We just set up our booth here at MVP Nation 2011 in Seattle, and we’re geared up for a long day of video, VARS and Vendors. Check varvid.tv later today for interviews with Harry Brelsford, CEO of SMB Nation, and other members of the SMB Nation crew.
MVP Nation is a new event that connects three important communities in one place at one time, Microsoft MVPs, community members (composed of customers, channel partners, consultants, and members of the public) as well community sponsors.
Varvid, Inc. is pleased to announce it has recently entered into a strategic partnership with HTG Peer Groups. HTG was founded by Arlin Sorensen, CEO of Heartland Technology Solutions, one of the member companies. Arlin launched the first HTG peer group in 2001 based on his desire for an opportunity to interact with peers in a non-competitive setting and observation of a lack of peer groups in the SMB partner space.
“Varvid has been an innovator in how VARs, MSPs and vendors create and use content on the web and a principal force in social media for IT-related businesses,” said Sorensen, HTG founder and CEO. “Through this new partnership, HTG Peer Group members will have an opportunity to learn about Internet video from the undisputed industry leader.”
HTG Peer Groups are composed of industry leaders led by industry insiders with years of experience, all sharing best practices in a non-competitive environment.
“HTG is a revolutionary organization with strategic and forward thinking leadership, a model for success that has been proven to help VARs, MSPs and vendors to succeed,” says Aaron Booker, founder of Varvid, Inc. “I believe this partnership will greatly benefit HTG members by providing them access to top-notch internet delivered video production, webcasting and video playback solutions.”
Booker is no stranger to the MSP/VAR world, spending more than 15 years in the IT industry and participating in the early years of HTG’s existence. “The HTG Peer Group experience was an enormous benefit to my professional development, and I’ve wanted nothing more than to be able to give back by helping HTG member companies cost-effectively maximize their use of video on websites, blogs, and social media outlets,” said Booker. “I hope this partnership will add a great deal of value to HTG members and, ultimately, enhance their ability to promote their own services.”
With more than eight years of experience in live and on-demand Internet-delivered video, Varvid is uniquely equipped to aid VARs, MSPs and their vendor partners in developing online videos for use in marketing, social media, training and client relations. As a strategic partner, Varvid will serve as a resource for HTG members that want to produce and use video content, and will develop exclusive offerings for HTG members.
In addition to providing paid video services to the IT Channel, Booker recently launched Varvid.tv, a new and free video ‘TV Channel’ covering industry events and featuring IT channel content. Varvid.tv not only features professional content but is also looking for fresh voices from the channel partner community at large. All contributions from the IT channel will be professionally edited, hosted and optimized at no charge.
Learn more about HTG at http://www.htgmembers.com or by calling (712) 744-3619 . You can also check out a sampling of Varvid’s past work for HTG to get an idea of what Varvid might be able to do for you and your business!
Birger Steen, current vice president for small and midmarket business and distribution (SMB&D), will be leaving the company at the end of this month to become President at Parallels, a cloud services enablement software company. As you no doubt know, Steen has played an instrumental role in helping SMBs find and use technology through his leadership in the past year. Vahe Torossian, Corp VP for SMS&P at Microsoft, said that Birger felt this was an opportunity that he just couldn’t pass up.
“Our small and mid-market business (SMB) leadership group, and specifically Birger Steen, has played an instrumental role in bridging the gap between the SMBs and technology through their leadership in the past year. Microsoft remains committed to investing in small and mid-market businesses and our partners who serve them. The list of products and offerings that we launched last year specifically for the SMBs is a great testament to the priority and focus we have with this customer segment. I am even more excited with the opportunities that cloud computing can bring to SMBs now and in the near future. We appreciate all that Birger has done and wish him well.”
Steen spent eight years at Microsoft. He moved to Redmond after leading Microsoft’s sales and marketing operations in Norway and Russia. A search for Steen’s replacement has begun.
We are sorry that the Microsoft Partner community lost an advocate in this leader. On the other hand, we are glad for Paralllels; they’re gaining his expertise and leadership. Congratulations on your new role as President. We are glad to see his career advancing and hope to see him at future industry events.
We find our band of troubadours fresh off the heels of HTG Summit in Dallas and prepping for WPC in July. Does that leave any room to help others in the internet delivered video arena? Of course it does.
The Varvid team recently returned from a triumphant excursion to Southern California for the live webcasting of MSPU’s Boot Camp in Santa Ana. Here’s the quick overview of what MSP University offers. Whether you’re a Managed Services startup, or a $100 million dollar a year Managed Services Provider, Managed Services Provider University has the resources and the experience to help you improve your IT business by decreasing costs and increasing revenue.
Aaron at the helm...
Not only did Varvid stream live from the event, they were on site to record a myriad of classes for the MSPU catalog, available exclusively to MSPU clients. Some of the topics that were discussed included Sales 101, Marketing, Service Delivery and CEO Tracks. Now if you didn’t get the chance to attend this Boot camp, not to worry. They offer these all over the nation.
In a nutshell, MSPU provides MSP’s the opportunity to continue to learn the ins & outs of this industry. Visit their site for more details and to learn more about this incredible organization.
A special thanks to the Varvid crew on hand for this stellar event; Traci, Trevor & Jeremy really stepped up to the plate and took charge. And what can we say about “King” Aaron? Simply put, he is the reason Varvid continues to be an industry leader in internet delivered video, from event coverage and webcasting to client testimonials and case studies.
Jill Kerr, VP of Industry Development for CompTIA, chats with Varvid’s Aaron Booker at MSP University’s Los Angeles Boot Camp about their Vision of 500. CompTIA’s CEO Todd Thibodeaux has challenged his organization to reach a goal of 500 active members at the leadership or executive level and 5000 highly engaged members in 5 years. CompTIA helps VARs on 3 levels; Learn, Connect & Succeed.
Gregg runs Integral Systems in San Diego CA and this is his first ConnectWise Partner Summit. Gregg has rave reviews for the Partner Summit, this is his first ever and says, although he has attended a lot of confereneces in the past 24 months, this is the most professional and most informative/useful one he’s been to in a long time. The quality of the attendees and their collective experience make the ConnectWise Partner Conference worth attending. Gregg spoke with Pat Dolan of Varvid.com
Pat Dolan of Varvid.com speaks with Kim Trif of Trif Technologies of Dallas at the ConnectWise Partner Summit about the keynote speaker Chris Anderson of Wired. Kim was concerned about the ‘whole idea of free’ but after Chris’s speech, has put the concept in a new perspective.
Patrick Dolan of Varvid.com speaks with Brett Jaffee of IT4 from Woburn MA, Cloud Computing specialist and ConnectWise Partner since the first Summit and founder of the Northeast ConnectWise user group. Brett is excited to be at the Summit, as his group is formalizing its relationship at this meeting. Brett also echoes the sentiment that there is nothing like meeting peers face to face and sharing both technical and business operational knowledge.
At the ConnectWise Partner Summit Arlin Sorenson talks to Varvid about how HTG will continue to focus HTG’s energies on growing peer board reviews (QBRs) in 2010 with a focus on the operational and financial aspects of members’ businesses. The feedback and review of each other’s organizations and metrics set for growth, operations and service improvements are important tools to continue HTG’s focus of creating sustainable, successful business operations for its members. This initiative builds upon past and continuing efforts of education and documentation/discussion of industry Best Practices for member business and technical operations.
Dan Shundoff of Intellicom and an HTG member speaks with Aaron Booker of Varvid.com. Dan has been an HTG member for 4 years and is President of Intellicom, a Microsoft Gold Partner and provider of outsourced technology solutions in Central Nebraska. HTG commissioned the University of Nebraska at Kearny (UNK) business management group to perform several studies of members’ regular communications, deep relationships, trust and accountability metrics in an effort to improve the value, relevance and accuracy of HTG education and management programs. Dan reports these studies are showing significant improvement by just being able to measure baseline and progress toward everything from business growth to customer satisfaction.
