Channel Partners Expo Blog: Curious About the Special Programming in Store?

Each Channel Partners Conference & Expo is unique and this spring, weve got one of the best event lists yet thanks to some special programming.

Kicking off the pre-conference workshop series will be the first-ever Women in the Channel session, aimed at empowering women in indirect technology sales. Author and business coach Kimber Lim will give the keynote address and there will be a roundtable feature leading women in the channel, including Nancy Ridge of Telcombrokers, Donna Wenk of PAETEC, Amy Burke Freeman of Global Communications and Laura Bernstein of CRA Inc. Women in the Channel will take place from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, March 12, in Pinyon 7 & 8. Thanks to sponsors Intelisys, PAETEC, TBI and Windstream.

Are you new to the channel? Weve got targeted content for you, too, with Telecom Agency 101. Sunday morning, before the Spring 2011 Channel Partners Conference & Expo officially begins, soak up all the basics of being a telecom agent, from details on the communications market and contracts to commissions and Q&A with long-time agents. This three-hour event, starting at 9 a.m. on March 13 in Pinyon 5, will introduce you to the best practices you need to know to be a successful telecom agent.

If youre an established agent looking for new revenue streams, look no further than The Energy Institute taking place in Pinyon 2 at 9 a.m. on Sunday. Energy sales are the next wave of possibility for communications-industry channel partners, and the all-new Energy Institute will introduce you to everything you need to know to get started. Thanks to sponsors Glacial Energy and Reflective Energy Solutions.

Interested in becoming certified as a technology professional? The Technology Channel Associations (TCA) professional prep session on Sunday, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., will help you achieve that goal. TCA is the first-ever nonprofit trade association that targets the indirect telecom sales channel.

Next up, take advantage of five SMB Nation-hosted sessions that seek to help telecom and data partners team on opportunities. On Sunday and Monday, learn how to make the most of the cloud craze, how to create a sustainable seven-figure practice, how to transform your IT consultancy into a VoIP provider and much more.

From there, keep an eye out for the inaugural Unified Communications Pavilion. Businesses are clamoring for UC platforms that unify their telephony, messaging and collaboration tools, and this is the place to find out how to be their go-to partner. Meet leading and emerging UC vendors, from Cisco Systems and Siemens to PanTerra Networks and ScanSource, and get the scoop on the UC products that will best help your customers.

Finally, its time to do some intense mingling, and weve created the Agent-VAR Partnering Workshop and brought back the ever-popular Peer-to-Peer Networking Mixer to help you do just that.

The workshop comes first, at 2 p.m. on Monday in Pinyon 2. Co-sponsored by IT industry association CompTIA and Channel Partners, this interactive seminar will help partners from telecom and IT find common ground. The days of mere lead-swapping are over now IT and telecom partners need to work together on customer engagements. Be part of this session and walk out with knowledge of how best to navigate these relationships.

Last of all, wrap up your Channel Partners experience with the one and only Peer-to-Peer Networking Mixer, sponsored by PlanetOne. As always, this event is just for independent and subagents no masters or vendors allowed (but be sure to thank Ted Schuman and all the folks at PlanetOne for providing the food and drinks youll be enjoying at the mixer!). Sit in on roundtables hosted by various industry experts to discuss pressing topics concerning revenue retention, sales and marketing, hiring, and whatever else is on your mind. The mixer will be held in Pinyon 2 on Monday from 4:30-6 p.m.