Posted 8/25/11 By Dan Baldwin
TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155
Today was the "long day" at the trade show starting with many seminars, four separate "agent only events" and the trade show floor followed by many late night parties.
I was not able to make it to the seminars but I did attend all four "agent only" events to see how my fellow agents were liking these special events that the Channel Partners organization invested a great deal of resources in.
The first event was a very well attended Selling Techniques Networking Lunch sponsored by Vince Bradley's World Telecom Group (WTG). The room was packed with over 100 agents all grouped around tables that addressed sales concerns for cloud, conferencing, collaboration, hosted VoIP, Ethernet, MPLS, wireless, mobility, SIP, unified communications and energy.
The second and third "agent only events", the Agent/VAR Partnering Workshop and Peer-to-Peer Networking Mixer were more intimat affairs with just under 50 agents each in them.
The fourth event, CPZ: Channel Partners Zone was well attended and featured quite an interesting "smackdown" of many of the issues that were bugging agents at large.
The Trade Show Floor
The exhibit hall was opened for its marathon period of over four hours. I went around to several TA vendors to see what they were putting out as their "booth pitch"
Click below to listen to Charlie Pagliazzo of Granite Telecom on their complete offering for multi-location customers.
The WTG Carnival Party on Navy Pier
Vince Bradley is famous for getting together with his World Telecom Group (WTG) vendors and putting on the most outrageous and original parties at the Channel Partners trade shows for as long as I can remember. This Fall in Chicago Vince repeated his "Win for Best Party" with his "Carnival on the Pier".
Click the video below to see some of what you missed if you were not there.
Last Chicago Music Club Night
As Thursday was my last night in Chicago, I had to pick one last "perfect Chicago music club" to make it five in a row. My first night I heard Ava Logan at the L26 Lounge in the South Loop Hotel where I stayed. The second and third night I was at Reggies Music Joint. Last night was Buddy Guy's Legends. But where to go tonight?
I had several recommendations including Blue Chicago, Underground Wonder Bar, and a couple others in the Clark Street area. I finally decided to go to Kingston Mines at 2548 North Halsted at the strong recommendation of Chicago native Larry Lannon, Virgo's Publisher.
I'm glad I picked Kingston Mines because I really wanted a place full of locals instead of tourists. Kingston Mines did not disappoint. The "locals" turned out to be mostly college students as the club appeared to be in the vicinity of several local colleges.
The real treat was the Joanna Connor Band which played their own songs in addition to "blusey" versions of Led Zepplin, Jimmi Hedrix and other electric guitar classics. Click the video below to get a taste of the music I heard.
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