The Gravity of ConnectWise IT Nation
Reports of professional reunions, town hall meetings and engaging training sessions are already coming out of Central Florida where the ConnectWise faithful have gathered for the annual IT Nation confab. More than 1,600 people are expected – a sold-out crowd – for what has become one of the premier events in the channel.
ConnectWise, the principle sponsor of IT Nation, says the Orlando event is about imparting important intelligence and know-how on running managed services businesses – particularly those organized under the ConnectWise professional services automation tools. However, the event has grown into so much more, as evidenced by the type of attendees and platform it has become for making news.
Events are staples of the channel industry. Vendors, associations, communities and media publishers literally produce dozens of gatherings, conferences and confabs each year. UBM Channel’s XChange and CompTIA’s Breakaway are probably closest to what constitutes the largest agnostic conferences in the business. Vendors like Microsoft, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard produce multiple large events to inform and recruit partners, and there are numerous smaller national conferences and day-long road shows.
What’s missing is a convention, a gathering where the channel world meets in unison under one tent for meetings, education and awareness-building. There is no Consumer Electronics Show or Interop for the channel. The annual RSA Conference is technically a channel event, but it’s dominated by security researchers, professional practitioners and enterprise managers. Nothing in the channel really comes close to that convention look and feel.
IT Nation, though, is building in that direction. While 1,600 registrants is still a fraction of what CES and Interop draws, it’s a larger crowd than XChange and Breakaway combined can muster. And it just keeps getting larger. As ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini said in the pre-event build-up, “If you are an IT solution provider, IT Nation is a MUST attend. It’s the best two-day sabbatical for your IT business. You’ll walk away with a whole new vision for your business, valuable peer relationships, and a perfect business plan for 2012.”
ConnectWise has built a solid reputation for putting on an informative and entertaining event. In years past, the daytime training and education meetings have been punctuated with live music and lively parties at night.
What’s significant this year is the number of vendors choosing to use IT Nation as the stage for announcements. Many are announcing their products’ integration with the ConnectWise platform. But others are using the event for product and strategic announcements.
- Intermedia, the cloud provider of Microsoft Exchange and hosted VoIP services, is announcing its integration with ConnectWise.
- OS33, the company that’s making cloud adoption easier for MSPs, is also announcing its integration with ConnectWise.
- QuoteWerks, the sales proposal software vendor, is unveiling its QuoteWerrks 4.7, which includes new modules for sales tax calculations and enhanced support for QuickBooks.
- Asigra, a backup and disaster recovery vendor, is announcing its integration with ConnectWise, which was done with the support of integration specialist Flowgear. The teaming is enabling XiloCore to offer the bundled package to its downstream partners – another announcement.
- LevelCloud, a SMB cloud solutions specialists powered by OS33, is trumpeting its speaking slot at IT Nation as a means to elevate its profile.
- WatchGuard, a security appliance vendor, is using IT Nation as the place to unveil MSP Connector for ConnectWise, a tool that enables MSPs with seamless reporting of security activities on its unified threat management devices.
- Quosal, another sales quoting and proposal automation software vendor, is demonstrating its applications at IT Nation, including its recently announced support for Cisco’s Quick Pricing Tool.
- 6Fusion, the cloud-metering company, with Integral Solutions Group is using IT Nation to showcase the expansion of the iNode Network.
And there are other announcements, product unveilings and service launches happening at IT Nation.
A steady satellite in IT Nation’s orbit has been HTG Peer Groups, which is holding its annual all-hands meeting at the event. Joining the organizations holding concurrent or consecutive events around IT Nation are CharTec’s Unherd of Conference and LabTech’s Automation Nation to name a few.
Some critics will point out that many of these companies are part of the ConnectWise Capital portfolio. That’s true, but the event is also attracting co-resident events by Level Platforms and QuoteWerks. And the exhibitor list includes foundational channel vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Google.
So strong is IT Nation’s gravity that many in the channel assume GFI Max’s user conference, also happening in Orlando, is related to the ConnectWise event. GFI Software says the time is coincidental, resulting from a scheduling conflict for its originally planned event. But the coincidence is delicious.
IT Nation is no black hole. A lot of news and energy is going to emerge from this gravity well over the course of this week. ConnectWise deserves a lot of credit for not just producing a world-class user and partner event, but making a meeting place where a core community constituency can gather. If it continues to evolve as it has over the last several years, IT Nation may eclipse the ConnectWise brand and become the true convention for which the channel longs.
Channelnomics is attending IT Nation in stealth mode. But if you happen to pierce our cloak of invisibility, let us know what you think of the goings on at IT Nation.
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Lawrence M. Walsh is CEO and president of The 2112 Group, a technology business advisory service that specializes in optimizing indirect channels and partner relationships. He’s also the executive director of the Channel Vanguard Council. He is the former publisher of Channel Insider and editor of VARBusiness Magazine. You can reach him at lmwalsh@the2112group.com.
On Twitter:
Larry Walsh: @lmwalsh2112 | Channelnomics: @channelnomics
2 Responses to “The Gravity of ConnectWise IT Nation”
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This conference didn’t even pretend to be vendor agnostic and that was the number one topic of discussion among attendees.
The price of admission for a small booth was in the five figures. Vendors couldn’t even host a gathering in their suite without paying a fee.
Another disappointing trend was the food and refreshments. Last year’s hand carved prime rib has given way to pasta salad and breakfast sandwiches – despite a dramatic increase in conference fees.
As service providers, we want to exchange ideas over good food and drink and be exposed to the best of breed solutions, not just the products and services of those who have paid some benevolent leader for access.
In fact, many attendees were so disgusted that there is serious talk about putting together their own, vendor agnostic conference. Getting back to the basics of using Connectwise and running their business – without pushing a vendor or service at every talk. The idea is gaining serious traction.
Interesting feedback. In an ideal world, we would have events pure of vendor influence and sales pitches. However, the economics of the real world require vendors sponsorships and they expect a certain degree of access and visibility for their support.