What a day it was! Thank you to all of our partners and vendors for helping to make our annual partner day at the National Liberal Club an incredible success. We hope to see you again at our next event!
Looking around a room full of partners conversing with each other and our team, eager to explore ways to collaborate more in the coming year, felt pretty special. It's always a pleasure to see MSPs networking and sharing their experiences, and what a venue in which to do so! Put it this way, the Smoking Room in the National Liberal Club was not a place I wanted to spill my coffee!
Those in attendance may have had the opportunity to meet Anne Hall of ITagree. Anne flew in from Auckland for the informal launch of ITagree via Brigantia at our partner day. More information will be provided at an official launch webinar on 10th January. Many attendees had a lot to say about it, and they were glad to hear that there is something available to help crack down on contracts with clients that don't cost an arm, a leg, and a whole lot of headaches!
We had a great day of presentations from many of our vendors, with hints of what's to come in 2023, trends we expect to see next year, and how to best secure some new recurring revenue. Javvad from KnowBe4 taught us that it's okay to be a snitch when it comes to emails because it's for a good cause! If you have reason to think twice about an email's legitimacy, you should do so rather than brushing it under the rug. The gut sometimes has more logic than the brain.
eSentire brought us up to speed on what MDR should look like and why the response factor is so often overlooked when it's actually the most important! It's one thing to notice that your house is on fire, but the heat from the flames isn't much of a comfort when you have nowhere to live. Vince demonstrated that eSentire shares this sentiment, so they extinguish those cyber flames for you and inform you of what happened and why before you notice a problem.
With more than 90% of cyber attacks starting in the inbox, Steve Hollingsworth of InboxGuard demonstrated that it's useful to have someone on your side. When that first social engineering email arrives, your know-it-all colleague in your email ribbon has some valuable things to say and can save your bacon by explaining why that email is a no-no.
Heimdal demonstrated that unification is at the heart of what they do. Morten discussed how Gartner predicts consolidated security platforms will be the norm by 2025, and how Heimdal is already working toward this goal. We also got a sneak peek at Heimdal's TAC and how they plan to handle endpoint protection for MSPs in the near future.
CyberSmart's Sam Soares provided an update to the channel on how CyberSmart was evolving to become a more channel-focused vendor. The partners in attendance thought this was fantastic, with several choosing to join a channel-focused CyberSmart focus group.
Our excellent guest speakers, Mark Copeman from Wingman MSP Marketing, and Joe Burns of Reformed IT, were also present. Mark gave us some great insight into the importance of a good customer experience and how you can use it to grow your business, which is something that our other speaker, Joe Burns, is no stranger to! Joe talked about how he built a business that provides real value to customers rather than just a social media buzzword.
Aside from vendor talks, I know I had a lot of conversations about how Brigantia can help your business scale. I know it's difficult to believe (especially if you're new to us), but we're here to help. Our product specialists and account managers aren't just there to boost our LinkedIn numbers! Just ask, and we'll do end-user demos, webinars, events, and marketing for you! The best part is that we remove the Brigantia name from the equation, leaving you to front the conversation with your clients.
But the fun doesn't stop there. The end of the year simply brings us one step closer to our next two confirmed events. In the first quarter of 2023, we will hold two events. The first is a Northern Partner Day on 23rd February at St James' Park in Newcastle. The second is our inaugural Email Security Summit at the Imperial War Museum in London on 16th March. If the thought of another Brigantia get-together makes you itch, or if you feel like you missed out on this one, please visit our webinars and events page to sign up for all upcoming events!