MSP conference season is quickly approaching. Most MSPs make a point to attend at least a few industry events per year; some of you have already bought your tickets or secured your spots for 2025. But are you maximizing your investment of time and money?
It can be all too easy to attend an event, return home buzzing with ideas for your MSP, and not implement any of them because you’ve been sucked back into the daily grind. To prevent that, we’ve put together a three-part series on how to get the most ROI possible out of your MSP conference attendance.
In this first installment, learn how to mindfully choose which events to attend and successfully step away from your business.
Don’t Attend Every Event You See
A key part of getting the most out of your investment is being choosy with which events you attend. “For me, it’s about the actual content that is available,” says Dawn Sizer, co-founder and CEO of 3rd Element Consulting (pictured right). “I lean heavily into education, rather than vendor pitches.”
However, for Antwine Jackson, founder and president of Enitech Solutions, vendor attendance is a determining factor. “The first thing we look at is what solutions, platforms, or vendors will be at that event,” he says. This is particularly relevant if his MSP does business with that vendor or was considering onboarding a new technology.
Along those lines, Jackson also makes a point to attend vendor partners’ events, because those give him the opportunity to strengthen his partnerships. Additionally, he looks for products to fill any gaps in his tech stack. “There is overlap from event to event on the educational, business side of things, if you attend a bunch of events like I do. So I think for us, it’s more about vendor relationships—strengthening those strategic partnerships—and networking with other MSPs.”
Lisa Shorr, owner of Shorr Success and co-owner of Secure Future Tech Solutions (pictured right), agrees: “It needs to have our vendors there, so I can build those relationships. I need to network. If I build a better relationship with our vendors, they might give me MDF; they might escalate my issue. They might give me better pricing.”
Shorr also looks for other MSPs to network with, learn from, and potentially work with in the future. Above all, her focus is “what’s going to build Secure Future Tech. That’s vendor relationships and new vendors. That’s doing things better and smarter. It’s having relationships with people that hold me accountable or do things better than me, so I can learn from them.”
Be Selective with Who Attends
Just because you’re the business owner, doesn’t mean you have to—or should—attend every event. “We base it off of what the content is, and who would be the best fit into that content,” says Sizer. “If it’s a security conference, it’s someone off the security team. If it’s something more aimed at leadership, it’ll be people from our leadership team.”
For Shorr, it depends on the nature of the event. She and her husband, Eric Shorr, Secure Future Tech CEO, “attend almost all of the shows together, and then we can divide and conquer.” Shorr typically handles the business development, marketing, and strategy opportunities, while her husband goes to the technology-based offerings. However, if it’s a tech-heavy show, just Eric will attend.
Jackson’s mindset is much the same, but he makes a point to bring other team members when attending vendor-hosted events, such as DattoCon, Kaseya Connect, and Pax8 Beyond. “Those people work with these vendors every day,” he says. “They may have action items that they want to raise to those vendors specifically.”
How to Leave the Business Behind
While Shorr, Sizer, and Jackson have all grown their MSP business to a size that stepping away for a few days is no big deal, that wasn’t always the case.
“At this stage, I use it as an opportunity to test how mature the business is. Is it to a point where it can survive without me being in for a day? 98% of the time, it can,” Jackson explains. “But you never get to that point of comfort without trying.”
Jackson (pictured right) says he reached this conclusion after spending most of his first event on his laptop. “There was always some crisis or some ticket.” He started putting his faith in his team, making himself unavailable for blocks of time, such as during the morning keynote. His team only escalated things that were critical or emergencies. Now, he can step away for days at a time, and the MSP will keep running smoothly, leaving Jackson to focus on the conference. “I was able to go to an event in the Philippines for two weeks and operate in a different time zone. The business was still here when I got back.”
“It’s no different than going on vacation, even though it’s not a vacation,” says Sizer. “Get as much of your workload done ahead of time as you possibly can.” Beyond that, Sizer advocates for knowing whether or not you’ll be expected to be in sessions at all times, or if you’ll be able to step away for a phone call. This allows you to plan ahead for which sessions you want to attend, and which you’re OK with missing.
Shorr agrees, saying, “It’s a matter of setting expectations [with your team] ahead of time.”
The Adaptability of Remote Work
Shorr did acknowledge how difficult it was to step away from the MSP when it was a small shop, but now, they have all the tools “to work from anywhere around the globe,” she says. In light of this hybrid workforce, Shorr encourages even one- and- two-person shops to attend events. “If you’re not going to shows, you’re missing out on massive amounts of new knowledge, connections, and relationships. It’s critical to have professional development time because your skills will get stagnant; you won’t know what’s out there to stay relevant in our industry, because it changes so fast.”
Tune In Next Week…
One of the most critical pieces of advice these MSPs had to share is the importance of putting together an action plan before arrival—from which sessions you’d like to attend, to what vendors or products you’re interested in. Check back next week for the next installment in this MSP conference ROI series, centered on establishing a reliable action plan and avoiding common mistakes.
For more essential preparation advice sure to come in handy this conference season, check out this article on five ways to make your travel experience better.
