When all the traditional events we count on to build connection and community among our peers started to be canceled because of the Covid-19 lockdown, we decided to reach out to some of our friends in the industry. What if we could get people together on Zoom and try to replicate the content pieces of a typical conference, such as breakout rooms, parallel sessions, etc? What if we made it fun, interactive, and focused on the material rather than the sales pitch? What if we had a magician? And so Remote Connect was born.
We also raised $1,625 for Doctors Without Borders for their Covid-19 response. It’s not a fortune, but it felt good as a community to be able to kick in a few bucks for a good cause.
Remote Connect report
If you were there, you know it was loads of fun. If you weren’t, we’ve put the Remote Connect report together for you so you could experience some of it, too. Feel free to download the PDF report and share it with your MSP peers.
Sessions overview
Keynote by Richard Tubb & Fireside chat with Jonathan Crowe
In his keynote and subsequent fireside chat with NinjaRMM’s Jonathan Crowe, IT industry maven Richard Tubb departed from this new era’s usual doom-and-gloom and took aim at some of the opportunities for the MSP industry.
Feedback matters | Jamison West and Eben Marks
Remote Connect hosting partner SmileBack shares insights on the importance of getting timely, abundant, and actionable customer feedback—now more than ever.
Watch Jamison hosting our webinar on attracting and retaining top talent for MSPs or watch our video interview on how to successfully implement EOS.
7 secrets to more vendor MDF | Ted Hulsy
With more than 15 years of experience in marketing to—and as a vendor in—the channel, Ted brings a 360-degree view of the industry. He boiled down his advice for MSPs to get a piece of the vendor marketing funds pie for us.
Follow these 7 steps to double your sales closes | Erick Simpson
Thousands of MSPs rely on Erick’s MSP Mastered Methodology and it’s no wonder. He makes sales prospecting seem so easy, but that’s just because he’s managed to capture all the hard work involved into 7 very comprehensible steps. Erick shared these with us and we’ve simplified them even more here for you.
No alarms and no surprises—Acing the QBRs | Daniel Welling
Having been in the IT space since 1995, Daniel is an industry veteran. He founded an MSP in 2002 which he sold in 2014, at which time he started getting more interested in the strategic side of the industry. Of particular interest has been the M&A space in the channel. He talked with us about the all-important quarterly business review (QBR).
Learn more about Daniel in our recent interview.
Transforming your clients’ experience | Phillip Myers
With Captain’s Chair, Phil Myers has built a product that gives clients of MSPs tons of transparency into what’s happening with their account, from their ticket queues to their CSAT. For an increasing number of clients, the cadence of monthly, quarterly, or annual business reviews just isn’t right for them anymore. As such, few people in our industry are thinking as much as Phil about what it means to be a Next-Generation MSP, because to a large extent, he’s helping to forge them.
Learn more about Phillip in our recent interview.
Power and potential of automation panel
It was a Zoom superstar panel led by George Bardissi, President and CEO of
bvoip talking with experts like:
• Daniel Wang, an MSP founder who liked automation so much that he created MSPbots, a platform that automates routine processes for IT companies.
• James Riley of JNR Networks, who has been at the MSP game for 25 years
(“before anyone called them MSPs”) and is an evangelist for automation.
• Christian Nagele, Senior Director of EMEA Strategy at Datto, which bought his last company CentraStage in 2014.
Datto is here for you, no matter what is going on in the world! | Greg Jones
With all the chaos around us, Greg joined to let us know some of what Datto is doing to support the MSP community.
MSP, this is our call to IT leadership | Vera Tucci and Larry Cobrin
Vera is the co-founder of T-Consulting an MSP based in Italy and is self-taught in the areas of IT and finance. Larry has a wide-ranging background that he brings to bear as founder of MSPCFO, a business intelligence platform designed to give MSP owners insight into and control over their finances. They talked about the importance of understanding your numbers, showing up for your team, and using this crisis to come out a better IT leader on the other side.
You can now download the awesome workbook for MSPs that Vera has put together to accompany her session: MSPs and the call to IT Leadership.
Did we mention we had a magician?
We hired New York-based mentalist Gary Ferrar to change things up a bit since 4 hours talking tech at a computer can be a bit overwhelming. Everyone agreed it was awesome—all Zoom calls should have a magician.
Partners
Remote Connect was put together by SmileBack, the Feedback Specialists for MSPs.
Hosting partner
Presenting partners
A huge thanks to our presenting partners for taking part:
