Every conference has a certain vibe. The just-completed 7th annual SMB Nation Spring Conference is no exception. The last session on the last day (“KEY4 Microsoft SMB: Strategies for On-Premise and Cloud Solutions-Hybrid IT - Kevin Beares, Steven Banks and Cliff Galiher”) summed it up best: Eat your broccoli.
What?
Each year, the Spring Conference drills down into a focused topic. Last year it was Windows 8 in its “preview” state. This year it was a business focus on adding the Cloud Services Provider (CSP) business model to your Managed Services Provider (MSP) practice. For many – it was like being asked to eat broccoli. How? With the retail sales of SBS ending June 30, and the OEM sales ending December 31, “you” know you need to do something, and you know it’ll be good for you. But you don’t want to eat broccoli. In a nutshell – that sums up the conference without overwhelming you with a rout session-by-session review. You can explore the full-on Spring Conference site at spring.smbnation.com to satisfy your curiosity.
A few shout outs.
· Richard Reiffer (http://spring.smbnation.com/index.php/schedule/speakers/151). This guy rocked the conference. He is an amazing speaker and frames the MSP-to-CSP conversation in ways that we can all relate. He quickly disarmed the audience who might have felt “Microsoft is shoving cloud down my throat” with both humor in facts. This guy is a “must see.”
· BlackBerry and the SMB 150 event. Many many thanks again to BlackBerry for underwriting the 3rd annual SMB 150 award based on a voting contest held earlier this year. And we totally appreciate the partnership with SMB Technology Network (SMBTN). Truth be told – the SMB 150 was their idea!
· Dell and THE RECEPTION with the Microsoft Princess and the Magician. Wow – the stunning weather in Seattle this weekend lent itself to an amazing Friday night reception for conference attendees on the hotel patio. And our surprise guest enchanted the audience!
· International attendees. Several countries were represented including Canada (several attendees), India (Abhijit Chatterjee), and Brazil (Carlos F. Paleo da Rocha, Rob Cheng).
· Online audience. Wow – we had fun with a robust online audience. Over 200 attendees watched selected streaming content. We integrated them into the conference with the help of Jay Weiss asking questions on behalf of the online attendees (they asked questions via “chat” and Jay relayed).
· Announcements:
o Jennifer Hallmark was promoted to President of SMB Nation.
o Chris Bangs was promoted to Vice President for Sales and Marketing of SMB Nation.
o We are launching revamped sites for SMB Nation and MyPocketMBA.
o SMB Nation has a new events management division called Hallmark where we manage event logistics for other companies (imagine a Starbucks store opening..LOL).
And who are the funny guys in the pic above? It’s Alan Helbush (right) and Bob Nitrio (left) trying to steal prizes from Ken Edwards (center). Here’s the back story. Ken won THREE prizes in the raffle drawing! He ran out of cards and wrote his name on borrowed business cards from Alan and Bob. Ken won the prizes and the picture reflects Alan and Bob trying to collect “their prizes” from Ken as it was technically their business card(s) that “won” these prizes. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.
