior VP Kelly Ricker, the association’s event business abandoned “hosted” approaches that are frequently found across the IT market. The hosted approach sometimes attracts attendees who showed up for event perks rather than true learning opportunities. CompTIA halted the hosted model in 2010, and added vendor-neutral channel training and education to the conference in 2011. The association also opened its arms wider and wider to more channel media.

The evolution will continue at ChannelCon. According to a prepared statement, ChannelCon will include:

Registration for CompTIA ChannelCon will open in mid-March, the association indicated.