BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Oct 22, 2012) - Building on its success, Ingram Micro Inc. (
Throughout the exclusive event, Ingram Micro will announce several key community happenings including the addition of four new VTN council members, the launch of the VTN member portal and the introduction of two new member special interest groups (SIGs), Marketing and Cloud, which will operate alongside of VTN's five Mastermind groups.
Ingram Micro will also provide details on the joint fundraising efforts the VTN community, Ingram Micro associates and vendor partner NetEnrich have accomplished and announce plans to build a new home next month in Joplin, Mo., as part of the Habitat for Humanity efforts underway in the tornado-ravaged community.
"The VTN community represents more than 300 of the IT industry's most successful and progressive channel partners," says John Fago, senior director of channel marketing, Ingram Micro North America. "With a 'pay-it-forward' attitude and relentless focus on growth and partnership, the VTN community is a leading advocate for channel partners in North America. The benefits of membership are clear, as the VTN community boasts double digit year-over-year growth rates, significantly outpacing the IT market."
New SIGs and Member Portal Encourage Stronger Partner Engagement
Introduced at the Spring Invitational, Ingram Micro is formally progressing its SIG initiative and bringing together members with similar expertise to share best practices, challenges and insights. Takeaways from Ingram Micro's SIGs are shared across the entire community and with VTN's manufacturers to drive greater engagement and deliver stronger results around select areas of the business, including sales management, cloud and marketing.
The highly anticipated VTN member portal allows partners to search for, identify and connect with one another based on specialty, certifications and geographical areas. Designed in collaboration with the VTN membership, the new portal is a game-changer for the VTN community according to Alan McDonald, VTN U.S. president and president of All Connected.
"The member portal, along with our SIGs and Mastermind groups, further enable VTN members to really understand and benefit from the subject matter expertise, industry knowledge and technical skill available to them within the community," says McDonald. "The VTN community will grow stronger as a result of these collaborative efforts and reach a new level of engagement and member-to-member partnership that will continue to build."
VTN Announces Event Speakers and Musical Guest Sublime with Rome
The 2012 Fall VTN Invitational keynote speaker is renowned marketing and leadership strategist David Meerman Scott. Other event speakers and guests include several members of Ingram Micro's North American leadership team, as well as industry influencers Robert Faletra, CEO of UBM Media; Tiffani Bova, vice president of research, Gartner; and Paul Dippell, CEO of Services Leadership, Inc.
Executives from Ingram Micro VTN's platinum sponsors Cisco, HP, IBM, Lenovo and Microsoft will also take center stage. The event will conclude with an awards ceremony and a private concert featuring Sublime with Rome.
"The success, comradery and trust among the VTN membership remains unrivaled and continues to grow stronger each and every day," concludes Fago. "We have scheduled a powerful, high-impact event in Boston that will build on the success of 2012 and give our members an edge as they prepare for further growth in 2013."
Activity surrounding the Ingram Micro 2012 Fall VTN Invitational can be viewed on the community's Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/VTNcommunity or by following the hashtag #VTN2012. Photos and commentary will also be available on the VTN community's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/venturetechnetwork.
For more information on VTN, solution providers and manufacturers should contact their Ingram Micro sales or marketing representative and visit www.im-vtn.com.
For more information on Ingram Micro visit http://www.ingrammicro.com/.
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About Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro is the world's largest wholesale technology distributor and a global leader in IT supply-chain, mobile device lifecycle services and logistics solutions. As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics and mobile solutions, technical support, financial services and product aggregation and distribution. The company is the only global broad-based IT distributor, serving 145 countries on six continents with the world's most comprehensive portfolio of IT products and services. Visit www.ingrammicro.com.
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