Making a big bet on IT

Mathew Dickerson

If you are going to hold a conference to show IT resellers the world over the way to future profitability, then Las Vegas is the place to do it! Kaseya held its 2008 annual conference in Las Vegas and, being the entertainment capital of the world, Vegas did not disappoint.

For an attendee at the conference, it was almost as much about the Vegas experience as it was about the conference.

I took full advantage of the location.

I caught a sunset helicopter ride down the Boulevard and out to the Grand Canyon – landing in the Canyon itself for a champagne picnic.

The Grand Canyon is always there as a static attraction, but Vegas is even more impressive with its huge array of live shows.

In one short week I managed to see Elton John in his Red Piano concert, Monty Python’s Spamalot (appropriate for someone in IT) and three no-name comedians at ‘The Comedy Stop’ who were about as funny as anyone I had ever seen.

I also attended a 40th floor open balcony club in the exclusive Foundation Room of the Mandalay Hotel that, among other things, had Hookah rooms.

You can imagine when someone says to you, in a noisy and darkened club, if you want to come to a Hookah room, the mind immediately jumps to one conclusion and you politely decline, pointing to your wedding band.

After some complicated explanations, a group of us eventually ended up in a Hookah room where an extremely large bong-like device (not that I would know what a bong looked like) sat in the middle of the room along with a long pipe and a number of hygienically sealed mouthpieces.

There was also a smell of strawberry in the air. Apparently the Hookah is a totally legal device for smoking strawberry-flavoured tobacco.

Sounded like a beat up to me, but lots of people sat on the cushions passing the pipe around.

Oh – that’s right.

There was also a conference to attend.

The Kaseya conference started with a Welcome Reception on the Sunday night with a typical Vegas feel.

Kaseya had the Kutie girls passing around Kaseya tattoos, while a reggae-style band provided the background music.

This was around the pool deck, of course, with more than enough food to feed the several hundred attendees.

Monday started with an inspirational address from Gerald Blackie, CEO of Kaseya.

Despite the fact that Blackie is originally a Kiwi, he impressed all with his vision for the future.

In the lifetime of Kaseya, he has been able to hone in on the trends and sweet spots in the IT market and produce products that are ahead of their time.

All those who listened to his talk on the direction of IT, with off-site remediation and products such as the newly announced User State Management module, saw where IT resellers are headed.

After seeing more of the Product Roadmap, we listened to the keynote speaker, Craig Newmark from craigslist.com, a website with numerous ‘Website of the Year’ awards to its name and consistently one of the Top 100 websites in the US.

Among other things, listening to Newmark told us that you should focus on your core talents. Newmark, by his own words, is not a great manager.

In fact, his exact words were “I kinda suck as a manager” so his day-to-day role at craiglist is as a customer service rep where he answers to the customer service lead.

Interesting concept. And if people in IT ever needed a lesson in the extreme power of the Internet, this was it.

From starting a hobby with an email list for friends to let them know what was happening in the San Francisco Bay area, the growth has been phenomenal.

With a number of afternoon break-out sessions presented by sponsors, partners and employees, there was no shortage of information and tips on how to improve your Managed Services business.

So far, things had been going well.

A great mixture of information and entertainment was present.

The highlight of the event though was yet to come.

After the cocktail reception on Monday night, an entire room had been set up as a casino.

This was the smartest move I have ever seen from a conference organiser. Real dealers, real croupiers, real tables were set up.

A real poker tournament was set up. Most importantly, fake chips were used. As a terrible gambler, I loved the concept.

I lost thousands of dollars of fake chips during the night.

I had a great time – along with everyone else – and we all left convinced that it was better to lose all that fake money than use our real money in one of the 183 casinos in Vegas.

Of course, the most important part of any conference is what happens after the official sessions when the attendees talk together over a few beverages.

With the large spread of attendees from across the world and no-one feeling like they are in direct competition with each other, I found that attendees were more forthcoming than usual about their business models.

Business ideas were discussed, revenue discussed, even different marketing methods were laid bare for other attendees to comment on, critique and copy.

I would suggest that every attendee at the conference walked away from the after hours sessions with at least two additional ideas to take back to their business.

After a late night on Monday, Tuesday morning started off a little hazy. Mark Sutherland, Kaseya president, presented a technical session followed by a Q&A with the founders, Sutherland and Paul Wong.

Here the new Kaseya User State Management was outlined in greater detail.

This new module delivers an automated desktop migration solution and enables the definition and deployment of group profiles.

With the world continuing to think Green, it also provides the tools to further integrate power management policies and comes into its own when used with Intel vPro. Kaseya purchased Versora in June 2007 and has leveraged technology acquired through that purchase and integrated it into the Kaseya framework.

Again the information supplied was forthright and accurate and there was a great degree of openness during the Q&A session.

You get the impression that Kaseya is not one to sit on their hands or pat themselves on the back.

After lunch on Tuesday the highlight breakout session for me was the future of the Intel vPro technology, presented by Kevin Havre from Intel.

You can read as much as you like about new technologies, but when you see information presented by passionate people at the forefront of technology companies, it inspires you in a way that only a personal presentation can.

The information-packed conference officially finished on Tuesday evening, but another night of informal networking and information gathering added to the overall value for all attendees.

From an Australian perspective, we are certainly 12 months behind where US resellers and the US market is at in relation to Managed Services.

But if you want to gain a small insight into what is happening in the IT world, talking to US resellers gives you a clear snapshot of where we are headed.