Speakers

Has security in the channel improved? Probably not. But at least we’ve (mostly) stopped lying about it. This keynote cuts through the noise to ask the hard questions about the MSP ecosystem: Are we better off than we were a year ago? Are vendors helping or just selling? Are MSPs actually securing their clients or themselves? With a mix of hard data, sharper opinions, and a few uncomfortable truths, Jason Slagle and Matt Lee take stock of where we are, how we got here, and whether there’s any hope for doing better.

Community-driven development is often framed as “just listen to users.” In reality, it’s an ongoing negotiation between trust, constraints, and rejection. Drawing on real-world experience managing both grassroots communities and product-focused businesses, Kelvin Tegelaar and Ashley Cooper unpack what it actually means to build in public, with a candid look at the systems, trade-offs, and human work behind building with a community rather than just around one. They'll explore where community input accelerates innovation, where it introduces friction, and why saying “no” can either fracture trust or strengthen it. Success depends on understanding what deserves attention, and how those choices ultimately shape both the product and the community that forms around it.

"Help MSPs start a structured conversation with clients about data management, highlighting the value, urgency, and ROI. The Conversation Starter: ""We've discovered that many of the automation and AI tools available today fail to deliver results because the data they rely on is incomplete, inconsistent, or scattered. If we don't control your data, you can't expect these tools to work to their full potential — and that's costing you efficiency, time, and money."""

The Department of Defense’s 48 CFR rule makes CMMC Level 2 certification mandatory for contractors handling Controlled Unclassified Information—and enforcement is already underway. For MSPs, this is not just a compliance hurdle; it’s a strategic growth opportunity. By embracing CMMC readiness services, MSPs can strengthen existing relationships and attract new customers, positioning themselves as trusted advisors in a high-demand market. Contractors who start now will gain a competitive edge, and MSPs that align with a knowledgeable C3PAO—one that understands the MSP business model—can deliver a seamless path to certification success. This is about more than meeting requirements; it’s about unlocking long-term revenue, deepening customer trust, and leading the industry in compliance excellence.

Nine years ago, I walked into a $100k a year top line MSP as a tier 1 tech with over a decade of bartending experience. I quickly realized that both the hospitality industry and the MSP world have one dangerous shared mentality: the “customer is always right” trap. Our owner at the time was the penultimate “yes man” in every sales meeting. He constantly avoided conflict, accepted every junk lead that walked in the door and negotiated against himself on price. He avoided the word “no” like the plague. I, on the other hand, saw the true cost from all those blind “yeses”: unmanageable expectations, stagnant revenue and burned-out techs. This session is my unfiltered story on how I transitioned from helpdesk to sales to eventually leadership and scaled our MSP from $100k to $5M. I’ll break down certain revenue plateaus we hit and why the only way to break them was to stop being a servant and start being an expert. I’ll also discuss the “technical sales bridge” and how being the person who ACTUALLY did the work allowed for better meetings and more consistent closes at a much higher margin (mainly because I know exactly what a “bad deal” would hurt us in labor over the long term). This isn’t some fluff session about manifesting good energy and finding the easy button for success. It’s about backbone, setting standards and the resiliency required to go from a “man and a van” shop to a $5M enterprise. Learning Objectives: Calculating the “Yes Tax”: Identifying hidden labor costs and “tech debt” by taking non-standard clients or “yes man” agreements. The Technical Sales Bridge: Leveraging an engineering education, mixed with service industry expertise, to build instant trust and justify pricing without being “salesy”. The power of “No”: Qualifying prospects early to protect your margins and your techs sanity. Navigating Growth: The operational shifts required to grow from $100k (owner-operator phase) to $1M (team phase) to $5 (enterprise phase). Hospitality vs. Service: Applying the good personality skillsets from hospitality (empathy & communication) without it leading to scope creep and low margins."

Cyber threats are evolving faster than ever, and MSPs can no longer afford to rely on reactive security models that respond only after damage has occurred. This session introduces a practical, beginner-friendly approach to “Shift Left” cybersecurity—moving security planning, risk awareness, and defense mechanisms earlier in the operational lifecycle through documentation-driven strategy. Rather than treating documentation as an administrative task, this talk positions it as a foundational cybersecurity control. Attendees will learn how clearly defined policies, procedures, and incident response playbooks act as an early-warning system—reducing the likelihood of successful attacks and dramatically improving response times when incidents occur. The session connects documentation directly to real-world security outcomes, including ransomware readiness, phishing response, audit defensibility, and regulatory compliance. Drawing on over 20 years of experience in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), the session uses real MSP-relevant scenarios to demonstrate how proactive documentation aligns technical teams, leadership, and operations around a shared security mission. Participants will explore how documentation supports every phase of Secure, Defend, and Recover—ensuring that roles, responsibilities, and escalation paths are understood before a crisis hits. Designed for a beginner-level audience but grounded in proven security frameworks, this session provides practical guidance MSPs can immediately apply to build a living documentation framework that scales with their business, adapts to emerging threats, and supports continuous improvement without adding unnecessary complexity. Learning Objectives By the end of this session, attendees will be able to: 1. Explain Documentation as a Proactive Security Control Understand how well-structured policies, procedures, and playbooks function as the first line of defense by reducing ambiguity, human error, and response delays during security events. 2. Apply the “Shift Left” Mindset to Cybersecurity Planning Identify how moving security considerations earlier in operational workflows strengthens prevention, preparedness, and accountability across technical and non-technical roles. 3. Align Incident Response with Compliance Requirements Map incident response documentation to regulatory frameworks and contractual obligations, ensuring security actions are both effective and defensible during audits and investigations. 4. Improve Secure, Defend, and Recover Outcomes Demonstrate how documentation enables faster detection, clearer escalation paths, and more efficient recovery when facing ransomware, phishing, or system compromise. 5. Establish a Continuous Improvement Security Culture Implement practical methods for reviewing, testing, and updating documentation so security posture evolves alongside changing threats, tools, and regulatory expectations."

Preventing breaches isn’t enough. Companies must survive and adapt when attacks succeed. This talk delivers a high-impact overview of cyber resilience in the era of AI-powered adversaries, agentic threats, and supply chain vulnerabilities, with actionable strategies to ensure continuity, trust, and recovery. Four main areas to cover: Cyber resilience (how different than Cyber Security), a dual threat of Vendor Risk and AI-Powered Adversaries, High level discussion on the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and my thoughts going into 2026 related to threats.

"Most MSP owners started their business because they were the best at solving technical problems. Years later, that same expertise has become their biggest bottleneck. If your growth has plateaued, your margins are shrinking, and you are still the “escalation point of last resort,” you don’t have a business—you have a high-stress job. In this high-impact session, Eric Anthony breaks down the MSP Productivity Paradox: why the harder you work on technical issues, the slower your company grows. We will move beyond generic ""time management"" tips and dive into a specific framework designed for the chaotic reality of Managed Services. Using a live ""Dollar-per-Hour"" audit, you will identify exactly where you are leaking profit and how to transition from the ""Firefighter"" reacting to every alert to the ""Architect"" building a scalable machine. Key Takeaways: The Hierarchy of Leverage: Learn how to ruthlessly Eliminate, Automate, and Delegate to reclaim 10+ hours of ""CEO time"" every week. The Maker vs. Manager Schedule: A proven system for blocking strategic growth work without letting client escalations burn the building down. The 30-Day ""Out-of-Office"" Roadmap: A step-by-step plan to document one core process and hand it off, ensuring your MSP runs smoothly even when you aren't there. Why Attend: Stop being a hostage to your PSA and start building a business that works for you. Leave this session with a clear calculation of your true CEO value and the practical tools to stop doing $25/hour work."

"Most MSP M&A content focuses on closing the deal. This session is about what happens next—and why that’s where things usually fall apart. Based on 20+ acquisitions as an operator, we’ll cover what actually works in MSP M&A and the common mistakes that quietly wreck deals after close. Integration failures, people issues, culture clashes, broken assumptions—this is the stuff that doesn’t show up in CIMs or pitch decks. If you’re considering acquisitions (or already living with one), this session will give you a clear, no-nonsense view of what to watch for before and after close—and when M&A simply isn’t the right move."

"In a world moving at breakneck speed, most channel leaders are still making decisions with rearview-mirror data. By the time you see lagging indicators such as revenue, churn, and margins, it's too late to course-correct. True velocity comes from building scorecards with leading indicators that provide 51 chances a year to adjust instead of just 11. This session introduces a simple, vendor-neutral framework for creating intelligent scorecards that separate signal from noise. You'll learn how to choose the right measures, set the right cadence, and build team accountability around data that accelerates outcomes. Key Takeaways: How to distinguish between leading vs. lagging indicators that actually drive velocity. Why cadence matters—and how to use weekly operating rhythms to build speed and agility. A plug-and-play framework for building a channel-relevant scorecard that aligns teams and accelerates results. 10 MSP-specific scorecard metrics that you can start using tomorrow!"

"Many MSPs proudly claim they “don’t do sales” and “grow entirely through referrals.” That sounds virtuous — until you look closer. In reality, referral dependence is often a coping mechanism. When your messaging is unclear, inward-facing, or built for other MSPs instead of buyers, referrals feel safer because they require less explanation and less rejection. This talk is about that avoidance. I’ll break down why MSP messaging fails in the wild, how peer-driven language and vendor jargon make offers impossible to understand, and why referrals mask these problems instead of solving them. We’ll look at the difference between messaging that survives warm intros versus messaging that can stand on its own, and how over-reliance on referrals quietly caps growth, diversity of clients, and long-term resilience. This is not a sales or marketing pitch. It’s a systems-thinking talk about rejection: how MSPs avoid hearing “no,” how buyers silently opt out when they don’t understand the value, and how to fix the root problem without hiring more salespeople or spending more on lead generation. Attendees will learn: Why referral-only growth often signals unclear or inward-facing messaging How MSP language evolves to impress peers instead of communicate outcomes The specific ways buyers experience confusion — and choose silence instead of rejection A practical checklist to test whether messaging can stand on its own without a warm intro How to rebuild clarity so referrals become leverage, not a crutch The goal isn’t to abandon referrals. The goal is to stop hiding behind them."

"This session is a deep dive into the syntax and architecture of successful prompts for MSP workflows. We will move beyond ""Chatting with ChatGPT"" and treat English as a programming language. We will deconstruct the specific Goal-Context-Response-Guidelines framework we used to stop our agents from hallucinating tickets and teach them to accurately detect ""recurring issues"" amidst messy, unstructured technician notes. We will share our code-level ""lessons learned,"" including why we force JSON outputs for predictability, how we handle edge cases (like users replying ""Thank you"" reopening tickets), and why ""Reasoning Models"" (like o1) beat standard models for logic-heavy PSA tasks. You will leave with a library of prompt patterns you can immediately apply to your own scripts and automations. Key Takeaways: 1. The Anatomy of a high quality prompt 2. Handling Unstructured Data and find useful info 3. Techniques to force LLMs to output clean response 4. How to handle error using prompts to simplify decision tree 5. When to use a fast, cheap model v.s. an expensive one"

"AI Chat...meh. The real power of AI is when it’s connected to the tools MSPs already use. This hands-on session shows how to set up an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server and integrate AI directly into real systems and workflows to actually perform actions. Attendees will also see how Claude Code can be used to build and deploy custom AI skills that perform real operational tasks. Key Takeaways • How MCP enables secure, practical AI integrations • Step-by-step guidance to stand up an MCP server • Using Claude Code to build and deploy useful AI workflows • Example applications for AI and automation including client reporting."

"In the IT channel, everyone talks about building a brand for their company. But what if the real opportunity is building a brand around you? This session explores how your personality, strengths, and even the things that make you feel “different” can become your biggest business advantage. Instead of trying to fit into the traditional corporate mold, attendees will learn how leaning into what makes them unique can actually attract more opportunities, stronger partnerships, and better business outcomes. Through real experiences from the channel and startup world, this talk breaks down how personal branding goes far beyond posting on LinkedIn. It is about building trust, becoming recognizable in your industry, and turning your voice and perspective into something people want to work with. Because in a relationship driven industry like the IT channel, people do not just buy products. They buy people they trust. When you learn how to show up as yourself and own what makes you different, you stop chasing opportunities and start attracting them. If you have ever felt like you did not fit the typical “channel professional” mold, good. That might be your greatest advantage."

"""I Cant Find Good Helpdesk Candidates"" Who's heard that line? They want too much money, they are unreliable, no one wants to work anymore, I dont know if they are doing their work, I dont want to have to go offshore, etc. Its 2025, and anyone with a desire and some motivation can work in a remote helpdesk job. But you're likely not appealing to the widest area of the total addressable sample of candidates, and the candidates you are hiring likely are not engaging properly with your processes. They often churn after relatively short periods of time, you find that you struggle to build a culture, and everyone just sort of seems to treat it like a job...wheres that desire to really be a part of something that your in-house staff had 15 years ago? There is a good chance you're approaching how you recruit, interview, hire and train these staff members in a manner that isn't optimized for remote work. The good news is we can fix it, and the fixes are pretty simple. Lets get you that exceptional, on-shore talent for a reasonable cost, with a desire to be in it to win it with you and your organization. Key Takeaways: The methods of posting job descriptions, salaries, and finding the best fit for employees are very different in a remote landscape where anyone from your continent could apply to work at your organization. Lets update your methodology to be aligned with best practice for attracting the right remote talent PingPong and Pizza dont sell employees on you and your culture anymore. Lets adapt how we display our value proposition to our staff prospects and carry that through all stages of the interview process. Your recruiting, hiring and training process is the very first experience a new employee has with your organization. It sets the tone for the entire relationship; you wouldnt let a helpdesk team member treat a new client poorly or give them a subpar triage experience; why are you doing the same to your new hires? Key Takeaways: Stop Hiring Roles. Start Hiring Revenue. Reframe job descriptions and recruiting around outcomes that move your business forward. Employee Experience = Brand Experience. Learn how to sell your mission, values, and culture to candidates like you would to a dream client. Fix the Funnel, Fix the Future. Your recruiting and onboarding process is a funnel—and it might be bleeding talent and growth. Remote ≠ Disposable. Attract committed, on-shore remote talent without blowing up your payroll or watering down your culture."

Friction is a silent killer for business operations, including in the MSP world. Perhaps especially in the MSP world. We will talk about the business impact of operational friction and how it is detrimental to various aspects of an MSP, including customer relationships, employee morale, service quality, and profit margins. We will discuss strategies to identify and eliminate friction in order to find hidden opportunity gains that were lurking in the shadows and untapped perspectives. Remember: the rub is for barbecue, not business.

"Your clients won’t remember you because of your brand colors or logo. And they certainly won’t remember you because you got your marketing inspo from another MSP. However, they WILL remember you if you make them FEEL a certain type of way (preferably good). There are 5 rules, give or take, that you should follow if you want your brand to stick out, and none of them require exorbitant amounts of people or money to make it happen. You’ll walk away from this talk with: - 5+ things to keep in mind when building your community (aka brand) - How to identify and amplify what makes your MSP different - Hopefully a laugh if nothing else"

The MSP industry is drowning in a sea of "thought leaders" who have never held the line, "vetted" tools they’ve never deployed, and "best practices" born in marketing departments rather than the trenches. We’ve become a channel of self-"anointed" experts in nothing, mistake-avoidant to a fault, and obsessed with the safety of the consensus.   Now, we are layering this lack of leadership over the most volatile era of M&A and private equity roll-ups the channel has ever seen. We are stacking technical debt and cultural rot into "scaled" organizations, led by people who understand EBITDA but don't understand the friction of a team under fire.   Join us for a raw, unfiltered fireside chat that may be deemed "too combative" for the main-stage circuit. We are sitting down with David Sears, the man who distilled decades of Navy SEAL precision into 17 maxims for critical thinking, to deconstruct the difference between tactical competence and the "expert" theater that is stalling your leadership and sabotaging your acquisitions.   This isn’t a session about Navy SEAL tropes. It’s a surgical strike on the complacency of the modern IT provider. We’re going to discuss:       •    The Expertise Gap: Why the most dangerous person in an operation or deal is the self-"anointed" expert who has stopped saying "I don't know."     •    Tactical Critical Thinking: Borrowing from the SEAL maxims to navigate high-stakes business risk when the "industry standard" for growth is failing.     •    The Rejection of Consensus: Why your biggest growth will come from the "rejected" ideas that the experts told you were too aggressive or too risky.     •    Leading Through the Noise: How to build a "Partner-First" culture that survives the chaos of rapid acquisition by prioritizing adversary-mindset over administrative box-checking.    If you’re ready to stop listening to the experts in nothing and start mastering the friction of real-world leadership in this AI alarmism, Cyber-confusion warfare, and M&A meat-grinder, pull up a chair.

On paper, cyber insurance and cybersecurity should be best friends. They're both trying to reduce risk and responding to the same threats. Cybersecurity is about prevention and resilience. Cyber insurance is about risk transfer and survivability. But year over year, these industries collide with each other. This talk explores what every cybersecurity professional needs to know about the digital lag of cyber insurance and how some carriers are trying to keep up — for better or for worse — with the rapidly changing cybersecurity industry.

Here's a question that will ruin your morning: If your best client's systems catastrophically failed at 3AM, would they call YOU? This session is the talk that gets rejected from every major channel conference. Because it tells the truth. You've done everything "right." Hit the MRR targets. Added logos. Attended the conferences. Scaled the way the podcasts told you to scale. And you're exhausted. Your "best" client consumes 40% of your support hours while paying 15% of your revenue. Your best employees are updating their LinkedIn profiles because of this client. But you keep them — because the revenue feels safe.

In this talk, Roddy Bergeron, Cybersecurity Technical Fellow at Sherweb, goes over the topic of building leadership in your cybersecurity team. Taking on his experience in the education system and building IT teams, Roddy tackles how the existing education system does not build leadership and steps you can take to help identify then build the next generation of leaders in your organization. Roddy will also discuss how organizations currently get it wrong when they don't differentiate between leadership and management. Attendees will take away actionable items they can implement in their organization to identify, build, and sustain a leadership program. This will include a growth chart, checklist, and an 8.5x11 picture of Roddy with the caption "Do Better."

I want to tell my story of personal development and how I was able to grow my business by embracing growth within myself first. This deeply personal talk shares the journey of building a successful MSP through the lens of self-development — how investing in yourself as a leader creates a ripple effect throughout your organization, your team, and ultimately your clients.

Ready to get real about maturing your vCIO practice? Join Nett Lynch, MBA — a vCIO/vCISO with 20 years' experience — for a fast-paced, no-BS session built for MSP leaders and client strategy pros. Go beyond the usual hype: discover the raw truth of what works (and what absolutely doesn't), with honest stories and battle-tested frameworks.

"Most managers and executives equate strong processes with predictability and control. But what happens when following the rules and processes slow down outcomes, frustrate employees, or, worse, frustrate customers? This talk explores how intentionally empowering teams to bend the rules can unlock faster resolutions, better employee engagement, and measurable business value. Attendees will learn how to build the right foundation, recognize where flexibility adds the most value, and create feedback loops that turn exceptions into systemic improvements."

"Complacency is our industry's quiet failure mode. This talk calls you to a higher duty of care: lead, serve, and deliver with wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance — then act on a simple framework of continuous improvement. This keynote explores the concept of ""duty of care"" for MSPs through the lens of Stoic virtues, addressing the dangers of complacency. It emphasizes MSPs' moral and ethical responsibilities toward their clients, communities, and the broader technology ecosystem."

"Most MSPs don't struggle with automation because the tools are bad. They struggle because leadership treats automation like a technical upgrade instead of an organizational change. In this session, we'll explore why automation — and now AI — gets labeled a ""job killer,"" why teams quietly resist it even when it works, and how leaders often unintentionally sabotage adoption while doing everything they believe is ""right."" Drawing from real MSP experience — including automation councils, failed rollouts, ROI modeling, backlog battles, and the messy middle between vision and execution — this talk reframes automation as a leadership responsibility, not a scripting problem. We'll dig into how trust in automation is actually built, how to prioritize high-ROI work without burning political capital, and how to move teams from ""this is just how I do my job"" to ""please automate this off my plate."" This is a practical, honest look at what really moves automation forward inside MSPs with real constraints, limited resources, and leadership teams that don't always agree."

"This talk shows you how lessons from the fast-paced service industry can transform the way you run your MSP. You'll see how restaurant-style preparation, teamwork, and customer focus can be applied to IT services. You'll learn how to train staff more effectively, prepare for daily operations with structure, and respond quickly when things get hectic. You'll also discover how hiring and developing talent from the service industry can strengthen your team. By connecting the dots between restaurant experiences and MSP challenges, you'll gain practical strategies to improve client outcomes. In the end, this talk helps you deliver service with efficiency, consistency, and excellence."

"AI Won't Fix a Broken MSP — But It Will Expose One. Since the term MSP became a thing, this industry has been sold the idea that most problems can be solved with the right software. AI is the next chapter of that same temptation. But layering powerful technology on top of an immature or dysfunctional business doesn't create leverage — it creates chaos."

"Most MSP owners are stuck in a ""Documentation Loop."" You spend thousands of hours and dollars building out a massive Knowledge Base, thinking that more information equals better performance. But here is the cold truth: Your KB is where good processes go to die. We are suffering from a ""Knowledge Paradox"" — the bigger your library gets, the more your techs ""wing it"" because they can't find what they need or they've simply tuned it out. This session exposes the dangerous lie that ""sending a link to an updated SOP"" is a training plan."