Previewing ChannelCon EMEA: AI, Community, and GTIA Initiatives
Dan joins Daniel on a podcast to preview ChannelCon EMEA in London, building on recent ChannelCon North America success under the GTIA brand and its focus on the IT services channel. They discuss the event’s emphasis on timely, vendor-neutral education, peer-to-peer interaction, and post-session conversations, with AI as a major theme due to its impact on pricing, customer value perception, shadow IT, cybersecurity, and MSP service delivery. Dan highlights GTIA’s Managed Intelligence Alliance, regional European discussions, and efforts such as self-regulatory work and cybersecurity trust marks, along with year-round member resources including research, education (including CompTIA AI Essentials), portal assets, and expanding local chapters for more frequent networking. They note keynotes (Graham Norton and Daniel Priestley), industry panels, networking, international attendance, and encourage registration.
00:00 Welcome and Setup
00:25 ChannelCon NA Highlights
01:31 What to Expect in London
02:50 AI Themes and Impact
04:38 Managed Intelligence Alliance
06:18 Keynotes and Networking Fun
07:38 How to Get Value Fast
09:47 GTIA Member Benefits Year Round
11:30 Local Chapters Momentum
13:06 International Community in London
13:57 Final Call to Register
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Register for ChannelCon EMEA at using MSP Finance Team promo code “SPMSPFinance26” – https://web.cvent.com/event/bd1d848e-9d11-4825-acac-2ad458ae7b57/register
Connect with Dan Wensley on LinkedIn by clicking here –https://www.linkedin.com/in/danwensleyceogtia/
Connect with Daniel Welling on LinkedIn by clicking here – https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielwelling/
Connect with Adam Morris on LinkedIn by clicking here – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcmorris/
Visit The MSP Finance Team website, simply click here –https://www.mspfinanceteam.com/
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We look forward to catching up with you on the next one. Stay tuned!
Transcript:
Dan Welling: Hi, Dan. Welcome to the podcast.
Dan Wensley: Thanks, Daniel. Looking forward to the conversation today.
Dan Welling: And that conversation is gonna be all about channel con ea in just a few days time.
Dan Wensley: Yes, we’re we’re hard on it here. We’re getting ready and we’re pretty excited for channel economy coming off the great success we had in Channel Con North America and San Diego.
Dan Welling: Very good. And well talk, talking about the the North American additions of of Channel Con. What were the highlights for for people in attendance that those those events.
Dan Wensley: Yeah, it’s been an incredible couple of years with Channel Con under the GTIA brand and our absolute, you know, focus on the IT services channel. And certainly with all that’s going on and the pace of change and the amount of change in our industry, we’ve really seen this community hungry to come together more peer-to-peer interaction and to be able to [00:01:00] facilitate a lot of the educational sessions that were so poignant to the audience at the time.
You know, I’m still running into folks at other events who are still raving about the content and the insight and the people they met at Channel Con and we’re excited to duplicate, if not enhance that in, in London in a few short hours and days.
Dan Welling: In Indeed, and I think this is probably gonna be my 10th channel con London event. So, always a highlight of the year for me. What what should those in attendance be looking forward to most for this year’s event?
Dan Wensley: Yeah, well, obviously, you know it firsthand, Daniel. I think as, as we saw in San Diego, as we saw both in, in London last year as well the need and requirement to come together as a community may never have been higher as an industry. We are certainly focused on the foundational components that have made Channel con successful around education and [00:02:00] making it accessible to the entire channel.
But most importantly, making sure that the educational tracks and information are timely, valuable, you know, certainly vendor, vendor neutral. We have such great resources, assets, research that we’re able to bring to bear for the community and our members, and we’re excited to share that. And then most importantly, have the conversations about those data points afterwards.
So, you know, I’m, you’ve done 10 years in, in Channel Con and amea. I think this is my 26th perhaps year even prior to obviously join running GTIA. I’ve been an active member for decades and know firsthand also the value of coming together at this particular event for the industry.
And we’re looking forward to it.
Dan Welling: And in, in terms of some of the themes and topics that are likely to form the agenda, presum, presumably there’s a little bit about ai maybe.
Dan Wensley: It should come [00:03:00] as no surprise that AI is certainly a part, you know, it’s the cornerstone of the conversations today. But what’s really interesting and what we’ve seen is AI is impacting everything from pricing to customer value perception to, you know, the shadow IT of AI is incredibly enhanced, the impact of cyber.
So AI on its own, yes, is a hot topic, something we need to talk about and are talking about, but really it’s all of the impact AI is having on the traditional lines of business service delivery model value to customer that the MSPs are saying, and then the innovation from the vendor community.
What has always been special about Channel Con is we come together as an agnostic industry at this event where we put the innovators on technology and vendors alongside the MSPs, and we talk about how best to service the SMB and mid-market [00:04:00] customers of which we’re responsible for as an industry.
So it’s an exciting time, obviously with the hype and realities around ai, but it’s also so impactful across the board. So we really see where those crossroads of technology innovation are coming with real impact. It’s the early days of MSP when it changed everything in the business, the value proposition of the end user, the operations of an IT service provider the day-to-day and the value proposition.
So it’s holistic and it’s an exciting time, but as I said it, it’s probably the most important time to be coming together.
Dan Welling: And in interesting topic you sort of strayed onto there, the the it SP movement to MSP and, you know, that’s prob probably around my, my time in the community. What’s what’s your forecast for what we will be called in the next 10 years?
Dan Wensley: Yeah, listen, my job is not to forecast. [00:05:00] My job is really to, as the trade association for the industry, it’s to bring those voices together. But we’re doing that in pretty meaningful ways. The, you know, the alliance the Managed Intelligence Alliance that we launched at both Channel Con and recently we’ll have other announcements about that.
That our ability to pull the industry together to talk about the impact of these new technologies, the new operations, what we’re doing around self-regulatory, what we’re doing around cybersecurity trust marks. The, the Managed Intelligence Alliance is an extension of that, and I’m really excited to have some very specific regional conversations in Europe about these kind of initiatives.
’cause it won’t be the same everywhere in the world. And what are ability to bring to the industry is the local conversation and then elevate that to a global viewpoint. So we’ll both see, you know, what’s going on in Europe [00:06:00] and be able to share what’s going on in perhaps North America or other regions around the world.
And the Alliance will be able to cross pollinate that information and make sure that every region in the global industry is taking best advantage of what live had for us as an industry.
Dan Welling: And and Of course it’s not all work at these these events. There’s a little bit of fun and and especially one of my highlights of the of the event is the opportunity to network and talk with others in a, in sort of, in informal informal capacity. What’s what’s On the agenda in that regards?
Dan Wensley: Yes. So, we have a little fun, a little entertainment for sure. I’m super excited about a couple of keynotes we have, certainly at, at Channel Economy. I didn’t think we could, you know, even compete with last year with Sir Bob Geldoff and Sir Stephen Fry who we had as keynotes last year.
But we’re doing pretty well. We’ve got Graham Norton as one of the keynotes. Excited to meet him, excited to hear from him and Daniel Priestley [00:07:00] who’s gonna provide both some entertainment as well as some real business acumen and insights. We’ve got our power panel of industry leaders and some fun along the way for sure.
We have to make it make sure we’re enjoying the ride that we’re all on here together.
Dan Welling: In Indeed and and that there will be an MSP finance team stand at the event. And on our stand, we’re actually having a racing simulator. So we’re gonna be challenging the community to to be drive driving forwards excuse of the pun.
Dan Wensley: Oh, love it. Love it. Yeah. It’s great to see the kind of innovation and ideas that that we can enjoy at these events as well.
Dan Welling: In Indeed and an event over two days. Some, some people that, that attend events do find them maybe a little bit overwhelming in terms of the amount of time out of the office and just the sheer volume of information and opportunities the faced with what what advice, guidance can you offer for how best to navigate and get the best experience out of outta one of these events?
Dan Wensley: Yeah it’s Quite easy to say, listen, I can’t [00:08:00] afford the time out of the office. We all work long, hard hours and dedicated, you know, to our customers and our craft. But as I, and maybe you have experienced as well, since you’ve gone for over a decade, this is where we can work on the business, not in the business.
And the, the time you spend in the business is going to be elevated by the opportunity that one conversation you have in a lift in, in, in the breakfast over the lunch, to the opportunity to sit down with peers who are all coming to channel con to understand, get educated, share ideas, share, you know, fails and wins in the same voice.
I think it’s invaluable, and I’ve seen over 30 years in this industry, those who accelerate their businesses have been a part of the communities. And it’s proven itself over and over again. Come share your thoughts, ideas, listen, learn, give, and take. A [00:09:00] lot of the insights the, you know, that five minute conversation has changed the trajectory of so many businesses, and I’ve seen it firsthand, but if you’re not there, you don’t get it.
So I Would encourage everybody to take the opportunity to come to an industry event like Channel Con, to spend the time with your peers and listen to those who are doing what you do. Perspective is everything.
Dan Welling: Couldn’t agree more. And like, like you I’m around the 30, 30 year anniversary in the channel, and, you know, I’m I feel like I missed advancement, not being part of the community for those first 20 years. And yeah always advocate to get, getting out having conversations and talking to others and as you say, taking the time to work on rather than rather than in, in the business.
And for Those listening that aren’t already part of the GTIA community obviously the, the community isn’t just two days. What else is available to to to members throughout the year?
Dan Wensley: Well, this Is [00:10:00] the beauty of GTIA as your Global Trade Association. We spend a lot of money and endowment you know, investment into research education, whether it’s our partnership with CompTIA AI and what you can get out of that from the AI essentials. The state of the market reports, the adoption curves of SMB and it’s more than just channel Con.
We have our local chapters initiative has absolutely exploded since we announced it at Channel Con in San Diego in August. There are so many ways to engage with the community and with your peers, and there is so many incredible assets inside the GTIA portal for the amount of money membership costs to cover your entire company.
You may have a sales individual, a technician who needs a data point, needs an asset, needs to understand something that they don’t have readily available. This is the power of GTIA and giving them the access to that portal to go in and we’ll [00:11:00] be, you know, launching our AI initiatives inside our portal to make it even easier to find the data point, the research the peer collaboration that you’re looking for.
So, in My opinion, there is no reason not to be and every reason to be a member of your trade association and participate. One research paper, one data point, one insight, one video from a peer is worth the, is certainly worth the membership dues.
Dan Welling: And in, in terms of the the engagement in, in person. You mentioned the local chapters. Talk to me a little bit about that as a recent initiative.
Dan Wensley: Yeah, I mean, we get a lot of highlights for all of the things we’re doing on a global basis. Our AI for Good with the un, and those are super exciting initiatives, but I’m really actually most proud Daniel of mostly the acceptance and interest in the local peer to peer networking opportunities.
So what we did is we announced local chapters. Members have [00:12:00] asked me over and over, we want more opportunities to come together and we do great events and our Spotlight awards and obviously Channel Con and so on. But they want to get together more often. So we launched a programme called Local Chapters in literally weeks.
There was dozens of these set up around, around the globe where we are setting the framework to come together as a community and a peer group and meet and collaborate, leverage the resources available from GTIA or have your own conversation. And this has just absolutely exploded. We’re so excited to support it.
You’re gonna see announcements around how we’re going to make further investments in resources to support the community. So local chapters, the opportunity for a London-based chapter to spring up meet on a regular basis, come together. And it could be London, Manchester, it could, there could be two in London on two different tracks.
That, that’s all being facilitated. So the local peer to peer is as important [00:13:00] as the global perspective or channel con events.
Dan Welling: And of course with the, the global events you do have mem membership attendance from across the globe. I know I’ve not made it to to a North American event yet, but I know some of my peers and colleagues have a you expecting a, an international contingent in London.
Dan Wensley: We certainly are. We certainly are. I’m Canadian myself. We’ll have a number of Canadian members coming over. Certainly the opportunity to spend some time in London is near and dear to the international community, and I think it does provide an international perspective as well. And hearing from somebody outside your region in a peer group, whether they’re a laggard or ahead of a curve is equally valuable.
so local, yes, but international and, you know, cross, cross pollination of viewpoints I think is pretty powerful.
Dan Welling: Very good. So, we’re pretty much on time. I guess sort of final thoughts to bring all of this together. [00:14:00] Anyone listening that hasn’t yet registered what’s your advice?
Dan Wensley: We have the people, we have the resources, we have the community, and we have the opportunity for advancement for your yourself your business and your customers. It’s all available at channel com and GTIA and we hope to see you there and have your voice added to the community.
Dan Welling: Very good. Thank you very much for your time and look forward to seeing you in a few a few days time.
Dan Wensley: Thanks Daniel. You too.