astro posted on March 21, 2011 14:34
Attend SMB Nation Spring - June 10-11, Toronto
Great news! The well-respected SMB Nation spring conference for computer resellers, consultants, techs and others is heading back to Toronto, ON Canada in early June 2011! This is an opportunity for professionals to come together to collaborate peer-to-peer style and consume magazine technical and business content.
Learn more about SMB Nation Spring HERE.
Deferred Maintenance
Trust me when I share this truism with you. Economic cycles, up or down, invoke a set of behaviors. Coming out of the “Great Recession” has actually made us better computer guys and gals serving small and medium-sized businesses (SMB).
Foremost you worked in a sector, SMB, that largely escaped the full force of the contraction. That is, you out performed the homebuilder and the automobile manufacturer. Second, economic dips present an opportunity to recalibrate your workforce. Good times hide many sins. Bad times expose deadwood and provide visibility into redundancy.
Third, you likely became more efficient internally. Speaking as the CEO of SMB Nation, I can attest that our technology investments in hosted Voice-over IP (VoIP) and cloud-based e-mail actually saved us money and improved our performance. Properly positioned, technology investments generate handsome returns on investments (ROI) and a recession is just the excuse you and your customers need to upgrade your infrastructure.
But there is a dark-side to a recession known as deferred maintenance. At your SMB customer sites, you’ve likely seen folks eek out more use from depreciated technology than you are comfortable with. Case in point. How many of your small business customers are still running the 10+ year old Windows XP desktop operating system and have not upgraded to Windows 7?
Now I want to challenge you. Take a moment and literally go look in a mirror! Ask yourself point blank, have you engaged in professional deferred maintenance over the past three years? Have you deferred professional conference attendance to save money and perhaps survive? I applaud you doing “what it took to survive” but with the arrival of Spring 2011, it’s time for an attitude adjustment. I’m not suggesting you party with young people in Florida of Spring Break. Rather you need to invest NOW during the long-tail phase of the recession. Need investment evidence? Look at the major equity markets reaching lofty peaks from investment inflows. These investors are planting seeds to harvest crops (and corporations) six months hence! You must do the same. And to be blunt and reiterate, your deferred professional maintenance in the recession is going to hold you back in the recovery!
So how do you invest as an SMB channel partner? Sure you can investment in plant and equipment (hey – I’m standing in line to get the new iPad 2 myself!). But let’s get rational. You’re a service provider to SMB customers. Your main assets are your good will, your intellectual property (IP) and know-how.
You goodwill can always be enhanced by increased professionalism and exposure. Your IP and know-how are directly impacted by your commitment to being a life learner. A professional conference such as SMB Nation Spring contributes positively to all of these causes.
Improved Content
Speaking of using a downturn to improve your “A” game, we’re no different than yourself. At SMB Nation, we looked in the mirror and asked some tough questions about our events. How can we improve the attendee experience? How can we gather “net new” attendees so everyone can meet new friends and enjoy new experiences? How can we improve the quality of the content? I have answers for you.
First – we are committed to using comfortable conference facilities for ease of use and enhanced enjoyment. Trival as it sounds but saving you time and energy frees your mind to absorb more details. Second, with respect to “net new” friends, we have two strategies. We are reaching out to new communities such as the reseller-base for a large distributor (D&H Distributing) and inviting it to attend our SMB Nation Spring conference. And we have moved the show from its five year-run in the New York City-area to international locations. This year it’s Toronto with successive years in Sydney Australia and London, UK. Needless to say we’re very excited about our spring show becoming our “traveler” and our vaunted fall show sticking to the knitting in Las Vegas (September 30 – October 2, 2011).
Let’s have a very important conversation about our content. Because the technology field is changing very rapidly, we changed our approach to selecting content speakers. It only makes sense and we were blessed with the ability to attract top SMB channel partners and Microsoft MVPs to visit our Bainbridge Island, Washington HQ for an intensive content selection day. Over the course of 18-hours we completed the entire content agenda for SMB Nation Spring that can be summed up on one word: HYBRID!
The content honors existing well-known (and profitable) business models while embracing and extending your mind to the leading edge of new technology solutions (including cloud convergence). Perusing the sessions at SMB Nation (www.smbnation.com) reveals this on-premises and cloud-based content balance I’m alluding to here.
The speakers bring a unique international diversity coming from numerous countries ioncluding Germany, Canada, Australia and the US. Their backgrounds are both technical (such as Microsoft MVPs) and business (leading MSPs, Masters-levels degrees, etc.). Many of the speakers also helped us select the content we are delivering.
Details, Details, Details!
- When: June 10-11, 2011
- Where: Internationale Center, Toronto, ON Canada
- Accommodations at nearby hotels
- How: US citizens will need their passports to cross into Canada
- Who: SMB channel partners, resellers, community leaders, consultants, computer technicians
- Why: To learn about the SMB channel opportunities, technologies and better serve small business customers.
- More information: 1-888-SMB-NAT1, www.smbnation.com