Top Eight Managed Services Summits for 2009
Yes, travel budgets are under extreme pressure for 2009. But if you plan carefully and book early, you can stretch your dollar and attend some worthwhile managed services summits.
Yes, travel budgets are under extreme pressure for 2009. But if you plan carefully and book early, you can stretch your dollar and attend some worthwhile managed services summits.
For me, managed services summits are all about networking with top MSPs and spotting emerging industry trends. Here are eight managed services conferences — listed in random order — that might be worth your attention in 2009.
1. MSPAlliance Managed Services Summits: The MSPAlliance is expected to host two North American events in 2009.
When the association re-launched its Website recently, the MSPAlliance briefly listed an Orlando conference around April 22, 2009 and a Las Vegas summit around November 8, 2009. But those dates are no longer listed on the site, and I’m still waiting for date/location details from the association. Keep an eye on the MSPAlliance’s Upcoming Events page for future date announcements.
2. MSP Revolution: Hosted by MSPSN, I attended the 2008 kick-off event in Chicago. I was impressed with MSP Revolution‘s workshop-oriented approach of the event. MSPSN CEO Amy Luby is formulating potential dates and locations for the 2009 events. Stay tuned.
3. Autotask Community Live!: Scheduled for March 29-31 in Nashville, Tenn. Autotask plans to re-create the energy, interaction and focus of its online community in a live setting. This is Autotask’s first big, face-to-face customer conference.
4. CompTIA Managed Services Summit: I’m waiting on a date/location for this potential event. It’s typically held in the spring, but CompTIA is pretty nimble these days. Stay tuned to www.CompTIA.org/events; that’s where event details typically surface first.
5. N-able Partner Summit: The 2008 event was held Oct. 22-24 in Dallas. Watch for another late-year event in 2009, somewhere in the central United States. My bet: Chicago.
6. ConnectWise Partner Summit: Scheduled for Nov. 4-6 2009 in Orlando, Fla. For ConnectWise customers and MSPs that are still evaluating professional services automation tools. More than 700 MSPs attended the 2008 event.
7. Kaseya Connect: The 2008 Kaseya User Conference was June 1-3 at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas. I expect Kaseya to host the event at the same location, around the same date, in 2009.
8. CompTIA Breakaway: Scheduled for Aug. 4-6 at the Mirage Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. CompTIA Breakaway is one of North America’s largest events for VARs and solutions providers. It’s safe to expect a heavy managed services focus at the 2009 event.
Did I miss any major, regional or international managed services summits? If so, let me know.
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Hey there Joe! Thanks so much for compiling the list and including the ConnectWise Partner Summit – we’re very proud of the event and look forward to hosting over 900 partners in our 5th annual event next November. Again, great list! j. 🙂
Joe, I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer up one more MSP industry Partner Conference worth attending: the third annual Ingram Micro Seismic Partner Conference. According to our attendees, the last two Seismic Partner Conferences offered strong content and great networking opportunities. What makes our partner conferences unique is that majority of the content, be it during break-outs, keynotes, or panels, is provided by the MSPs themselves based on our theme “Voice of the MSP.” This year we look forward to more MSP success stories, case studies, and best practice sharing among the Seismic MSP community. Save the date, the next Seismic Partner Conference will be held in Dallas, TX in the first week of May.
Jason Beal
Director of Sales, US
Ingram Micro Seismic
Jason: Thanks for not flaming me. As you know, sometimes we move a little “too fast” with the blog … which leaves readers to fill in the gaps for us. Yes, the Ingram Micro Seismic Partner conference is great. I was at the 2008 event and there were zero product pitches. It was pure education and learning, on such topics as marketing, branding and PR for MSPs. Refreshing stuff.
Sorry I overlooked that one. Great event.
Joe,
Thanks as always for keeping Kaseya on the list. This next year is going to be an incredible year for us and the Kaseya Connect conference will launch some incredible enhancements to the application.
Chad: No need to thank me. Lists like this can be dangerous because I always wind up forgetting at least one great event. In addition to the list above and the Ingram Micro Seismic event, I just realized that I didn’t mention the SMB Nation events.
I have to be honest: I didn’t attend SMB Nation in 2008, but I did hear positive feedback from those who did.
FYI: Novell today canceled BrainShare 2009 — the company’s annual customer conference.
I realize Novell isn’t focused heavily on managed services. But the show’s cancellation shows just how bad the market for IT travel could be in 2009. I hope to see the MSP industry move forward with educational events, but I will let readers know if we spot any conference cancellations.
Joe and everyone, my question for all of you, especially since you guys know I do leasing and help put HAAS programs together is which one or two are the best for opportunities to network with and meet other partners for that purpose.
Just curious…..
Stu
Stu@southernlendingsolutions.com
http://www.southernlendingsolutions.com
Stu: Here’s what I know … and what I think I know…
1. CompTIA Breakaway: I can highly recommend that conference because I attend it annually and there are hundreds of VARs attending. I would anticipate that the attendees be highly interested in leasing programs. But full disclosure: I have a positive bias toward CompTIA since our team has done some work with them over the years.
2. EverythingChannel XChange: On the one hand, I hear good things about this conference and it competes in some ways against CompTIA Breakaway. But I can’t give you a true flavor for the event since it’s not open to outside media.
3. MSPAlliance Managed Services Summits: Smaller than Breakaway and Xchange, but the events are designed for MSPs. Again, I can’t give you a true flavor for the event since it’s only open to hand-chosen media.
4. Vendor events: Don’t overlook these. Of the 2008 events I attended, these had great interaction with VARs. All the vendor events are listed above in the blog entry. If you’re working with any of those vendors, attend the events. And full disclosure: Yes, some of the vendors sponsor this site. So if you’re skeptical of my opinion feel free to reach out to MSPs directly. I am confident they will speak very highly of the vendor events.
-jp
Hey Joe,
I was going to suggest that we have a BBQ in my backyard, invite a few dozen MSPs…but I guess 8 or 9 events in one year is plenty. 🙂
Thanks for keeping us informed.
– Rory
Rory: As a general rule, editors are always seeking free food. Looking forward to seeing you at events from time to time.
Joe, thanks for the great feedback. I will check them all out. So far the only vendor whose program I have joined and whose events I go to are MSFT and they are too infrequent for my liking and many of them are completely education driven, which is good for them and the partners but bad for networking opportunities.
Stu
http://www.southernlendingsolutions.com
Stu: I wonder if any of the MSP software vendors would be interested in a partnership with you regarding financing programs. Think about it: Dell, IBM, Cisco, Ingram Micro and many other “big” IT vendors and distributors are using financing to a competitive advantage right now.
I wonder if MSP software providers are considering any special financing partnerships to help their MSPs and VARs move forward?