Channel Futures huddled with industry leaders at last week’s CompTIA ChannelCon 2019 conference, which attracted hundreds of vendors, IT service providers, business consultants and thought leaders. While at the event in Las Vegas, Chanel Futures sat down with the CEOs and channel chiefs of several companies, including Warranty Master, CloudPlus, Barracuda Networks and more.

From these conversations and presentations at ChannelCon, it’s clear that the industry is undergoing significant change. New technologies are showing promise of creating significant revenue opportunities for partners, while old challenges – including margin erosion, industry consolidation and a talent shortage – loom large. So do increased concerns over cybersecurity, which permeated almost every presentation and discussion.

No wonder it was often hard to find an empty seat at ChannelCon 19.

In the slideshow above, we present some of the finest thinking from the event, some of which came from very unexpected sources. Who knew that former NBA great Shaquille O’Neal was such a geek and entrepreneur at heart? The wisdom O’Neal provided herein is some of the best from the event.