The Managed Service Summit North welcomed the Northern MSPs to the Manchester Central Convention centre to discuss key issues facing the MSP community.
Following a slow down during the pandemic, MSS North reached venue capacity with delegates packed in for the morning keynote from Kate Gallagher, Managing Director of Manchester Digital, the largest trade body for technology and digital businesses in the North. Gallagher presented an insightful look at how MSPs can drive growth and strengthen leadership while the sector balances expansion alongside economic uncertainty.
Although the Summit embraced a wide range of voices and technologies, it was cyber security that dominated much of the conversation. “More of our clients are enquiring about cyber security services, especially as their staff continue to work from home,” commented one delegate, “But there are a lot of vendors in this space, so it was good to be able to talk to so many in one place.”
Platinum sponsors this year included Duo, eSentire, Fortinet, nerdio, Patch My PC, Pax8, Sophos and ThreatLocker.
The afternoon session was led by industry veteran John Chapman and kicked off with an inspirational keynote from former Olympian Darren Campbell (OBE). Manchester Born Campbell delivered a moving account of his journey both on and off the track as charted his successes and challenges including building a successful business following a potentially fatal health scare.
The day also included several panel debates and presentations that covered a range of diverse topics including how to drive EBITDA, a cost comparison of building an in-house Security Operations Centre (SoC) versus using a Managed Detection and Response service, and emerging areas such as AI driven automation.
“The event had a real buzz, and it was great to see so many new and returning delegates,” said Will Garside., Editorial Director of IT Europa and co-host of the event, “After endless Zoom meeting and virtual webinars, it’s clear that the MSP community values real world gatherings. There were so many conversations that were not just with vendors but between delegates keen to form partnership with peers and that is hard to do with a face-to-face connection.”
As one MSP Delegate who had travelled from Frankfurt, Germany to attend the Summit explained, “We are looking at how we can work with a UK partner to potentially share clients that operate in both markets – this is a great place to explore these new business relationships.”
Managed Services Summit Europe will return to Amsterdam on 13th of June 2023, followed by Managed Services Summit London in September. For more information, please visit https://managedservicessummit.com/
