Get ready Tampa, because Penton is coming for you.

This week I’m excited to announce that the entire channel team will be hosting our first ever event in the form of Channel Directions Live at the beautiful Grand Hyatt resort in Tampa Bay. Beginning this afternoon, the talented editors and content managers at Team Penton will be together to talk to partners in an intimate setting and hopefully teach you a thing or two about the IT industry.

In case you don’t know, Channel Directions Live is a new event designed specifically for you, the partners, to address the changing business dynamics of the IT channel. We realized that a lot of partners who attend vendor-specific events also want the opportunity to talk shop in a more channel-focused setting, so CDL is going to be all about the partners, all of the time.

If you’re one of the many people who signed up to attend, you’re in for a real treat: we’ve got some really fun panels going on, as well as a dynamite keynote from bestselling author and tech guru Josh Linkner. And of course, you’ll also have plenty of opportunities to network with your fellow partners and to get to know the Penton editorial team. I can truly say I’ve never met a more approachable and knowledgeable group of folks in all of my days, so I hope you take advantage of the opportunity.

Oh, and of course I’ll be there too; just look for the guy running around with the camera. If you see me, be sure to stop and say hi, because I’m looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible. And remember to pose for a photo, because I’ll be working my hardest to document the whole crazy experience for those of you who couldn’t make it out in person.

Keep it tuned to The VAR Guy and the rest of Penton’s channel sites throughout the week for the full recount of our show. And, as always, follow me on Twitter @McusanelliSB and be sure to hit me up if you’re here at the conference.