GlueCon Day 1 Review
BY IT GLUE | September 17, 2018
Wow. Just wow. The first day of GlueCon 2018, our first ever user conference, was something else entirely. The entire GlueCrew has been working long hours all summer long to put this together, but with a first conference you never know what’s going to happen until the countdown starts.
Welcome Keynote
The conference kicked off with the Welcome Keynote from CEO Chris Day. Chris delivered his take on the state of the MSP business today, and where IT Glue fits into that. We recapped our company’s phenomenal journey from bright idea to the point where we can pack 450 people into our inaugural conference. He highlighted key insights from the 2018 Global MSP Benchmark Survey and dropped his take on the industry’s most important trends.
If there’s one key takeaway it is that there’s a lot of opportunity for progressive-minded MSPs out there, both on the revenue side and the cost savings side. At the core of Chris’ presentation were findings from the Global MSP Benchmark Survey. If you haven’t downloaded that yet, I encourage you all to do so. You may download here.
Show Specials
Chris also announced a couple of show specials, which are available to any IT Glue partner through the 21st of September. First, we’re offering unlimited MyGlue seats for $195/month, for life. That’s it. Unlimited seats. $195/month. For life.
The second show special is a deal whereby if you upgrade with a 10-seat Enterprise pack for $150, we’ll upgrade all your seats. We’ve heard from partners who have legacy plans that they want access to the new features, but it’s not cost-effective to switch plans. This might help. For most partners, this is going to lower the per-seat plan cost, and all your seats get bumped to Enterprise. So if you were paying $95 for five seats of Basic, you’d now pay $245 for 15 seats of Enterprise. Lower per-seat cost. Better plan. Built for scale.
Want them both – you can do that for $295.
You can upgrade in-app on the Plan page, or give us a call to talk to a member of our sales team.
Verne Harnish, The Growth Guy
Next up was Verne Harnish, The Growth Guy, who showed the rapt crowd the pathway to accelerated growth. Verne’s company, Gazelles, has developed a framework for assessing organizational readiness for scale, and he showcased how that framework can be put into action by every MSP in the room. Honestly I found Verne to be a dynamic and highly engaging speaker. For all the business owners in the room, it was a master class in how to build your business for scale.
The Panel of Titans
The third component to this massive, massive morning was the Panel of Titans. When we first thought of this idea, nobody was sure it could happen. But happen it did – the CEOs of all the biggest companies in the channel, all on one stage, tackling the key issues in the industry.
There might have been a little shade thrown around the stage, but for those in the audience the real value was in the unique takes that each of the Titans had on the state of the business. Moderator Joe Panettieri from Channel E2E had a tough job keeping everybody in line, but he managed very nicely, and that gave the audience a real chance to learn from each of the Titans.
Afternoon Breakouts
The afternoon breakout sessions featured a technical track and a business track. On the technical side, Rex Frank showed how to optimize your service desk for scale – understanding the processes that you use is a critical element to scaling. Joel Abramson explored the future of the MSP business, highlighting what the next gen MSP might look like.
On the business side, Todd Kane kicked things off discussing how to master operations. His experiences working for larger tech companies early in his career showed him some of the challenges of scaling, and how mastering operations can help a company get to scale. Alex Rogers started his breakout session with a simple question – do you know the stereotype that people have of anybody trying to sell IT. By understanding how others view you, you can help transform your sales efforts, and Alex walked through his process for that.
With the program complete, it was time for a little booth time. Tomorrow, we kick things off with Luis Giraldo’s Q3 Product Update, and honestly there are so many new features being announced it will be difficult to keep up. So stay tuned to our blog and social media for those updates.
Not a partner yet? Never fear. Why not sign up for a demo and get a taste of what the rest of the channel is already buzzing about.
GlueCon 2018 is IT Glue’s first ever user conference. Featuring thought leaders from the MSP business and beyond, attendees are learning how to make their MSP stronger, and position themselves for scale, margin and operational excellence.
