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CompTIA Cancels Managed Services Event

The Computing Technology Industry Association has cancelled its Managed IT Services Summit scheduled for October 7 to 9, citing an oversaturation of managed services events and logistical challenges. The MITSS event, produced in partnership with MSP Partners, was billed as a business development event at which existing MSPs and solution providers interested in entering the […]

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Channel Insider Staff

Sep 4, 2009

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The Computing Technology Industry Association has cancelled its Managed IT Services Summit scheduled for October 7 to 9, citing an oversaturation of managed services events and logistical challenges.

The MITSS event, produced in partnership with MSP Partners, was billed as a business development event at which existing MSPs and solution providers interested in entering the managed services market could learn best practices about running services-centric businesses. Channel Insider was a premier media sponsor of the event.

CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux said the decision to cancel an event that was just a month away was based on timing, the amount of available content, the number of events scheduled for the fall and feedback from managed services leaders.

The CompTIA Breakaway conference, held just a month ago Aug. 9 to 12 in Las Vegas, had several sessions on its agenda. Thibodeaux says managed services industry leaders and CompTIA members expressed concerns that a managed services event coming so soon after Breakaway would be overkill.

In August, CompTIA announced a partnership with MSP Services Network (MSPSN) to produce a series of three local managed services workshops. Thibodeaux says CompTIA is adding a fourth event in the Los Angeles area to compensate for the cancellation of MITSS.

“MSPSN has worked diligently to develop some of the best [educational] experiences in the channel for resellers. In partnering with CompTIA, we can now deliver our MSP Business Simulation game to CompTIA members to help them understand the finance of the MSP business model in a fun, exciting and highly competitive environment,” Amy Luby, CEO and founder of MSPSN, said in a statement about the partnership.

Thibodeaux says CompTIA will continue to engage with the managed services community by participating in and supporting other events, such as HTG Peer Groups, MSP University and the MSP Partners Virtual Trade Show.

In July, CompTIA announced a joint venture with MSP Partners to produce managed services excellence awards at the MITSS event. The status of those awards and when they’ll be announced is undetermined.

Thibodeaux says the event cancellation is not a result of low registration or poor sponsorship support. At Breakaway, CompTIA announced that it was abandoning the “hosted event” model of paying for attendees’ travel and lodging expenses.

MITSS was scheduled to be held in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., which is just outside of Los Angeles and in the center of the wildfire zone. Within the past two weeks, the Terranea Resort, where the event was to be held, has been threatened by the fires that have consumed more than 100,000 acres of wilderness and residential land.

CompTIA Cancels Managed Services Event

Channel Insider Staff

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