IP (truly) Sizzled in Dallas

By: Greg Galitzine (News - Alert)

On July 28, several members of the TMC team traveled to Dallas, TX and the 100+ degree heat to attend IP Sizzles. The event, organized by ABP (News - Alert) Tech is designed to provide resellers the ability to network, attend conference sessions, and get hands-on training that will help them to gain a broader perspective of IP applications and how to provide more value to their customers.

IP Sizzles was a wonderful and well organized event. Starting with the Broadvox (News - Alert)-sponsored SIP Margarita reception to the opening keynote speeches, to the educational sessions and solutions showcase, right through to a very special evening at Texas Stadium, ABP’s president Robert Messer (News - Alert) and his team did a fantastic job of bringing together VARs and vendors for several days of networking, education, and fun.

In his opening remarks, ABP’s Chance Crawford welcomed the reseller community and explained that ABP is “…in position to help you understand what to expect when using or reselling IP communications products.”

One of the goals of the conference, he said, was to give resellers the “motivation, confidence, and knowledge they need to succeed.”

Robert Messer echoed many of Crawford’s thoughts, adding that one of the fundamental needs for a technology reseller is training.

“To help our partners — the channel — we decided to provide training,” Messer said. More so, we want to help with processing that information to the point where it becomes knowledge. And the next step after knowledge is experience.”

Regarding the current economic conditions, Messer explained that, “the key is for resellers to understand that certain areas of the economy will be worse while some will remain strong. They need to understand this and apply their efforts to those areas of stronger growth, for example B2B in certain verticals.”

Messer pointed out that, “VoIP provides the opportunity for companies to save money and gives resellers the opportunity to get into the conversation.”

One of the major highlights of the event was an evening reception at Texas Stadium, home of the five time Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys. After a tasty barbecue dinner, the VARs and the vendors (along with a couple of very fortunate publishing folks) gathered together on the field to engage in a pick-up game of flag football. It was truly a thrill for those involved and provided some wonderful memories that will last a lifetime.

Kudos to the ABP team in general — and Robert Messer in particular — for organizing such a wonderful event. The IP communications industry only stands to benefit from such dedicated champions of the technology and their efforts to educate the channel. IT

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