Image Gallery: Ingram Micro Cloud Summit

Ingram Micro drew just 200 attendees to its first Cloud Summit only a few years ago. How times have changed.

The tech distribution giant welcomed more than six times that many people to its 6th annual event, held this week at the JW Marriott Hotel & Resort in Phoenix.

On the agenda were keynote presentations from Ingram Micro channel executives and celebrity guests; breakout educational sessions; and awards ceremony; a Solutions Showcase Expo; and more.

Channel Partners was there. Click through our image gallery for the highlights; you might just see people you know.

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Making its debut this year, Ingram Micro Cloud University featured industry experts who guided partners with education and practical business knowledge to help drive their cloud businesses. The goal: to give solution providers not only fresh business insight, but also some new business connections.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

Ingram hosted an open discussion (yes, men could attend) about the role of women in technology and the cloud industry. The session focused on the exchange of ideas and resources while encouraging networking opportunities for attendees who shared their thoughts on how to position more women for success in the tech industry.

Speakers, left to right, were Telecom Italia’s Carolina Ramirez; Cisco’s Nancy Jo Thomas; Ingram Micro’s Kellie Green; and IDC’s Melanie Posey.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

Renée Bergeron, VP, Global Cloud, Ingram Micro, welcomed the more than 1,300 attendees to the Summit.

In her keynote, she outlined a number of new delivery platforms that she says will make it easier for channel partners to establish and grow their cloud businesses. Most noteworthy is the launch of Odin Automation Essentials, which stems from Ingram’s acquisition of the Odin Service Automation Platform. Essentials aims to help partners efficiently provision, manage and sell both cloud and self-hosted services through a single platform. Solution provider can bundle Office 365 and other services with their existing products.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

In its keynote presentation, Microsoft invited a panel of execs from Ingram Micro, Odin and Connectwise to talk about industry trends and offer advice to cloud partners.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

Saying he only sees “positive changes,” Ingram Micro CEO Alain Monié took a few minutes on stage to talk about the company being purchased by HNA Group, the Chinese aviation and shipping conglomerate.

He told the crowd that it’s Ingram’s evolution in technology that was the motivating factor for HNA to bid on his company. All of Ingram Micro’s key leadership will stay on, he said.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

Famed astronaut Buzz Aldrin, now 86, regaled attendees with stories from the 1969 moon landing. But he had a lesson in business that connected to his space travels: “Put yourself in the right place at the right time.”

Here, at a VIP lunch, he signs a book he authored.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

That’s Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Acronis, shared his vision of the cloud of the future, offering tips to partners on how to be a part of it.

Beloussov founded a handful of tech companies, including Parallels and Acumatica.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

Jim Turner, CEO of Hilltop Consultants, a Dropbox partner, looks comfortable in a Hawaiian shirt during this afternoon breakout session.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

The Solutions Showcase Expo gave vendors a chance to show off their latest products and services, and more importantly, meet with prospective partners.

Microsoft used the opportunity to give presentations on a small stage.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

Trend Micro set up shop in the Solutions Showcase Expo to meet with partners.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

Ingram Micro honored its 2016 Cloud Partner Award winners.

The annual awards spotlight the tech distributor’s top channel partners across the globe that have “exhibited a high level of innovation, advocacy, performance and sales success with Ingram Micro and the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace.”

For the first time, Ingram also honored Odin partners that have demonstrated “excellence in proactively leveraging” the Odin Service Automation platform. Odin is a new business unit of Ingram Micro.

Click here to read the list of winners.

Photo courtesy Ingram Micro/Reggie Ige Photography

If you’re under the age of 40, the name Thomas Dolby might not mean much to you.

It was Dolby’s synth-pop hit “She Blinded Me With Science” that helped usher in a new wave of popular music.

Now a professor of Arts at Johns Hopkins University, Dolby explained to the crowd how he got into the music business and offered up some tips for succeeding in business as well.

Nimesh Davé, executive vice president, Global Cloud Computing, Ingram Micro, was the last to take the stage in front of a packed house.