MSP Summit 2024 Preview: Insights, Honors, Networking

MSP SUMMIT — The MSP Summit 2024 opens Tuesday with a jam-packed agenda that includes CEO interviews, plenty of MSP executive insights, analyst data presentations and awards for elite MSPs, executives and vendors.

Tuesday includes a keynote interview with Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola, and one-on-one sessions with Sophos CEO Joe Levy and NinjaOne CEO Sal Sfrelazza will follow on Wednesday.

This year’s fall MSP Summit focuses on a "New Era of Managed Services" with the goal of helping MSPs understand what they must do to grow their practices to boost their annual recurring revenue streams. The conference features keynotes, interviews and workshops delivered by industry thought leaders.

And leaders will also be honored at the MSP 501 Awards Gala Wednesday night. The MSP 501 winners will be feted, and we will give special awards for MSP company, MSP chief executive, newcomer, digital innovator, vanguard, lifetime achievement and preferred vendors.

If you’re hot for data, we have three Hot Data sessions. Canalys analyst Jay McBain and Peter Kujawa of Service Leadership will each host one Tuesday, with Canalys analyst Robin Ody adding one on Wednesday. Also, McBain, Ody and Omdia’s Devan Adams will hold a Meet the Analysts session Wednesday to talk about how vendor and partner strategies must alight to succeed in managed services.

Walmart global tech data science rirector Douglas Gray on Wednesday will address a topic on many people’s minds: “AI Is Real: How Large Organizations Like Walmart Are Putting AI to Work.”

And if sports are your thing, former NFL and NBA executive Paul Epstein’s Tuesday afternoon keynote, "How to Make Better Decisions Faster," will resonate.

The MSP Summit – hosted by Informa with Channel Futures serving as a media partner - includes a co-located "Elevating Women in Channels: A Channel Partners Workshop" on Tuesday.

Other Tuesday MSP Summit 2024 highlights:

The Channel Futures MSP 501 & NextGen Power Panel: What Drives the Best of the Best

Jack Dziak of Recovery Point Systems, Chris Ichelson of 360 SOC, Luke Fong of Lateral Plans and Michael McKerley of Zayo. Moderator Pam Diaz’s Entera is also an MSP 501 winner.

Mastering Partner Programs: Welcome to the Jungle

MSPs Marcial Velez of Xperteks and Tony Ferrigno of AiT Advisory Group will moderate this panel, and talk to representatives from vendors Datto, Granite Technologies, Fortinet and blu Systems GmbH on how they evolve their partner programs to meet the needs of managed services.

MSP Mentor Workshop: Building Your AI Practice: A 60-Minute Crash Course

The MSP Mentor presents an intensive workshop tailored specifically for both channel partners offering managed services and dedicated MSPs eager to dive into building AI solutions for their customers. In this fast-paced session, moderator Len DiCostanzo, MSPs Chance Weaver of New Charter and Chuck Canton of Sourcepass, and Xurrent’s Phil Christianson will provide practical insights needed to kick-start an MSPs journey toward delivering AI-powered solutions for customers.

Next Generation MSPs: Meet the Industry's Hottest Innovators

Panelists Jeff Eiben of River Point Technology, Chris Black of Jolera and Steven DeMaayer of Blue Mantis represent MSPs focused on innovation and have the swagger to toss the status quo to the curb as they meet the needs customers who want to leverage technology to propel their growth.

Leading The Way In a New Era of Managed Services

During this session, Sam Ruggeri of MSP Lincoln IT talks to vendor execs Jeannine Edwards of Asigra SaaSAssure, Mike Psenka of Moovila and Tom Haller of GoTo about shaping their programs supporting managed services-focused channel partners and pure play MSPs. 

MSP Summit Power Panel: The Future of Managed Services Partner Programs

Informa VP of channel events Robert DeMarzo moderates this panel with Jeff Taylor of Lenovo, Brian Marks of Cisco and Patrick O’Dell of Ingram Micro. They will discuss what they see as big opportunities for MSPs to drive new revenue and customer acquisition. 

Dealmakers of the Year

The Channel Partners MSP Summit in partnership with M&A advisory firm MartinWolf will announce the 2024 Dealmakers of the Year awards. These awards recognize the technology and channel industry’s most strategic mergers and acquisitions that accelerated company growth and innovation. Winners will be named for most significant vendor transaction, enterprise MSP transaction, midmarket MSP transaction and smaller midmarket MSP transaction.

Other Wednesday MSP Summit 2024 highlights:

The Hottest Tech Companies to Propel Your MSP Business

Jon Murchison of Blackpoint Cyber and Brian Lanigan of SentinelOne join a panel discussion to disclose what is driving their growth, the types of partners in their networks that are having the greatest success, and where they are investing for the future.

Leadership Secrets for a New Era in Managed Services

Rich McKinnon of DBVE Technology Group, Canton of Sourcepass, Brent Yax of Awecomm Technologies, Ron Lovern of Triton Networks and Neil Medwed of Meriplex – MSP leaders with decades of experience – reveal how they helped grow revenues and bootstrap startups into thriving MSPs, and how they will take on today’s tech and business challenges.

Navigating Through Economic Turbulence: Peer Best Practices

Women channel leaders Mogana Sundar of Akati Security, Leah Freiman of ItCon and Pam Diaz of Entara share tales of how they are shepherding their organizations through today’s uncertainties by applying lessons from the past.

How MSP CEOs Add $Millions of New Revenues

Celebrity entrepreneur Clint Arthur looks at MSP CEOs’ methodology for adding millions of dollars in new revenue.

It Takes a Complete Ecosystem to Make AI Work

Palash Bharadwaj of Clarion Technologies, Psenka of Moovila and Greg Luebke of OpenText – vendors that come at AI from different directions -- discuss the roles their products and services plays in shaping this evolutionary technology.

CIO & CISO Perspectives, Priorities: Understanding Today's Tech Buyer

David Nour of The Nour Group speaks to IT executives Irene Thong of Printpack and Ashok Narayan of Florida’s Natural Growers about how today’s priorities are impacting their purchasing decisions and relationships with partners — or directly with vendors.

And while all the MSP Summit 2024 conference session will be entertaining, there are a few purely fun events — also known as parties. These include a Tuesday night ATL Block Party and a Wednesday afternoon pub crawl in the Expo Hall. And the MSP 501 Awards Gala Wednesday night brings the MSP Summit to a head.