Flashback Friday: Images from the Last 20 Years in the Channel
PlanetOne's Ted Schuman dressed as what?
![Channel Partners circa 2006 Channel Partners circa 2006](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt0f60593844f76498/652454e9911d6e281de4cafc/7.-2006-Channel-Partners-in-DC-Mike-Saxby-Tammy-Fellows-and-Suzy-Kelley-1.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
PlanetOne CEO Ted Schuman enlivens the crowd at our Miami event.
Schuman recently reflected on his earliest memories of the conference, which used to be known as “The Agent Show.”
It was a sea of khaki pants at the ACC Business awards. It’s hard to miss WTG CEO Vince Bradley, who stands taller than the rest of the crowd.
Broadwing’s Zane Long accepts an award from TBI’s Geoffrey Shepstone (right) and Ken Mercer (left).
Shepstone has been working at TBI since 1991.
Now Long poses with Telarus.
Long would go on to work at Level 3 Communications (which acquired Broadwing), Genband, Cbeyond, Vonage and most recently RingCentral.
Erica Moss of Palm demonstrates one of those nifty smartphones – one of the Treo line. Moss made the demonstration at a Sprint partner meeting.
HP bought Palm in 2010.
TelePacific’s Ken Bisnoff got his inner cowboy on at the company’s President’s Club Wild West Olympics.
TelePacific has since re-branded to TPx Communications and transformed itself from a CLEC into a managed services provider.
WTG CEO Vince Bradley presented a check to Clark Currier of BetterWorld Telecom on behalf of XO Communications.
Today Bradley serves as vice president of corporate development and general manager, energy services, at AppSmart, and Currier is a senior channel sales manager at TPx Communications. Furthermore, Verizon acquired XO Communications.
Sherm Henderson, Karl Strohmeyer and Earl Comstock cut the ribbon at the 2007 spring Comptel show.
Strohmeyer at the time was working for Level 3 Communications. He now serves as chief customer and revenue officer at Equinix.
Comstack was president and CEO of Comptel. He has since gone on to work at the U.S. Department of Commerce and other legal counsel positions.
Randy Jeter celebrates hitting the longest drive at the PlanetOne President’s Club event.
At the time, Jeter was working for Paetec, but he would go on to co-found RapidScale the next year.
Betsy Chandler, Mike Saxby and Tammy Fellows pose at the Comptel Plus Spring show.
Phone+ teamed up with Comptel for “Telecom Week 2007” to host their shows back-to-back at the Venetian. We rebranded from Phone+ to Channel Partners in 2010.
Ken Mercer enjoyed his times at annual TBI ski trips.
Mercer worked at TBI for 12 years before going to work for Mason Technologies, MetTel and most recently Telesystem.
Nine nominees pose for the “Channel Executive of the Year” award that we handed out at our 2009 show.
From left to right, the nominees were Ron Ireland, J.D. Baker, Craig Schlagbaum, John Cunningham, Sherm Henderson, Justin Chris-Tensen, Tom Sullivan and Greg Plum.
Henderson, the CEO of Lightyear Network Solutions, took home top honors.
Telarus co-founder Patrick Oborn attends Cable President’s Club. Oborn and Adam Edwards founded Telarus in 2002.
Intelisys’ Jay Bradley received a gentle peck on the cheek at the Channel Connect conference.
Bradley worked at the master agent for 18 years before moving into an advisory role. The cable suppliers recently gave him a Lifetime Achievement award.
You got a kick out of this one, and so did we.
We showed you a collection of photos from channel events over the past 20 years. They included images from the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, as well as individual company events.
Few could stand up, however, to PlanetOne CEO Ted Schuman dressed as Willy Wonka. No doubt some of you were in the audience for that one.
Marie Rourke of White Fox Marketing poses with Verizon‘s Alethea Peyrin at a Women in the Channel Event.
Peyrin is now 10 years into her tenure at Verizon, where she serves as global technology partner leader.
Women in the Channel has since evolved into Alliance of Channel Women.
Khali Henderson, Tiffani Bova and Marie Rourke catch up at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
Henderson, our former editor-in-chief at Channel Partners, now leads the marketing consultancy BuzzTheory. Bova had recently ended a 10-year stint at Gartner to work at Salesforce, where she still works. Rourke founded WhiteFox Marketing in 2005 and still leads the company.
Khali Henderson, Tiffani Bova and Marie Rourke catch up at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
Henderson, our former editor-in-chief at Channel Partners, now leads the marketing consultancy BuzzTheory. Bova had recently ended a 10-year stint at Gartner to work at Salesforce, where she still works. Rourke founded WhiteFox Marketing in 2005 and still leads the company.
The Channel Partners community stays together through thick and thin.
People in our industry say over and over again that relationships form the backbone of our business. Vendors, master agents and direct selling agents build networks of trust with one another, and in many cases, they’ve been building trust over multiple decades.
As Channel Partners Online fully integrates with Channel Futures, we want to reflect on the history of those relationships. Thus, we cobbled together 18 photos that will spark the memories of anyone who’s worked in the traditional telecom agent channel. The slideshow features pictures that will elicit laughter, nostalgia and probably a bit of embarrassment. Get ready relive all of our cringy fashion habits from the early 2000s.
Photographers snapped these pictures at a variety of events. Remember events? Oh yeah, that’s right — we used to go to those! And if everything goes according to plan, we’ll do so again soon. Hopefully you’ll join us Nov. 1-4 in Las Vegas for Channel Partners Homecoming. I personally can’t wait to see you all, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos.
Special thanks to our own Buffy Naylor and WhiteFox Marketing’s Marie Rourke for providing the pictures.
Scroll through the slideshow above to see 17 images from the last two decades in the channel.
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