At its latest stop on the 2013 Telecom Tour, Arizona-based master agency PlanetOne Communications featured an exclusive panel of top competitive carriers discussing the future of communications and the channel, partner presentations on cloud services and thousands of dollars in giveaways.
The event, held June 10-11 at Foxwoods Resort & Casino in Connecticut, was anchored by a panel moderated by PlanetOne CEO Ted Schuman, featuring channel heads from Level 3, NetWolves, Windstream and XO. They took the stage to discuss mergers and channel realignment, evolving service portfolios, the outlook for both traditional and next-gen services and how channel convergence is affecting the way businesses engage with partners.
“They offered some interesting overall takeaways in terms of channel integration and how they’re shifting their organizations to be more positioned to support the value that the indirect channel brings to the table,” said Suzanne Kennedy, a partner at Redfish Networx. “To me, it seemed as though the organizations as a whole are embracing our role in the ecosystem more than ever before.”
Two presentations on cloud services, from inContact (contact center solutions) and Telesphere (hosted PBX, conferencing and unified communications), rounded out the morning’s training. Both companies showcased the power of the cloud when it comes to providing big benefits to a range of businesses, including a live demonstration of Telesphere’s video chat service, carried over 3G mobile.
Matt Coso, vice president at OneConnect Inc., noted that the channel landscape is changing rapidly.
“I have always been always been impressed with how PlanetOne puts together the agenda, to focus on what’s really important to partners,” Coso said. “Our experience in the market is very similar to what the vendor executives were describing in terms of making the move to next-generation technology. We’re making that transition from leading with telecom and the traditional services to leading with cloud, and it’s a learning curve. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and our business models have never evolved so quickly. I was pleased to see a good part of the morning devoted to cloud services and they fit with the telecom channel.”
PlanetOne also hosted partners for an evening reception at Foxwoods’ High Rollers VIP lanes and a golf outing at Lake of the Isles, one of the top 25 golf courses in the United States, followed by a happy-hour networking event at the golf club. And during the seminar sessions, PlanetOne held giveaways that ranged from baseballs, hats and thousands of dollars in gift cards to a Jäger tap, iPad minis and a 55″ LCD TV.
“Our mission at PlanetOne is to give our sales partners every tool that we can to help them expand their business, uncover new opportunities and widen their horizons,” said Lauren Shapiro, president at PlanetOne. “Our Northeast stop on the Telecom Tour took our education program to a new level with an exclusive showcase of ideas about what the future holds, specifically framed for the channel. Between that, the cloud presentations and the networking and cocktail events, our agenda was geared to move partners ahead in a meaningful way—while still being an incredibly good time.”
Robert Betz, founder of Sky Technology Partners, attended as a prospective partner for PlanetOne. “I kept hearing that PlanetOne is one of the top masters in the country, and that they really do things right and support their partners,” he said. “I decided to come out and see for myself, and I wasn’t disappointed. This has been just an incredible event, and I am so impressed by the quality of absolutely every element of the agenda.”
The Telecom Tour next pulls into Charlotte, N.C. and Scottsdale, in the fall.
