While I spent last week busy with HTG, Tracie Orisko was on-site at the spring IM One event in Orlando. Though I suspect she spent much of her time at Disneyworld, she swears she attended the event, and provided this recap:
“I spent last week in Orlando at IM One and it was a pleasure to be back with the Ingram Micro community. We are very proud to be part of the Cloud Elevate program and the chance to spend time at their booth talking about the Elevate program and our services was a value added piece of the week.
Having MSP clients at the event is always a bonus. This gives me a chance to listen to what the companies we work with are saying about us. The running theme this week that all our clients talked about is how we are “MSP focused” and why that works better than working with a company with a broader target base. We had vendor clients at the show as well and it was great to be able to hand leads back and forth as we came across opportunities that made sense.
The sessions this week were a great chance for me to learn more about where the MSP Space was headed. Listening to what is happening in the channel helps us become better on the phone when pitching for our clients. Understanding the ramifications of Microsoft 2003 Servers no longer being supported, for example, means we can probe more thoroughly when we are doing discovery during calls.
A change in name and focus for the VTN group was launched at the event. This Ingram Micro partner program has a new name and is looking at additional service offerings in hopes of gaining more recognition among end-user customers. VentureTech Network, or VTN, has become the Trust X Alliance, a more forward-looking name intended to convey the skill sets and capabilities of its solution-provider members.
Ingram Micro always puts a charity event together at IM One and this year is was bicycle building for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Orlando. Inspiring is the only way to describe what happened there! A room full of bikes in boxes and a room full of kids who needed them!
It was amazing to see business leaders getting hands-on with these kids, building bikes AND relationships at the same time. At the end of the evening, Alvina, the 11 year old girl I built with, took my hand and told me how she would never forget what I did for her. Her brother, Josh, stood up and shook my hand (with a grip better than some men I know) with tears in his eyes and thanked me for helping his family.”
If you weren’t able to connect with Tracie at the Ingram Micro event, you’ll have the chance to say hello at Autotask Community Live next week in Miami. If you’re planning to be in Miami for that event, please reach out to us if you would like to chat! An email to hello@managedsalespros.com will work fine!