Image Gallery: The Channel Partners Expo Hall
Our cameras caught the biggest booths, the fun 'n' games, the largest crowd shots and more.
Welcome!
The expo hall opened to the 6,000 Channel Partners participants on Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. Attendees lined up just a few minutes early to be the first to fill the aisles to learn about the latest technologies and to make contacts with suppliers whose solutions they are – or soon will be – selling.
TPx Communications
In addition to having a large, colorful booth, TPx Communications (Signature Sponsor) had a busy show.
Among the managed-services carrier's many newsworthy announcements: Master agent TCG joined TPx's national channel partner program, as did Avant Communications; and the company introduced an install guarantee for its sales partners, ensuring that for all sales through Aug. 31, TPx will meet or exceed customer-negotiated due dates for installations or pay a $500 penalty to the partner.
Channel Partners also inducted Hilary Gadda, TPx's director of national channel development, into our Circle of Excellence during a special ceremony at the show.
AT&T
Title sponsor AT&T once again had a massive presence at the entrance to the expo hall, showing off a giant projection touch screen for attendees to explore.
The carrier used the Channel Partners Conference & Expo to announce a new, bigger channel sales event later this year, dubbed "Fusion by AT&T Partner Solutions." It will bring together members of the company's Alliance Channel and Partner Exchange; they previously had separate events.
Channel chief Zee Hussain also delivered a keynote address touting the power of 5G.
We honored Kevin Leonard, AT&T's VP of Alternate Channels, as a member of our Circle of Excellence.
Verizon
Verizon (Premier Sponsor) always draws a large crowd to its booth sitting at the entrance to the expo hall.
Among a number of places the carrier could be seen around the show were as part of our SDN conference education track, and in our Channel Partners Studios in the Expo Hall, where Scott Peterson, VP & GM, took part in an episode of the Channel Partners podcast, Coffee with Craig & Kevin.
Channel Partners honored Bill Hooper, Verizon Business Markets' managing director, partner channel, in our Circle of Excellence.
Sprint
Sprint (Signature Sponsor) had its largest presence on the show floor in years. The star of the show, of course, was Pepper (seen here), the carrier's customer-relations robot. The four-foot tall machine helps customers at the wireless giant's retail stores.
Sprint also used the opportunity to introduce its new Smart UC, which it bills as an affordable, as-a-service voice and unified communications productivity suite powered by BroadSoft, now a part of Cisco.
Office Depot
What the heck is Office Depot doing at a channel show? Plenty.
The retail giant hired channel stalwart Janet Schijns – who delivered a keynote – away from Verizon last fall to lead its services division. At about the same time, it said it was buying CompuCom for $1 billion, signaling a pivot to IT services. The company is making a major play for the SMB market, and thus, needs the partners it met last week at our show.
On site, Office Depot announced a partnership with master agency MicroCorp. The company also took home hardware as Best New Exhibitor.
TouchTone Communications
Did you get a chance to take out some stress on the knockout game at the TouchTone Communications booth? The company gave $250 to both the man and woman who came up with the highest scores.
Broadvoice
Broadvoice got creative, offering up a "menu" of services to offer attendees.
Early in the month, the company named Eric Brooker its director of channel. Then, we recognized Rebecca Rosen, vice president of marketing, at our Circle of Excellence ceremony on April 19.
Spectrum Enterprise
Spectrum Enterprise (Signature Sponsor) represented the cable companies proudly with its booth, which featured some sleight-of-hand in the form of card tricks.
We weren't playing games, however, when we enshrined Michelle Kadlacek, Spectrum's vice president, partner channel, into our Circle of Excellence.
RingCentral
RingCentral made plenty of news at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
First up was a new partnership with MicroCorp, its 17th master-agent relationship. RingCentral says it now has recruited all master agents it has targeted, and will set its sights on national channel partners and those of its competitors.
The company also participated with rival UC providers in the first-ever Channel Partners Thunderdome at the show and channel chief Zane Long was recognized as part of our Circle of Excellence.
Mitel
Batter up! Mitel (Premier Sponsor), which just announced its $2 billion sale to an investor group, featured a baseball theme at its booth.
EnergyWare
EnergyWare played on your need for speed by putting on display this Porsche 911.
The company went big in its first Channel Partners appearance, touting its lighting-infrastructure business. Partners learned how the company designs and implements products with the intention of exceeding expectations for safety, quality and aesthetics, achieving targeted ROI and savings.
Vonage
On the heels of announcing a new partner network designed to attract many different partner types, Vonage (Premier Sponsor) sponsored the Business Success Symposium preconference, an event that aimed to help business leaders peer into the future and build on their core competencies.
The telephony, cloud and UC supplier introduced its first chatbot at the show, and participated in both fastball (six-minute presentation on the keynote stage) and Channel Partners Studios (recorded video interview) sessions.
We honored Vonage channel chief Bob Crissman as a Circle of Excellence winner as well.
And not to be outdone, Vonage, too, brought a Porsche; plus, they won our award for Best Booth Design.
Channel Partners Studios
Channel Partners Studios, which we debuted last fall at Channel Partners Evolution, made a bigger-and-better return to the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
Our Studios featured video-recorded interviews with some of the show's biggest players. It was also home to awards presentations.
Here, John Rabara (right), vice president of sales engineering at Synacor, sits down to answer a few questions posed by Kris Blackmon, content director, MSP and VAR, Channel Futures and Channel Partners.
Aryaka
Aryaka (Featured Sponsor) was one of a number of SD-WAN providers that found the show floor chock full of partners curious about their solutions.
We've kept an eye on this major player over the past several months in our series of SD-WAN roundups.
Want more SD-WAN? Review our list of 20 top SD-WAN providers offering products and services via channel partners.**
Aryaka
Aryaka (Featured Sponsor) was one of a number of SD-WAN providers that found the show floor chock full of partners curious about their solutions.
We've kept an eye on this major player over the past several months in our series of SD-WAN roundups.
Want more SD-WAN? Review our list of 20 top SD-WAN providers offering products and services via channel partners.**
One of the most popular image galleries of the year is back. It’s our roundup from the expo hall at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, held in Las Vegas, April 17-20.
We had 6,000 total participants at our biggest show ever, one that continues to grow each and every year.
The expo hall is always a highlight, offering attendees a chance to see cool new products and services, meet with suppliers, network and create new relationships that could last for years to come.
Our cameras caught the biggest booths, the fun ‘n’ games, the largest crowd shots and more. Peruse our gallery below to see who made the most of their Channel Partners appearance.
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