SMB Nation has teamed up once again with the SMB Technology Network to bring the SMB 150 back to the channel for its second year. Sponsored by Blackberry, this year’s SMB 150 will honor the channel’s top 150 professionals later this spring at a Hollywood-themed awards dinner in Los Angeles.  Honorees will also receive public acknowledgement in SMB Nation Magazine, as well as on SMBnation.com and SMBtn.org.

The SMB 150 List acknowledges those professionals or “influencers” who have had the largest impact on the SMB IT channel within the past year. Individuals from vendors, partners, service providers, trade associations, media companies, and other communities serving the channel are all eligible for nomination. Channel organizations may also be nominated. Community members should submit nominations—for either themselves or others—at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W6SXLZ2.

Last year’s SMB 150 event proved popular with channel members, who nominated over 900 peers from around the world. Awardees ranged from leaders of the most well-known MSPs to rarely acknowledged small business heroes. 

Harry Brelsford, founder and chairman of SMB Nation, hopes

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By Regina Ciardiello, Editor, SMB Nation

In case you missed our November/December issue, our cover story discussed what is on the wish list of tribal members for the holiday season. Since we always want to continue in the spirit of giving, especially to you, our loyal readers, we have come up with a special gift that will surely be a conversation piece at your next holiday party as a cool stocking stuffe. The gadget in question is the SQUARE mobile application device – a credit card with built-in technology to process MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover cards on a smart phone or iPad device. However, there is one catch – you must take and complete our Annual Salary Survey, which will be published in the January/February edition of SMB Nation magazine.

(At right): The SQUARE mobile application device in action at a local coffee shop.

So now you are probably wondering how you can sign up to take our survey (and receive your free gift). It’s simple – just click to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RT99B5Q, and you will be taken to our full survey questionnaire housed on Survey Monkey. All we need is no more than 10 minutes of your time, and unlike other surveys, the Square device will be distributed as part of our gift to you—it’s not a raffle—so there is 100% chance that you will get your free gift, just for spending a few minutes of your day to provide us with important data.

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Want to learn from the best and brightest? Attend our second annual MVP Nation, March 2-3, 2012 in Redmond, Washington. It’s “Grad School For Geeks,” and we’re back on the Microsoft campus at the vaunted conference center. This year our focus is on Windows 8 – it’s a deep dive with lectures from the Microsoft MPVs and other industry gurus. Give us two days and you’ll be armed for the next major server, desktop and mobility Windows 8 operating system. Learn more at mvp.smbnation.com. PS – NO WIMPS ALLOWED!

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If you are responding to the Las Vegas radio ad to attend SMB Nation, call our main office at 1-888-SMB-NAT1 or 206-201-2943 (press 6) to register and learn more about our special promotion. 

For more information at the upcoming SMB Nation Fall Conference – click HERE.

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Don’t miss the 9th Annual SMB Nation Fall conference coming up – end of month. Your VERY BEST RATES expire September 9th – this Friday!!!

More MVPs, More Technical Content , More Advanced Sessions…you told us what you wanted and we delivered! If you’re serious about improving yourself as a technical professional, take the first step and visit our Fall site for more information.

BONUS! Qualify to enter to win a HARLEY! Awarded by OKI Data – this is THE BEST PRIZE EVER and someone’s riding into recovery!
 
HURRY and register for the SMB Nation Fall conference at fall.smbnation.com

See ya’ there…harrybbbb

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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.

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We're bringing the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet to you!



The BlackBerry Road Tour is coming your way. And you're invited to attend a full day of sales and technical training – exclusively for technology resellers – for FREE!

Come see an in-depth live demo of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and discover everything you need to help you maximize revenues with the breadth of offerings available with the BlackBerry Solution today. Plus... registered attendees are eligible for a $50 Visa® Reward Card¹!

Another great reason to attend! But hurry, there's only one training session scheduled for your area. Register now to guarantee your spot. We look forward to seeing you soon in either Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles or Washington, D.C.!

Chicago – Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Boston – Thursday, February 10, 2011
Los Angeles/Orange County – Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Washington, DC – Tuesday, February 22, 2011 The BlackBerry Solution Provider Network Team

REGISTER HERE

¹ Full details of how to earn a $50 Visa® reward card will be provided at each event.

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March 13-15, 2011

Las Vegas

(Inside Channel Partners)

BE THERE!

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Sign up for FREE BlackBerry solution training in November (while places last) … and the chance to win 1 of 10 BlackBerry smartphones at your chosen event!

Sign up https://spn.blackberry.com/web/guest/roadtour2.

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