Last Last Last Look at IT Nation - Attendee David Tulip

David Tulip's Background and Early Career

• Harry Brelsford introduces David Tulip, mentioning their long history together and recent meeting at IT Nation 2024 in Orlando.
• David shares his background, starting in the IT department of Newman Business Solutions in the south of England in 1995.
• He describes the growth of the IT arm within the company, transforming it from a small team to a 1.5 million pound MSP by the time he left in 2009.
• David highlights their early adoption of Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) versions and the challenges of using NetWare before transitioning to Microsoft.

Transition to Network Group Leadership

• David explains his departure from Newman Business Solutions and his involvement with the Network Buying Group, which later became Network Group.
• He joined Network Group in 2005 and now leads the organization, which includes around 100 technology service providers in the UK.
• David emphasizes the importance of education at IT Nation, contrasting it with other shows that focus more on sales pitches.
• He mentions the challenges of scheduling conflicts between various tech events and the proliferation of shows.

IT Nation 2024 Experience

• David shares his positive experience at IT Nation 2024, attending as part of the Network Group community.
• He notes the high attendance, with around 4,500 people, and the value of the educational content provided.
• David recalls attending sessions and meeting with vendors, highlighting the interactive and engaging nature of the event.
• He mentions the presence of various communities, including Tech Tribe and ASCII, and the collaborative atmosphere at IT Nation.

Future Plans and Upcoming Events

• David outlines the Network Group's event schedule for 2025, including four events in the UK: Birmingham, Manchester, Cheshire, and Belfast.
• He reflects on the 30th anniversary celebration held at Wembley Stadium, which featured a black-tie dinner and awards.
• David discusses the challenges of organizing events with a small team and the decision to keep future events in the UK for now.
• He expresses interest in attending other shows, such as Pax8, and mentions the potential for collaboration with other communities.

Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

• David talks about the Network Group's ambitious growth plans to expand their membership to 250 organizations in the next three years.
• He highlights the importance of attending industry events to connect with MSPs and explore opportunities for collaboration.
• David mentions the trend of vendors organizing their own mini-shows to engage with the community.
• Harry Brelsford and David conclude the conversation, expressing their mutual appreciation and looking forward to future interactions at upcoming events.

Listen to the podcast HERE  

Harry Brelsford  00:04

Hey, nation, nation, I am with a gentleman from across the pond in the UK, David tulip. We'll, we'll, we'll get to why David's on in a minute. I recently saw him at the it nation 2024, connect show and Orlando and love, love that show. Always seeing people from overseas at that show, and maybe not so much the others. But David tulip, how you doing? It's December. Is it rainy, like Seattle?

David Tulip  00:35

It's not too bad. It's gray, Harry, it's the UK, is what you'd expect. But there's not too much rain just now. But I think we can rely on some arriving at some near point.

Harry Brelsford  00:43

Yeah, yeah. Well, I got out of, I got out of that whole mess I'm in, as you well know, Austin, Texas, living the dream. David, for those that don't know you, we we go back a couple decades. Is scary. We do. So get us up to speed. How? How'd you break into the space you said, in the south part of England, you had a practice that included printers. Is that right? Start, start from there. Yeah.

David Tulip  01:13

So that's, that's where we first met, Harry. You were king of the SMB Nation, and I ran the it arm of a print copy firm in the south east of England called Newman business solutions. And I joined them in 95 as the IT solution sales guy. They were a 5 million pound business, yeah, yeah, nice, nice, good sized business here in the UK,

Harry Brelsford  01:36

that's a real business. Go on, yeah,

David Tulip  01:38

exactly 5060, people when I joined, and say, there was this embryo of it. I spent 14 years with them. So I ended up running, or growing that it arm into something to run. There was a dozen of us when I left, and, you know, it's a 1.5 million pound MSP by the time I left, which I'd like to say, had a good part in playing that together with some colleagues that, you know, they're still there today, and that's where we knew you we were SBS version four, SBS version 4.5 2000 and the list goes on. So we were very

Harry Brelsford  02:06

early adopters of that. I apologize for this, early releases. You know, Microsoft gets right up the third time. Those were painful.

David Tulip  02:13

Well, they were painful before that, we were NetWare, of course. And we all know that was a great product, you know, Novell, but not so good at the market. Here's our Microsoft friends,

Harry Brelsford  02:21

yeah, yeah. Well, please continue. So you rode the SBS wave and you built your own MSP practice. If I got that right?

David Tulip  02:31

No, so, so I built a practice within the business, right, in essence. So I was the guy that the done the work backed by the company 14 years there, done a good job, and as I, you know, reached, I guess, what would that have been? I'd be reaching 40 years of age by that point, 2009 I realized I'd gone as far as I could and looked elsewhere. But interestingly, Harry, you know, during that time I knew you, and you used to visit the UK, and we'd attend your events, I bumped into something called the network buying group, and what today is network group, which I have the fortune to lead, but we joined the group, network group, in 2005 while I was there at Newman. So once upon a time, I was a member of this peer community, which was fairly small back then, and just to jump right forward into today's world, that's what I do today. Harry, I head the network group community, and in fact, that's why I was at it nation, or part, a big part of the reason I was there. We sat on the solution pavilion with the community of communities, which was some real forward thinking from our friends at ConnectWise, there to bring together, you know, ASCII tech degenerates, MSP geeks. You know, there's a writer, boom. There's a number of us guys there sitting right in the middle of the solution. So that's what I do today, Harry. I hate the network community approaching 100 technology service providers here in the UK, New Island.

Harry Brelsford  03:46

Yeah, yeah. And you know that, hats off to it nation. They are open minded. I like that. They have, they have competitors there, you know, and you know. And then communities, I mean, and they're obviously separate pillars, but a lot of shows in our industry and other technology realms, right, not necessarily MSPs, but a lot of shows are not as friendly. I will give you an example from several years ago that. I mean, this goes back to when you and I were young, but Cisco liked to schedule the exact same days as HP, and this would be in Las Vegas. So on the one hand, you could take a cab between the shows that's on the one hand, but on the other shows on the other hand, it's, it resulted in dilution, right? I mean, really, you know, can't, can't you just pick next week, right? So you can go to both, you know, in innocent the point is it. Question I might My hat's been off for a long time. Arnie while a handful. And I do know Arnie a good lord, but he, he built a business, and his success is well deserved. Question two, along the lines of shows the what was it where I saw Richard Tubb and some of his merry makers, and I was seeing

David Tulip  05:29

beyond in Berlin, possibly travels.

Harry Brelsford  05:33

Oh, no, it was a Cronus in Miami a couple years ago. And then a Corona stopped doing that show. And but, but the point is, it's always a pleasure, right? You go to these shows. And here's the Australia the Australians are always there.

David Tulip  05:50

Yeah, they travel. I guess they like to get out of town if they can. It's interesting, is it, you know, the amount of shows. And back to mentioning Cisco and HP competing for the same people at the same time. We start to see that a bit now. And it may not be deliberate with the big players trying to compete with each other, but I think the proliferation of the number of events is to compete. We're all of a sudden, there's one every day of the week, right? We we could do some real work if we're not careful. There's that many going on, right? Yeah,

Harry Brelsford  06:18

yeah. No, there are. There are too many shows. I mean, I had talk at it nation, my friend, Leonard, you have probably been in the same room at the same time as Leonard dimacelli And he put together. It had to have taken days, God bless him, but 500 events globally in the MSP space. Now, admittedly, some of these are like the accident lunch and learns, you know, the four hour lunch was in red wine. So Admittedly, it's, you know, the evening happy hours, the lunches, but all the way up to the three days. But I think that's what happened with it. Nation was Ingram. One was at the exact same time in Washington, DC, and David. I go to both, I mean, I mean that that was, and I like Washington DC, right? It's like frustrated. And I don't think it was a malicious I think it was just, just, just, was, you know what? I mean, they're, they're, they're both nice people. They probably circled dates on the calendar, you know, a year in advance. And Bada bing bada boom, it's the same week, 100%

David Tulip  07:28

and listen, we run four events here in the UK every year for our members and our extended ecosystem of preferred partners. And for the first time, so our q1 of 25 event is in Birmingham, here in the UK, it's and it's clashing with evolve for the first time in five years. And yeah, it's a shame, because a number of our community participate in both evolve and in the network group community. So we'll be a few people down on that event. Nothing drastic, because there's quite a few of us. But yeah, it's becoming ever more difficult, and there's some great content out there. Again, you go back to the IT nation, I think where they win is they very much focus on education, right? There's a lot of good value add stuff. It's not a a pitch fest. Now, of course, there's always stuff to be pitched and sold and bought, but, but I think they focus around education, which is strong. We do similar.

Harry Brelsford  08:18

Yeah, they they do. And it's just so darn big. You know, there were six lectures at once, and let's, let's pick it up from there. Let's move forward. Let's talk about that. But yeah, like at 1pm I swear they had like, six classrooms, right? It's huge. And the so when I, when I cover the show, I was telling you in rehearsal that I like to talk to a couple vendors done, a couple connect wise exacts done, and I only actually spoke to one attendee on site, a young man under 30. Great conversation, because we need young people. But what was your take on the show. So have you been to it nation? How did this show shape up for you? Yeah. So

David Tulip  09:07

this is my second it nation. The first one was four years ago, which I can't realize it was quite so long ago, although, of course, yes, and there's, there's annals of time to go back with those. But so we were there as guests of ConnectWise, as part of that community, of communities. So again, we was really fortunate with that, and delighted to be a part. So we sat in the solutions pavilion, but of course, picked up as much content as possible, and I have owned it as much. I built an MSP. I've also owned and sold an MSP as well, but, but so I'd love to be around all of that value add sort of stuff. The show was great. I mean, there was more people than I expected. And I know it's always big, but I, I think I heard four and a half 1000. But you know, whether you wish to take that with a pinch of salt, there was a lot of

Harry Brelsford  09:48

people, right? Yeah, yeah. And you gotta remember the way they count, because I did talk to connect wise and it's fair, um, that 4500 people was a. Combination of attendees, thank you, a lot of them, and then some of the event, the vendor staff. And I'll give you an example. You helped me. And do you remember the gentleman ducks from App point? You helped me with that interview,

David Tulip  10:19

and I was the official photographer? I think wasn't I? You were breakfast,

Harry Brelsford  10:23

and he had at least three, I didn't, you know, three or four employees, right? So you multiply that by 160 booths, and you know, we're talking, you know, those are the catering, right? The you always want to check the catering bill at an event, when they give you a number, say, show me the hotel catering bill, and that's the real number. And the other was connect wise employees, which I support. A friend of mine works remotely in Denver, and this was her first chance to actually meet her co workers in person, and at the venue, they were using classrooms upstairs. Don't don't know if you made it all the way upstairs, but they had little classrooms. So they were having staff meetings, right? Because they're and and I really support that. But what you know, what sessions did you go to? Did you see that goofy on the last day? With respect, but the the goofy pro skateboarder, he was pretty damn good. Yeah,

David Tulip  11:30

Tony Hawk was great, right? And I enjoyed Craig being up on stage. In fact, one of our member companies here from the UK, from aura technology, we he's a real skateboard guy. I wasn't. So we had front row seats as we got down there, and he was genuinely super excited to meet a hero of his, whereas I was excited to hear a keynote, which seemed pretty cool, pretty interesting. He was and see Craig Fulton up there flipping the board was pretty interesting too. But he spoke well, didn't he? He's an interesting story, right? Yeah, hey, before

Harry Brelsford  12:00

we move on. Well, it actually is the next topic, 2025 and you said the magic word with Craig Fulton the other day, I got an email from his new gig. Kind of agreed, yeah, almost Yeah, in the private equity merger and acquisition space, right? I I'm still learning what he does. And they are doing a three day. I'm going, they're doing a three day in Austin, Texas, like the within the first 10 days of March,

David Tulip  12:33

okay? And you gotta walk to and fro home, right? Well, yeah.

Harry Brelsford  12:38

And I gotta most of the shows I go to Austin does have shows. I mean, we're a little tech hub, right? We have them. But it's awfully nice to just say, you know, I'm going to drive home, right? You know? I mean, I'm going to go in, I'm going to do the do and go home. I don't have to do the airfare, the Uber, the hotel, right? You know, travel is exciting,

David Tulip  13:00

dudes.

Harry Brelsford  13:02

Yeah. So, okay, let's do a wrap. Um, what's on the agenda for 25 you said you have your show. Let's talk about your show.

David Tulip  13:13

June, we run for a year. Uh, Harry, so that's where we gather our community together. And if, in fact, 1919 94 let's try that again. 30 years ago, we were founded in 1994 the group. So we've just celebrated 30 years in 2024 just before I leap into 25 and we actually celebrated that at Wembley Stadium, which is the home of English football. So we had a big event there 260 odd black tie dinner, our awards, 58 vendors in the hall, you know, good 130 odd plus footfall from our membership, your senior leadership around that, which was a wonderful event as a black tie dinner. Yeah, really, really good event. So that was, that was this year, and a big one. And we, we run four events a year, looking into 2025, fact, we're going overseas for the first time, this has a big anti climax, to be clear, because we're going to Belfast. Not that Belfast a bad place, but we have a really small team that runs the org, a bit like back to usmb nation days, Harry, there's desert evidence that runs this organization. And what I've realized since I've led over the past six years, is that we're part events company. We deliver one, and we're on to the next. And it's quite a lot to ask of our small team. So we'll gradually get further afield, possibly. But you also have to have to ask, why is it a vanity thing to go to, you know, Portugal, Barcelona, Austin, you know, wherever it might be, right? So we're excited to do that and bring our community together. So we'll be doing four of those. We're in Birmingham, q1 we'll be celebrating now, Garland awards in Manchester in May. We go into Cheshire in July, and we finished the year with an expo in in Belfast, which is excited. Yeah. So we'll be busy with our events, but you know, outside of that, I'll be certainly attending some others mentioned packs eight before we attended their. Inaugural, premier event.

15:02

I'll see you there. It's a good show. It's a real good Yeah, yeah, without

David Tulip  15:05

a doubt. So I attended the Berlin one, which was their inaugural one here in Europe, which, which went well, yeah, it was really, really good. I'm really interested in right of boom, Harry, is that one you've been to?

Harry Brelsford  15:17

I have not. I've heard great things about it. My understand, please correct me. My understanding is, it's, it's, um, what I now call the other side of the aisle, the the geek side. And I was that guy, right? I carried the bag, and then when my product went away, you know, I'm still upset. Can you believe it was 10 years ago, 14, when it was totally gone, totally, I mean, I'm talking distribution, you know, totally they announced into life in 2011 but of course, it takes a little while, you know, the supply chain, right?

David Tulip  15:55

10 years, and there'll be some out there. Harry right, still working away in the corner.

Harry Brelsford  16:01

Yeah? So, yeah, I tend to gravitate more towards the business side and entrepreneurship and other what's my side,

David Tulip  16:10

too? Harry, I thought that you have much more interest in, you know, how you become operation mature, how you grow your business, those sort of things. Certainly, you know, tweaking. But I do, yeah, hear good things about writer. Boom. Again, back to that so many shows, yeah, I've

Harry Brelsford  16:22

heard great things. I just, you know, I I'm not made of money, I can I'm not made of time, right? I have to kind of pick and choose. Dude.

David Tulip  16:34

Listen, you have so many on your shores, which, again, gives you trouble, I suppose, because so many to choose from. Again, I'd probably attend a couple overseas a year, maybe. And I represent that our members own us. So we're a cooperative, a members organization. So I need to justify. I can't, unfortunately, just book another holiday to a show or whatever it's called. You know, they'll be looking at me pretty strange. So I have to, you know, make good reason why I'm off to it, nation or wherever it may be so interesting again, back to back to it, nation and sort of our community of communities, there was a lot of interaction between all of us on that floor tech tribe, but they're also thinking about it. And, you know, I think we might attend one another's shows a little bit next year. That's something we might well do. I know Henry well at Tech degenerates, they don't really run their own show, but they kind of coordinate and make sure everyone rocks up and enjoys themselves at everyone else's shows. But, you know, ASCII, the writer, yeah, they're all kind of talking, oh, you should come join, come join and participate in what we're doing. So there might be a little bit of that we do as they'll certainly be at PAX eight and a few industry events here in the UK. We we've just announced some some ambitious growth plans for our group to open the doors, widen what we're doing, and take out 250 organizations in the next three years. So exciting time, which means I'll be out there amongst MSPs, you know, seeing if there's opportunity for them to participate in what we do, to help them grow and improve their business. So I tell you what. Also seeing Harry, seeing a number of the vendors out there put on mini, mini shows themselves. So, you know, sort of four or five vendors gathering together. In fact, Lion Guard used to do this pretty well. They'll take the bus and pull some others in. We're seeing Huntress and the likes of enforcer and Halo do some of these shows and take them on tour a little bit smaller audiences, but but really good, engaging content. So I think I'll be doing some of those in 25 for sure.

Harry Brelsford  18:24

Alright, well, hey, I better scoot. So always a pleasure. Augie, in the lake, I'm going to put your LinkedIn URL in so people can reach you. I That's kind of my preferred way these days

David Tulip  18:37

to me. Yep, that's lovely, Harry. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it and good to catch up. Yeah, yeah,

Harry Brelsford  18:42

we'll see you in Denver. Thank you very much. Take

David Tulip  18:44

care. Bye, now, bye, bye. Hang on David.

18:58

There we go. You.