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Precon Day at #CPExpo Featuring Verizon, Rackspace

First Timers CP Expo 2019 2

Preconference day at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo has become almost as jam-packed as the rest of the week.

It all started with the Business Success Symposium, which featured Spark Partners managing partner Adam Hartung, author of “Create Marketplace Disruption: How to Stay Ahead of the Competition,” offering advice on growing your business by abandoning fear, embracing trends and becoming an agent of change. That was followed by a number of conference tracks aimed at partner executives looking to improve their businesses.

At the same time, Avant held its popular Special Forces Training to enable partners to better sell some of the channel’s hottest technology.

The afternoon and evening closed with the annual Alliance of Channel Women networking event and the traditional First-Time Attendee Reception.

Click through our gallery below for pictures and recap.

Datapipe's Robb Allen
Spark Partners' Adam Hartung

Adam Hartung, CEO and managing partner of Spark Partners, delivered the keynote at the Business Success Symposium. He encouraged the audience to abandon fear, embrace trends and become change agents.

Leaders of once-successful companies often lack vision, stuck in their own value-delivery system, he said. It's a big reason why Amazon has overwhelmed so much of its competition.

“Where’s the world going and how do I position myself out in that world to succeed?” Hartung encouraged the crowd to ponder.

Rackspace's Lisa McLin on stage at BSS precon, CP Expo
Rackspace's Lisa McLin

McLin, vice president of North America channel sales with Rackspace, sponsor of the Business Success Symposium, encouraged partners to consider her company as a teammate in the digital transformation.
A Business Success Symposium education session at CP Expo 2019
'Align or Die'

Rackspace's McLin (second from left) joined Heather Margolis, founder and CEO of Channel Maven Consulting (left); Carrie Simpson, founder and CEO of Managed Sales Pros (second from right); and Kayla Kirkeby, VP of marketing with Dizzion, for a panel discussion in one of the Business Success Symposium conference tracks.

Dubbed "Align or Die: Why Sales and Marketing Must Pull Together — or Perish Apart," these channel insiders discussed the havoc that comes from a lack of communication between the people framing a company's value proposition and those charged with selling it to customers.
Kris Blackmon leads a panel at CP Expo, BSS education
Up Your Managed Security Game

Are you ready to start selling security? Or maybe you're a security sales vet looking to do it better. That was the topic of a Business Success Symposium panel discussion on Tuesday.

Pictured left to right are RSM US' Jason Steiner; Doberman Technologies' Ian Richardson; Ingalls Information Security's Jason Ingalls; and the moderator, Channel Partners/Channel Futures' Kris Blackmon.

These successful MSSP leaders shared ways MSPs can start adding managed security capabilities – and reap their benefits – fast.
Avant Special Forces CP Expo 2019
Avant Special Forces Training

Master agent Avant invited partners to learn how to sell today's hottest IT solutions, including SD-WAN, Iaas, colo and UCaaS, as part of its Special Forces training held in conjunction with #CPExpo.

The company offered up thought leaders and key vendors of next-generation IT solutions for this training event dedicated to sales strategies, tactics and tools that will enable partners to transform their business to that of a true "trusted adviser."

Alliance of Channel Women Networking CP Expo 2019
Alliance of Channel Women Networking Event

Members of the Alliance of Channel Women and invited guests hosted their 9th annual networking event on precon day at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.

After an hour of networking, a panel of industry leaders offered ways for women to shift, disrupt and impact the channel. Read Lynn Haber's write-up on the event.
First-Timers Event at CP Expo 2019
First-Time Attendee Reception

Don't adjust your screen. If you're seeing red, that's intended. The annual First-Time Attendee Reception was held at Red Square, a Russia-themed nightclub inside Mandalay Bay.

Appropriately in this red setting, Verizon was the event sponsor. We welcomed hundreds of partners attending Channel Partners for the first time to an evening of networking.
Channel Partners' Thomas Baker and Verizon's Dave Longo
Welcome!

Channel Partners sales director Thomas Baker (left) and new Verizon channel boss Dave Longo thank partners and guests for coming to the First-Time Attendee Reception.
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