Takeaways from IT Nation 2018

Takeaways from IT Nation 2018

The ProVal Tech team had the opportunity to get together a few days in advance of IT Nation in Orlando. For a team that works mostly remote, apart from our office in India, this presents a great opportunity for folks to bond. ConnectWise, as always, put up a great show and played wonderful hosts to over 3700 people coming in from every part of the world. As a partner solutions exhibitor/vendor, I know we spent tons of hours prepping up; one can only imagine what kind of planning and efforts go into hosting an event of this scale.

Here are some key takeaways that we had from 2018’s IT Nation:

  1. Connect Everything: That was the theme of this year’s IT Nation. Come to think of it, that is where everything in our industry is headed. I have yet to have a conversation with an MSP or vendor that doesn’t include the words “does this integrate with that?”. Companies want their applications talking with others, so people are empowered with seamless flow of information. That is what will ultimately empower people to make business decisions and make for more efficient work.
  2. IT Nation Events: As ConnectWise continues to build their programs out for the IT and MSP community, they’ve rebranded all of the community engagements as “IT Nation” events. Automation Nation is now “IT Nation Explore” and will be focused on the ConnectWise product suite; IT Nation is now “IT Nation Connect” and will focus on the business and industry; HTG Peer Groups is now “IT Nation Evolve”, and the ConnectWise User Groups are now “IT Nation Share”.
  3. New Solutions Vendors: The IT Nation Solutions pavilion had what ConnectWise called “startup alley”. This was upcoming solutions vendors creating and innovating in the MSP world. It was great to see several of these cool products which included analytics, AI, documentation, and automation. The MSP vendor space has historically had a pretty stable and constant vendor-base, and it is refreshing to see new entrants and young companies come into the space.

ProVal Tech continues to be an active member of the vendor community at ConnectWise, and looks forward to connecting with its partners and other MSP’s during the 2019 event