 Welcome to JSA TV, where we're covering the latest stories, trends, and innovations from leaders in global connectivity, real estate, the channel, and the networks within. Buffy Hierarchetus of JSA and joining me today is Kelly Danzinger. She is with Informa Tech, the leading international events, digital services, and academic knowledge business. They are headquartered in the UK. But obviously, Kelly is here today with us, live from Channel Partners 2024. She is also a longstanding partner of JSA's. Kelly, welcome. Well, thank you. It's always a pleasure to see you. And we love and appreciate the support that you give to the world's largest channel event every single year. So thank you so much for being with us. Absolutely. It is our honor and our pleasure. So let's just dive right in. And we're so excited to talk about the MSP Summit, the largest channel partners event to date. Here in Las Vegas, why don't you tell viewers a little bit more about the show and what they can expect and what's in store. The floor just opened. Yes, absolutely. So we just kicked off the main show floor of Channel Partners Conference and Expo, where there's over 300 exhibiting companies here. We have over 7,500 registered attendees. We're, as we've been growing this event, and we added the MSP Summit three years ago to this event, we are now seeing a shift in our audience that's almost a 50-50 split between IT service partners as well as telco agents. So you're really seeing the Channel Unite here at Channel Partners Conference and Expo, which is really exciting. And that's a theme, right? It is Channel Unite. Channel Unite. We are united. So super excited to be a part of this event this year. So what are some of the topics that are being discussed? I know right before we went live, we were talking a little bit about AI. Oh, yeah. A lot about AI. But I think you have some amazing insights that you can give our viewers about how the channel, and this show in particular, is approaching and discussing AI. Absolutely. So I think AI is impacting every single one of us in our personal lives. Absolutely. It is, I mean, AI has been around, generative AI has been around for a long time, but it's really been in the past, I would say, 12 to 18 months that it's become a household term and something that we're seeing our children using. We're seeing even my silly husband use to create crazy song lyrics. And I'm like, you need to fact check some of this stuff. But that's what we're seeing here at this event. Every single conversation, every keynote, whether it's a question asked, it's just organically coming up because it is impacting all of our clients because the partners now are getting asked by their customers, can I trust this? How can I use this? What are some of the business benefits for us to use this? So we are the first channel event this year, and possibly at all, that has ever covered what is a scalable model for AI? And how can the partners be upselling this to their customers in a way that they're showcasing the value of outcome for their customers? So there's so many different ways to go about this, but some of the things that you're coming up with that you'll learn about in our AI symposium, which we have going on this week, are trusting the sources, making sure that what you're hearing is credible and factual. And then how are you securing this? Businesses want to know, do I be scared of this? Is this going to destroy my business? Or, and from the vendor standpoint, they're talking about, they've done a lot of research and a lot of implementation of their products and services on how it can really create better business outcomes and at a fraction of the cost. So there's a lot to be learned and I'm excited about our AI symposium myself because it's something that I think that's the top of mind for all of us. Yeah, I mean, it is top of mind for everyone, especially here at the channel this year. So what an amazing idea to bring this AI-specific symposium to this conference. And the channel's obviously a dynamic growing environment. I mean, we've been in this- A long time. In this environment for a very long time and we've seen it grow. I mean, even the show, just with the numbers of exhibitors and attendees year after year. I mean, what do you see as some of the biggest opportunities for the channel in the year ahead? Yeah, so I mean, the opportunities, obviously AI's huge for the partners, but it's the collaboration and the coming together. We talked about this this morning on one of our keynote presentations and the question I asked our panelists, are you seeing a change right now with MSPs and agents, your partners, are you starting to see them work together? And the answer to that was yes. Years ago we were talking about there was gonna be convergence, right? Now it's not convergence, it's collaboration. And it's all in the name of how do you better serve your customer? And that's the end game. So the big opportunity right now is to have those conversations. And this event fosters that because we bring, we're the only event that brings the entire channel together. And when you're looking at it in a partner split, an audience split that's almost 50-50, there's a lot of opportunities for the collaboration, the conversation. And a lot of these partners are serving the same end user customers. So how do we work together to provide a seamless outcome for our customers? That's amazing, collaboration. Channel United here from Las Vegas with one of the best in the industry, Kelly Danzinger. So thank you so much, Kelly, for joining us. Is there anything else you wanna add today? No, just thank you so much for having me and I wish everybody here a fantastic event and we really appreciate your support. And thank you viewers for tuning in to another episode of JSA TV, live from Channel Partners 2024. Stay curious, stay connected, stay united, and happy networking.