More than 200 channel professionals across Canada attended the 2013 CDN Channel Elite Awards (CEA).
The CEAs are a tribute to the many leaders in the solution provider community who have shown resiliency, courage and passion for business and solving customer challenges. The September 11 event had the largest number of nominations and finalists in its history. It also produced seven first time winners.
A CEA is the hardest award to win in the channel. To get a Channel Elite Award you must show true innovation and you have to outperform your competition and you have to show a lot heart. Here are some highlights from the night in this slideshow presentation.
Every Channel Elite Awards show tries to add value to the executives in attendance and this year is no exception with four highly informative workshops led by the incomparable Bruce Stuart of ChannelCorp.
You can read his story here: Why the channel is the bottleneck to the cloud revolution
Or watch the video here: CEA: Bruce Stuart’s future outlook for the channel
Not to be out-done by Bruce Stuart Tech Data Canada new senior vice president of sales and marketing Greg Myers brought in noted market analyst Daryl Ryce from the NPD Group to outline the new SMB revenue opportunities for channel partners.
You can read his story here: Why one analyst says one per cent IT growth isn’t a bad thing
Or watch the video here: CEA: Tech Data reveals hardware growth through distribution
There was no question that Clear Concepts of Winnipeg were the big winners of the CEA gala evening. The solution provider captured two Gold awards including the Solution Provider of the Year. Here are Glenn Kemp, Christian Korell and Phil Proctor of Clear Concepts having fun backstage during their photo-shoot.
You can read Clear Concepts story here: Solution provider of the year helped remote communities with IT
Navantis vice president of marketing Susie Ibbotson surprises not one but two solution providers at the GEA gala. Ibbotson photo bombs Steve Kopstick and Brian Fung of NetDexterity along with Alexander Chan of CMS Consulting.
Watch Navantis on stage here: CEA: Best Channel Marketing Initiative winners
Yes that’s me on stage trying to get the crowd of more than 200 solution provider executives excited about the gala. This is the 11th annual Channel Elite Awards, but only my fourth time hosting.
You might remember Kevin Peesker wearing a tuxedo with angel wings last time you saw him at the Channel Elite Awards. Well, Peesker is back after spending some time with Dell in Europe and he too was excited to be a big part of the awards gala.
You can read more about Kevin Peesker here: Dell Canada hires a familiar face as its new president
The newly promoted Greg Myers, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for Tech Data Canada, played a big roll at the 2013 CEA awards. He provided a workshop featuring the NPD Group for the channel partners as well as networking with the many solution providers in attendance such as Samantha Hislop and Filippo Vazzano of Infinite IT Solutions.
You can read more about Greg Myers here: Tech Data to better position value from volume
Or watch a video interview with Myers here: CEA: Tech Data reveals hardware growth through distribution
There were more than 100 solution provider companies at the 2013 Channel Elite Awards. But the biggest contingent came from FlexITy Solutions who brought practically all of its executives to the event.
Pictured here are: Glenn Keates, Miguel Manglal-Lan, Ron Stewart, Peter Stavropoulos (the president), Dmitri Li and Nympha Lee.
Nympha Lee was a panelist at the recent CDN Women of the IT Channel Recognition event. You can read about that here: CDN Women of IT event explores empowerment
Cisco Canada’s head of the mid-market Garth Scully was one of the main presenters on stage at the 2013 CEAs. He is pictured here with Irene Buchan, Tech Data Canada’s director of marketing. Earlier in the day Cisco Canada presented on the mid-market opportunities with its Meraki technology. You can watch a video report on that here: CEA: Cisco’s Mid-Market, Meraki and more
There is no better band for the Channel Elite Awards than the Grammy winning Soul Stew. Here they were playing their hearts out for the channel. Check them out at here.
