By Larry Lannon

The Channel Partners Conference & Expo gets into full swing on Tuesday, March 27. Are you busy planning your day? Here are some highlights.

Four concurrent tracks begin Tuesday morning at 9:30 and run through the morning Tuesday before finishing Wednesday morning. Here are the titles and their locations:

Note that the mobile session Tuesday morning, on building a mobility practice,” is being conducted by CompTIA, the leading IT organization. Mobility plus IT: Does that sound like a recipe for the channels future?

In addition, Intronis will hold a valuable vendor presentation from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. (Neopolitan IV). The Intronis presentation is on Building a recurring revenue stream with cloud backup.”

Following the morning sessions, the Selling Techniques Luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Milano I and II). The luncheon is open only to qualified partners, requires a separate registration, and has been sold out for weeks. So if you are not already registered, you wont be able to attend this time. But make a note: This is a dynamite new program element introduced during last Augusts Chicago event, and is sure to become a program mainstay at Channel Partners. There will be a ton of follow-up coverage on Channel Partners. So if you cannot attend this time, for whatever reason, please follow the coverage, talk to your colleagues who did attend, and make sure you get your registration in early for the next conference, in Orlando, Sept. 12-14.

The general session begins at 1:15 pm (Milano VII and VIII). The session is divided into three segments, beginning with the Channel Executive of the Year Awards. Following the awards, Tiffani Bova, vice president, research, indirect channel programs and sales strategies, Gartner, will deliver the industry address.

The third segment is the Keynote Roundtable: A Candid Conversation with Channel Leaders,” featuring three executives whose companies have been prominent in the news for the past year:

VIRGO Chief Executive Officer John Siefert will moderate the roundtable. Look for a lively, enlightening exchange of views on the news these companies have already made and a peek at tomorrows headlines.

Then comes the culmination of the day, when the expo hall opens in the Octavius ballroom. The hall will be open from 4-7 p.m. The opening reception will be from 5-6 p.m., sponsored by Comcast Business Class and Time Warner Cable, two of the most important cablecos in the world.

Its a full day of great programming, great information and insight, and world-class networking opportunities on the show floor with the leading market makers in the channel.

For a short overview of the day, go here. For programming details, go here. For exhibitor information, go here.

And for ease of navigation and organization, make sure you download the Channel Partners Mobile App, sponsored by Intronis, MegaPath and Motorola Solutions. Go to this page for information on downloading the free app. Its simple and it is free.  The mobile app puts Channel Partners at your fingertips.

Larry Lannon is group publisher of

VIRGO
s Communications Network,
which includes

Billing & OSS World
,

Channel Partners
and

V2M
.