It has arrived. The Cisco Partner Summit 2015 in Montreal is here. And, for the Canadian channel community it is one of most the anticipated conferences in years. Many solution providers have marked this show down on their calendar because Cisco, by coming to Montreal, has really shown their support for the partners of this country.
The event is being held at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal between April 27 and April 30. Cisco is also hosting channel marketing professional at the Velocity conference a day prior for those fortunately enough to be invited.
What to look for at the Cisco Partner Summit. Cisco is planning to reveal a new strategy on partner ecosystems and possibly more specifics on how to make money from the $19 trillion Internet of Everything opportunity.
Don’t be surprised if the Internet of Everything dominates the Partner Summit agenda. Partner Ecosystems will play a large role at this event. Cisco plans to make available a day long lounge for solution providers to network with each other called the Ecosystem Exchanges and Collaboration Lounge.
Another interesting aspect will be how Cisco plans to work with Independent Software Vendors. Rick Snyder, Cisco’s VP of Global and Strategic Partner Organization, is going to present the Global Business Outcomes Contest winners, which will have a heavy focus on ISVs. It’s no secret that many solution providers are moving into this area and developing their own branded solutions mainly because margins are so high on software these days.
Speaking of executives the Partner Summit will be highlighted by keynotes from CEO John Chambers and worldwide channel chief Bruce Klein. But they will not be the only senior executives at the show. Here is the Cisco roster of executives for Partner Summit 2015:
- Rob Lloyd, President, Development and Sales;
- Edzard Overbeek, Senior Vice President, Cisco Services;
- Chuck Robbins, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations;
- Nick Earle, Senior Vice President, Global Cloud and Managed Services;
- Soni Jiandani, Senior Vice President, Marketing, INSBU;
- Rob Soderbery, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Products and Solutions; and
- Rowan Trollope, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Collaboration Technology Group.
Other topics of interest will be the Cisco Intercloud, security, big data and Women In Channel.
The guest keynote address will be from Steve Kotler, author, award winning journalist and the co-founder of the Flow Genome Project. Kotler will talk about the ultimate human performance.
If you plan on attending the Cisco Partner Summit next week remember the Twitter hashtag is #CiscoPS15. I will be tweeting live from the event. Make sure to follow me at @PaoloCDN.
I look forward to seeing all the Cisco executives and channel partners in Montreal. Safe travels!
One quick hit before I go. Mitel has appointed Graham Bevington to the newly created position of Executive Vice-President and Chief Sales Officer. And, Mitel also made Wes Durow the company’s Chief Marketing Officer.
