Intelisys Agents Gather in Napa

By Mike Saxby

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Intelisys agent event, now dubbed, “Channel Connect,” on Oct. 14-16. The 2009 gathering marked the 10th anniversary of the event, and it’s clear that it has grown not only in the number of vendors present, but also in agent attendance, by leaps and bounds. Because of this growth, Intelisys has rebranded the event into Channel Connect, once known as Inteligolf, and has expanded the length of the event along with what activities are available.

A tour guide leads the group through the torture chamber at the castle.

During the downtown Napa tour, the gals from Digital Planet and Qwest hang with the winemaker and his dog.

Attendees crowd into the busy supplier fair.

    Of course the event was a lot of fun, but it was also very intriguing from a business perspective. I was glad to see that the buzz at this event was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone was talking about significant growth in the channel, and most vendors were talking about double-digit growth in 2009. It was different from the general news about the economy. And there wasn’t a lot of talk about vendors competing with vendors or partners competing with partners. The overall vibe was that there was enough business out there for everyone right now.

Top Intelisys partner Tricia Ward picks grapes at V. Sattui.

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of conversation about going up-market. Vendors were expressing their desire to provide support for partners targeting larger enterprise accounts, which in turn ignited further discussion regarding the technologies these larger businesses are seeking, i.e. bigger bandwidth, MPLS and multilocation solutions. There was a lot of dialogue about mobility and the cloud computing market and what opportunities those areas will present to the channel.

The group stops for lunch at V. Sattui.

    Finally, I also noticed a greater equipment VAR presence compared to previous events. It’s clear that the top partners are the ones embracing that market, or making moves to set up referral partnerships with equipment dealers in their local markets.

As always with the Intelisys agent event, the excitement was palpable. There is a lot of growth happening in the channel overall, and Intelisys is definitely seeing some of that growth as well. They continue to put on a top-notch event, and the partners at this year’s Channel Connect are no doubt the cream of the crop.