Day 3 Summary

Well the show's over & everyone is heading to the beach or scrambling to catch their plane. Nancy and I are staying over to tomorrow. We may drive down the coast towards the keys in search of a secluded restaurant that serves "big shrimp". Sherm at Lightyear's boat bash last night recommended Isla Mirada. We'll let you know what we find.

The last two hours of the trade floor offered every one an opportunity to make a couple last contacts before heading out. A decent continental breakfast was served with very good Bloody Mary's. I'm heading out now so I can't write now much more but we'll have a complete show wrap up with all the video by next Friday.

For now I'll leave you with Eric Sandoval's view of the Miami Show.

Day 2 Summary

As I begin day three I'll quickly try to summarize day 2. It was long - not ending until after 2am this morning.

Nothing really beats seeing the people in person that you talk to every day on the phone. Human connections are being made here between people that need to count on one another. This show's a good thing!

Two more hours of trade show floor time now. A longer review will be done over the weekend whan I have some more time to process the video I've collected.

Here's a clip from Harry Paparizos on the Lightyear boat tour talking about why he does business with Lightyear:

Day 1 Summary

The show kicked off with Skype's Chief Strategy Officer Christopher Dean giving an overview of industry goings on with relation to how Skype is getting into the business market and will be launching a channel program. The presentation was a bit dry at times but JAMMED with very useful statistics regarding smartphones & wireless growth. I got it all on video and will share the video and statistics next week.

The kind folks at Phone+ then presented their awards for Top 50 Channel Programs, Top 15 Channel Managers and then recognized their 2009 & 2010 advisory boards. Congrats to all the award winners. Visit www.PhonePlusMag.com to see who won.

After that the seminars began. I sat in on the "Business Development Track".

The first seminar was "Sorting Through Social Media". The presenter, Mike O'Neil of Integrated Alliances was a professional trainer who basically gave a 45-minute "freebie" of what their companies 3-hour paid session was all about. I'm pretty big with LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook myself and I learned a thing or three - his "freebie" overview was worth the time. I'm going to follow up with him to see if he can do the 3-hour session for TA. I'll share the video of this next week

I then sat in on the "Start-up Strategies for Agents" session by Bill Taylor of Corporate Ladders. Bill seems to be a "business coach" for master agents as well as providers that want to roll out an agent program. He gave an overview of his firm's "MAPPS" success program. Common sense stuff and well documented. I'll share video of this session next week.

Then it was opening night of the trade show floor which is always the best 3-hour segment because everyone's still fresh. I shot a lot of video booth pitches which I'll publish here as soon as possible.

Now I'm off to catch the rest of the "Business Development Track" - "Bullet Proofing Your Business", "Exit Stage Right" & then a general session on "Hidden Charges". Then back to the trade show floor followed by the "Peer-to-Peer" mixer before ending the day at WTG's "Miami Roof top Party".

Check out our "video walk-a round" of the opening night on the exhibit hall:

Partners & MSPs Look to Synergize Sales Through Level 3

I met with Level 3's channel boss Craig Schlagbaum to discuss his recent post in Phone+'s "Peer-to-Peer" blog titled "New Partners for All of Us" which I personally think is dead on.

In summary, Craig discusses the opportunity for all network service providers to buy, bond or partner with MSPs or managed services (solutions) providers to offer business decision makers a better "single solution" for their business communications needs covering IT, phone systems, software and the wide area network the business communication solutions live on.

While channel visionaries saw (hoped) network & equipment/software guys would (should) get together over 10 years ago, like hosted VoIP, it's all now happening and being purchased in the marketplace.

Watch the whole following video I shot while meeting with Craig to to see how Level 3's channel program is creating a fertile ground for agents, partners and MSPs to get together and solve customer problems as a synergized joint sales force.

The Show's About to Start, Commission Termination Post Follow-up

Well I made it to Miami and I'm ready to learn what this season's East Coast show has to offer exhibitors and attendees. I'm also hear to learn through observation and conversation what the "state of the channel" is for show exhibitors as well as attending agents, partners and VARs.

While in transit to the show today, I did have an opportunity to speak on the phone with several people who responded to my newsletter post about the "morality" of terminating agent commissions. As expected, the terminated agents I communicated with think they've been mistreated and those involved on the carrier side have a completely different view.

I do want to say that while I identified one carrier in my post because a photo existed that identified that carrier, the commission termination issue is NOT WITH JUST ONE CARRIER. In conversations I've had over the past several months it has come to my attention that at least two other TA vendor members have also "put the pressure" on agents that were not "pouring on the business".

It's not TA's position to say if one thing or another is good or bad when it comes to agents getting their commissions cut off. TA's only interest is to ensure that topical issues of concern to TA's 3,800 members get the opportunity to get objectively and professionally discussed in a manner that's not too boring.

In any event, while I'm here at the show I will make a special point to query those who have an opinion on this commission termination issue to see if the whole matter is A BIG THING or just a small thing. Points of view I'm particularly interested in collecting are those of the master agents.

One thing that seems clear to me (in light of recent industry events) is that some (if not many) carriers seem to be interested in doing business primarily through just a limited number of master agents. That may be the best way for carriers to get the best return on the co-marketing dollars they invest to "prime the revenue pump". That being said though, are the master agents ready to take on a bigger leadership role in the industry?

If the vendors are giving some or all their co-marketing dollars to the master agents instead of spreading it all around, is that a good thing? Are the master agents ready to be the key opinion leaders as to which directions are best for the channel?

Based on conversations I've recently had with several key opinion leading master agents, I think they are ready as many of them are already exercising their leadership roles.

But leadership comes with many responsibilities. Spending carrier co-marketing money effectively is a fun way to be a leader. Helping resolve sub-agent commission issues is a less fun leadership job.

What do you think?