18 Scenes From TechSelect: D.C. Style

Tech Data held its Fall TechSelect Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., in November. Here, Murray Wright, senior vice president of U.S. sales, kicked off the conference by updating members on Tech Data's strategy and what's new for the community. At the event, TechSelect announced the new TechSelect Rewards program. TechSelect Rewards will enable members to recognize one another with prizes and gifts based on points earned for exceptional participation and contributions to the community. Members will earn TechSelect Rewards points for a wide range of activities, including participation in community events such as attending partner conferences and webinars, participating in peer discussion groups and workshops, and referring new members. Members with the highest TechSelect Rewards totals will be recognized at spring and fall partner conferences.

The community introduced "Build Your Own Agenda," which enabled TechSelect members to make the most of their time at the event by providing several opportunities to attend each workshop and peer-to-peer roundtable. With sessions repeating several times throughout the conference, members had the chance to construct their own conference agenda with content most relevant to their businesses.

Ken Lamneck, Tech Data's president of the Americas, discusses the latest trends in the channel, later sitting down for a live Q&A with Gartner analyst Tiffani Bova to address how Tech Data is helping VARs make the most of emerging opportunities.

Doug Church, principal of Vantage Point Solutions Group in Salisbury, Md., shares his insights during a peer-to-peer session at the TechSelect conference. The sessions among VARs touched on tactical marketing activities, pricing services, managed services, managing vendor programs, virtualization, hiring top talent and service-level metrics.

Sam Ruggeri, president of Advanced Vision Technology Group, Hauppauge, N.Y., and TechSelect's Advisory Council president, participates in one of the TechSelect peer-to-peer sessions. This conference focused heavily on providing forums such as the peer-to-peer discussion groups to better enable VARs to share best practices and openly discuss trends, opportunities and challenges.

Paula Anderson-Findley, owner of PAF Consulting, Vero Beach, Fla., hosts a workshop on leadership. Her keys to strong leadership start with strong communication, she said. Anderson-Findley discussed how VARs can develop and deliver effective messages that inform and motivate employees.

Brian O'Connell, senior client adviser for Service Leadership Associates, shares the latest trends and tactics in solution provider mergers and acquisitions, including how VARs can prepare their businesses for mergers or make themselves attractive acquisition targets.

Brad Gross, attorney at law with Becker & Poliakoff, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., leads a business management workshop on VAR service agreements. Gross shared strategies for VARs to enact effective service agreements to avoid potential litigation vulnerabilities they may not even be aware of. Topics focused on what VARs need to know about contracts to protect their businesses and intellectual property.

Larry Schulze, co-founder and principal of the Taylor Business Group, Kansas City, Mo., leads a business-building session at TechSelect. Solution providers had the opportunity to engage Schulze about all aspects of their businesses, including financial practices, service leadership and sales management.

Amy Belcher and John O'Shea (standing), directors of product marketing, Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, at Tech Data, moderate a peer-to-peer discussion on virtualization. Topics discussed included how and when to sell virtualization; new virtualization technologies like VDI and storage virtualization; and where to start. Seated at the table are (from the left, back to front) David Hooper, president, STC Network Services, and Kenny Lance, CEO, NetBase Technologies; and (from the right, back to front) Michael Apollo, CTO, NST; Gary Black, president, RGB Network Services; Steve Alexander, president, Third Eye Technologies; Bill Laflamme, vice president technology solutions, Sysix Technologies.

The vendor tech fair always draws a good crowd of solution providers. Here, Keith Schoolcraft (in blue shirt), president of aCoupleofGurus.com, and John Gholami (brown jacket), CEO of Computer Tech Systems, check out the latest program news and technology information from Hewlett-Packard.

TechSelect members visit the SonicWall booth during the vendor partner showcase. Nearly 100 representatives from more than 50 vendor partners were on hand during the conference to discuss emerging technologies, channel programs and opportunities with their VAR partners.

TechSelect members visit the Nortel Networks booth during the vendor showcase, where the company gave out stuffed simians.

Kaspersky Lab hosts a barbershop at its booth during the TechSelect vendor partner showcase. Here, Yoav Chudnoff, partner with VP Technologies LLC, Jenkintown, Pa., gets a trim before continuing to explore the showcase.

Barb Miller (left), Tech Data's vice president of government, technical and integration services, discusses the distributor's services, including TechEDG, TDOnCall, TDEducation and TDTechnical Services, with an interested conference attendee, while Shashi Gholkar (right), president of Gholkar's, his Victor, N.Y.-based solution provider company, looks on.

TechSelect members presented a $4,050 donation to Washington-based ReSET, after the community's first charitable drive. TechSelect members chose to support ReSET, a nonprofit organization of retired scientists, engineers and technicians who volunteer their time at elementary schools to promote math and science studies.



Pictured (from the left) are Advanced Vision Technology Group President and TechSelect Advisory Council President Sam Ruggeri; President Tech Data Canada Rick Reid; Tech Data Senior Vice President, U.S. Sales, Murray Wright; and ReSET Executive Director John Meagher.

Advances In Technology, an Everett, Wash.-based solution provider, was named Outstanding Program Member. The company's COO Will Nelson, center, accepts and is pictured with Murray Wright, left, Tech Data senior vice president, U.S. sales; and Brian Gibson, Tech Data's director of marketing services.

Theresa Collins of Albuquerque, N.M.-based Education Technologies, center, receives TechSelect's Fastest Growing Member award. She is flanked by Tech Data executives Wright and Gibson.

The "president" stopped by to say hello to the TechSelect community during its stay in Washington, D.C. Comedian John Morgan spoke about what Mr. President will be doing after he leaves office, perhaps starting a singing career.