Are You Ready for 'The New Style of Leadership'?

The big question for every channel partner looking ahead to 2024 is whether or not they are prepared to lead their teams and organizations forward. For senior leaders of channel partner businesses such as MSPs, telco agents and technology advisors, the answers to the most pressing challenges of the coming year will be uncovered during the Channel Futures Leadership Summit, Oct. 30-Nov. 2, in Miami Beach.

Let’s start with the most important thing every leader needs today — exposure to and connections with other high-ranking executives who are trying to solve similar problems. Every channel leader is looking at the new year with a mixture of fear, trepidation and positivity — as well as a litany of questions about how to grow revenue, what vendors and technology suppliers are most strategic and how to capitalize on such big trends as AI. Digging into those issues and preparing for the new year are why Informa is holding this event in the fourth quarter. Being in the company of other leaders who are guiding MSP organizations or agents/technology advisors can put industry opportunities and organizational challenges into context so that plans of action can be developed.

The New Style of Leadership

Over the past several weeks excitement has been rising as industry leaders, tech visionaries and entrepreneurs from around the country prepared to gather in Miami Beach for this year’s highly anticipated Leadership Summit. With the promise of groundbreaking insights, cutting-edge technologies and unparalleled networking opportunities, this event is poised to redefine channel and go-to-market strategies. The theme of “The New Style of Leadership” says it all for senior managers looking to understand how to build high-performance teams and for those team members who want to rise up through the ranks. This year’s event has something for those leading marketing, sales, operations, professional services and other functions of today’s channel partner organization.

The event, part conference and part expo, brings together the entire channel, those selling and supporting IT, telco, communications and collaboration solutions. It builds upon the spring 2023 Channel Partners Conference & Expo which, with nearly 8,000 attendees was the year’s largest independent channel get-together. In Miami Beach some 2,000 channel leaders will get an opportunity to explore more deeply what success looks like for themselves and their organizations.

In keeping with our tradition of allowing hard-working attendees to also enjoy themselves a little, the event features themed get-togethers. The biggest reception, the 2023 Channel Futures MSP 501 Awards Gala, takes place on the closing evening. During the MSP 501 gala, the top performing MSPs of the year will be honored along with special awards for executives of the year, lifetime achievement, cloud partner of the year, security partner of the year and more.

Women’s Leadership Summit

This year’s main keynote stage will be packed with insightful sessions. It starts with our Women’s Leadership Summit which features panels and individual presentations designed to help women in channels accelerate their career ascension and raise their personal brands. Speakers include Kelli Ballou-McMillan of Five 9, Trish Van de Bovenkamp of Upstack, Zina Hassel of ZLH, Hilary Gada of Coro,  MeiLee Langley of Xcitium and our very own Kelly Danziger of Informa Tech Channels. This year’s lineup of speakers and presenters at the Women’s Leadership Summit is our strongest yet.

On the Keynote Stage

After Monday’s women’s summit concludes, the main keynote stage will feature speakers who will collectively point all channel leaders toward the big opportunities of 2024. Attendees will hear from leaders of the top-performing MSP 501 organizations along with best-in-class agents and technology advisors who are leading the way in delivering communications-based solutions and working with the largest service providers in the industry including T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and many others.

Keynote speakers will address the massive opportunities in cybersecurity and the role marketplaces will play going forward for all partners. AI — which just might be the most talked about technology of the year — deserves a deep dive from many perspectives. So, we have assembled a group of leading vendors to discuss how they are building AI-ready products and services that partners can take to market along with adjusting partner programs to support AI-based initiatives.

Attendees are invited to listen in as Channel Futures editors sit down with Kaseya’s CEO Fred Voccola and ATSG CEO Anthony D’Ambrosi, both of whom will reveal what’s driving them and their organizations to new heights. You never quite know what questions our editors will ask of these leaders so don’t miss those sessions.

If that’s not enough to motivate the average channel partner, former NFL great turned business coach and motivation speaker Eric Boles will be joining us. His “Moving to Great” presentation is filled with practical takeaways for every business leader. Boles is founder and president of The Game Changers and that is exactly what he is going to help our attendees do — change the game in their favor. By the way, if you want to change your marketing game, you won’t want to miss then we have a main stage presentation designed to help in a panel discussion moderated by Amy Bailey of Unusually Unusual Consulting.

The Client Viewpoint

No Channel Partners event would be complete without the perspective of the one group to whom we owe it all — customers. So many tech conferences neglect to include the voice of those buying today’s technology solutions. But not ours!  We are honored to have one of the nation’s most prominent CIOs, Sean Kenny of Carnival Cruise Line, join us onstage to help partners understand the buyer’s journey and what leading CIOs want from their partners going forward.

While we have our share of star power on the main stage of the event, there’s no shortage of superstars in the deep-dive conference breakouts which cover everything from MDF, to AI, cybersecurity, operational efficiency, professional services, M&A and sales leadership.

At this year’s event we are ushering in a new component of The MSP Mentor series of workshops led by Len DiCostanzo, CEO of MSP Toolkit. Working closely with New Charter Technologies, we will feature MSP training based on their Front Runner methodology. During these sessions, partners will gain insight into achieving business efficiency, elevating the client experience and the paths to growth. The wrap up session is a maturity model assessment test partners can take so they understand their business metrics better and can discuss with peers and experts.

And there’s even more packed into the agenda. So, we hope you can join us in Miami Beach for three days of intense channel-focused discussions, peer networking, technology deep dives, vendor demonstrations and, of course, some fun.