 Welcome back to JSA TV the newsroom for tech telecom and data center professionals Buffy Harakitas, and we are live from channel partners 2023 in glamorous Las Vegas and joining me today is the queen of the channel We have Kelly Danzinger. She is the VP and general manager of Channel for Informatec Overseeing channel futures the channel partners expo Kelly. It's such an honor to have you here my friends Welcome to JSA TV. Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here with you Yeah, for sure and this show is the biggest to date, right? We were just chatting I want to tell viewers a little bit more about the evolution of channel partners and Where we are today absolutely, so we are absolutely thrilled with the turnout of this event We have seen this event double in size over the past three years We just surpassed 8,000 attendees to the shares event 348 sponsors and exhibitors It has just been an outstanding an outstanding reception from our community and We've really over the past number of years since we've added the MSP summit to channel partners conference and expo We are the only event in the world that's bringing the entire channel together I mean it is the biggest and best channel event in the world For sure, and I've had the opportunity and the privilege to see it grow with you over these years And this by far is the best Channel partners ever. I mean the floor is buzzing. There's so much to do Not only, you know here on the expo floor, but all the meeting rooms are packed And we're honored to be here as a partner We love our partnership with you and we we honor it and love it as well. We are so proud to be here Is there anything new on the agenda this year that you want to tell viewers about? Yes So we just done we've just read we just had happening a little while ago our cybersecurity peer group and that was Another packed room and this is something we're actually looking to expand and hopefully we'll be announcing some bigger Partnership coming down the pike on that because we're finding cyber security as we do our MSP 501 research And we also do our research with the TA 101 the biggest area and the hottest Concerns and challenges that folks are having are around cybersecurity and whether you're an agent or whether you're MSP or VAR Cyber security is is is the top of mind for everybody. So our cybersecurity peer group super excited about that With our MSP summit, we've been holding training sessions that Lendi Costanza has been running and those are two Packed standing room only and those are really dealing with issues that are around what the MSPs are focused on and many of the MSPs are really They're their tech builders. They know how to build the tech stack They know how to troubleshoot the technology problems, but the areas that they're not the strongest at is running the business like sales and marketing So we've really been focusing a lot with our MSP summit on providing those those training skills around the sales and marketing and running a business Yeah, I mean that's so important and MSPs have, you know, tripled quadrupled in size over this past decade for sure For sure and cyber security is definitely at the forefront. You see it everywhere I mean, I've seen hackers saw cash tag and tell a system to you know, having these rooms packed with So many critical important topics around cyber security So that's wonderful that you guys are really bringing these topics absolutely for forefront and helping MSPs grow and expand their business. I'm especially when it comes to sales and marketing. So that's wonderful What's up for you know the coming months? I know that we're heading to Europe soon and we have some big event coming up in the fall in Miami We tell viewers a little bit about that. Absolutely. So our next event is mid-June in London And this is our channel partners UK event And it's really not just focusing on the UK partners but the Amia based partners and we are part of our London tech week Which is a bigger event that takes place through in our corporate entity and form a tech So there's a number of different technology events that happen during that week in London that help bring partners and users together So we'll be heading across the pond in a few weeks and then the big event that we've got coming up is our channel leadership summit Which we're super excited about. This will be our second year of this This was really as we came out of COVID We knew we needed to do something different with the fall event for so many years our fault conference almost had an identity crisis You know, we went through a number of iterations on this and sometimes it felt like it was like channel partners junior And we it was hard to replicate what we do here in Las Vegas So, you know after COVID we have this opportunity to reinvent and relaunch and last year The goal was to have MSP summit as our fall event Okay, but once we held it at that one event We could do post COVID and we came we put it here and co-located it in Vegas The response was so overwhelming people are like don't take it away. We need it So as we were trying to build last year's fall event It was supposed to strictly be MSP summit and then my agent community is like hey You can't can alienate us. So we knew we had to bring in a leadership component that would also speak to our Unified communications and telecommunications clients, but then we had the conversation with Cassie Jepsen from Alliance of Channel Women and I sit on the board of ACW and we wanted to do more than just have A panel discussion during ACW so one conversation backstage with Bobby and myself and Cassie Turned into a whole women's leadership summit. So the fall conference is just a beautiful event And it's all around leadership whether you're a woman Looking for leadership and looking for training and mentoring or you're an MSP looking for Additional training and leadership or you're coming from the agent side of the house So we're really really excited about that and we'll be at the fountain blue, which is gorgeous another beautiful resort It is actually building one here too. I heard. Yes. I heard that as well But so when is the Miami event? So we are October 28 two weeks after my daughter's wedding. Oh Boy, this is gonna be fun Well, congratulations in advance your daughter and we will certainly be there JSA will be there in Miami and the London event Channel partners Europe is oh, yeah with June 14 June 14 So lots of great things ahead for channel partners and form attack We're so honored to be your partner Kelly and you mentioned a little bit about Alliance of Channel Women ACW I'm a member. I've been a member for several years and I've seen that grow as well, right? So last night we took over the ballroom Where it used to be in like a just a small meeting room and that that has grown Significantly, we were actually talking to Ashley a little bit Ashley Cole From the events chair a little bit earlier But having you on the board as amazing. Is there anything you want to add about ACW ACW is amazing So last night we had over 500 women registered for the event had an amazing keynote speaker with dr. Merritt Moore Which was very cool, you know ballerina and a physicist like who does that right now, right? And she goes back and forth between two full-time amazing hard careers But what I have found with ACW when I moved into this general manager role almost three years ago I was really nervous, right? I had spent my entire career in sales and Going from sales to running an entire business their skill sets that you don't have right and P&L Always scared the daylights out of me Well, there's a lot of women on ACW that were really supportive and very mentoring and had become friends and wanted to see me succeed and What you find through ACW is you immediately have a Friend group so if you're new to channel you go to you belong to ACW all of a sudden you walk away You've got ten new friends. It's so true, you know and connections with a hundred other people And it's just an amazing organization and it means so much to me and I wish that I had known about it 13 years right, you know, so I think about I've been very active in it since since coming over to the channel partner side of the house and I would attend but really getting involved in the past four years and It's been such an honor to take it from the small little meeting room. I'm like, well, I have pull And so that's been a joy to watch that blossom It really has been a joy to watch a blossom and it's been a joy to watch you to grow. Thank you You're totally crushing it. I mean, we're here at the biggest channel partners ever Do you believe that I know because of your leadership? Oh, thank you Congratulations to you Kelly. Thank you and congratulations to everyone at inform attack and channel partners channel features We're so honored to be your partner At this amazing event. So if you're here at channel partners, be sure to stop by our booth We are right in front of the CP expo sign here in fabulous Las Vegas and Kelly. Is there anything else you want to add? The only thing I would be remiss if I didn't mention I have an amazing team We did and nobody does this on their own So true and building and fostering and mentoring an incredible team is the reason that this has happened We found the secret recipe. Okay to the success of channel partners and I'm not willing to give that recipe away Into that. Yep. Never give away your secret sauce, right? Well, where can viewers go to learn more so to learn more about our business as a whole if you go to channel futures calm There's a number of tabs at the top where you can learn about our research reports You can learn about all of the events that we're doing as well as stay on top of all of the news and information So channel futures calm when does the MSP 501 come out? So the MSP 501 we are have extended the application period through to May 15 figures We extended it to May 15 just because it was supposed to close by we're all here So a lot of people are here so two more weeks about two more weeks that folks can submit and then we publish those Results in July. Also two more weeks to get in those MSP 501 application So thank you for extending that and thank you so much Kelly for joining us today for another fabulous episode of JSA TV Live from the biggest and the best channel partners event to date here in fabulous Las Vegas Happy networking