It seems weekend business travel is becoming more normal for me these days. But, if you’ve got to interrupt your weekend to fly out for work it may as well be to lovely San Diego. This week, I was fortunate to attend SYNNEX’ Varnex 2017 Fall Conference to meet with some of our top partners and help represent Cisco and Comstor as first- time participants. The theme of the event was The Power of Partnership, which is always at the core of our relationships here at Comstor.
Varnex is a members-only program where partners who meet certain criteria can access special benefits from SYNNEX. The council has four pillars that define their charter: Education, Membership, Community and Marketing/Branding. The conference is just one of the many benefits of the program.
The event kicked off with Varnex Gives Back, where over 100 volunteers came in for an afternoon “Feeding San Diego.” The conference officially opened with a reception, where a record turnout of 700 vendors, Varnex members and associates gathered for the 10-year anniversary of Synnex’ Varnex Conference.
On the main stage, SYNNEX and vendor executives emphasized the need to study, constantly learn and re-invent to stay relevant in the digital economy. Trends like rapid urbanization, changing workforce and accelerating innovation mean that companies are no longer competing against each other, they’re competing against speed. Keynote Mark Smith gave advice for distributors, partners and customers to change their business models, stating that our most valuable business assets are business acumen and customer trust. And SYNNEX NA President Peter Larocque outlined 12 trends, including my personal favorite, “Women hold up the sky” (what glass ceiling?!)
Our own, Jay Denton, also took to the stage with other SYNNEX executives to talk about the opportunities that are arising from the recent acquisition. The power of partnerships is really where the opportunities lie within the Cisco organization. Cisco solutions are changing how the workforce connects and collaborates and there are many opportunities to help our partners extend their Cisco business practices.
Finally, the closing award reception was held to honor top partners. Overall, this event provided vendors and partners with a unique and valuable opportunity to network on a deeper level. It was beneficial for all attendees and you could see that the level of engagement was high. It was fantastic to be a first-timer and help celebrate the 10-year mark for this successful partner program.
